Battle Chess (DOS)

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Description

Battle Chess is a quite typical chess game, but it comes with a twist: all pieces are represented by small, realistic figures that walk around on the chessboard, and when one piece takes another, they both take part in an animated battle. There is a different animation for each permutation, depending on which pieces are capturing or being captured. You can also play in 2D without animation.

The game's opening library includes 30,000 different moves, ensuring a variety of games will unfold across the 10 skill levels.

Multi-player support can be extended to modem and/or serial port play.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Alternate Titles

• "バトル チェス" -- Japanese spelling

Part of the Following Groups

• Battle Chess series
• Games with manual lookup copy protection

User Reviews

Chess for people who don't like chess	Martin Smith (79210)
Cool and Funny	AstroNerdBoy (40)
A lot of flash but no fire.	woods01 (163)
A classic!	Tomer Gabel (4634)

Critic Reviews

The Games Machine (UK)	Mar, 1989	81 out of 100	81
Techtite	2000		80
All Game Guide	1998		80
The Retro Spirit	Dec 07, 2010	4.5 out of 6	75
ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment)	Mar, 1989	722 out of 1000	72
High Score	Feb, 1994	3 out of 5	60
Retro Archives	Aug 22, 2021	11 out of 20	55
JeuxVideoPC.com	Aug 11, 2006	9 out of 20	45
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	Nov, 1995	C-	42

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Trivia

Nudity

The game actually features full frontal nudity! In some circumstances where Rook gets the King in checkmate, as the King trembles his robe falls off, leaving him standing starkers, before he runs off in embarrassment (of course, being low-res EGA, there’s not a lot to see even if you *did* want to look!)

References

• The scene of a Knight attacking a Knight depicts a classic scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: One by one, all limbs are severed, each time provoking the victim into the same kind of responsive actions the Black Knight made in the aforementioned movie.
• If a bishop attacks the king, the bishop will make a big show and swing his staff around, and then the king will simply pull out a gun and shoot him, ending the fight. This is a spoof of a famous scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indy takes out a sword wielding Arab by pulling out a gun and simply shooting him.

References to the game

There is a movie called Knight Moves (1992) with Christopher Lambert in a main role. He plays some chessmaster, and the plot is around catching some chess-style killer. In one of the opening scenes (maybe 20 mins from the start), while detectives are trying to solve the crime, Christopher Lambert shouts out loud as he was playing Battle Chess. It probably was the animation peon against knight he was watching.

Awards

• Computer Gaming World
  • April 1994 (Issue #117) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
  • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #106 in the “150 Best Games of All Time” list

Information also contributed by Andrew Grasmeder, Jayson Firestorm, MAT and Ricky Derocher.