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Classic Games (Games) Businesses Software Apple Linux

Archon to be Revived 90

Posted by Zonk from the p4wn3d! dept.
Phoenix-IT writes "How many of you remember the classic strategy game Archon? Curve Software is remaking the original game for DirectX with support for network play. Distribution details are undetermined. There are long term plans to port to Macintosh and UNIX environments, but no details at the moment. The game is not open source because it contains some of the original 8-bit code, which was donated to the project, but a public beta might be on the way!"
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Archon to be Revived More

Archon to be Revived

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  • How about Archon II (for the c64 at least)? I liked that game a lot more. Fun stuff.

    • Re:Archon II (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Sigma 7 ( 266129 )
      How about Archon II (for the c64 at least)? I liked that game a lot more. Fun stuff.
      If you're going to recommend a sequel, try Archon III. This is a true sequel, unlike Archon II, as it fufills the rule of the original game(s) being much better.

      Getting other people to play that game was a Kodak moment - the realization that the series has been driven into the ground after they saw the wonders of the first two games.
      • I've never been able to get Archon III to run so I've never seen it. Do you know of anyplace that has a description?

        • Re:Archon II (Score:3, Informative)

          by Sigma 7 ( 266129 )
          I can describe it right here. The game area is a basic ring, with units being inserted on the left and right sides. You control one unit at a time in attempt to go to a one-on-one showdown where all the units basically have a same aura attack. (A bug in the game tends to favour player one, but that's another story.) The final confrontation with the two exeters is basically the same. There is no AI support.

          That's basically it. Anything from the first two archons have been removed entirely, thus making

  • POWER OVERWHELMING (Score:4, Funny)

    by mmkkbb ( 816035 ) on Wednesday February 09, 2005 @01:53PM (#11620038) Homepage Journal
    Where'd they get the Templar Archives? As far as I know, humanity has not yet made contact with the Protoss.
  • I remember this and Rogue as the first two games I ever played on the Amiga, right when it first came out.
    • Yea I do too. My roommate in collage had on of the first Amigas that came out. We hooked it up to my stereo and as the men marched on to the board it would play on different channels for the left and right. Hey now that was cool in `85 :)

      -S

  • 8 bit propritary code ... hm ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ArmorFiend ( 151674 ) on Wednesday February 09, 2005 @02:01PM (#11620160) Homepage Journal
    The game is not open source because it contains some of the original 8-bit code

    So, let me get this straight, they want to develop a new archon, but gosh darn it, we can't because we've got this legacy 8 bit code?!

    Gentlemen, this game is mind-numbingly straightforward to code. We're talking IJKL controls moving sprites around the screen. Throw out the 20 year old code. Then open it up. Do or do not, there is no try!

    • Re:8 bit propritary code ... hm ... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Godeke ( 32895 ) * on Wednesday February 09, 2005 @02:08PM (#11620254)
      I had the same thought.. the board cycle and the character attributes are really quite straightforward to understand, and I'm sure *somebody* could draw new pictures for the handful of pieces, weapons and "terrain" such as it was. I loved Archon, but it was basically a chessboard with a sprite on sprite battle on each capture attempt.

    • Gentlemen, this game is mind-numbingly straightforward to code. We're talking IJKL controls moving sprites around the screen. Throw out the 20 year old code.

      I don't think they're talking about bit blitting and sprite handling, here. The game is being re-worked to render in DirectX. That leaves core game logic, which is probably copyrighted. Since they're doing all this with the cooperation of the game's original developer, I imagine they'd like to stay on his good side.

      • Re:8 bit propritary code ... hm ... (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I believe that currently, in the US at least, game rules have been deemed not copyrightable by the courts. At least, I believe that's what someone said as to why the Freeciv project is legal. Game art and the implimentation of the rules is copyrightable.

      • Re:8 bit propritary code ... hm ... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Minna Kirai ( 624281 ) on Wednesday February 09, 2005 @03:48PM (#11621498)
        That leaves core game logic, which is probably copyrighted.

        Right on the front page, they brag: "Improved computer AI". That's a change. And once you make one change to the gameplay experience (aside from just prettier graphics and sound), there is no reason to keep on with the old code.

        The only possible explanation to keep the original code in there is if it produced very subtle effects that old-time players could remember with instinctive muscle-memory.

