Archon: The Light and the Dark

Archon: The Light and the Dark is one of those ideas that sound so obvious you have to wonder why no one thought of it sooner. Take a chessboard, place fantasy creatures on it — and when one piece wants to capture a square occupied by an opponent, the outcome isn't decided by a rule but by an action duel in an arena where both players control their creatures in real time. The strategic thinking of a turn-based game is married here with arcade reflexes.

The balance is ingenious. A weak piece can defeat a stronger one in combat if the player aims and dodges better, so no victory on the board is ever guaranteed. What's more, the whole match is subject to a cycle of day and night: light squares strengthen the side of Light, dark squares the side of Darkness, and the gray ones slowly shift, changing where it pays to fight. The wizards, moreover, cast spells — from reviving the fallen to summoning lightning. Free Fall Associates (Jon Freeman, Anne Westfall, Paul Reiche III) created a true original here.

Released by Electronic Arts in 1983, Archon remains a superb two-player game on a single machine. That combination of head and thumb still makes it one of the smartest hybrids ever to emerge on the 8-bits.