Jon Freeman
Encyclopedia
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
. Besides founding these two companies, though he is credited with some programming, Freeman is most noted as a game designer.
Their first game, Starfleet Orion
, was a two-player only game developed mainly so Connelley could write off the cost of his Commodore PET
computer. Freeman provided design while Connelley handled the programming in BASIC
. Freeman was amazed when they actually had a finished product and they had to create a company to publish it. So, both he and Connelley, "fell into" the computer game industry by accident.
It was while with this company, still known as Automated Simulations in 1980, that Freeman met his future wife, Anne Westfall, at a computer fair.
Starfleet Orion was quickly followed by Invasion Orion
. What followed was a slew of very successful titles for various platforms. Freeman designed or co-designed a number of Epyx games, such as Crush, Crumble and Chomp!
and Rescue at Rigel
.
But soon Freeman tired of what he called "office politics" and yearned to get away from the now much larger company.
.
Free Falls' first game was 1982's Tax Dodge. A Pac-Man
clone for the Atari home computer
systems. While clever, Tax Dodge did not do well due to a lack of marketing
.
Soon after the disappointment of Tax Dodge, Free Fall signed the first two development contracts with fledgling computer game publisher Electronic Arts
.
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
. Reiche and Freeman designed the game while Westfall handled the programming. Though it only had a passing resemblance to chess, Archon featured innovative gameplay and theme. Upon its release in 1984, Archon was a huge hit and EA asked for a sequel. Archon is still regarded as a seminal game in the history of computer games.
Freeman 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.
Through the years, as more systems came on the market, such as the Amiga
and the Atari ST
, Free Fall would port
these games to those systems.
Freeman designed the game Murder on the Zinderneuf
(1984, developed in parallel with Archon). Though innovative for its time, it was eclipsed by Archon's enormous success.
Freeman and Free Fall went on to develop other games, such as Swords of Twilight (1989 for the Amiga) and Archon Ultra (1994), but none did as well as the first two seminal games.
Eventually, Reiche left Free Fall and founded Toys for Bob
, a video and computer game developer. Along the way Reiche with Fred Ford 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.
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.
. By all accounts, Freeman and Westfall are still married.
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...
and Free Fall Associates
Free Fall Associates
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...
and the spouse of 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:...
. Besides founding these two companies, though he is credited with some programming, Freeman is most noted as a game designer.
Automated Simulations and Epyx
Freeman worked as a game designer for video game developer and publisher, Epyx, which he co-founded with Jim Connelley in 1978 as Automated Simulations.Their first game, Starfleet Orion
Starfleet 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...
, was a two-player only game developed mainly so Connelley could write off the cost of his Commodore PET
Commodore PET
The Commodore PET was a home/personal computer produced from 1977 by Commodore International...
computer. Freeman provided design while Connelley handled the programming in BASIC
BASIC
BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
. Freeman was amazed when they actually had a finished product and they had to create a company to publish it. So, both he and Connelley, "fell into" the computer game industry by accident.
It was while with this company, still known as Automated Simulations in 1980, that Freeman met his future wife, Anne Westfall, at a computer fair.
Starfleet Orion was quickly followed by Invasion Orion
Invasion Orion
Invasion Orion is a 1979 science fiction strategy game written and published by Automated Simulations . It was a single- or two-player sequel to the original two-player Starfleet Orion, which had been published late in 1978...
. What followed was a slew of very successful titles for various platforms. Freeman designed or co-designed a number of Epyx games, such as Crush, Crumble and Chomp!
Crush, Crumble and Chomp!
Crush, Crumble and Chomp! is a 1981 computer game from Epyx. In this game, the player takes control of a movie monster and attacks a famous city, such as New York or San Francisco. It resembles SPI's 1979 boardgame, The Creature That Ate Sheboygan....
and Rescue at Rigel
Rescue at Rigel
Rescue at Rigel is a 1980 science fiction computer role-playing game written and published by Automated Simulations , and later branded as part of the Starquest series. The game was released for the Apple II, DOS, as a PC Booter, TRS-80, VIC-20, and Atari 8-bit...
.
But soon Freeman tired of what he called "office politics" and yearned to get away from the now much larger company.
Free Fall Associates
In 1981, he and his spouse left Epyx to create Free Fall Associates along with game designer Paul Reiche IIIPaul 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:...
.
Free Falls' first game was 1982's Tax Dodge. A Pac-Man
Pac-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 marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
.
Soon after the disappointment of Tax Dodge, Free Fall signed the first two development contracts with fledgling computer game publisher Electronic Arts
Electronic 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...
.
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 Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
, 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...
. Reiche and Freeman designed the game while Westfall handled the programming. Though it only had a passing resemblance to chess, Archon featured innovative gameplay and theme. Upon its release in 1984, Archon was a huge hit and EA asked for a sequel. Archon is still regarded as a seminal game in the history of computer games.
Freeman 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.
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...
, Free Fall would port
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.
Freeman designed the game 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...
(1984, developed in parallel with Archon). Though innovative for its time, it was eclipsed by Archon's enormous success.
Freeman and Free Fall went on to develop other games, such as Swords of Twilight (1989 for the Amiga) and Archon Ultra (1994), but none did as well as the first two seminal games.
Eventually, Reiche left Free Fall and founded 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...
, a video and computer game developer. Along the way Reiche with Fred Ford 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.
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.
They just fade away...
Since these games, Free Fall has dropped from the radar of game development, though Freeman is credited with some recent development work with Square EnixSquare Enix
is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
. By all accounts, Freeman and Westfall are still married.