1988 · Leland Corporation · Puzzle

Ataxx

Ataxx is an abstract strategy board game that involves play by two parties on a seven-by-seven square grid. The object of the game is to make your pieces constitute a majority of the pieces on the board at the end of the game, by converting as many of your opponent's pieces as possible.

Released: 1988
Platforms: Arcade Linux macOS
Genres: Puzzle
Developers: Leland Corporation
Publishers: Leland Corporation
Modes: Single-player
Themes: Science fiction
Country: United States
Age ratings: GRAC ALL

About

Ataxx (アタックス) is a strategy video game published in arcades by Leland Corporation in 1990. Two players compete on a seven-by-seven square grid. The object of the game is for a player to have a majority of the pieces on the board at the end, by converting as many of their opponent's pieces as possible. In a single-player game, the opponents are "bio-invaders from a different dimension."

The concept was invented earlier by Dave Crummack and Craig Galley for the unreleased 1988 video game Infection. Virgin Mastertronic licensed it to Leland as well as using the design in its own Spot: The Video Game released the same year as Ataxx. There are numerous independently-developed clones. Although Ataxx was sold as a video game and not with a physical game board, it can be played with a Reversi set.

Keywords

trackball

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Each player begins with two pieces (red for player 1 and blue for player 2). The game starts with the four pieces on the four corners of the board, with red in the top left and bottom right and blue on the other two. Red moves first.

During their turn, players move one of their pieces either one or two spaces in any direction. e. it is legal to move to a square whose relative position is two squares away both vertically and horizontally. If the destination is adjacent to the source, a new piece is created on the empty departure square.

Development

Originally called Infection, the game was invented by Dave Crummack and Craig Galley in 1988 for Wise Owl Software, which then sold the rights to Virgin Mastertronic UK. Although versions of Infection were programmed for Amiga, Commodore 64, and Atari ST, none saw a commercial release. Eventually, the game was picked up by Virgin Mastertronic US, which licensed it to the Leland corporation, who then released it as the arcade game Ataxx in 1990. Around the same time, Virgin released its own version of the game, Spot: The Video Game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, IBM PC compatibles, Game Boy, and Commodore 64, based on Cool Spot, a character from a 7 Up marketing campaign of the time.

Legacy

In 1993, Virgin released the Trilobyte-produced game The 7th Guest, which contains a version of Ataxx as its Microscope Puzzle. Graeme Devine of Trilobyte, co-creator of The 7th Guest, had overseen the production of Spot: The Video Game while working at Virgin. In April 2011, an updated version of the Microscope Puzzle was released as a stand-alone app for iPad under the title The 7th Guest: Infection.

Hexxagōn, an IBM PC compatible game created by Argo Games and published by Software Creations in 1993, uses a hexagonal board, as does the 1995 sequel to The 7th Guest, The 11th Hour. Hexxagōn would later be adapted into a Flash-based game programmed by Paul Neave for the Neave Interactive website.