Atlantis II
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Defend Atlantis Contest Entry Form
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Many game companies in the 1980's held contests in an attempt to boost
sales of their games and give their fans something fun to compete for.
For example, there is Activision's Enduro:
Race for Riches, Data Age's Bermuda
Triangle Replica Artifact, and Parker Brothers'
Super Cobra Flight Jacket. Not surprisingly, Imagic
also held several contests, one of which is "Defend Atlantis".
The contest was offered through an entry form found in regular Atlantis
games, and it was also promoted with a store display and entry form. Contestants
were invited to send in their high score along with a photograph of the
TV screen showing the score, and an Atlantis proof-of-purchase seal from
the instruction manual. The four individuals with the highest scores would
be invited to compete in the Great Defend Atlantis Shoot-Off on November
14, 1982 in Bermuda. The Grand Prize for the winner would be $10,000,
and 2nd-4th place would receive $1000 each.
For those who didn't make the top four, there were other prizes. The
top 250 scores would receive a set of snorkeling gear (snorkel, mask,
and fins), and the next 1000 high scores would receive an Atlantis t-shirt.
On the left is the official contest entry form, you can click each page
to enlarge it.
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Imagic Letters to Contestants
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Unfortunately for Imagic, there were a lot of good Atlantis players.
In fact, more than four individuals maxed out the score, so Imagic had
to figure out a way to decide who the top four would be. They created
a special contest version of Atlantis, that they called Atlantis II, that
these top scorers would use for a tie-breaker. Atlantis II is basically
the same as Atlantis, except that it's faster, harder, and lower scoring.
Contestants were sent a letter telling them that they qualified for this
shoot off. They were to recieve in the mail the Atlantis II cartridge,
along with the snorkeling set and t-shirt. According to Imagic, "We've
designed this contest version of Atlantis just for you experts. Those
tricky Gorgons will still thwart you at every turn, but now the battle
will be more fierce and the points scored for direct hits will be less.
Are you expert enough to meet this challenge and save Atlantis from the
dreaded Gorgon death ray? If you're brave enough, read on." Contestants
were to play the game for only two days and then send in their high scores.
On the right is the official contest letter from Imagic, and also a letter
about the delay of sending the snorkeling set:
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Atlantis II box, screenshots, cartridge
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The game was sent to contestants in a standard Atlantis
"Night
Scene" box with a white sticker on it that says "Atlantis
II". The cartridge itself is a standard Atlantis "Night
Scene" label (also see "Day
Scene"), so the next time your about to pass over that common
Atlantis game at the flea market, you might want to think twice about
it. So there you have it. If you think you're an Atlantis expert, download
the Atlantis II ROM, and post
your high scores to the message
board.
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Atlantis Scoring Style |
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Atlantis II Scoring Style |
You'll see from the screen
shots that the game looks almost the same, it's just faster, harder,
and lower scoring to make it more challenging for the contestants. The
only graphical difference that we could detect was the font used for the
score, as you can see to the right. This does at least make it easy to
identify immediately upon turning on the game.
So, who won the contest? We don't know. If anyone has any
further information about who won or if the final event even took place,
please contact us. Finally, we'd like to
give a big thanks to Doug Korekach
for graciously loaning us this cartridge and paperwork so that we could
dump the ROM and share it with other Atari fans. Here is our official
Atlantis
II entry in the Rarity Guide.
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