''Battle Chess'' is a

computer game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

version of

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

with animated three-dimensional graphics. It was originally developed and released by Interplay Entertainment for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

in 1988 and subsequently on many other systems, including

3DO Interactive Multiplayer The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, also referred to as simply 3DO, is a home video game console developed by The 3DO Company. Conceived by entrepreneur and Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, the 3DO was not a console manufactured by the company ...

, Acorn Archimedes, Amiga CD32,

Amiga CDTV The CDTV (from Commodore Dynamic Total Vision, later treated as a backronym for Compact Disc Television) is a home multimedia entertainment and video game console – convertible into a full-fledged personal computer by the addition of optional ...

, Apple IIGS, Apple IIe,

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

FM Towns The is a Japanese personal computer, built by Fujitsu from February 1989 to the summer of 1997. It started as a proprietary PC variant intended for multimedia applications and PC games, but later became more compatible with IBM PC compatibles. ...

NES The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...

MacOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

, NEC PC-9801, X68000 and

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. In 1991, ''Battle Chess Enhanced'' was released by Interplay for the PC and Macintosh featuring improved

VGA Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the PC industry within three years. The term can now ...

graphics and a symphonic musical score that played from the

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

. ''Battle Chess'' was critically acclaimed and commercially successful, resulting in two official follow-ups as well as several inspired games. Its

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same ...

, ''Battle Chess: Game of Kings'', was released on

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

on December 11, 2015.

Gameplay

''Battle Chess'' follows the same rules as traditional chess, with

piece Piece or Pieces (not to be confused with peace) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * Piece (chess), pieces deployed on a chessboard for playing the game of chess * ''Pieces'' (video game), a 1994 puzzle game for the Super NES * P ...

s moving in an animated fashion and battles playing out so that the capturing piece defeats its target. Furthermore, when

checkmate Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is any game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check (threatened with ) and there is no possible escape. Checkmating the opponent wins the game. In chess, the king is ...

is delivered, the checkmating piece fights and defeats the king. Since there are six types of pieces for each color, and a king cannot even check (let alone capture) another king, there are a total of 35 different battle animations. The

rook Rook (''Corvus frugilegus'') is a bird of the corvid family. Rook or rooks may also refer to: Games *Rook (chess), a piece in chess *Rook (card game), a trick-taking card game Military *Sukhoi Su-25 or Rook, a close air support aircraft * USS ' ...

, for example, turns into a

rock monster ''Rock Monster'' is a 2008 American made-for-television film directed by Declan O'Brien. A Syfy Channel original film, it premiered on March 22, 2008. Plot A group of traveling college students arrive at an Eastern European small village called ...

and kills a pawn by smashing its head, and the rook kills the queen by eating her. There are some pop-culture homages; the knight versus knight animation references the black knight fight in ''

Monty Python and the Holy Grail ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' is a 1975 British comedy film satirizing the Arthurian legend, written and performed by the Monty Python comedy group (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin) an ...

'', and the king versus bishop fight pastiches the short battle between

Indiana Jones ''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franchise based on the adventures of Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., a fictional professor of archaeology, that began in 1981 with the film '' Raiders of the Lost Ark''. In 1984, a prequel, '' Th ...

and a swordsman in ''

Raiders of the Lost Ark ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. It stars Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronal ...

''. The game can be also played in a 2D version with no animations, and the

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 A PC speaker is a loudspeaker built into some IBM PC compatible computers. The first IBM Personal Computer, model 5150, employed a standard 2.25 inch magnetic driven (dynamic) speaker. More recent computers use a tiny moving-iron or pie ...

, without the need for a sound card, using a technique akin to

RealSound RealSound is a patented (US US5054086 A) technology for the PC created by Steve Witzel of Access Software during the late 1980s. RealSound enables 6-bit digitized pulse-code modulation (PCM)-audio playback on the PC speaker by means of pulse-w ...

. ''Battle Chess'' can be played against a human opponent (by hotseat,

null modem Null modem is a communication method to directly connect two DTEs (computer, terminal, printer, etc.) using an RS-232 serial cable. The name stems from the historical use of RS-232 cables to connect two teleprinter devices or two modems in order ...

or over a

local area network A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, school, laboratory, university campus or office building. By contrast, a wide area network (WAN) not only covers a larger ...

in some ports) or against the computer's

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

(AI). The game has an opening library of over 30,000 moves (which were not available for the

and

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

versions).

Development

''Battle Chess'' was the first title developed and published by Interplay Entertainment themselves after ending their relationship with

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

, besides '' Neuromancer''. The game was featured in the 1992 film '' Knight Moves'' about a chess grandmaster who is accused of several murders. ''Battle Chess'' producer and Interplay's founder

Brian Fargo Frank Brian Fargo (born December 15, 1962) is an American video game designer, producer, programmer and executive, and founder of Interplay Entertainment, inXile Entertainment and Robot Cache. Biography Early life A descendant of the family t ...

expressed his fondness for the game in a 2006 interview, although he added that he did not think there would be much of an audience for it today. An apocryphal story of the development was the invention of "The Duck" (an example of Parkinson's

law of triviality The law of triviality is C. Northcote Parkinson's 1957 argument that people within an organization commonly or typically give disproportionate weight to trivial issues. Parkinson provides the example of a fictional committee whose job was to ap ...

