Free Fall Associates was a

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a larg ...

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 company, Freeman and Westfall left

Epyx Epyx, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher active in the late 1970s and 1980s. The company was founded as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman, originally using Epyx as a brand name for action-oriented games before r ...

, the company Freeman co-founded in 1978. ''Free Fall Associates'' is best known for '' Archon: The Light and the Dark'' (1983), which was one of the first games from new publisher

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 ...

Origin

Freeman, along with friend

Jim Connelley Jim or JIM may refer to: * Jim (given name), a given name * Jim, a diminutive form of the given name James * Jim, a short form of the given name Jimmy * OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism * ''Jim'' (comics), a series by Jim Woodring * ''Jim'' ...

, started

as Automated Simulations as a vehicle to publish a game they had created together called ''

Starfleet Orion ''Starfleet Orion'' is a 1978 science fiction strategy game written and published by Automated Simulations (who would become Epyx in 1983). It appears to be the first space-themed strategy game sold for microcomputer systems. The game was origina ...

'' for the

Commodore PET The Commodore PET is a line of personal computers produced starting in 1977 by Commodore International. A single all-in-one case combines a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, Commodore BASIC in read-only memory, keyboard, monochrome monitor, ...

home computer. They eventually published dozens of titles for numerous platforms, some very successful. By 1981, however, Freeman had become frustrated with what he called "office politics" and decided to leave the company. His wife, Westfall, joined him, though she cites a desire to learn assembly language programming on the Atari 800 as a motivation. Reiche joined the duo as the company's third member. Free Falls' first game was 1982's ''

Tax Dodge Tax avoidance is the legal usage of the tax regime in a single territory to one's own advantage to reduce the amount of tax that is payable by means that are within the law. A tax shelter is one type of tax avoidance, and tax havens are jurisdic ...

'', a maze chase for the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE ...

. According to Freeman, "Mainstream adults loved the idea, and we got written up in some major business magazines, but the market wasn't there yet".Interview with Jon Freeman and Anne Westfall
from ''Halcyon Days''

Association with Electronic Arts

Soon Freeman made a contact that would prove pivotal for both Free Fall and the fledgling computer game publisher,

(EA). The same day he incorporated his company,

Trip Hawkins William Murray "Trip" Hawkins III (born December 28, 1953) is an American entrepreneur and founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company, and Digital Chocolate. Career A fan of the Strat-O-Matic Football pen and paper games, Hawkins started his ...

contacted Freeman. Freeman was attracted by EA's generous attitude and the welcome windfall of development cash. Soon, Free Fall signed EA's first two development contracts. Their first game, ''

Archon ''Archon'' ( gr, ἄρχων, árchōn, plural: ἄρχοντες, ''árchontes'') is a Greek word that means "ruler", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem αρχ-, mean ...

'', was inspired by sword-and-sorcery themes and the holographic

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 dist ...

-like game in ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...

''. Originally intended for two-players, EA requested a single-player mode. Freeman and Reiche designed the game and created the art while Westfall implemented it on an Atari 800 computer. ''Archon'' was released in 1983 in the first batch of games from Electronic Arts. It was a hit, and EA asked for a sequel. Freeman and Westfall significantly altered the gameplay, strategies, and premise of the game, adding a new board, spells, creatures, and abilities. '' Archon II: Adept'' was released in 1984. Ports of both games were published by EA as two of the earliest games for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore International, 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 sign ...

. Freeman and Reiche, working with programmer Robert Leyland, developed a murder mystery game concurrently with ''Archon''. ''

Murder on the Zinderneuf ''Murder on the Zinderneuf'' is a 1983 video game designed by Jon Freeman and Paul Reiche III and one of the first six games published by Electronic Arts ( Ariolasoft in Europe). It was developed for the Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit fam ...

'' generates a new plot each time it is played. Freeman says he was inspired by his favorite

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a ...

, ''

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''. It released a few weeks after ''Archon''.

Twilight

Freeman and Westfall went on to develop a few more games, such as '' Swords of Twilight'' (1989) for the Amiga and '' Archon Ultra'' (1994). Sometime during this period, Reiche left for other opportunities. None of these other games did nearly as well as Free Fall's first two seminal games. Reiche paired up with programmer Fred Ford and the two developed the '' Star Control'' games, published by Accolade. Reiche and Ford eventually founded the video game developer

Toys for Bob Toys for Bob, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Novato, California. As the creators of the award-winning '' Star Control'' and ''Skylanders'' series, the studio originated as a partnership between Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford. ...

. After the disappointment of their later titles, Free Fall went on to develop some online

card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card g ...

s which were featured on

Prodigy Prodigy, Prodigies or The Prodigy may refer to: * Child prodigy, a child who produces meaningful output to the level of an adult expert performer ** Chess prodigy, a child who can beat experienced adult players at chess Arts, entertainment, and ...

's GameTV service. These games included ''

Simplex In geometry, a simplex (plural: simplexes or simplices) is a generalization of the notion of a triangle or tetrahedron to arbitrary dimensions. The simplex is so-named because it represents the simplest possible polytope in any given dimension ...

'', '' Eureka'', '' Reflection'', ''Stop & Go'', ''Grab'' and ''

Heartless Heartless may refer to: Books * ''Heartless'' (Carriger novel), a 2011 novel in the ''New York Times'' best-selling "Parasol Protectorate" series by Gail Carriger * ''Heartless'' (Pretty Little Liars), a 2010 novel in the "Pretty Little Liars" se ...

''.

Free Fall Games

By 2002, Freeman and Westfall had renamed their company Free Fall Games. Their only game to date, '' Triplicards'', was released in or around 2002.

References

External links

Free Fall Games official website
* {{MobyGames company, company=free-fall-associates
Interview with Jon Freeman and Anne Westfall
from ''Halcyon Days''

(November 1984)
''Triplicards'' website
Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game companies established in 1981 Video game development companies