Archon Classic

[}TCP{Coco]

Hi!

Some time ago, I wrote this in the Youtube video thread when we were talking about classic C64 and Amiga games.

Well, here's the Wikipedia link with some description and screenshots (the forum can't create links from URLs with brackets, so you need to copy and paste it, sorry):

Code: Select all

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archon_(computer_game)

Maybe this rings a bell. The game was available on several 8- and 16-bit platforms, including the C64 and Amiga.

It's a great chess like game where items entering the same square have to battle each other in arcade action style to gain control over it. Thus strategy as well as reaction and dexterity are required alike.

I loved this game from the first moment I played it. And now they're making a modern version of it which also offers a four players mode and internet play (network part still is under development). I already bought the prerelease version and can confirm the gameplay is awesome! In case you'd like to check it out, here's the link: Archon Classic.

The makers finally have a working free demo of the game available from their site. Maybe some of you would like to give it a try? As there will be an online mode soon, it would be nice to play with one of you some time. In the meantime, you can make yourself familiar with the game already.

Here are some very basic tips that hopefully will give you an easy start:

• Dark squares will give dark items more life energy while light squares will do the same for light items. So try to fight at squares of your colour!
• The game can be won be either eleminating all enemy items or by gaining control over all power squares (these are the ones with the circle-like rune on them).
• All items got their own special abilities. In case you play with secondary abilities enabled, there will also be a second one for each of them (be sure to look up or configure both fire buttons in the configuration then).

The free demo can be downloaded here: Archon Classic website

Looking forward to read about your opinions...

Enjoy!

[menace]

lets see =)

[}TCP{Wolf]

LoL 16 years ago I was a master at Archon 1 (not Archon-II though). Later, when I had no other human opponents to play against and the computer was too easy for me, I used an emulator and started increasing the emulated CPU speed so the game would play faster. I think my record was 150% speed but I did begin to lose fights then and had to be way more careful picking them

While I could never hope to regain the skill level I had back then even close I do know the game truly used to be one of the best mixtures of arcade / strategy games, even though in my view the "strategic" part of it was always too weak (if you simply had fast reflexes you could win practically any fight regardless how disadvantageous the battleground - which was the one point of criticism the game well deserved).

I do hope they are really only re-making Archon 1, not 2. The 2nd Archon was just utter crap by comparison, and for a newby the computer skill was godlike - I did win against it but my success ratio was a lot smaller, also the tactics you had to employ were rather "boring" as there were choke-points in the game, something that hadn't existed in Archon 1. If you played against the computer, practically ALL your important fights would take place only on exactly 2 points on the map, so if your fighting skill developed to the computer's level you could expect very long games that ended with contrition.

Also, very very very VERY disappointing gamewise, Archon-II contained several combat units that were "invulnerable" to one another if used "properly", so single fights could take literally infinitely long (example: Speed Demon, invulnerable while attacking - if both sides used a Speed Demon and both kept attacking simultaneously, they could NEVER hurt each other - example 2: Wraith, the wraith has a life stealing attack which adds exactly the same amount of health to itself as it steals from the opponent, so if both sides use it and steal health from each other you will always see both sides' health go up and down like mad but no one will ever win).

Archon-I: Awesome
Achon-II: Awful

[}TCP{Coco]

Haha, yeah, that's exactly why I didn't like Archon II as well. The new Archon Classic remake is after Archon, but it adds a lot more depth to the game.

For example:

• 2-4 player games (each of them can be human or CPU).
• Secondary abilities (unique for each item, very enjoyable in my opinion).
• Different maps (the original Archon checkboard is also still in there).
• Different map types: Classic, Ascension (gives items the ability to level up and thus improve their individual skills) and Invictus (adds magic squares that grant bonuses as well as pickups during the fights).
• Conquest gamemode that actually adds Archon campaigns for single player mode (including bronze, silver and gold medal awards for each mission).
• Selectable CPU skills. Believe me, the Insane skill level will bring even you into trouble.
• Joystick or other controller support.
• Network and Internet play (still under development).

