Archon

From thecrankyhermit

Archon
Companies Free Fall Associates, Electronic Arts
First release date 1983
Original platform(s) Atari 800

Strategy, Competitive action

Archon
Ever thought chess would be improved if each capture move turned into a fighting game to determine which piece got captured? Free Fall and EA did, and made a pretty novel action/strategy board game. Different pieces have different fighting moves, some more effective in certain matchups than others, and light and dark squares give an advantage to the corresponding side fighting over them, so strategy remains important, if not terribly deep. Best played against another human.
Key people Paul Reiche III, Jon Freeman, Anne Westfall