''Archon Ultra'' is an action-strategy video game developed by

Free Fall Associates Free Fall Associates was a video game developer of the 1980s and early 1990s founded in 1981 by game designer Jon Freeman, game programmer Anne Westfall, and game designer Paul Reiche III. Westfall and Freeman are married. To start the new comp ...

and published by

Strategic Simulations Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) was a video game developer and publisher with over 100 titles to its credit from its founding in 1979 to its dissolution in 1994. The company was especially noted for its numerous wargames, its official compute ...

in 1994 for

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 oper ...

. It is a

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 sa ...

of the 1983 game '' Archon: The Light and the Dark'' which was one of the first releases from

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 th ...

Gameplay

of '' Archon: The Light and the Dark'', ''Archon Ultra'' adds updated graphics and sound. New gameplay features include secondary weapons that give all units two unique abilities, and the battle sequences are shown from a diagonal overhead point of view to simulate a third dimension in the battles. The game also has a

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system ( couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

mode via

modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by modulating one or more c ...

Reception

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 t ...

'' approved of how ''Ultra''s new features made the game "worthwhile to players of the original" without "destroy ngthe balance of the original", and noted the computer opponent's skill in the

middlegame ''Middlegame'' is a 2019 science fantasy/horror novel by Seanan McGuire. It was well-received critically, winning the 2020 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and garnering a nomination for the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novel. A companion novel, ...

and

endgame Endgame, Endgames, End Game, End Games, or similar variations may refer to: Film * ''The End of the Game'' (1919 film) * ''The End of the Game'' (1975 film), short documentary U.S. film * ''Endgame'' (1983 film), 1983 Italian post-apocalyptic f ...

. The magazine concluded that the developers "brought the graphics and sound of ''Archon'' up to current standards, and have made minor changes to game play without sacrificing the elements that made the original a classic." ''

PC Gamer (US) ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...

'' reviewed the game with a 76% Final Verdict, saying that the combination of strategy and arcade sequences give ''Archon Ultra'' great replay value. ''Archon Ultra'' was reviewed in 1994 in '' Dragon'', receiving only 1 out of 5 stars.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Archon: The Light And The Dark 1994 video games Action games Digital tabletop games DOS games DOS-only games Free Fall Associates games Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiplayer null modem games Strategic Simulations games Strategy video games Turn-based strategy video games Video game remakes Video games developed in the United States Video games with isometric graphics