Altogether I must say it's an awesome remake very well worth the 10 bucks (if you want the full version). You have to get used to it a little when you've played the original Archon back then, and will probably find that some items aren't as strong or weak as they used to be, but the game is really well balanced as it is.

By the way: You can even select classic item graphics if you like.

[}TCP{Carnage]

Ah nice find used to play this a lot back in the days

[}TCP{Cloud]

Ohh old games..always good...will check it out. ^^

[}TCP{Coco]

Cool, I'm glad that some of you remember this game!

I'm curious about your opinions. Please write something here after you've tried it!

[}TCP{Coco]

Nobody tried this yet? C'mon guys, it's easy to do and well worth it!

[}TCP{Cee]

I tried the Demo on Steam, whilst never having played any Archon before :p
Practically won my first game by just using some sort of Phoenix, burning all the cpu units attacking me
Its kinda trial and error in combat as long as you dont know who is capable of what and I didnt even realize theres a difference in fields :p
Still the game seemed alright, but I prefer to play such games against humans as the cpu is often less...fun. Some combat can also drag on when you keep running around, shooting, hiding, running, shooting, hiding, running..etc..Feels to me as if faster units always have a significant advantage. Might be worth it, if they add online play or if it becomes a deal on Steam

[}TCP{Coco]

Nice!

Well, online play is already under development and everybody hopes it'll be ready soon. Until then, just try setting the CPU skill level to experienced or insane.

Learning the pieces' abilities is essential, of course, but if you play the tutorial, you'll already learn a lot about the game and its items. The rest is just experience, like in any other game.

Would be fun to play with you (and probably Wolf?) when online play is ready!

[lilalurl]

Thanks for pointing that out Coco.

Tried the demo a bit (had some experience with the Amiga version), by playing a quick match, the first level of the light campaign of conquest and a quick try of a team match.


Seems quite nice. I like the leveling up system and the secondary abilities.

Team games and especially the possibility to fight battles 2vs1 or 2vs2 seem to open good strategic possibilities. I have not tested, but I suppose you can kill your ally during such a battle?


I have one issue though. The game seems to be wasting a lot of screen estate in strategic/"checker" view (it is OK during battles).
It almost feels like games on the Amstrad CPC (with the black border taking most of the screen and the actual gameplay taking place on a limited space).

I took two screenshots:
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/4582 ... assic1.png
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/4690 ... assic2.png

In my opinion, they should increase the size of the board, split the player/piece info in two and put it in the space that would remain in the respective corners. I would not mind "sacrificing" the character portrait to obtain this.

It could be more of a challenge fitting the player/piece info in team games if the board size was increased I suppose. But at least for one/two player(s) games it would be great to have the board taking more than a third of the screen.


Or are there options that I am missing?


If you can (I suspect you do since you prerelease buyers seem to have your own restricted sub-forum) I'd be glad if you can forward this remark to the developers (unless some other people have already complained about it). Of course, if you do, don't forget to mention that, except that, I enjoyed the quick try I gave to the demo.

PS: The world is small, just saw that pubzombie, whom I know from EAB, is registered there:
http://forums.reactgames.com/memberlist ... ofile&u=78

[}TCP{Coco]

Tried the demo a bit (had some experience with the Amiga version), by playing a quick match, the first level of the light campaign of conquest and a quick try of a team match.

Seems quite nice. I like the leveling up system and the secondary abilities.

Team games and especially the possibility to fight battles 2vs1 or 2vs2 seem to open good strategic possibilities. I have not tested, but I suppose you can kill your ally during such a battle?

Nice! You also tried the tutorial? Or is it not included in the demo version (sorry, got the full version only)?

Yes, you can kill allies and even conjured creatures of your own. Your own creatures may even kill you if you get in their line of fire.

