Free Fall Associates
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1981 in Palo Alto, California, United States |
| Founder | Jon Freeman, Anne Westfall, Paul Reiche III |
| Headquarters | Palo Alto , United States |
| Products | Archon: The Light and the Dark, Archon II: Adept, Murder on the Zinderneuf, Swords of Twilight, Archon Ultra, Triplicards |
Free Fall Associates was a video game developer established in 1981 in Palo Alto, California by game designer Jon Freeman, programmer Anne Westfall, and designer Paul Reiche III. Freeman and Westfall, who were married, departed from Epyx, a company Freeman had co-founded in 1978, to create Free Fall. The studio gained recognition primarily for Archon: The Light and the Dark (1983), one of the earliest titles released by Electronic Arts.
Origin
Freeman originally co-founded Epyx (initially Automated Simulations) alongside Jim Connelley to publish Starfleet Orion for the Commodore PET. By 1981, feeling disillusioned by internal "office politics," Freeman exited Epyx; Westfall joined him to enhance her assembly language expertise on Atari 8-bit systems. Designer Paul Reiche III completed the founding lineup.
Free Fall’s debut game was 1982’s Tax Dodge, a maze chase developed for the Atari 8-bit platform. Although it received favorable feedback from adult audiences and coverage in business publications, the market was not yet prepared for such titles.
Association with Electronic Arts
On the very day Free Fall was incorporated, Trip Hawkins of Electronic Arts (EA) reached out to Freeman. Drawn by EA’s supportive development environment and financial backing, Free Fall secured EA’s first two contracts.
Their initial EA release, Archon, merged sword-and-sorcery motifs with a holographic chess-inspired gameplay concept influenced by Star Wars. Initially designed as a two-player experience, EA requested the addition of a single-player mode. Freeman and Reiche handled design and artwork, while Westfall programmed it on an Atari 800.
Launched in 1983 as part of EA’s inaugural offerings, Archon achieved commercial success and led to a sequel. Freeman and Westfall enhanced gameplay and strategic elements in Archon II: Adept (1984), introducing new boards, spells, creatures, and abilities. Both titles were among EA’s first to be ported to the Amiga.
Alongside Archon, Freeman, Reiche, and programmer Robert Leyland developed Murder on the Zinderneuf, a murder mystery game generating unique scenarios each playthrough. Inspired by the board game Clue, it was released shortly after Archon.
Twilight
Freeman and Westfall continued creating games such as Swords of Twilight (1989) for the Amiga and Archon Ultra (1994), although none replicated the success of Free Fall’s earlier works. During this timeframe, Reiche left to pursue other projects.
Reiche teamed up with programmer Fred Ford to develop the Star Control series, which was published by Accolade. They subsequently established the development studio Toys for Bob.
After their later titles underperformed commercially, Free Fall redirected efforts toward online card games available through Prodigy's GameTV platform. These included Simplex, Eureka, Reflection, Stop & Go, Grab, and Heartless.
Free Fall Games
By the year 2002, Freeman and Westfall had adopted the new name Free Fall Games. Up to this point, their only published title is Triplicards, which was introduced approximately in 2002.