8-bit battle chess game?

[Swami]

Was Battle Chess or a clone ever released for one of the early 8-bit consoles? 2600, 5200, 7800, ColecoVision, SMS?

[+nanochess]

None that I could remember

[godslabrat]

NES

[fiddlepaddle]

I remember something called Archon on the Commodore 64.

[high voltage]

C64 (well, Commodore did do the C64GS, so that counts).

Edited January 26, 2018 by high voltage

[Skippy B. Coyote]

I used to play it quite a bit on the NES and thought the NES port was a great version of the game. According to GameFAQs.com it was also released on:

 

[carlsson]

Since Battle Chess was released in 1988 with ports coming out in the following years, most of the earlier consoles were long obsoleted.

 

As far as I can tell, there isn't a single Z80 based version of Battle Chess. While the ColecoVision was out of the market by 1984-1986 depending how you count, quite possibly the SMS, MSX and a few more could've had versions of the game. On the Atari side, I might consider versions for the Atari 8-bit computers and XEGS, plus perhaps 7800 if it was powerful enough. A version for the 2600 most likely would be unrecognizable, and even the 5200 was finished by 1986.

[Swami]

I have the Famicom with adapter (and everdrive), so NES sounds like the most retro for me. I'll have to check out what the C64 version is like out of interest though, even though I don't currently have a C64. Thanks!

I think I must have stumbled across it while looking at D&D carts a while back for the NES but got distracted back to D&D.

[Master Phruby]

The closest you can get on the Atari 8-bits would be Archon.

 

[carlsson]

Colossus Chess 4.0 and 4.1 on the Atari 8-bit have a slightly tilted 3D look though not the gameplay of Battle Chess.

[Swami]

The closest you can get on the Atari 8-bits would be Archon.

 

I do believe you have found it. This is the excerpt I remember reading from Wikipedia:

 

"While the board is similar to a chessboard, and the various pieces are similarly designed to have various offsetting abilities, when one piece attempts to take another, the removal of the targeted piece is not automatic. Instead, the two pieces are placed into a full-screen 'combat arena' and must battle (action-style, with the players running the pieces) to determine who takes the square." I'll have to check out the A8 computer version for sure.

 

Not likely a clone of Battle Chess, seems to be a predecessor, although the concept of battle chess may have existed in some earlier home computer incarnation. Funny there is no mention of it as a similar predecessor to Battle Chess in the Wikipedia article for Battle Chess.

[mr_me]

Battle Chess isn't much more than traditional chess. Both the Atari 2600 and Intellivision had Chess catridges. Archon is a much different videogame.

[+nanochess]

Both C64 and NES Battle Chess look painfully slow.

 

Yet interesting to see them contain all animations, if well in NES the battles happen in their own screen.

[zylon]

This is one of the few games I used to prefer my 3DO for, when I had one. Ran quite well on it vs NES or C64.

[zzip]

Battle Chess isn't much more than traditional chess. Both the Atari 2600 and Intellivision had Chess catridges. Archon is a much different videogame.

Yeah, when I got Battle Chess, I was disappointed that it was just chess with kill animations. I was hoping for the next Archon I think.

[Swami]

It's all come back to me now. I saw the Archon homebrew port for the 5200. I first saw it browsing through Good Deal Games's extensive listings. Found it while browsing again today. It's most likely exactly the same as the 8-bit computer version, except for the controller.

[Blazing Lazers]

No chance it was Star Chess for one of the Arcadia systems?