Ahhh, Archon. How I played the heck out of you in middle school on the old Commodore 64. A must buy for the nostalgia value alone. Godbless the developers for including the old side by side same computer gameplay. My brother and I took it for a spin as soon as installed. Recommended for any old school gamer or any youg'un that wants to see what games were like on the dark ages, where the floppy drives were bigger than a loaf of bread.

I have always hoped, that this wonderfull game would be published again. I first came across Archon in the early ninties in the form of Archon Ultra for my Amiga or first Pc. I spent many hours playing and was now overjoyed to find this vastly enhanced version. I especially like the new secondary abilities (like a fast charge for the unicorn) and additions to the gameplay like leveling or teams - and the possibility to turn those options off which do not suit you at the moment.

This is not just a remake, but an excellent modernisation of an all time classic.

For those not familiar with 1983's Archon, it's essentially a chess like action strategy game. Each player has a number of pieces which are placed on the board at the start of the game. Each turn, you may move a piece. When two pieces occupy the same square you are taken to a battle screen which places you in control of the piece in an attempt to defeat the opposing piece. Each piece has different powers (in this version, up to two) and the two sides (light and dark) are not symmetrical.

The additions over the basic game are well done, offering some new board layouts and interesting mechanics such as unit levelling. The game has also expanded to four players which works remarkably well; in team games your ally can share your squares and assist in any battles. You can still get close to a classic Archon game too.

The graphics are well done; it's not the latest 3D with pixel shading but each piece looks distinctive and of course it makes it easy on the system requirements.

The only real criticism is that you're forced to watch combats involving two AI players, and the AI can be somewhat dense when it comes to fighting. You can press a key to speed up the battle, but you can still end up watching five minutes of it running around in circles and randomly shooting.

If you're old enough to have fond memories of Archon then you will not regret purchasing this, as it not only reproduces the thrills of the original but expands on it in a way we could only dream of back then. If the original passed you by then I couldn't recommend this more; it's a classic from the original golden age of gaming which demonstrates exactly why us old farts speak of those days in reverential tones.

So when can we expect to see a modern version of Adept? :)