Challenge
Part 1: Earthworld
Challenge
ATARI
BEGINS GREATEST ADVENTURE: The company that sometimes
prides itself on putting as many games as possible on a single cartridge
is now ready to take the opposite tack with Swordquest, its innovative
videogame adventure. This time, it'll take four seperate cartridges
to contain the elements that combine to present this quest from start to
finish. Atari plans to kick things off with the Earthworld
cartridge. This will be followed, at regular intervals, by publication
of Fireworld, Waterworld and Airworld over the next year. Each
cartridge is complete in itself, but it is necessary to solve the mystery
of one before going onto the next. Designers will be hiding things
in the cartridges in a fashion similiar to the "easter eggs" in earlier
games, but this time your reward will be something a bit meatier that just
some programmer's initials. Each cartridge will be the subject
of a special prize contest. The winner of the Earthworld competition,
for example can take home a bejeweled talisman worth $25,000.
There'll be a bauble of some similiar worth for the top player of each
segment of the total adventure. The winners of each will then
come together for a special play-off in which the winner will become the
proud owner of a $50,000 jewel-encrusted sword, suitable for keeping trolls
and orcs away from your door. (Reprinted from the December
1982 issue of Electronic Games Magazine)
Well thats how it all
started out. Atari figured that putting on a media event with
lavish prizes would increase cartridge and console sales. However
they forgot to tell the programmers one important thing besides making
the games hard... make them fun! The Swordquest series is a
group of THE worst game cartridges since Atari came out with Pac
Man for the 2600. The game sounds were bland, the rooms were
boring the corridor effect was... cheesy. Originally
called Adventure II (someone probably sat down and thought about the famous
DOT in the Atari 2600 Adventure game, came up with this brilliant idea
for an easter egg finding challenge, called it Adventure II and the rest
was totally lost in the translation.)
On May 2, 1983 seven Swordquest
Earthworld finalists met at Atari headquarters in Sunnyvale, California.
They were seated befroe seven VCS units, each containing a specially programmed
championship version of Earthworld. Their Challenge --- be
the first to reach the twelfth and final level of the game. The winner'
prize -- a solid gold Talisman valued at $25,000, studded with emeralds,
diamonds, and other precious stones. The contestant were given
90 minutes to complete the competition -- when time elapsed, the player
who had progressed furthest through their video adventure would be declared
the winner. Many of the spectators thought no one could possibly
make it through all the levels in the time allowed. But amazing
everyone, just 46 minutes into the contest, Atari Club member Steven Bell
of St. Clair, Michigan leaned back in his chair and smiled. He had
finished the game -- the Talisman was his !!! Steven
faced some formidable opponents in his quest for the gold.
The other finalists included two freshmen from the Univeristy of New Orleans,
a California house-wife, a U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant, and the youngest
finalist a 16 year old high school student from South Carolina.
As the competition got underway, though, his primary opponent seemed to
be Matthew Balasa, a 21 year old chemistry major from the North Central
Michigan University. The finalists started with a racing-style
call, "Gentlemen, start your joysticks," and Matthew pulled ahead
of the pack with an early lead. But the first player to reach
the fifth level was Steven Bell. His lead did not go unchallenged.
Steven Dousse, one of the New Orleans freshmen, caught up while most of
the players were stalled at level 4. For the next ten minutes the
lead changed hands between Bell and Dousse, but by the ninth level, Bell
had established what seemed like a comfortable lead. Dousse made
another valiant come-from-behind rush, but it was Bell who solved the riddle
of level 10 and moved to within one level of victory. Nine
and one-half painstaking minutes later, a contest judge declared Bell the
winner as he conquered the final level. "I really thought it
would be easier," Bell said. The 20 year old champion said
his winning strategy was to "take it easy, because you can make big mistakes
if you try to go too fast." He first read about the competition
in Atari Age magazine and decided to enter because he loves to play adventure
games. Now he awaits the finals in 1984, where he will
meet the winners of Swordquest Fireworld, Waterworld, and Airworld in head-to-head
competition for the Grand Prize, a jewel-encrusted sword valued at $50,000.
(Reprinted from July/August 1983 Atari Age Magazine)
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