Page 35 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #3

id you ever wish Atari made comic book. Inside the panel in ques-
a sequel to their hit game tion, you’d need to find words that
“Adventure”? Well, you’re in were hidden in the artwork. The an-
D luck because they did. Sort swer to Earthworld contained five
of. “Adventure II,” as it was originally words, but 10 words were hidden in
known, was intended to be similar to the comic book. The question of
the earlier Adventure, only much which five words to pick was answered
grander in scale. In fact, the project in the eleventh clue: a poem. The
became so enormous, they decided to poem contained the highlighted words,
break it up into four separate games. “prime” and “number.” So by only
These games came to be known col- looking at the prime numbered page
lectively as the “SwordQuest” series. and panel numbers, would one deter-
Each game would take the theme mine which of the five words were
and name of its elemental counterpart: needed.
Earthworld, Fireworld, Waterworld, and For the record the solution is:
Airworld. To sweeten the deal, Atari QUEST IN TOWER TALISMAN
promoted a national contest to award FOUND. Yes, quite a few people fig-
valuable prizes to contestants who ured that out and went on to compete
could solve each of the games by deci- to see who could win the Talisman in
phering a series of clues. The clues the Earthworld Finals.
On May 2, 1983, Steven Bell was
would be found in comic books in-
cluded with the games. that man. The contestants were given
The winners from each competition 90 minutes to compete head-to-head
in specially programmed versions of
would receive the following prizes val-
ued at $25,000 each: SwordQuest: Earthworld. Clocking in
at just 46 minutes, Steven Bell claimed
the Talisman.
Earthworld: An 18kt solid gold Talis-
man with twelve diamonds and twelve For the record, the contest was
other precious stones representing the started with the phrase, “Gentlemen,
signs of the Zodiac. start your joysticks!” Who says those
18kt gold handle, silver blade covered Atari marketing folks didn’t have a
Fireworld: A platinum and gold Chal- with emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and sense of humor? Quite frankly, I think
a contestant should have been
ice decorated with jewels such as diamonds (no green clovers, though!).
pearls, rubies, and sapphires If you wanted to get your hands on awarded bonus points for drop-kicking
some of this loot, all you had to do was the announcer after he yelled that.
Waterworld: A gold Crown trimmed purchase the games, play them, and Next up was SwordQuest: Fire-
with valuable gems. hopefully solve them with the help of world. Another snoozer of a game,
the comic books. At that point you which, again, has players running
Airworld: The Philosopher’s Stone, would mail your solution to Atari and around from room to room, gathering
which was a large piece of white jade hope you were one of the finalists. But objects and deciphering clues from
encased in a jewel encrusted 18kt gold make no mistake about it: These were their comic books.
box. incredibly boring games and totally un- The finalists of Fireworld met in San
playable without their comic book coun- Francisco, CA. to fight it out and claim
The winners from each contest terparts. the Chalice. Michael Rideout was the
would then compete to win the ultimate First up in the contest was Sword- proud winner of this contest. He some-
how determined that the solution was
prize: a jewel-encrusted Sword with an Quest: Earthworld. To solve Earth-
world, players must based on “The Tree of Life,” which can
run maniacally from be found in the Jewish Cabala, as well
room to room gather- as Tarot
ing objects and mak- Cards.
ing sure they are Logically,
placed in the appropriate the next step
rooms. Placing the cor- for Atari was to
rect object (or combina- release the
tion of objects) would next game in
cause a pair of num- the series,
bers to appear. These SwordQuest:
numbers would then Waterworld.
refer to a page and panel This is where
numbers to refer to inside the things tend to “Adventure II” Proto
Classic Gamer Magazine Spring 2000 35