Although gaming took off in a big way back in the early '80s and resurfaced, reborn in the latter parts of the decade at home, gaming on the PC was far from easy. Getting hold of games, getting them to work and figuring them out at all could be difficult. That's why for many people, some of their earliest PC gaming memories are of simpler titles: games like chess.
Battle Chess to be exact, which added simple combat animations to the age old game of strategy and made it all the more exciting when your king stepped off his chair to swing it into an unsuspecting pawn.
There was a sequel too, Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess, which gave the game a more Eastern theme, but you knew that already. You probably played it if you are of the right age.
But did you know there was supposed to be a third title in the series too? Creator Brian Fargo recently revealed that in the late 1990s he began development of a second sequel and there's even a bit of early gameplay footage doing the rounds.
It seems more like an opening cut-scene than prototype gameplay, but does show off the improved visuals of the time and some of the effects we might expect when pieces took one another. Or at least when a bishop takes a pawn anyway.
