Game Play Rules and Answers to the Atari SwordQuest Challenge — Earthworld

I was a Senior Copywriter at Atari in the early days of the video game industry. I wrote instruction manuals and packaging copy for several Atari 2600 and Atari 5200 video games. I also worked on special projects, like the Atari Swordquest Challenge, around the same time that I was writing the manual for WaterWorld, one of the games in the four-part SwordQuest series.

For one of the four playoff competitions in the Atari SwordQuest Challenge, I had all of two days to come up with a way to allow a half-dozen contestants to compete in a race to get through all the levels of EarthWorld, a brute-force adventure game that had required gamers to spend weeks of their lives trying to figure out the astronomical permutations regarding which 16 magical objects needed to go into which 12 rooms of the Zodiac at various points in their quest for a magical sword. Atari had sold over 500,000 of these games in a gigantic cross promotion involving DC Comics and the Franklin Mint, and, without clues to guide them through the adventure, only 7 people managed to get themselves invited to participate in the quarter-final playoff tournament. The playoff winner would walk off with a $25,000 prize, as well as earn a chance to compete in the final SwordQuest Challenge for a jewel-encrusted sword worth $50,000.

Since all the rooms in Earthworld were named after the houses of the Zodiac, I wrote a series of arcane clues that directed the keenest reader among the contestants where to place the correct magical objects and race to victory within less than two hours. Essentially, I provided word-clues with an astrological theme to blend aspects of the game's key elements in the context of a puzzle based on the game's theme. As the participants later acknowledged, the arcane word-clues added a twist that elevated the original design of the game to a more entertaining level, while also making it possible for someone to actually solve the game/puzzle in time for the luncheon award ceremonies. I got a nice memo of appreciation from the product manager for making the playoff competition a success, and the whole episode was written up in Atari Life, the Atari employee newsletter.

Of course, while it is not yet possible to play the limited edition playoff game that was programmed exclusively for the playoff, anyone wishing to try their luck deciphering the arcane clues can do so now by first getting very familiar with both the list of magical objects and the signs of the Zodiac. Your eye-hand coordination won't be tested like it was in the original game play, but at least you might have some fun trying to figure out what magical objects go into what astrological houses —based on the Earthworld play-off word-clues that I wrote for the playoff. Just don't expect a jewel-encrusted sword to be waiting for you if you succeed!

The playoff winner navigated through the puzzle in less than an hour, leaving us all plenty of time to enjoy the luncheon ceremony that followed. How well can you do?

There is a table below the horizontal rule on this page that contains the answers to the Atari SwordQuest EarthWorld playoff. For maximum fun, try not to peek at the answers before you read over the clues!

Update, 26 February 2010: Since originally developing this page, I have learned that it is technically possible to extract the program code from an Atari game cartridge and convert it to a digital file. I have also learned that there are emulator programs that will allow people to play these old Atari games on modern day computers runnng DOS, Windows, Mac, and Linux. So, in the interests of computer posterity, I am going to see if I can extract the code from the EarthWord game cartridge in my possession and post the game's programming code somewhere, like in the emulator section of AtariAge.com, so that others can play the contest version of EarthWorld.

I am also going to auction off this original Atari EarthWorld SwordQuest playoff game cartridge, which is the motherboard, or EPROM, that I used while writing the clues for the playoff contest. No one knows what happened to the half dozen or so game cartridges that were burned for the contestants to use in the contest itself. When Atari collapsed, it dumped tons of stuff into the trash. So, this eprom I have may be the only remaining game cartridge for the Earthworld SwordQuest playoff contest. It may be a one-of-a-kind game cartridge. Hard to say for sure, but none have surfaced in almost 30 years. (To be notified when the auction will be held, send me an email.)

Assuming that I am successful in extracting the EarthWord game code from this EPROM, I am going to time the release of the emulator version of the Earthworld SwordQuest playoff contest and the auction of the original EPROM with the publication of an interview I recently gave to Digital Press, an online magazine. That interview is nearly complete: it is currently in editing mode. Digital Press Online contains a treasure chest of interviews with ex-Atari employees, all providing insight into what things were like at Atari in the exciting days at the beginning of the video game industry.

