| Swordquest | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Action-adventure game |
| Developers | Atari, Inc. Digital Eclipse |
| Publishers | Atari, Inc. |
| Creators | Dan Hitchens Tod Frye |
| Platform | Atari 2600 |
| Original release |
|
Swordquest is a series ofaction-adventure video games developed and published byAtari, Inc. in the 1980s for theAtari 2600. It was developed as part of acontest, consisting of three finished games,Earthworld,Fireworld andWaterworld (with these titles occasionally appearing on cartridge labels and boxes with capitalized central Ws, e.g.EarthWorld), and a planned fourth game,Airworld.
Each of the games came with acomic book that explained the plot, as well as containing part of the solution to a majorpuzzle that had to be solved to win the contest, with a series of prizes whose total value was $150,000. The series had its genesis as a possiblesequel to Atari's groundbreaking 1979 titleAdventure, but it developed mythology and a system of play that was unique.[1][2]
The comic books were produced byDC Comics, written byRoy Thomas andGerry Conway, and drawn and inked byGeorge Pérez andDick Giordano. All three game box covers were illustrated by an Atari in-house illustrator, Warren Chang. A special fan club offer was provided, allowing those who wanted the game to also get a T-shirt and poster for each game.[1]
The games of the Swordquest series (along with Atari 2600Raiders of the Lost Ark) were some of the earliest attempts to combine the narrative and logic elements of the adventure game genre with thetwitch gameplay of the action genre, making them some of the firstaction-adventure games. However, due to Atari's financial problems related to thevideo game crash of 1983, the last contest along with the grand finale contest were never held and the final game in the series,Airworld was not released. As such the contest was never completed and the current unknown fate of some of the prizes has become anurban legend in the gaming community.
As part ofAtari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, a collection of Atari games for its 50th anniversary in 2022,Digital Eclipse created a version ofAirworld that completes theSwordquest series. In April 2025, Atari partnered withThe Sandbox[3] to release a version of the game on their platform which included all four worlds.
Each game of theSwordquest series was themed after theclassical elements: earth, fire, water, and air. Each game required the player to move through a maze of rooms, collecting objects from one and placing them in other rooms. The arrangement or theme of the rooms varied with each game:Earthworld was themed after theWestern zodiac,Fireworld after theKabbalah tree of life,Waterworld after thechakras, andAirworld was to have been modeled after theI Ching.[4] Traversing between rooms sometimes required the player to complete a "twitch"-styleminigame to progress. When the player placed an item in its correct room, they would be presented with numerical clues that referred to a page and panel within the comic that was packaged with the game. There, the player would find a hidden word that was part of the largerSwordquest contest, as by submitting all the correct words in the correct order to Atari, they would be entered into the next phase of the project.[5] The discovered words would form a relevant phrase towards the larger contest. In at least two cases, forEarthworld andFireworld, there were more clues indicated by the game than required to be submitted. Players also had to identify a second clue in the game's instruction manual (forEarthworld, indicatingprime numbers to use only clues on prime numbered pages) to know which clues to send in.[6][4][1]
The games follow twins named Tarra and Torr. Their parents were slain by King Tyrannus's guards, prompted by a prophecy by the king'swizard Konjuro that the twins would slay Tyrannus. The twins were then raised as commoners by thieves to avoid being slain by the king. When they go to plunder Konjuro's sea keep, they accidentally reveal their identities to him. The twins then start running from ademon summoned to kill them, but it appears that a jewel they stole attracts it. After smashing the stone to avoid the demon, two of Tyrannus's old advisers appear and tell the two about the "Sword of Ultimate Sorcery" and the "Talisman of Penultimate Truth." They are then transported to Earthworld.[1][7]
After defeating many beasts of the Zodiac and another thief (Herminus) in Earthworld, the twins are transported to the "central chamber" where the "Sword of Ultimate Sorcery" and the "Talisman of Penultimate Truth" are kept. Upon reaching them, the sword burns a hole through its altar all the way to Fireworld. In Fireworld, the twins split up to look for water, and Torr, with the aid of the talisman, summons Mentorr who shows Torr the "Chalice of Light," which will quench his thirst. The twins reunite eventually and find the chalice. However, Torr drops it after he is startled, and it is revealed that the one they found was not thetrue chalice. Herminus then gives them the chalice, and it grows until it becomes large enough to swallow the twins and transports them to Waterworld.
