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Reliving the Past…

March 3,2009 10:20 am 3 comments

When I was in Junior High, I had the most exquisite computer in the whole world…The Atari 800 which, to me, was far superior to the Commodore 64.  My friends and I had long debates on which was better (they were C64 fans.)  In the end, it always came down to a game of Archon (which, by the way, was FIRST developed for the Atari, then PORTED to the C64.)  Whoever won the game, won the debate and put it to rest (until the next game.)  I was always right.

Anyway, I played our prototype again today with our designer.  He’s a younger guy who didn’t play Archon in all its glory back then.  He has since become a huge fan and we play it regularly.  So as we started the game, my hubris lead me to believe it would be an easy slaughter.  Only after losing my Basilisk, Shapeshifter and other key pieces, did I begin to sweat.  It seems my young Padawan has been practicing.  The game was fast and frantic in places, with us cheering and crying as pieces were won and lost.  In the end, it came down to his Wizard against my Sorceress.  We agreed to meet on a neutral square.  My Sorceress just came from a furious battle with his Djinni, which left me with little health…so I was very nervous.  My hands were sweating and my heart was racing.

We entered the Combat Arena, him with close to full health and me with next to nothing.  The battle lasted only 20 seconds, but it seemed like a lifetime.  I luckily dodged a few of his shots and was able to get a few in.  In the end, we were running around frantically…it came down to the classic “next shot wins” type of deals…our health was about the same, very low.  I fired a shot as he came level with me, across the Arena and knew it would connect.  I WON! I thought.  However, just before he died, he let loose a fireball, which hit me square in the chest.

Silence.

For a split second I was confused as both our pieces disappeared.  The screen changed  to an empty Strategy Board and the words “The game has ended in a Tie” appeared.  We both cheered, screamed and fell on the floor.  In all my years playing, I had never had such an intense battle, which resulted in a tie.  That game had all the emotional highs and lows that one could experience.  We talked about it for the rest of the day.

How could anyone not LOVE this game.  I’m fully convinced that if a person were to play it, they would fall in love with it.  It has all the classic elements of a great game, with the added benefit for me to take me back to Junior High, where I was the Archon champion of my neighborhood…Nobody could beat me.  Once we get NETplay implemented, I wonder how I’d rank worldwide?