So, if you want to face the true SwordQuest Challenge by playing the legacy EarthWorld playoff contest version in emulation mode just as the contestants did in the early eighties, then you may want to refrain from scrolling down below the horizontal line to peek at the answers.

 

Additional References:

Atari SwordQuest Challenge: Reinventing a Video Game by Consulting the Stars. Links to the page here at my web site containing scans from the pages of the EarthWorld manual, showing the Rooms of the Zodiac and the Magical Objects you have to drop into those rooms to trigger numerical clues that refer to the comic book. (Also shows other video games that I worked on and how video games were my very first introduction to computers.)

SwordQuest on Wikipedia. A reference article on the Atari SwordQuest contest. Provides insight regarding the missing jeweled treasures.

AtariAge. The premier site dedicated to Atari legacy video games. You can download manuals, play emulated versions of the games, and participate in forums with other fans and collectors of Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, Lynx, and Jaguar video games.

Digital Press. Contains loads of information about the people behind the video games, life at Atari, video games in general.

Angry Video Game Nerd: SwordQuest video. An informative and entertaining video presenting the background of the Atari SwordQuest series, hosted at GameTrailers.com

EarthWorld instruction manual. A PDF file of the original game play rules for the EarthWorld game, as released to the market (via Sears) in 1982.

Here are the rooms and magical objects of EarthWorld, as scanned from the instruction manual. Study them. You can play this contest right now, if you familiarize yourself with all these objects and if you know something about the astrological signs of the Zodiac.

Once again, the horizontal rule beneath these images of the rooms and magical objects leads to a table revealing the answers to the EarthWorld playoff contest. Read the clues over first. Don't scroll down to peek at the answers until you're ready. Even one glance ahead of time will spoil your fun.

The table below contains the answers to the Atari EarthWorld SwordQuest playoff rules and clues. Scroll down with care. To get the most enjoyment, you'll at least want to read over the clues first, and you may even want to play the emulated version of the game on your computer after it is released, probably sometime in the spring of 2010.

If you don't want to bother playing the emulated version—in which you'd have to master certain eye-hand coordination skills to even be able to circumvent the dangers and obstacles preventing you in travelling from room to room—then you can simply test your verbal ingenuity by looking over the images of the rooms and the magical objects shown here and making a go of it. Remember, the object of the game is to place the object(s) in the room(s) they belong in. As originally designed, the EarthWorld game had no such clues. Now you do.

Level	Action Required (Programmer's Handwritten Notes— Object ID Number and Room ID Number)	Action Required (Translation of Programmer's Notes into Earthworld's Magical Objects and Rooms)	Room	Magical Object	Magical Object	Magical Object	Magical Object
1	Walk to Leo Room.	Walk to Leo.
2	7 into 2.	Put Leather Armor in Cancer.
3	14 into 0.	Put Grappling Hook in Virgo.
4	10 into 9.	Put Ring in Sagittarius.
5	3 into 8.	Put Lamp in Capricorn.
6	2 into 3.	Put Amulet in Gemini.
7	9 into 1.	Put Talisman of Passage in Leo.
8	0 into 5 and 11 into 5.	Put Key in Aries, and put Necklace in Aries.
9	13 into 0; 5 into 3; and 6 into 9.	Put Short Sword in Virgo; put Shoes of Stealth in Gemini; put Dagger in Sagittarius.
9	13 into 0; 5 into 3; and 6 into 9.	Put Short Sword in Virgo; put Shoes of Stealth in Gemini; put Dagger in Sagittarius.
9	13 into 0; 5 into 3; and 6 into 9.	Put Short Sword in Virgo; put Shoes of Stealth in Gemini; put Dagger in Sagittarius.
10	4 into 7; 1 into 7; 8 into 7; and 5 into 7.	Put Cloak of Invisibility, Rope, Water, and Shoes of Stealth in Aquarius.
11	12 into 6.	Put Warrior's Sword in Pisces.

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