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Free Fall Associates - In bed with EA
Soon Freeman made a contact that would prove pivotal for both Free Fall and the fledgling computer game publisher, Electronic Arts (EA). The same day he incorporated his company, Trip Hawkins contacted Freeman. Freeman was attracted by EA's generous attitude and the welcome windfall of development cash. Soon, Free Fall signed EA's first two development contracts.
For their first title, inspired by sword-and-sorcery themes and the holographic chess-like game featured in Star Wars, they set to work on Archon. Originally developed as a two-player only game, EA requested a one-player mode as well. Though it only had a passing resemblance to chess, Archon featured innovative gameplay and theme. Freeman and Reiche developed the game design and Westfall focussed on the programming. Freeman and Reiche also developed the artwork for this first version for the Atari home systems.
Upon its release in 1984, Archon was an enormous hit and EA asked for a sequel. Archon is still regarded as a seminal game in the history of computer games.
FreeFall immediately set out to create the sequel, but significantly altered the gameplay, strategies and premise of the game, adding a new gameboard, new spells, new creatures and abilities to the mix. Archon II: Adept was also released in 1984 and received even more acclaim than the original.
Both these games were lucrative for both Free Fall and EA and were key to EA's success as a fledgling publisher. Through the years, as more systems came on the market, such as the Amiga and the Atari ST, FreeFall ported these games to those systems. The games were hits on all systems for which they were released.
Free Fall also developed a murder mystery game concurrently with the first Archon. Murder on the Zinderneuf (MotZ), with Robert Leyland, was innovative in that it was different each time it was played. Freeman says he was inspired by his favorite board game Clue, and MotZ generated a new plot each time it's played. MotZ debuted a few weeks after Archon, but was eclipsed by Archon's enormous success.
Other related archives1978, 1980s, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1989, 1990s, 1994, 2002, Accolade, Amiga, Anne Westfall, Archon, Archon II: Adept, Atari 800, Atari ST, Atari home computer, Clue, Commodore PET, Electronic Arts, Epyx, Fred Ford, Grab, Heartless, Jon Freeman, Pac-Man, Paul Reiche III, Prodigy, Star Control, Star Wars, Toys for Bob, Trip Hawkins, assembly language, board game, card games, chess, computer game developer, computer games, game design, game designer, game programmer, gamers, home computer, ported, publisher
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