Battle Chess

Interplay Productions developed the DOS strategy game Battle Chess in 1988. Battle Chess is currently abandonware, runs on DOS and can be played in single player, multiplayer (hotseat, Modem) modes. It's available for download.

Rating: 4.11

(45 votes)

abandonware

Genre:

strategy / chess

system:

DOS

released:

1988

publisher:

Interplay Productions

developer:

Interplay Productions

keywords:

medieval, turn based, based on a board game, isometric

What Abandonware DOS thinks:

"Chess was a niche genre in video gaming. There were lots of chess simulations: black and white very old games, licensed games from chess champions, etc. No one ever attempted to broaden the audience until Interplay published Battle Chess. I'm a chess fan (I barely remember the rules), but I played Battle Chess just to see every animation the game had to offer."

Downloads for Battle Chess

Buy Battle Chess on gog.com Download Battle Chess

Trouble running this game? Check out the F.A.Q.

Screenshots

Screenshots were taken by Abandonware DOS.

Video

Additional info

Facts, trivia and collector's notes are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. These texts use material from this Wikipedia article.

There are 35 animations (over 4 MB of animation), including movement, prelude to battle, and the combinations of battle itself (the latter often being rather brutal).

Digitized sound is utilized in the DOS version for all battle sound effects and is played through the PC speaker, without the need for a sound card, using a technique akin to RealSound.

Battle Chess's producer Brian Fargo 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.

One weakness is that the board cannot be rotated. If the player wishes to take the side of Black (the Blue pieces in the game), this means playing down the board against White (the Red pieces) playing upwards. In addition, the capturing piece is always in the top-right corner, while the captured piece is in the bottom-left, with only the colours reversed depending upon which side has moved, so there is no alternate view of a particular battle combination.

players: single player, multiplayer (hotseat, Modem)

input: keyboard, mouse, joystick

distribution: 3,5 floppy disk, 5,25 floppy disk

graphics: CGA, EGA, MCGA, Tandy, VGA

sound: PC speaker

Abandonware DOS views: 4332

Comments

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