Editing Free Fall Associates

{{short description|American video game developer}}
{{More citations needed|date=July 2014}}

'''Free Fall Associates''' was a [[video game developer]] of the 1980s and early 1990s founded in 1981 in [[Palo Alto, California]]<ref name="bateman198411"/> by game designer [[Jon Freeman (game designer)|Jon Freeman]], game programmer [[Anne Westfall]], and game designer [[Paul Reiche III]]. Westfall and Freeman are married. To start the new company, Freeman and Westfall left [[Epyx]], the company Freeman co-founded in 1978. ''Free Fall Associates'' is best known for ''[[Archon: The Light and the Dark]]'' (1983), which was one of the first games from new publisher [[Electronic Arts]].

==Origin==
Freeman, along with friend [[Jim Connelley]], started [[Epyx]] as Automated Simulations as a vehicle to publish a game they had created together called ''[[Starfleet Orion]]'' 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 8-bit computers]] as a motivation. Reiche joined the duo as the company's third member.

Free Falls' first game was 1982's ''[[Tax Dodge (video game)|Tax Dodge]]'', a maze chase for Atari 8-bit computers. According to Freeman, "Mainstream adults loved the idea, and we got written up in some major business magazines, but the market wasn't there yet".<ref name="halcyon">[http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/BOOK/FREEFALL.HTM Interview with Jon Freeman and Anne Westfall] from ''Halcyon Days''</ref>

==Association with Electronic Arts==
Soon Freeman made a contact that would prove pivotal for both Free Fall and the fledgling computer game publisher, [[Electronic Arts]] (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.

Their first game, ''[[Archon: The Light and the Dark|Archon]]'', was inspired by sword-and-sorcery themes and the holographic [[chess]]-like game in ''[[Star Wars]]''.<ref name="halcyon" /> Originally intended for two-players, EA requested a single-player mode. Freeman and Reiche designed the game and created the art while Westfall implemented it on  an Atari 800 computer.

''Archon'' was released in 1983 in the first batch of games from Electronic Arts. It was a hit, and EA asked for a sequel.<ref name="bateman198411">{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/1984-11-computegazette/Compute_Gazette_Issue_17_1984_Nov#page/n53/mode/2up | title=Free Fall Associates: The Designers Behind Archon and Archon II: Adept | work=Compute!'s Gazette | date=November 1984 | accessdate=6 July 2014 | author=Bateman, Selby | pages=54}}</ref> Freeman and Westfall significantly altered the gameplay, strategies, and premise of the game, adding a new board, spells, creatures, and abilities. ''[[Archon II: Adept]]'' was released in 1984.<ref name="halcyon" /> Ports of both games were published by EA as two of the earliest games for the [[Amiga]].

Freeman and Reiche, working with programmer Robert Leyland, developed a murder mystery game concurrently with ''Archon''. ''[[Murder on the Zinderneuf]]'' generates a new plot each time it is played. Freeman says he was inspired by his favorite [[board game]], ''[[Cluedo|Clue]]''. It released a few weeks after ''Archon''.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}

==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 (programmer)|Fred Ford]] and the two developed the ''[[Star Control]]'' games, published by [[Accolade, Inc.|Accolade]]. Reiche and Ford eventually founded the 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 (ISP)|Prodigy]]'s [[GameTV]] service. These games included ''[[Simplex (online game)|Simplex]]'', ''[[Eureka (online game)|Eureka]]'', ''[[Reflection (online game)|Reflection]]'', ''Stop & Go'', ''Grab'' and ''[[Heartless (online game)|Heartless]]''.

==Free Fall Games==
By 2002, Freeman and Westfall had renamed their company '''Free Fall Games'''. Their only game to date, ''[[Triplicards]]'', was released in or around 2002.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{MobyGames company|company=free-fall-associates}}
* [http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon/BOOK/FREEFALL.HTM Interview with Jon Freeman and Anne Westfall] from ''Halcyon Days''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041210171800/http://alienbill.com/vgames/archon.html Interview with Freeman and Westfall regarding ''Archon'' from AlienBill.com] (November 1984)
* [http://www.triplicards.com/ ''Triplicards'' website]

[[Category:Defunct video game companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Video game companies established in 1981]]
[[Category:Video game development companies]]