        That explanation just doesn't stand up to scrutiny: the game logic of Archon is hardly any more complex than that of Tetris. It would certainly be less work to re-implement it from the basic design than to deal with creating an 8-bit execution environment on a 32-bit PC.
        • Right on the front page, they brag: "Improved computer AI". That's a change. And once you make one change to the gameplay experience (aside from just prettier graphics and sound), there is no reason to keep on with the old code.

          One change does not cancel out copyright, it just creates a derivative work. The same goes for a reimplementation based in part on the original code. And in any case, if the original source was donated on the basis that it not be divulged, it would seem that the project is ethicall
          • One change does not cancel out copyright,

            That's not what I said. Copyright is irrelevant here- the thing is, if they're going to change even one little thing about the gameplay, then there is NO reason to use any of the original code whatsoever.

            The other respondant mentioned Tetris, and that's a fine example. Almost any game programmer could clone Tetris from memory, without looking at the original code at all. However, there are subtlties of the way the original Nintendo Tetrises played, which possib
            • That's not what I said. Copyright is irrelevant here- the thing is, if they're going to change even one little thing about the gameplay, then there is NO reason to use any of the original code whatsoever.

              Whether or not they use the actual code, the fact that they have seen it means that it would be hard for them to prove, or even to be sure themselves, that they have not used algorithms from the original code. This is why reverse engineering is generally done under "clean room" conditions by people who ha
    • There is always xarchon [seul.org]. Personally, I prefer to use VICE [viceteam.org] to emulate the original C64 game.
      • There is always xarchon.

        What are all of those colors? My brain can't interpret them all at once. I'll bet they even improved the sound. Pff. ;)

        I'm with you on the emulation. I'm actually hoping that the network code adds something extra cool.

    • The exact text from the site's FAQ.

      Will the game be open source?
      No. Portions of the code contain elements from the original 8bit source code (Icon attributes etc). Jon Freeman kindly provided us with much of the original (and Amiga) "C" code, and ownership remains with him.

      Just remember the original game was published by EA.
    • More importantly, it's a Windows-only closed-source game. What the hell is it doing on Slashdot?

    • Re:8 bit propritary code ... hm ... (Score:5, Funny)

      by LordOfYourPants ( 145342 ) on Wednesday February 09, 2005 @05:58PM (#11623042)
      Yeah man, the code is protected in a hardcore way too. They did a poke 775,171 and EVERYTHING!
    • Yes. We apologize that our licensing does not permit sharing the code. However at least we are not saying we wont share it because we think people swear in the comments. Cause thats just silly.

      (c)1978 bsd.

  • Wahay, nostalgia-tastic (Score:4, Funny)

    by chihiro ( 842974 ) on Wednesday February 09, 2005 @02:03PM (#11620182)
    Brings a tear to the eye... brings back memories of my youth, playing it on my trusty. Back when in the age of proper computer games...

    "When I were a lad we only had 48K to play with on my spectrum"

    "48K! luxury! My ZX81 had 1K and a 16K RAM pack that crashed as soon as you breathed on it"
    • I played Archon on my Mac just yesterday, using the Power64 C-64 emulator and my old Epyx 500 XJ joystick (via Stelladaptor).

      The golden age of classic gaming is today, my friends! Sure, I could dig out my old 64 and the original Archon disk, but why bother when emulation lets me cram all of my best C-64, Atari 2600, and arcade games into a 12" laptop and play during my lunch hour? Hell, I've got a ZX81 emulator as well, though admittedly I don't have much use for it. :-)

      -Cybrex
      • You can also put hundreds of games on one CD-R.

        If, God forbid, I was in the military and about to be deployed overseas I'd bring a couple DVDs with MAME and console ROMs, and plenty of Apple ][ and C64 games. With many emulators of course.
      • Yeah I have the Commodore 64 version installed on my Xbox. I still think that is the definative version.
        If you don't have an old joystick around and you want to get the classic feel - you can always get a Classic Joystick [redoctane.com] - full Atari style with a USB connector.
        • Very cool. If you happen to still have them, you can use your original Atari controllers with the Stelladaptor (http://www.pixelspast.com/products/). I have one, and it works wonderfully! It's great being able to play classic games as they were meant to be played.

