Free Fall Associates
Encyclopedia
Free Fall Associates was a computer game developer
of the 1980s and early 1990s. It was founded in 1981 by Jon Freeman
, his wife, game programmer
Anne Westfall
, and game designer Paul Reiche III
. To start the new company, Freeman and Westfall left the computer game developer and publisher
Epyx
, the company Freeman had co-founded in 1978.
for the Commodore PET
home computer
. They eventually published dozens of titles for numerous platforms, some very successful.
By 1981, however, Freeman had become frustrated with what he called "office politics" and decided to leave the company. His wife, Westfall, joined him, though she cites a desire to learn assembly language
programming on the Atari 800 as a motivation. Reiche joined the duo as the company's third member.
clone for the Atari home computer
systems, while clever, Tax Dodge did not do well due to a lack of publicity.
(EA). The same day he incorporated his company, Trip Hawkins
contacted Freeman. Freeman was attracted by EA's generous attitude and the welcome windfall of development cash. Soon, Free Fall signed EA's first two development contracts.
For their first title, inspired by sword-and-sorcery themes and the holographic chess
-like game featured in Star Wars
, they set to work on Archon
. Originally developed as a two-player only game, EA requested a one-player mode as well. Though it only had a passing resemblance to chess, Archon featured innovative gameplay and theme. Freeman and Reiche developed the game design
and Westfall focussed on the programming. Freeman and Reiche also developed the artwork for this first version for the Atari home systems.
Upon its release in 1984, Archon was an enormous hit and EA asked for a sequel. Archon is still regarded as a seminal game in the history of computer games.
FreeFall immediately set out to create the sequel, but significantly altered the gameplay, strategies and premise of the game, adding a new gameboard, new spells, new creatures and abilities to the mix. Archon II: Adept
was also released in 1984 and received even more acclaim than the original.
Both these games were lucrative for both Free Fall and EA and were key to EA's success as a fledgling publisher. Through the years, as more systems came on the market, such as the Amiga
and the Atari ST
, FreeFall ported
these games to those systems. The games were hits on all systems for which they were released.
Free Fall also developed a murder mystery game concurrently with the first Archon. Murder on the Zinderneuf
(MotZ), with Robert Leyland, was innovative in that it generated a new plot each time it was played. Freeman says he was inspired by his favorite board game
Clue
. MotZ debuted a few weeks after Archon, but was eclipsed by Archon's enormous success.
Reiche paired up with programmer Fred Ford and the two developed the highly acclaimed Star Control
series, published by Accolade. Star Control is another milestone series and a significant achievement in the history of computer games. Reiche eventually founded the small video game developer Toys for Bob
.
After the disappointment of their later titles, Free Fall went on to develop some online card game
s which were featured on Prodigy
's GameTV service. These games included Simplex, Eureka, Reflection, Stop & Go
, Grab
and Heartless.
s. Their only game to date, Triplicards, was released on or around 2002.
In February 2007, it was announced that Myriad Interactive have secured the rights to release a new version of Archon. It is not known whether Free Fall Games is developing this version or not.
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
of the 1980s and early 1990s. It was founded in 1981 by Jon Freeman
Jon Freeman
Jon Freeman was an influential computer game industry figure of the 1980s and early 1990s. He was a co-founder of Epyx and Free Fall Associates and the spouse of game programmer, Anne Westfall...
, his wife, game programmer
Game programmer
A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebase for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines all of which fall under the umbrella term of "game programmer"...
Anne Westfall
Anne Westfall
Anne Westfall is an influential game programmer of the 1980s. She is the wife of fellow game programmer, game designer and entrepreneur Jon Freeman.-Career:...
, and game designer Paul Reiche III
Paul Reiche III
Paul Reiche III is a game designer, particularly for computer games. Reiche is best known for being the co-creator, together with Fred Ford, of the Star Control universe.-Pen and paper RPGs:...
. To start the new company, Freeman and Westfall left the computer game developer and publisher
Video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....
Epyx
Epyx
Epyx, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. The company was founded as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman, originally using Epyx as a brand name for action-oriented games before renaming the company to match in 1983...
, the company Freeman had co-founded in 1978.
Birth of a company
Freeman, along with friend Jim Connelley, started Epyx as Automated Simulations as a vehicle to publish a game they had created together called Starfleet OrionStarfleet Orion
Starfleet Orion is a 1978 science fiction strategy game written and published by Automated Simulations . It appears to be the first space-themed strategy game sold for microcomputer systems. The game was originally written in BASIC for the Commodore PET, but later ported to other early home...
for the Commodore PET
Commodore PET
The Commodore PET was a home/personal computer produced from 1977 by Commodore International...
home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
. They eventually published dozens of titles for numerous platforms, some very successful.
By 1981, however, Freeman had become frustrated with what he called "office politics" and decided to leave the company. His wife, Westfall, joined him, though she cites a desire to learn assembly language
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
programming on the Atari 800 as a motivation. Reiche joined the duo as the company's third member.
First game
Free Falls' first game was 1982's Tax Dodge. A Pac-ManPac-Man
is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
clone for the Atari home computer
Atari 8-bit family
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers manufactured from 1979 to 1992. All are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU and were the first home computers designed with custom coprocessor chips...
systems, while clever, Tax Dodge did not do well due to a lack of publicity.
