Battle Chess

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Battle Chess is a computer game version of chess released for the 3DO, PC, Apple IIGS, Commodore 64, Amiga, Amiga CDTV, CD32, Atari ST, Apple Macintosh, Acorn Archimedes and Nintendo Entertainment System in which the chess pieces came to life and battled one another when capturing. There were 35 animations, one for each possible combination of battle (thus there was no animation for the King-takes-King battle). The rook, for example, would turn into a rock monster and kill a pawn by crushing him. Introducing this new twist to a classic game, Battle Chess reached out to a new audience.

The game itself was inspired by the 3D chess sequences from Star Wars and Future World, and helped launch Interplay as an independent computer game design house after it ended its relationship with Electronic Arts. In turn, Battle Chess spawned a horde of imitators, but none matched the humorous animations of artists Todd Camasta and Bruce Schlickbernd, and were never as successful. They won a Software Publishers Association (SPA) award for Best Graphics for their efforts. The game was programmed by Michael Quarles (lead programmer), and Jayesh Patel.

A sequel was later released based on the game of Xiangqi.

Screenshot Battle Chess (Atari ST)

At least one weakness was that the board could not be rotated. If the player wished to take the side of Black (the Blue pieces in the game), this meant playing down the board against White (the Red pieces) playing upwards.

The Amiga CDTV version came with a fully-voiced introduction describing the movements of the pieces for the benefit of beginners.

Animation details

Several of the animations are worthy of particular comment:

Pawn takes Knight - the Pawn kicks him in the genitals;
Bishop takes (anybody) - the Bishops would fight by whirling their staffs - which have retractable blades - like martial artists, and also use a limited form of magic;
Queen takes (anyone) - uses magic to blast enemy pieces with bolts of energy, for example disintegrating the Knight or blasting the Bishop into a skeleton;
Knight takes Queen - the Knight's shield reflects the energy bolt back to her, which turns her into a small dragon;
Rook takes Queen - when the Rook - which turns into a large rock monster when on the move - attacks the Queen, he swallows her whole;
Rook takes Knight - the Rook just pounds on the latter's head, and the Knight shrinks down to a helmet with two feet;
Pawn takes Bishop - hits the ground with the butt of his lance, thus creating a large hole which swallows the Bishop.

The (old and doddery) King used a variety of dirty tricks, including a gun (against the Bishop), magical shrinking powder (against a Rook), a bomb (against the Knight) and a morning star (against a Pawn). When capturing the Queen, he would embrace her passionately before hitting her with his scepter when she tries to stab him in the back with a knife. On the other hand, when he is defeated, he ends up like this:

Queen - the King is blasted; only his robe remains
Bishop - he swings his spear-staff three times, cutting the King in three
Knight - the Knight cuts open the King's robe - under which the King wears nothing
Rook - the King is pounded into a two-dimensional version of himself, much like a cartoon character run over by a steam roller
Pawn - with a flip of his lance, he takes the King's crown for himself, and the King is reduced to pounding the ground in frustration.

The most recognisable animation was the Knight-takes-Knight sequence, which was strongly influenced by a similar sequence in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which two Knights fight a duel with swords. One continually chops limbs off the other one, who only gets angrier and more defiant. Eventually, he has no limbs left to fight with.

The game could be played in a straight, 2D version with no animations.

Trivia

In the film Knight Moves, Christopher Lambert's character Peter Sanderson, a chess grandmaster, is seen beating Battle Chess in one scene.

External links

[Battle Chess] at MobyGames
[Battle Chess Soundtrack]
[Play Battle Chess on VirtualApple] (requires IE)

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