Battle Chess I - II & Battle Chess 4000 [v2.1.0.26] [Interplay] [GOG] [Retro] [adamantalias]

Battle Chess

Chess as you've never seen it before! Watch as the pieces come to life to do battle against each other!

Sharpen your lance and prepare your knights for the challenge of a lifetime. Chess comes to life in this classic game of humor and strategy. Each piece has different animations for both capturing pieces and for being captured! Battle Chess is a terrific way to teach novices and keep the most advanced player entertained.

Battle Chess is a video game version of chess in which the chess pieces come to life and battle one another when capturing. It was originally developed and released by Interplay Entertainment for the Amiga in 1988 and subsequently on many other systems, including 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, Acorn Archimedes, Amiga CD32, Amiga CDTV, Apple IIGS, Apple IIe, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, FM Towns, NES, Mac OS, NEC PC-9801, X68000 and Microsoft Windows. In 1991, Battle Chess Enhanced was released by Interplay for the PC, featuring improved VGA graphics and a symphonic musical score that played from the CD-ROM.

Since there are six types of pieces for each color, and a king cannot capture a king, there are 35 battle animations. The rook, for example, turns into a rock monster and kills a pawn by smashing his head. There are some pop-culture homages; the knight versus knight animation references the black knight fight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail , and the king versus bishop fight pastiches the short battle between Indiana Jones and a swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The game can be also played in a 2D version with no animations, and the Amiga CDTV version features a fully voiced introduction describing the movements of the pieces for the benefit of beginners. Digitized sound is utilized in the DOS version for all battle sound effects and is played through the PC speaker, without the need for a sound card, using a technique akin to RealSound.

Battle Chess could be played against a human opponent (by hotseat, or by null modem or over a local area network in some ports) or against the computer's artificial intelligence (AI). The game has an opening library from over 30,000 moves (which were not available for the Commodore 64 and Apple II versions).

Battle Chess was critically acclaimed and commercially successful, resulting in two official follow-ups as well as several inspired games. Its remake, Battle Chess: Game of Kings, was released on Steam on March 16, 2014.



Developer(s) Interplay Entertainment
Silicon & Synapse (C64)[1]
Publisher(s) Interplay Entertainment
Producer(s) Brian Fargo
Designer(s) Michael Quarles
Jayesh J. Patel
Troy P. Worrell
Artist(s) Todd J. Camasta
Bruce Schlickbernd
Platform(s) Amiga, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, Acorn Archimedes, Amiga CD32, Amiga CDTV, Apple IIGS, Apple IIe, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, FM Towns, NES, Mac OS, NEC PC-9801, X68000, Microsoft Windows
Release date(s) 1988-1994
Genre(s) Chess
Mode(s) Single player, two player



Battle Chess 4000

The Future of Chess!

Battle Chess 4000 takes the classic game of chess and rushes it headlong into the future. Chess pieces become animated space-age characters, created from digitized clay models; with hilarious animated moves. Not only that, but Battle Chess 4000 has a library of 300,000 opening moves and an artificial intelligence that can handle any opponent.



Battle Chess II Chinese Chess

Cannons thunder, chariots race over grassy fields, and dragons hurl fireballs at opposing forces in Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess. An ancient cousin to western chess, Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess, features stunning graphics, realistic sound effects, and more humorous animation than the original Battle Chess. Watch as dragons toast hapless knights, counselors flatten pawns with enormous mallets hidden in their robes, and cannons merrily blast away at opponents cowering behind other pieces.

With Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess, chess is no longer an abstract mental exercise. It is an entertainment that will prove the words of the famous Oriental Philosopher/Chef Kung Pao who said, "War is fun!"