The game has an opening library from over 30,000 moves (which were not available for the Commodore 64 and Apple II versions). 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.īattle Chess could be played against a human opponent (by hotseat, or by null modem or over a local area network in some ports) or against the computer's artificial intelligence (AI). Each piece has its own method of combat commensurate with its character. The game can be also played in a 2D version with no animations, and the Amiga CDTV version features a fully voiced introduction describing the movements of the pieces for the benefit of beginners. And what a feast of animation and sampled sound effects the battles are. There are some pop-culture homages the knight versus knight animation references the black knight fight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and the king versus bishop fight pastiches the short battle between Indiana Jones and a swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The rook, for example, turns into a rock monster and kills a pawn by smashing his head. When you think about shooting games, you may imagine the classic first-person shooter (FPS) game with close-quarters combat and fast. Without the animation, theres still a pretty good chess-game. Since there are six types of pieces for each color, and a king cannot capture a king, there are 35 battle animations. The addition of the fighting-scenes makes this a very funny chess game, which will appeal to many. The original Battle Chess and the multimedia Battle Chess for MPC are best known for their Monty Python-like animation.

Animated battle chess