Association with Electronic Arts
Soon Freeman made a contact that would prove pivotal for both Free Fall and the fledgling computer game publisher, Electronic ArtsElectronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
(EA). The same day he incorporated his company, Trip Hawkins
Trip Hawkins
William M. 'Trip' Hawkins III is a Silicon Valley American entrepreneur and founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company and Digital Chocolate....
contacted Freeman. Freeman was attracted by EA's generous attitude and the welcome windfall of development cash. Soon, Free Fall signed EA's first two development contracts.
For their first title, inspired by sword-and-sorcery themes and the holographic chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
-like game featured in Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
, they set to work on Archon
Archon (computer game)
Archon: The Light and the Dark is a computer game developed by Free Fall Associates and distributed by Electronic Arts. It was originally developed for Atari 8-bit computers in 1983, but was later ported to several other systems of the day, including the Apple II, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX...
. Originally developed as a two-player only game, EA requested a one-player mode as well. Though it only had a passing resemblance to chess, Archon featured innovative gameplay and theme. Freeman and Reiche developed the game design
Game design
Game design, a subset of game development, is the process of designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of gameplay, environment, storyline, and characters during production stage. The term is also used to describe both the game design embodied in a game as...
and Westfall focussed on the programming. Freeman and Reiche also developed the artwork for this first version for the Atari home systems.
Upon its release in 1984, Archon was an enormous hit and EA asked for a sequel. Archon is still regarded as a seminal game in the history of computer games.
FreeFall immediately set out to create the sequel, but significantly altered the gameplay, strategies and premise of the game, adding a new gameboard, new spells, new creatures and abilities to the mix. Archon II: Adept
Archon II: Adept
Archon II: Adept is a 1984 computer game developed by Jon Freeman, Paul Reiche III and Anne Westfall, and distributed by Electronic Arts for various platforms....
was also released in 1984 and received even more acclaim than the original.
Both these games were lucrative for both Free Fall and EA and were key to EA's success as a fledgling publisher. Through the years, as more systems came on the market, such as the Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
and the Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
, FreeFall ported
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
these games to those systems. The games were hits on all systems for which they were released.
Free Fall also developed a murder mystery game concurrently with the first Archon. Murder on the Zinderneuf
Murder on the Zinderneuf
Murder on the Zinderneuf is a computer game developed by Jon Freeman and Paul Reiche III and released by video game developer Free Fall Associates in 1983. It was developed for a number of popular home computer platforms, including the Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 400/800 and the PC as a...
(MotZ), with Robert Leyland, was innovative in that it generated a new plot each time it was played. Freeman says he was inspired by his favorite board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
Clue
Cluedo
Cluedo is a popular murder/mystery-themed deduction board game originally published by Waddingtons in Leeds, England in 1949. It was devised by Anthony E. Pratt, a solicitor's clerk from Birmingham, England. It is now published by the United States game and toy company Hasbro, which acquired its U.S...
. MotZ debuted a few weeks after Archon, but was eclipsed by Archon's enormous success.
Twilight
Freeman and Westfall went on to develop a few more games, such as Swords of Twilight (1989) for the Amiga and Archon Ultra (1994). Sometime during this period, Reiche left for other opportunities. None of these other games did nearly as well as Free Fall's first two seminal games.Reiche paired up with programmer Fred Ford and the two developed the highly acclaimed Star Control
Star Control
Star Control is a science fiction computer game that was developed by Toys for Bob and published by Accolade in the early 1990s. Star Control still enjoys a cult following...
series, published by Accolade. Star Control is another milestone series and a significant achievement in the history of computer games. Reiche eventually founded the small video game developer Toys for Bob
Toys For Bob
Toys For Bob is a small video game developer founded in 1989 by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford. They are most known for creating Star Control and its sequel Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters, but they were not involved in the development of Star Control 3...
.
After the disappointment of their later titles, Free Fall went on to develop some online card game
Card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
s which were featured on Prodigy
Prodigy (ISP)
Prodigy Communications Corporation was an online service that offered its subscribers access to a broad range of networked services, including news, weather, shopping, bulletin boards, games, polls, expert columns, banking, stocks, travel, and a variety of other features.Initially subscribers...
's GameTV service. These games included Simplex, Eureka, Reflection, Stop & Go
Stop & Go
Stop & Go is the first studio album by American musician Hamilton Bohannon. It was recorded and released in 1973 by Dakar/Brunswick Records. The most famous song of the record is Save Their Souls. It was used a lot of times as a sample to many hip hop songs Stop & Go is the first studio album by...
, Grab
Grab
Grab may refer to:* Grab , a mechanical device* Grab , a screenshot application* Grabs * Hermann Grab , Bohemian writer of German language- Places :* Grab , Kosovo* Grab , Bosnia and Herzegovina...
and Heartless.
Free Fall Games
By 2002, Freeman and Westfall had renamed their company Free Fall Games. Their focus still seems to be on developing card games, presumably in an attempt to appeal to female gamerGamer
Historically, the term "gamer" usually referred to someone who played role-playing games and wargames. Since they became very popular, the term has included players of video games...
s. Their only game to date, Triplicards, was released on or around 2002.
In February 2007, it was announced that Myriad Interactive have secured the rights to release a new version of Archon. It is not known whether Free Fall Games is developing this version or not.
External links
- Free Fall Games official website
- Free Fall Associates company profile from MobyGamesMobyGames-Platforms not yet included:- Further reading :* Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2 edition , ISBN 0-07-223172-6...
- Interview with Jon Freeman and Anne Westfall from Halcyon Days
- Interview with Freeman and Westfall regarding Archon from AlienBill.com (November 1984)
- Triplicards website