Archon came out in 1983 from Free Fall Associates -Jon Freeman, Anne Westfall, and Paul Reiche III- as one of the five launch titles Electronic Arts debuted with. On the surface it's a board of light and dark squares, with pieces that move much like chess; but the moment a piece lands on a square held by an opponent, the match cuts away to a real-time action duel, with its own combat rules for each figure -the dragon doesn't fight the way the wizard does-. It was originally designed as a two-player game, and it was Electronic Arts who, at the last minute, asked for a computer-opponent mode to be added. Readers of Softline magazine voted it Atari's most popular program of 1983, and the following year it took home the Arkie Award for most innovative game. Over time it earned its place as one of the most elegant genre mashups of the 8-bit era, and it remains the go-to reference whenever the talk turns to blending strategy and action without shortchanging either half.
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