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Indiana
Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
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Developer:
LucasArts
Publisher: LucasArts
Release date: 1992
Directed by: Hal Barwood
Written by:
Hal Barwood & Noah Falstein
Music by: Clint
Bajakian, Michael Land & Peter McConnell
Produced by:
Shelly Day
Package illustration
by: William L. Eaken
Programming by:
Ron Baldwin, Bret Barrett, Sean Clark, Tony Hsieh,
Michael Stemmle
Graphics by:
James Alexander Dollar, William L. Eaken, Mike
Ebert, Avril Harrison, Anson Jew, James McLeod,
Collette Michaud
Voices by:
Doug Lee .... Indiana Jones/Alain Trottier
Jane Jacobs .... Sophia Hapgood
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Technical Info:
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Platforms:
PC DOS, Commodore
Amiga, FM Towns, Apple Macintosh |
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Genre:
"Point and Click" Adventure game |
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Mode(s):
Single-player - Wits, Fists, or Team Path |
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Engine:
SCUMM v5, iMUSE (sound) |
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Media:
3½ inch Floppy, CD-ROM |
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Every die-hard video
gamer has played something from the "graphic
adventure" genre. The format has come to
computers as many different titles and over the
years an impressive and eclectic library has been
amassed for the graphic adventure aficionado.
Any gamer worth his/her salt will know what you
are talking about when you mention the King's
Quest saga, the Monkey
Island series, the Kyrandia
games, or the Space Quest
series. The list is almost endless.
Opening scene
climax. |
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Of all the companies that have produced
graphic adventures, LucasArts is the master. They
have arguably produced the slickest graphic adventures
to ever hit the PC. Their impressive graphic adventure
library includes classics like Maniac
Mansion, Maniac
Mansion 2: Day of the Tentacle, Sam
& Max Hit the Road, Grim
Fandango, Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade, and the
aforementioned Monkey
Island series, which is already into its
fourth game. However, there is one graphic adventure
that, for many gamers, stands above the rest even
within the impressive LucasArts library as debatably
the best graphic adventure ever made. This game
needs no introduction. Indiana
Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is an indelible
classic of its genre and video games period.
This game was originally released
in 1992 as a sequel to Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure.
This edition came formatted on 3.5" floppy
disks. In 1993, LucasArts re-released the game
on CD-ROM with a full talking dialogue track,
which really added to the game play and atmosphere.
Sadly, the voice of Indy is not Harrison Ford,
but the voice that is present is not bad at all
and after a few minutes, you will probably lose
yourself in the game anyway and the "new
voice" will become old hat (no pun intended).
The game also made it onto the Macintosh computer
and there was also an edition for the Amiga system.
Needless to say, the game (in both formats) was
a huge success. |
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The Story
Indiana Jones enters the game in
the archives of Barnett College in the most innovative
intro sequence in gaming history. As he stumbles
through this sequence, the familiar theme plays
with gusto in LucasArts' effective iMuse system.
From the onset, it feels like Indiana Jones, and
in five seconds you are hooked. Everyone who has
played it knows the story from there. Indy finds
the strange substance orichalcum within a small
Atlantean statue and runs off to find his old
flame Sophia Hapgood to learn more. While he and
Sophia begin their trek across the globe searching
for all manners of fabled artifacts, including
the Lost Dialogue of Plato and the city of Atlantis
itself, the Nazis are hot on their trail trying
to unlock the secrets of the orichalcum's power
for their own dark purposes.
Sophia's
necklace (left). Indy & Sophia at Iceland
and at the Azores. |
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Success
The game met with rave reviews and
was immediately embraced by gaming fans and Indy
fans alike. The story was rich and engaging and
very much a plot worthy of an Indiana Jones adventure.
The introduction of interesting new characters,
specifically Sophia Hapgood, was also a successful
choice by LucasArts, as it allowed the game to
stand on its own outside the films while still
being in line with them. For many people, the
game was almost a phenomenon. Few people seem
to remember that LucasArts printed full size 27x40
movie posters with simulated credits and "Drew
Struzanesque" artwork for the game. There
was even a comic series made off of the story.
Everyone called it Indiana
Jones 4 and for a long time, it was speculated
that the plot of the game was either an unused
script for a sequel, or the actual sequel itself
waiting to be filmed. I have talked with many
people over the years who hoped that Indy
4 will be a remake of this game!
And how can one blame them? The
game is like an Indy film playing out right before
our eyes. The score is there. The exotic locations
are present, with the intervals between them arriving
in the familiar form of the roving red line across
the map. Indy travels and explores all manners
of sites, from surface digs to ancient temples,
caves, and even Nazi submarines. The dialogue
is intelligent and witty for a video game, with
Indy giving us a good dose of comic one liners
from time to time to lighten the mood. Simultaneously,
we get to choose what Indy gets to say, as with
the prequel Last Crusade,
so that you may be able to talk your way out of
things if you have your wits about you. The graphics
are nice and hold up well to service the game
with colorful backgrounds and well animated (if
not extensively detailed) characters.
Indy &
Sophia in Tikal (left). At Omar's house and
asking to use balloon. |
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The Wits, Fists, or Team
Path
Beyond that, the game had extensive
replay value, which is rare for a graphic adventure.