Upon reaching Waterworld, the twins become separated. Konjuro casts a spell that causes the twins to lose their memories. Tarra travels to a ship made of ice and meets Cap'n Frost, who desires to find the "Crown of Life" and rule Waterworld. Meanwhile, Torr travels to an undersea kingdom and meets the city's ex-queen Aquana, who desires to find the "Crown of Life" in order to regain her throne. After a brief war between the ex-queen and captain, Herminus sets the twins to duel each other. They then pray to their deities for guidance, which summons Mentorr who allows them to regain their memories. The twins throw down their swords, causing the crown to be revealed and split in half. The halves are given to the ex-queen and the captain, who then rule as equals. The "Sword of Ultimate Sorcery" then transports the twins to Airworld where they would have to do battle with King Tyrannus and Konjuro.
While the comic forAirworld was started, the cancellation of the series left the comic unfinished.[4]
The concept ofSwordquest originated from Atari's previousAdventure video game, which is notable for one of the first documentedEaster eggs.Adventure drew more interest once the Easter egg was found and documented, leading Atari to come up with a type of sequel where "marketing thought it would be a great idea to create a series of games where players would have to find clues both in the game [and in its physical materials]", as described by Atari historian Curt Vendel.[4] As Atari was owned byWarner Communications at this point, they were able to use two of Warner's subsidiaries to help with this contest.[6]DC Comics was used to create the comic book that would help create the setting where the word clues would be hidden, written byGerry Conway andRoy Thomas and illustrated byGeorge Pérez.[4] TheFranklin Mint crafted the game's prizes.[6] The games themselves were programmed byTod Frye.[4]
Atari had designed theSwordquest contest to award a winner for each of the four games. For each game, they had planned to bring all winners to the Atari headquarters inSunnyvale, California, to race to complete a specially-programmed version of that game to be the first to finish it. The person with the fastest completion would be named the winner and be awarded a "treasure", produced by Franklin Mint, each valued at aroundUS$25,000 at the time ofSwordquest's release. The prizes were:[6]
The four winners would then have competed in a final contest to win the ultimate prize, "The Sword of Ultimate Sorcery" with a silver blade and an 18-carat gold handle covered with diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, and rubies, that was valued atUS$50,000.[6]
ForEarthworld, about 5000 entries were received, but only eight answered correctly. The contest was held in May 1983, with Stephen Bell winning the Talisman. ForFireworld, Atari received several more entries, with 73 of these being correct. For practicality, Atari required the 73 finalists to write a brief essay of what they liked about the game, selecting the top 50 replies to continue to the final competition, held in January 1984. This was won by Michael Rideout, who was awarded the Chalice.[6][4]
At this point in time, Atari had suffered major financial setbacks due to the1983 video game crash. Atari was further in the midst of dealing with fallout from an insider trading scandal by former CEORay Kassar; Kassar was replaced byJames J. Morgan in mid-1983, and looking to cut financial losses, eventually cancelled theSwordquest project, despite work having already started onAirworld.[8][4] However, because the company had already advertised the availability of theWaterworld contest, Atari's lawyers required the company to continue the contest.[8] To limit the number of entries,Waterworld was only made available to members of the Atari Club. During the contest period, in mid-1984, Atari was sold toJack Tramiel, the owner ofCommodore International. Tramiel, who had been more focused on the success of home computers than gaming consoles, placed the Atari divisions in a new company, Tramel Technology, and reviewed the state of all divisions, furthering the troubles in completing theWaterworld contest. Most who did enter theWaterworld contest were told they did not qualify for the final, but according to Vendel, Atari was legally required to follow through as advertised on theWaterworld contest. Vendel stated that Atari did secretly invite those with correct entries to hold the final round, and the Crown was awarded to a person, their name remaining anonymous due to legal requirements.[4] Because they could not hold the ultimate final round, Bell and Rideout were both awarded an additionalUS$15,000 as well as anAtari 7800 as a compensation prize, and granting the ten finalists ofWaterworldUS$2,000 each.[4][6]
