Archon: The Light and the Dark is a 1983 video game developed by Free Fall Associates and one of the first five games published by Electronic Arts. It is similar in concept to chess, in that it takes place on a board with squares, but, instead of fixed rules when landing on another player’s piece, an arcade-style fight takes place to determine the victor. Also unlike chess, each side has different pieces with ranging abilities. These abilities are enhanced when landing on a square of one’s own color.
Archon was originally developed for Atari 8-bit family, then ported to the Apple II, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, IBM PC, Macintosh, PC-88, and NES. It was designed by Paul Reiche III (who also created the graphics for the game) and Jon Freeman, and programmed by Anne Westfall.
A sequel was released in 1984: Archon II: Adept.