At a certain point in the game, Indy must choose
to go one of three ways. He can take the fists
path, wits path, or the team path. In other words,
if you choose one way, it's Indy on his own using
his fists to get to Atlantis. Choose another way
and Indy will be presented with a different series
of puzzles where he must rely on his wits to get
through. The last option is to travel with Sophia
and work as a team to solve the game. You can
play the game three times through and never get
bored! |
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Conclusion
In my humble opinion, this is THE
BEST Indiana Jones game that has ever been developed.
However, I will not be so biased as to tell you
it has absolutely no drawbacks. Every game has
its flaws, and this one has one small imperfection
that must be noted. The one thing this game is
not so capable of reproducing is the sense of
action that is prevalent in the Indiana Jones
films. This is mainly due to the fact that the
game is a graphic adventure that relies more on
puzzles than real time action gaming. (Another
Fate of Atlantis
game was brought out at the same time called simply
Indiana Jones
and the Fate of Atlantis: The Action Game
to give action fans something to chew on.) This
lack of real time action is not a serious drawback
at all, and only noticed in hindsight. In fact,
I would say that the graphic adventure format
was the best format for Indy at the time because
the other genres of the period could not capture
the atmosphere of Indiana Jones as well. Let's
face it. There cannot be any real sense of exploration
or involved plot lines in a linear platform game.
A little known fact and a rather
saddening one is that the game was slated to have
a sequel entitled Indiana
Jones and the Iron Phoenix, which was going
to be another graphic adventure. This game never
came to fruition, much to the disappointment of
Fate of Atlantis
fans. It can be speculated that LucasArts saw
new possibilities on the gaming horizon, especially
when games like Tomb
Raider hit the shelves where for the first
time, action and adventure were combined into
a thoroughly engrossing experience that had puzzles
and real time action seamlessly entwined. It is
well known that Indiana
Jones and the Infernal Machine is LucasArts'
answer to Lara Croft.
Indiana
Jones and the Fate of Atlantis still has
a HUGE fan following and many Indy fans have taken
it upon themselves to make sequels through careful
file hacking and a good dose of sweat, blood,
and tears, along with some artistic talent. It
is unlikely that LucasArts will ever revisit Indiana
Jones as a graphic adventure due to the success
of Infernal Machine
and Emperor's Tomb.
As wonderful as it would be to have them dust
off Iron Phoenix
and release it with snazzy new graphics, I am
afraid that the odds of that fantasy coming true
are as likely as finding the Lost Ark. (MF)
Indy
& Sophia finding the way into the heart
of Atlantis. |
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Trivia
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A four-issue comic book mini-series
based on the game's storyline was published
before the game's release by Dark Horse Comics. |
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Game resource editing programs
have revealed that there is an unused room
in the game code that didn't make it to
the final version. This room is Sophia's
bedroom, and lies next to her ransacked
office. The programmers must have originally
planned more action as well as puzzles in
Sophia's apartment. |
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References & In-Jokes
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When you find yourself in
a dark room, you are provided with a "Touch"
command instead of the normal "Look"
command. Choose "Touch" and then
click on Sophia. She will slap you and say
"Watch those hands, buster!" |
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The LucasArts logo can be spotted
several times in the Knossos labyrinth, depicted
as hieroglyphs on walls. |
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By choosing "Look"
on the shelf in Indy's office at Barnett College,
he will comment on some of the artifacts on
the shelf. There is a Thugee idol from Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom, a purple
glowing meteor from Maniac
Mansion, and letters from Henry Jones,
Senior, to the school board in which Indy
will comment that they all begin with the
phrase "Regarding Henry", a reference
to a film starring Harrison Ford. |
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One of the items Omar offers
is a baseball he claims is signed by Lou Gehrig,
but when Indy examines it he says, "It's
signed by some guy named Ron Gilbert".
Ron Gilbert is the creator of the Maniac
Mansion and Monkey
Island series, as well as the SCUMM
game engine, which most LucasArts adventure
games use. |
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At one moment in the game,
Sophia response is "Frankly, Indy, I
don't give a damn". A reference to the
last words in Gone
with the Wind (1939). |
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One of the items at Omar's
home is a small black statue of a bird.
When Indy examines the bird he makes a reference
to The Maltese
Falcon (1941) starring Humphrey Bogart. |
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At some point in Algeria, one
of Indy's offered questions to Sophia reads
"Of all the shops in Algeria, we had
to walk in this one". At that Sophia
replies "We'll always have Iceland, Indy".
These two lines are a reference to another
film classic starring Humphrey Bogart; Casablanca
(1942). |
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In Algeria you can find an
image of the Ark of the Covenant. When spotting
this, Indy comments "I've seen THAT before."
A reference to Raiders
of the Lost Ark. |
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In Atlantis, Indy finds a big
stone cup, saying "Surely, this is NOT
the cup of a carpenter". A reference
to Indiana Jones
and the Last Crusade. |
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And when again looking around
Indy's office at Barnett College, Indy can
find letters from the school principle to
Indy's father. All letters begin with "Regarding
Henry...". In 1991 Harrison Ford starred
in a film named Regarding
Henry. |
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