2016/7/25: Atari 2600: Swordquest Waterworld, Summer Games

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VideoGameCritic
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2016/7/25: Atari 2600: Swordquest Waterworld, Summer Games

Postby VideoGameCritic » July 25th, 2016, 9:41 pm

Let me know what you think of these two brand new Atari 2600 reviews.

matmico399
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Re: 2016/7/25: Atari 2600: Swordquest Waterworld, Summer Games

Postby matmico399 » July 26th, 2016, 11:40 am

Critic I worry about your sanity if you spent a lot on a Swordquest game. Good review. I had the first two and they might be the worst games I played on my 2600.

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LuckyMan
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Re: 2016/7/25: Atari 2600: Swordquest Waterworld, Summer Games

Postby LuckyMan » July 26th, 2016, 12:31 pm

Nice reviews! You should add Summer Games to your Summer Olympic Games Review Special.

Voor
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Re: 2016/7/25: Atari 2600: Swordquest Waterworld, Summer Games

Postby Voor » July 26th, 2016, 10:11 pm

I kind of feel that the sword quest games should get a "N/A" rating. They aren't really games, but just the means to participate in that insane/ill-advised contest Atari put on. AVGN has a good episode about them

https://youtu.be/LWltQ9UN5vE

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Rev
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Re: 2016/7/25: Atari 2600: Swordquest Waterworld, Summer Games

Postby Rev » July 27th, 2016, 6:00 pm

Nice set of reviews! I agree with the N/A rating since they're not really fully playable anymore.

Gleebergloben123
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Re: 2016/7/25: Atari 2600: Swordquest Waterworld, Summer Games

Postby Gleebergloben123 » July 28th, 2016, 7:53 pm

Nice reviews Dave. And it was good to see you review Swordquest Waterworld, as your other two Swordquest reviews for the 2600 are hilarious.

Regarding the tie-in of the Swordquest games to a comic book, I know I'll have virtual tomatoes thrown at me, but I thought at the time that this was a really cool idea. I should preface this with the fact that I have never played the Swordquest games and I was never really into comic books (I was more into collecting Peanuts books. Loved Charlie Brown and the gang).

However, this was 1982-1983 we're talking about here. No cell phones, internet, Netflix, etc. Games for the 2600 were coming out at an alarming rate in 1983, and I thought the Swordquest idea was a cool one. And the winner of each game won an amazing grand prize worth $25,000, and the Grand Prize of a sword valued at $50,000. As a kid that looked awesome.

However, the games were apparently dreadful, and the whole contest faded away. Was this whole game/comic book/grand prize just a terrible idea? I think it could have been a success if the games were really good and the clues for the comic book weren't so vague.

Any thoughts?

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scotland
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Re: 2016/7/25: Atari 2600: Swordquest Waterworld, Summer Games

Postby scotland » August 9th, 2017, 1:23 pm

I have to say I've not spent much time on this series, and none at all on Waterworld. Is it on the Flashbacks?

Swordquest was back in the news because a comic book company is making new Swordquest comics. Its kinda a meta-comic though, not the continued adventures of the blonde twins from the original comics. Instead, we get an older gamer who goes back to live with his mom - finds his old Atari stuff - and this reignites his old obsession with Swordquest. This leads to finding out that the items still exist, and are going on display, so our old gamer gathers some of his loser buddies for the heist of heists. The first came out in the early summer, but I've not seen any news since. So, like Airworld, Swordquest #2 may never see the light of day.

swordquest_comic_dynamite.JPG
swordquest_comic_dynamite.JPG (89.19 KiB) Viewed 2291 times


By the way, I've always been fascinated - not by the games - but by those Franklin Mint prizes! Two were awarded, maybe three - and who knows about the fourth and then the final one, the Sword of Ultimate Sorcery! (Ta-dah-DAH) There was a story that the Sword was in Jack Tramiels home, over his fireplace. Unfortunely, according to the author of Atari Inc Business if Fun, they were most likely just melted down by the Franklin Mint when Tramiel took over. The Franklin Mint, then also a Warner holding, was struggling financially and sold off during the 'Crash. Some investment house bought it, and they would have likely just melted down something like. When the ship is about to sink, you don't worry about the possible future value of what's in the vault.

This would mean that there is only the 1 Swordquest prize left in existence, the Chalice of Light, which was the second prize won for Fireworld. The first prize for Earthworld seems to have been melted down almost immediately by the winner. Its unclear, but doubtful, the third was ever awarded. So, sadly, they were likely melted down into whatever Franklin Mint was minting in 1985, which were model cars, civil war chess sets, and maybe some replicas of the Headpiece of the Staff of Ra or something, I guess.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-quest-for-the-reallife-treasures-of-ataris-swordquest


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