In this day and age, gamers will flock to witness live competitions of StarCraft and the Super Smash Bros. series. These esports events have become big business, garnering much praise, coverage, and revenue. Long before though in the Golden Age of Video Games, Atari organised a competition like no other, offering incredible prizes worth thousands of dollars: Swordquest.
Atari’s success began in in 1972, when Nolan Bushnell and Allan Alcorn placed the first PONG arcade machine in Andy Capp’s Tavern, Sunnyvale, California. The game was a huge hit, propelling Atari to become the kingpin of the juvenile industry. Other video game publishers soon followed, creating their own iconic titles for arcades and the home console market. Atari remained at the forefront of the industry, heralding the golden age of video games. Amongst their titles was Adventure, an RPG best known for including the first encoded easter egg by the game’s programmer.
The sales for Adventure were profitable enough that Atari greenlit a sequel, inspired by the hidden easter egg. Instead, Swordquest was developed as four separate instalments, each themed around the classic elements – Earthworld, Fireworld, Waterworld, and the unreleased Airworld. Each game would be part of an ongoing contest in which players were to find esoteric clues hidden in each new instalment and accompanying comic books made by DC Comics, as Atari had been bought by Warner Communications. Once a number of gamers correctly solved the game’s riddles and puzzles, they would participate in a special competition to win prizes.
The prizes themselves were rather fantastic. Rather than a trophy, the winner of each round would receive a collection of exquisite treasures made from gold, jade, and other gemstones, all made by Franklin Mint. The four were a talisman, a chalice, a crown, the Philosopher’s Stone encased in a golden box, and a grand prize called the Sword of Ultimate Sorcery. In total, the five prizes were worth $150,000 altogether. Atari’s success allowed them to pursue such lofty aspirations, owning the console market with the Atari 2600.
The Earthworld competition began in 1982, with five thousand players sending answers to Atari in the hope of participating. Only eight sent the correct answers, invited to Atari’s headquarters in May 1983, where 20-year old Stephen Bell became the winner of the talisman. Bell ultimately had the talisman melted down, using the money for personal achievements, but kept the small sword that came with the prize.
Up next was Fireworld, which followed the same gameplay format, though the levels and riddles were based on the Tree of Life in Kabbalah. The contest had so many entries, that Atari had to narrow them down to just fifty, asking each person to write an essay describing their experience with the game. The Fireworld tournament was held in 1984, won by Michael Rideout, who acquired the chalice, which he still owns to this day. Waterworld followed, but its release was limited in February 1984, after which the whole competition was abruptly cancelled.
Atari were at the top of their game in the 1980s, but with that success came a self-imposed monopoly on how the industry should be run. They refused to allow third party companies to develop games for the Atari 2600. When Activision created game cartridges that were compatible, Atari sued them. However, this backfired when the courts ruled that Atari had no right to prevent a third party from programming games for their hardware. Atari’s business ethic to sell cheap consoles and rely on game purchases grew problematic as more consoles and competitors entered the market, causing it to stagnate.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was a series of rushed games for Christmas 1982, including the notorious E.T. game, created in a mere five weeks despite the blessing and approval of Steven Spielberg. The poor quality of the games led to poor sales, leaving Atari with an excess of unsold cartridges; leading to their burial in a landfill in Alamogordo, Texas. These strategic failures and the commercia flop of the 2600’s successor, the Atari 5200, led to Atari falling as a major video game publisher. Similar events happened across the American gaming market, leading to its collapse in the Great Video Game Crash of 1983.
As for Swordquest, the fourth game Airworld as never developed, and the competition left unresolved. Many urban legends and claims about the other prizes have sprung up over the years. The Waterworld contest was fulfilled due to a legal obligation, the crown said to have been won by an unnamed participant. Atari was sold to Jack Tramiel, owner of Commodore International. Rumours suggest that the Philosopher’s Stone and the Sword of Ultimate Sorcery were taken by Tramiel, whilst other sources suggest the treasures were melted down. Only the chalice survives as the last remnant of Swordquest.
It was a sad end to such an extravagant moment in gaming history. It symbolised a time of rapid growth, experimentation, but eventual instability. Video gaming was still a young, niche market in the 1980s, stagnating as the quantity of sales outweighed the quality of games. This created an unusual double-edge sword – Swordquest represented a more personable relationship between publishers and consumers, offering wild prizes that would not be replicated again, and a strong sense of community. On the other hand, publishers were also disrespecting their developers and consumers by releasing shoddy, rushed products, leading to the market’s collapse.
To mark its fiftieth anniversary in 2022, Atari announced a new collection of its vast catalogue. Amongst these was none other than Airworld, created by the indie developer Digital Eclipse, bringing a form of completion to Swordquest.
Although the grand competition was never resolved, Swordquest’s legacy has continued, spiritually succeeded by many other game competitions that bring in many fans and revenue.
Are you a fan of the classic era of video games? Have you played Swordquest, or did you even participate in the competition? Leave a comment on our Twitter feed.
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