          -Cybrex

  • Wrath Unleashed (Score:2, Informative)

    by philiptan ( 669463 )
    There was a PS2/Xbox game released by Lucasarts in early 2004 called Wrath Unleashed. I wouldn't call it an Archon sequel or remake, but it certainly draws lots of inspiration from Archon. Pity about the long load times (at least on my Xbox). If you've got $10 and a preowned bin nearby, and desperately need some console hex-map turn-based strategy, it isn't that bad a game.

    http://www.lucasarts.com/products/wrath/ [lucasarts.com]

    • Re:Wrath Unleashed (Score:3, Informative)

      by vjmurphy ( 190266 )
      Also, The Unholy War on the PSOne is another Archon-like game.
      • Darn well should be, since it was the same developers. Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford, AKA Toys For Bob, made several games along the same lines - Archon II, Starcontrol 1, and Unholy War all have similar gameplay (I think their first joing project was A2, A1 only included one of them). There is also a Quake 3 mod out there called Arq that brings the gameplay to an FPS genre.
    • There's also a really old game by SSI called "Dark Legion." It was more directly a clone of Archon.

      It was from 1994 or 1995. I haven't been able to find any information online about it, but feel free to look. :)
  • "How many of you remember the classic strategy game Archon?"

    Not me. Nope. Not a clue.

    What I DO remember is "MacFoxex". When is THAT going to be revived? Now there's old school quality...

  • While you're waiting for this... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ZipR ( 584654 ) on Wednesday February 09, 2005 @02:08PM (#11620262)
    Check out this Quake 3 Archon mod. Pretty cool! http://www.planetquake.com/brazen/arq/images.shtml [planetquake.com]
  • The best archon-like I've played so far was Dark Legions [mobygames.com] by Silicon Knights.

    Archon Ultra, also distributed by SSI, was good but not quite great, and my floppies died so fast that I never got to really play.
    Both came out in 1994, but I guess my CD version of Dark Legion lasted longer than the floppy version of Ultra. Must have something to do with a 400 watts bass amp sitting next to my PC at the time.

    I still have my archon.exe on more than one hard disk at home.

  • What awesome news! I've been into old games lately (such as Star Control II/Ur Quan Masters). I wonder if Paul Reiche III [toysforbob.com] had anything to do with this (since he had quite a bit to do with the free release of SC2/Ur Quan Masters) and was on the design team for each of these games. Man, Archon was a sweet game. I can't wait until they release it...with network support, noless!

  • DirectX vs. OpenGL (Score:4, Insightful)

    by White Roses ( 211207 ) on Wednesday February 09, 2005 @02:12PM (#11620314)
    This is a legit question, because, frankly, I wonder. Why can't this particular program use OpenGL rather than DirectX? OpenGL would most likely make the porting efforts less time-consuming, as Linux, most *nix and Mac OS X all support OpenGL, but DirectX is Windows only. OpenGL also works on Windows does it not? Is DirectX so much easier that it's worth the porting time? If you start from the get-go with porting in mind, why use DirectX? Someone please educate me.
    • Because they didn't originally plan to port it to other operating systems, and because DirectX is more than just graphics handling. It also handles sound, controllers, and networking, and wraps the whole thing up in a single, unified API. There are similar APIs that are cross-platform, but they are less mature and less stable.
    • From the FAQ:
      We now have long term plans to port Archon: Evolution to both MAC and UNIX platforms. We plan to move away from the DirectX for the core game engineat some point, whichwill make such a migration easier.
      They probably started the project as Windows only, and decided after the fact to port it to OS X and other UNIX systems. After they get the 1.0 release out the door, they'll probably move over to a more platform agnostic library like OpenGL.
    • They say in their FAQ [archonevolution.com]that they are looking to move away from the DirectX game engine at some point. Possibly before they finish a future fully 3D version.
  • hasn't evolved much considering it's still using original 8bit code... in all seriousness, Archon was one of my favorites, can't wait to hear the screaming banshee lol...
  • Archon was one of the best games I had for my Atari 800. The idea was fairly simple (as is usually the case with good games): take a chess-style game, but require that the pieces fight when trying to take another piece. Different pieces had different weapons, abilities, and movement. Pieces had different power based on what color of square they were on (and some squares changed colors). You won by killing all of the oponents pieces or by taking five particular squares.
  • Its called "wrath unleashed" for xbox and ps2, if you like archon you will dig this.

