Chess Housers
Chess Housers is a puzzle game where the player is to navigate through
rooms blocked by chess pieces on a checkered floor, with some similarities to
Soko-Ban, only here there is opposition.
The objective is to open a path for the players avatar, a glove, to get to an
exit point on each level, while avoiding being blocked or squashed by the
chess pieces moves. You accomplish this by pushing chess pieces to free
squares and removing blocking objects in your and/or their way. When pushed,
the pieces move until they hit an obstacle. The player can select to keep or
destroy transparent boxes, but not boulders – for these the Knight is needed.
Movement of the chess pieces can look somewhat odd; the knight is the piece to
aim at a breakable boulder, and it can only move in a straight line to crush
it. A pawn will also move only move in straight lines, and will go as far as
possible in the direction it’s facing, when an obstacle is removed. Rooks jump
on your glove if you step in their path. You move the avatar adjacent to a
chess piece and use the direction controls to push it, if possible. If the
chess piece movement is blocked by a transparent box, then you can push the
box instead to make it disappear, and the chess-piece/s will continue moving
through the open path, possibly blocking your way or even moving over your
hand, in which case it’s game over.
The original game supports only CGA graphics, and speaker sound effects.
Graphics mode/palette is selected in-game with the F1 key. There are several
difficulty levels, and the game is played with keyboard or joystick. Keys can
be remapped – the directional keys are spread out: Q/A/O/P. There are no save-
games, or level passwords in this early version, but those things were added
in the later enhanced ’93 VGA version.
Chess Housers