): The producers of the game were known to demand changes to the game, presumably to make their mark on the finished product. To this end, one animator added a small duck around the queen piece, but made sure that the sprite would be easily removable. Come review, the producers, predictably, okayed everything but asked for the duck to be removed.

Reception

''Battle Chess'' sold 250,000 copies by February 1993.

Ken St. Andre Kenneth Eugene St. Andre (born April 28, 1947) is an American fantasy author and game designer, best known for his work with ''Tunnels & Trolls'' and ''Wasteland (video game), Wasteland''. He was born in Ogden, Utah, and has been an active member ...

reviewed the game for ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'', and stated that "Quibbles aside, every chess player will want a copy of this program, and every Amiga owner owes it to him/herself to see Battlechess in action. Highly recommended." The Amiga version received favourable reviews from magazines due to its comical battle sequences which were advanced (for the time) in terms of graphics, animation and sound. German game magazine ''ASM'', however, criticized the weak chess AI. In a review of the 3DO version, Mike Weigand of ''

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The m ...

'' stated, "If you are a chess fan, then you may want to check this title out." In 1994 ''

'' said of the

, ''Battle Chess Enhanced'', that "Better artwork, smoother animations, and a much stronger chess algorithm than its disk predecessors make the CD version a good buy". Interplay won "Best Graphics Achievement In A Non-Graphics Product" from

Software Publishers Association The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) is a trade association dedicated to the entertainment, consumer and business software industries. Established in 1984 as the Software Publishers Association (SPA), the SIIA took its new na ...

(later renamed to Software and Information Industry Association) for ''Battle Chess''. In 1994 ''Computer Gaming World'' added it to the magazine's Hall of Fame honoring those games rated highly over time by readers, describing ''Battle Chess'' as "a showcase product for the first level of multimedia standards". In 1996 the magazine ranked it as the 106th-best game of all time for its "funny, elaborate animated sequences and spectacular special effects."

Legacy

Sequels

A sequel titled '' Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess'' was released in 1991, based on

xiangqi ''Xiangqi'' (; ), also called Chinese chess or elephant chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is the most popular board game in China. ''Xiangqi'' is in the same family of games as '' shogi'', '' janggi'', Western chess, '' ch ...

, commonly known as "Chinese chess". The next year's ''

Battle Chess 4000 A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and forc ...

'' spoofed science fiction movies and television series (such as a battle sequence involving the monolith from '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'') and used a clay-animation art style similar to ''

ClayFighter ''ClayFighter'' is a fighting/beat 'em up series of video games. The series is noted for having character sprites rendered from clay-animated figures, and for having humorous parodies of other fighting games such as ''Street Fighter'' and '' ...

''. On December 28, 2015,

revealed that he had started working on a second sequel of the game titled ''Battle Chess 3'' in the late 1990s but the game was cancelled. He also released a footage of the prototype of the game.

Inspired games

''Battle Chess'' also inspired a number of

video game clone A video game clone is either a video game or a video game console very similar to, or heavily inspired by, a previous popular game or console. Clones are typically made to take financial advantage of the popularity of the cloned game or system, bu ...

s, such as ''

Star Wars Chess ''Star Wars Chess'' is a 1993 chess-playing video game developed by The Software Toolworks, based on the ''Star Wars'' film franchise and published by Mindscape for DOS, Sega CD and Windows 3.x. A 3DO Interactive Multiplayer version was planned ...

'', '' Terminator 2: Judgment Day – Chess Wars'', '' Combat Chess'' and '' National Lampoon's Chess Maniac 5 Billion and 1''. Another clone, ''

War Chess War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular ...

'' was released by

XS Games XS Games, LLC was a New York-based publisher of value-priced video games, operating in North America and Europe, that released titles on numerous different consoles as well as one title on the iPhone. The company is still listed as operating and ...

for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

in 2005, and was later ported to the PC by Big Fish Games and released online. One similar game, titled '' Battle vs. Chess'', was developed by

TopWare Interactive TopWare Interactive – AC Enterprises e.K. is a German video game publisher based in Karlsruhe. The company is best known for publishing the '' Two Worlds'' series developed by its Reality Pump Studios division. History TopWare Interactive w ...

for "just about every platform". However, Interplay filed and won an injunction for trademark infringement in 2010 and TopWare was prevented from releasing ''Battle vs. Chess'' in the United States. The District Court of California came into session and given that after two years of litigation, TopWare Interactive discharged their lawyer, resulting in Interplay winning the case by default. Topware afterwards released the game in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

with the name ''Check vs. Mate''.

Remake

For the Windows 3D remake, the Subdued Software (industry veterans) tried in 2012 unsuccessfully to raise funding on

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

. The remake ''Battle Chess: Game of Kings'' was released by Interplay on

in 2015. On ''Whatoplay.com'' it has a rating of 49%.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1988 video games 3DO Interactive Multiplayer games Acorn Archimedes games Amiga games Apple IIGS games Atari ST games Cancelled Atari Jaguar games Cancelled CD-i games Amiga CD32 games Chess software Commodore 64 games Commodore CDTV games DOS games FM Towns games Games commercially released with DOSBox Interplay Entertainment games Classic Mac OS games Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiplayer null modem games Nintendo Entertainment System games NEC PC-9801 games Sharp X68000 games Windows games Video games developed in the United States