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The SwordQuest Saga
Via Kotaku, an interview at AtariHQ with Michael Rideout, the winner of the Fireworld Contest. Fireworld was a portion of the four-part SwordQuest Contest, meant to publicize Atari's sequel to the classic title Adventure. From the article: "Q: Can you describe the Chalice for us? What's its composition, etc? A: It's around seven to eight inches tall. The cup part of it is platinum and is maybe three or four inches across the top. The base is made of gold and has little diamonds on it. It also has three jade rings, two around the middle and one around the base. It has rubies and pearls going around the middle of it. There are five sapphires and some citrines in the middle section, as well as five lapis lazuli stones near the base."
I thought this meant that Atari was making a sequel to Adventure now. Hey Slashdot editors, if you're not going to mention stuff like the fact that this contest happened in 1982 in the blurb, then why have a blurb?
Rob
There's a neat example of the Prisoner's Dilemma near the bottom:
After a while, I got a letter from Atari stating that they wanted to cancel the contest. They offered Steven and myself $15,000 each to agree and they offered a smaller amount, maybe like $2,000 to each of the finalists for Waterworld. I think the reason Steven and I got more than everyone else was because as winners of the first two contests, we had a definite chance of winning the Sword. Everyone involved had to agree or else the contest would continue. I tried to call Steven and some of the other people from the contest to see what they were going to do but I couldn't get in touch with anyone. I talked it over with my father and decided to accept the offer, figuring that someone else would decline.
BTW, it's amusing to see that he won the contest by brute-forcing it.
Rob
There was an early IBM PC game called Arkenstone that I remember seeing in a Computerland around '82. It had a prize for finishing it, I believe it was $10000 or something like that. Haven't been able to find out _anything_ about it when I've looked in the last few years, not even confirmation it exists! Does anyone besides me remember this game?!
From the article:
JH: Mike, can you start with some background info on yourself so our readers can get to know a little more about you?
MR: Sure. I'm 39 years old. I'm not married. I'm a computer programmer for a company that writes software for real-estate companies. I enjoy reading fantasy and science-fiction, and watching videos, TV shows, and movies like Star Trek and Babylon 5.
No doubt, he's browsing Slashdot as we speak.
The idea behind the SwordQuest games was unique, but the execution was terrible. Having to use a comic book to help solve puzzles was a brilliant as many gamers are also avid comic book fans (this was a bit truer in the 80's than it is now), and the comics themselves were fairly well written (typical 80's fantasy cheese, but entertaining nonetheless). Unfortunately where the SwordQuest series failed was in the games themselves. Each SwordQuest 'game' was really a series of mini games that all shared a common element theme (Earth, Fire, and Water). These mini-games were linked together by a series of rooms that shared a second 'hidden' spiritual theme (Zodiac, Kaballah, Chakara).
l d/earthworld.htm d /fireworld.htm d /waterworld.htm / airworld.htm
If you beat a mini-game you were rewarded with a choice of objects, these object were used to trigger clues that help the player discover the secret phrase which allowed you to enter the contest for the prizes. Clues were triggered by dropping certain combinations of objects in each room. You had to use the comic book to try and figure out which objects needed to be put in each room. However the comic book really only provided high level hints, most people had to figure out the correct combinations through trial and error.
Unfortunately the mini games were really hit and miss. Some were way too easy, while others were obscenely difficult. The only thing they really had in common was that none of them were any fun! Games are supposed to be enjoyable, having to wander from room to room only to be greeted by a tedious and difficult mini game isn't fun. I think the only reason the games sold at all were because of the contest, and once it was over most people never touched these carts again. The fact that the whole contest was eventually cancelled due to lack of interest from frustrated players (even after the third game's difficulty was toned down) and Atari losing oodles of money on it speaks volumes about the quality of the games...
Awhile back I wrote up some reviews of the games in the SwordQuest series (including the unreleased fourth game).
http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/earthwor
http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/fireworl
http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/waterwor
http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/airworld