I have one issue though. The game seems to be wasting a lot of screen estate in strategic/"checker" view (it is OK during battles).
It almost feels like games on the Amstrad CPC (with the black border taking most of the screen and the actual gameplay taking place on a limited space).

I took two screenshots:
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/4582 ... assic1.png
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/4690 ... assic2.png

In my opinion, they should increase the size of the board, split the player/piece info in two and put it in the space that would remain in the respective corners. I would not mind "sacrificing" the character portrait to obtain this.

It could be more of a challenge fitting the player/piece info in team games if the board size was increased I suppose. But at least for one/two player(s) games it would be great to have the board taking more than a third of the screen.

Or are there options that I am missing?

No, you're not missing any options. However, I think they just wanted to stick to the original where the check board is a big square as well. More small squares aren't really needed in my opinion, because the game is about battle and it wouldn't really make sense if everybody just moved around in lots of free space. Even four player games (with 3 CPUs) work very well with the existing boards. Nevertheless, from what I know, there will also be an editor for own boards anytime soon.

What exactly are you missing there? Do you want bigger boards with more squares or just a bigger (zommed) view? What resolution are you playing on and what's your screen size?

If you can (I suspect you do since you prerelease buyers seem to have your own restricted sub-forum) I'd be glad if you can forward this remark to the developers (unless some other people have already complained about it). Of course, if you do, don't forget to mention that, except that, I enjoyed the quick try I gave to the demo.

Sure, I can do that, no problem.

PS: The world is small, just saw that pubzombie, whom I know from EAB, is registered there:
http://forums.reactgames.com/memberlist ... ofile&u=78

Hehe, funny. I got no idea what EAB is, but I guess groups of likeminded people are mostly interested in the same games somehow.

Thanks for giving it a try! Maybe we can play a round as well when online multiplayer becomes available.

[lilalurl]

I have not yet tried the tutorials, I thought I was just too l33t for them . Actually, the demo forces you to play a quick match first, then the normal gameplay options open.

I'll try the tutorials a bit later when I can take a bit of time.

From what I understood, the demo is quite close to the full game (although it seems like you can only play Ascension, or perhaps Invictus only unlocks after some events?). But it is limited to 20 minutes of gameplay a day.

So I had not much time left yesterday to play after I finished the quick tests/games I did.


Team games with humans will probably be really fun then if you have the risk of being killed by your ally, meaning you should both pay attention to your piece ability so that you don't kill the other accidentally.


I did not mean more squares for the board but indeed a larger/zoomed view of the board. I play at 1280x1024. I tried at 800x600 but the proportions remain the same.
There is so much space wasted (black lines on the top and at the bottom and part of the space above and below the Player I portrait area). I believe they could think of a wiser way to use space and therefore have more room for a larger view of the board.


Regarding multiplayer, please update this thread when online support is implemented. I'll be happy to have a few games with you and other TCP members from time to time if we have the opportunity.


EAB: It refers to the English Amiga Board, a forum for Amiga:
http://eab.abime.net/
I guess talking about Archon put my mind in a retro-gaming state and therefore I did not even think of writing the full name .
Well, a bit like when my mind is in UT2004 state and when I read TCP I think of here and not of Transmission Control Protocol.


Btw, in case you don't know, there is a mod for UT2004 that tried to mix a bit Chess elements into DM:
http://checkmate-mod.com/about.html
http://checkmate-mod.com/classes.html

I had played it a bit offline some years ago. Not sure how fun/balanced it can be when played online for a long time but it was quite entertaining to play it for a short while.

[}TCP{Cee]

Just because this thread exists... If anybody actually wants to buy the game, its the daily indie deal until tomorrow 7 pm on Steam for 2,50 €uros :p

http://store.steampowered.com/app/65400/

[}TCP{Coco]

Wow, that's damn cheap! I paid 19.95$ back then.