Archon

Archon: The Light and the Dark is a computer game developed by Free Fall Associates and distributed by Electronic Arts. It was originally developed for Atari 8-bit computers in 1983, but was later ported to several other systems of the day, including the Apple II, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, IBM PC, Apple Macintosh, PC-88 and NES. It was designed by Paul Reiche III and Jon Freeman and programmed by Freeman's wife, Anne Westfall. Reiche also produced the artwork for the game. On the surface, Archon appears similar to chess, but there are a number of significant changes. 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 (arcade-style, with the players running the pieces) to determine who takes the square. Generally ... full article at wikipedia