Jon Freeman (game designer)

• 1. Introduction

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  Jon Freeman stumbled into the computer game industry by accident. He co-founded Automated Simulations in 1978 with Jim Connelley, and the whole enterprise began as a tax write-off. Connelley wanted to recoup the cost of his Commodore PET computer. Freeman provided the design for their first game, Starfleet Orion, while Connelley handled the programming in BASIC. Neither man had planned to be in the games business. When a finished product actually materialized, they had to create a company just to publish it.

  What followed was a company that grew into Epyx, one of the defining publishers of the 8-bit home computing era. Along the way, Freeman would meet his future wife at a computer fair, leave the company he helped build, and create one of the earliest titles released by a then-new label called Electronic Arts.

• 2. The Accidental Company

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  Starfleet Orion was a two-player-only game, which itself says something about its origins. Connelley wrote it to justify a personal hardware purchase, not to launch a publishing empire. Freeman designed it without any expectation of it reaching an audience. When copies began selling, the pair found themselves publishers by necessity.

  A follow-up, Invasion Orion, came quickly after. What followed was a run of successful titles across multiple platforms. Freeman designed or co-designed several Epyx games during this period, including Crush, Crumble and Chomp! and Rescue at Rigel. The company that had started as a tax maneuver was growing into something much larger.

  It was during these years, in 1980 while the company was still called Automated Simulations, that Freeman met Anne Westfall at a computer fair. She was a game programmer. The professional and personal partnership that formed between them would shape the next chapter of his career.

• 3. Writing the Rulebook

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  In 1980, Freeman turned his expertise outward. He collaborated with the editors of Consumer Guide to write The Complete Book of Wargames, published by Simon and Schuster under their Fireside imprint. The book surveyed the history of wargames up to that point, examined the notable companies in the field, and evaluated most of the major wargames then in print.

  Freeman also addressed the role computer games would play in wargaming going forward. That forward-looking chapter reflected where his own career was heading. The book was a map of a hobby that Freeman was about to leave behind in favor of something more personal and independent.

• 4. Free Fall and Archon

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  By 1981, Freeman had grown tired of what he called "office politics" at Epyx. He and Anne Westfall left together, joining game designer Paul Reiche III to form Free Fall Associates. Their first release, Tax Dodge in 1982, remained obscure. The company's reputation would rest on what came next.

  Free Fall developed Archon: The Light and the Dark for the Atari 8-bit computers, followed by Archon II: Adept. Both were published by Electronic Arts, and both were highly acclaimed. Archon was among the earliest titles released by Electronic Arts, making Free Fall part of that label's founding story. The games were ported from the Atari originals to other contemporary home systems, expanding their reach considerably.