Atari Introduces 4-Part Sword & Sorcery Epic

Atari is breaking new videogaming ground with "SwordQuest", a four-part epic adventure with cartridges scheduled for release starting this fall and continuing to the fall of 1983. The linked games create a noble quest for the Sword of Ultimate Sorcery. Each game will be accompanied by a book created by DC Comics and the SwordQuest design team, giving the characters, props and treasures, and important clues to solving the puzzles. Players of "Earthworld", the first game in the 4-part saga, must traverse a 12-room maze to locate useful magical objects, such as a lamp, dagger, leather armor, cloak of invisibility, and other items needed to find the sword. By selecting the right combination of objects, the player gets clues to solve the "Earthworld" puzzle. Some are false and others valid, and the storybook gives hints to help determine which is which.

Solving the puzzle sets players on the right path to win the SwordQuest Challenge sponsored by Atari. Each cartridge package contains the contest entry forms. Fill in five correct clues, and all entrants who get at least one clue correct will receive an Official Atari SwordQuest Challenge Certificate of Merit. Fifty gamers identifying all five clues correctly will win a trip to Sunnyvale, Ca., to compete in a playoff of the Earthworld Contest. (If more than 50 entrants get all clues correct, an essay contest will determine 50 winners.) The prize is a gold talisman medallion studded with 12 diamonds and other precious stones.

Each of the four VCS cartridges will have its own contest and prize. When the epic saga is completed, the four winners of the individual competitions will return to the Atari headquarters in Sunnyvale for the Grand Finale Contest. There they will battle for the ownership of a $50,000 jewel-encrusted gold sword designed for Atari by Franklin Mint.