LINK A little bit different tone for the AVGN as he doesn't rip into the game (at all, really) but it's an interesting look at the Swordquest competition. Something I never knew exsisted. Seems like it was a pretty cool idea from Atari.
Yeah, I knew about the games and the last one being cancelled, but not about the wacky meta game contest. That said, I'm sure as games themselves, they must suck... especially if they're designed just to dole out clues you can find a comic book.
I had a couple of these. The Water World one for sure. Never had any of the packaging, got them second hand... and I was pretty damned confused as to what I was supposed to be doing as a 5 or 6 year old kid... but not knowing wtf you're supposed to be doing isn't really a rarity in Atari 2600 games. Next time I'm at my parent's I'll have to see if we still have those games, maybe I can get a few bucks for Water World
I thought I knew my video game history, but I had never heard of this series or of the competition. When I first saw the review posted I thought it was for this old DOS shareware game I played as a kid, called Sword Quest II. Watching the review, I really do wonder what happened to that sword.
I remember ads for the contest in comic books at the time, and I'm pretty sure I played at least one of them at some point.
I think I played the first one. Earthworld? I was probably 8 or 9 and remember being utterly baffled regarding the point of the game. But I do remember a massive ad campaign by Atari about the competition. Cool bit of videogame history there.
I got Earthworld and Fireworld from a remainder bin at Revco for 50 cents each, played both and beat Earthworld, took the picture of the screen like the instructions said, wrote down the phrase that you were supposed to find in the comics that came with the games, mailed them off... and then found out that the contest was already long over. "Quest in tower, Talisman found." I want that sword off of Jack Tramiel's mantle, dammit! (The Sword of Ultimate Sorcery was the grand prize for the contests.) Here's the comics, if any of you want to look at 'em.