The fate of the prizes has become anurban legend in the gaming community since the cancellation of the project. Of the five treasures, Rideout has claimed, as recently as 2017, that he still has the Chalice in his possession, stored in a safe deposit box.[6] Bell fell out of contact following theSwordquest event, but according to Vendel and Rideout, Bell appeared to have had the disc part of the Talisman melted down for its value (aboutUS$15,000 at the time), keeping the small sword, diamonds, and birthstones; the current fate of these is unknown.[6] The fate of the Crown is unknown; Vendel stated that while Atari was required to hold the contest, they could have simply awarded the winner with a cash prize equivalent as opposed to the Crown.[6]
Since they were never part of any contest, the Philosopher's Stone and the Sword have seemingly disappeared. Some sources have claimed that Tramiel took possession of the prizes himself, based on rumoured observations that Atari staff or associates of Tramiel had made of seeing a similar looking sword mounted in Tramiel's office or on his home mantel. However, Vendel believes that the persons who started this rumor may have mistaken a Tramiel family heirloom for theSwordquest sword. Vendel believes that it is unlikely that Tramiel would have been able to keep the Stone, Sword, and (if not given away) Crown, as when Atari, Inc was sold, these items were still the property of Warner Communications, and would have been returned to the Franklin Mint. With the Franklin Mint later being sold in 1985 to American Protective Services, and the original Atari business no longer existing, the prizes were most likely melted back down to their base components for reuse elsewhere, according to Vendel.[6]
Atari released theAtari 50 collection in 2022. As part of the collection,Digital Eclipse developed a new version ofAirworld.[9][10]
Each of the three released games shipped with a comic book, published jointly by Atari andDC Comics. The books included clues to solve the puzzles within each of the games.
In February 2017,Dynamite Entertainment announced a new comic book series, calledSwordquest, but based on the actual contest around the three games, rather than the story within the games. It was a six-issue series, starting with a special #0 "Preview" book that sold with a cover price of 25¢ and was published in May 2017. The remaining 5 issues, published monthly after the preview, sold at $3.99 each. In addition, Dynamite released atrade paperback that reprinted the three mini-comics along with the mini-comic for the gameYars' Revenge. As with the originals, the TPB is sized as a mini-comic.
The series featured the story of a person who had played the threeSwordquest games (with help from two friends who were brother and sister) when he was younger and was anticipatingAirworld. Now as an adult, he continues his efforts to playAirworld using his old Atari hardware, but is caught up with a mysterious figure who offers to help him obtain the real "Sword of Ultimate Sorcery" from its resting place in the World Arcade Museum. As well as being valuable, it may have its own mysterious powers. The man contacts his two childhood friends to accompany him on his new "Swordquest".
The comic was written byChad Bowers andChris Sims and had art byScott Kowalchuk under the pseudonym "Ghostwriter X". A trade paperback reprint of all six issues, titledSwordquest: Realworld was released in February 2018.[11]
Richard A. Edwards reviewedSwordquest: Earthworld inThe Space Gamer No. 61.[12] Edwards commented that "The only reason to purchase a copy ofSwordquest: Earthworld is to try and solve the puzzle and win the prize. Gamers not interested in spending the time required should pass this one."[12] In 1995,Flux magazine rankedSwordquest: Earthworld 71st on their Top 100 Video Games.[13]
Both the novelReady Player One and thefilm adaptation reference theSwordquest series.
SCP-1926, an entry on theSCP Foundation wiki, is based on the unreleasedSwordquest: Airworld game.