28th
Laser Chess
Laser Chess is an excellent chess variant that first appeared on the Atari ST in the April 1987 issue of Compute! magazine as winner of a programming contest. Originally written by Mike Duppong, the game was then translated to a number of platforms by enthusiastic fans, including Commodore 64, Amiga, PC DOS, and many other platforms.
Since then Mike Duppong’s game has been re-implemented many times over the intervening years, including several tabletop versions, such as Khet, that featured actual lasers.
In Laser Chess, as in regular Chess, players take turns playing. They are allowed, however, to make up to two moves per turn. Moving a piece one square up, down, left, or right counts as one move. Players can move pieces diagonally only if their path is not blocked and by making two moves — left and back for example. Firing the Laser also counts as one move, but players may only fire it once per turn. If a piece is rotate-able, it may be rotated in 90 degree angles, also at the cost of one move.
Although the game featured practically an infinity of strategic scenarios, it remained nothing more than a TBS cult-game, being overshadowed by more popular games of that time, such as Castelvania 2: Simon’s Quest or 1943: The Battle of Midway.
Today, Laser Chess can be played on a few websites (Ex. www.laserchess.org) and there are a mere handful of stand-alone applications (Ex. www.traygames.com) that mimic the original gameplay.
This is why I decided to develop my very own version of Laser Chess, which will have an enhanced gameplay with a steeper learning curve and will be even more strategy-oriented. (Or at least that’s what I hope.)