  • Done and done (Score:3, Funny)

    by T-Ranger ( 10520 ) <jeffw@NoSPAm.chebucto.ns.ca> on Wednesday February 09, 2005 @02:38PM (#11620641) Homepage
    • ftp://arnold.c64.org/pub/games/a/
    • http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Games/Gaming_ Utilities/Frodo.html
    Add network play:
    • http://www.realvnc.com/
  • .... Danielle Bunten [anticlockwise.com].
    • Bunten was a contributor during EA's magical first phase (M.U.L.E. was her masterpiece) but did not work on Archon. Archon is the creation of Jon Freeman, Paul Reiche III, and Anne Westfall.

  • Huh? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by b1t r0t ( 216468 ) on Wednesday February 09, 2005 @03:28PM (#11621257)
    There are long term plans to port to Macintosh and UNIX environments, but no details at the moment.

    Then why was this posted to the front page of apple.slashdot.org?

  • Does anybody out there have the source code available for Avalon Hill's Galaxy? My friends and I spent hours playing this on our Atari 400/800's and have always talked about how cool it would be to rewrite it in Java or something so we could play it again. The source was written in Basic.

    I know that this isn't about Archon but I figure that if anybody reading this even knows what Archon was they might have an old Galaxy disk laying somewhere.
  • Is anyone ever going to remake Autoduel? Update graphics and everything but keep the gameplay the same. That game was the best! I actually have a copy on my computer that runs in XP, but a remake would be nice.

  • Why is this in the Apple section? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by John Harrison ( 223649 ) <johnharrison@@@gmail...com> on Wednesday February 09, 2005 @03:46PM (#11621474) Homepage Journal
    Also, while Archon is great, somebody needs to do a faithful rendition of MULE.
  • So they're going to use Direct X, and probably Direct Play for the networking (horribly unportable, despite openplay), and then have plans of Linux and Mac ports?

    Yeah, right, I'll just type that up on my invisible typewriter.

  • Atari 800 (Score:2, Interesting)

    by SoCalEd ( 842421 )

    Archon is one of the main reasons why I still have my old Atari 800XL hooked up and working.

    If that doesn't qualify me to carry a geek license, nothing does....

    I just hope they don't over-engineer it. It was the simplicity which made the game addictive. Ah, how I loved that unicorn...

    • I bought one a few years ago*, mostly because of Archon. Although I prefer the Amiga version with its extra deadly Banshee, the 8-bit Atari one was the first I'd seen. Fascinating game, could see it built into a stylish coffee table or something like that.

      Hm, screenshots don't seem too over-engineered. Compared to Wrath Unleashed at least...

      (*still not sure what the four metal switches on the back do that some previous owner installed; no manuals and the disk drive's dead)

    • Why such an old version? I had the NES version which had much nicer graphics and the same, classic gameplay. With a little contact cleaner it ain't too hard to keep an old NES running.

      • Nostalgia, plain and simple. I cut my teeth on a Sinclair before moving on to a TI99-4A then the Atari, but the Atari is where I spent my time. Way too much time. Because of Archon, the Infocom games, Jumpman, Seven Cities of Gold, etal., I'll always have a soft spot for my Atari system.

        Oh, and I do still have my NES and Atari 2600 running as well...

        Emulation is great, I have a full-blown MAME project in process, but there's nothing like playing the classics on the old iron.

  • There are long term plans to port to Macintosh and UNIX environments, but no details at the moment.
    Translation: Don't hold your breath.
  • another classic video game [dailyprobe.com] has died.
  • To bad its not OS'd, it would be fun to see those old 8 bit Code surrounded by direct x wrappers :) i'm not sure i would use those code i a newly coded software.
  • At least I now know why my site has been receiving more hits than usual! I'm the lead (read: only) developer of Archon Evolution and I'd like to make it clear that A:E *is* going multi-platform. I'm currently porting the rendering layer to OpenGL (collisions are giving me problems at the moment) and, once finished, Windows users will be able to play against MAX and Linux users. The DirectX version is being scrapped, although the first public beta will probably be a DirectX build (as it's reached a stable s

  • (AL): Jon, Adept is obviously a sequel to Archon. This is something
    fairly new in the game world. But I see you cringe every time the
    word sequel is mentioned.     Would you explain how Adept is or is not a
    sequel to Archon?

    (JF): It is a sequel, in the sense that it was an attempt to do a game
    that would feel -- sensually and emotionally -- like Archon. The planning
    and pacing is similar. There are times when you sit back and think for
    a while. These are followed by periods of very intense excitement and
    act

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