Jack Tramiel and one of gaming's greatest mysteries

mmntech

Lifer
Sep 20, 2007
17,501
12
0
Jack Tramiel died today at the age of 83 . For those who don't know who he was, here's a little brief. Tramiel was a holocaust survivor and founder of Commodore Business Machines. The very same Commodore that built the Commodore 64, and later acquired Atari.

Upon hearing the news of his death, a bell went off in my head. We may, perhaps, finally solve one of gaming's greatest mysteries.

In 1982, Atari launched a contest. Not just any contest, but an epic quest of legendary proportions. Swordquest. It was a gaming competition which involved four games based on mythological symbols and ancient elements. Earthworld, Fireworld, Waterworld, and Airworld.

Gamers who beat the games and gathered the correct clues hidden within. If they found all the clues, they'd get to compete in a playoff. Whoever found the most clues in 90 minutes would win one of four prizes. But not just any prize. Each one was worth a staggering $25,000 each. A considerable sum in the early 80s.

The winners of Earthworld won an 18k gold talisman studded with diamonds and the 12 birth stones. Steven Bell of Detroit won it. However, the Talisman has been lost; melted down and sold.

The winner of Fireworld won a jewel encrusted gold and platinum chalice. Michael Rideout won the chalice and still owns it.

Then the proverbial feces hit the fan. The 1983 video game crash hit and Atari was desperate for money. The winner was supposed to win a jewel studded gold crown. They received cash instead. The winner of airworld would get a solid white jade "philosopher's stone" in a golden box. Airworld was never made. Nobody knows what happened to these prizes.

Then there's the ultimate prize. The winners of all four previous games would compete in a tournament. The last man standing would win a jewel encrusted solid gold sword worth $50,000. Worth over $100,000 today.

Nobody knows what happened to it either. However, the missing prizes indeed existed and were on display at the previous SwordQuest tournaments.

It has long been speculated that Jack Tramiel was in possession of these prizes. Several people claim to have seen the sword hanging in his house. Now that he's gone, I wonder if we'll get a chance to find out if he actually owned them. It's certainly one of gaming's great mysteries.
 
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ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
The way I see it, I'm owed this prize.

When this game came out, I was given it for christmas by my aunt. I had opened the box to look at it, then moved on to other presents. In the chaos of everything, somehow the instruction manual was thrown out (I assume) if it was even in the box I really don't know.

When I went to play it, I was promptly greeted with what was basically the first (and only that I've ever seen) Atari cartridge DRM. You NEEDED the manual to even play the game! This was long before the internet of today. Basically NO way to play this game. As a kid I was pretty pissed.

Alas, because of their draconian DRM, i missed my chance of winning said prize. Therefore, give me my prize bitches. :colbert:
 

IndyColtsFan

Lifer
Sep 22, 2007
33,655
687
126
I can remember when the contest was announced in the early 80s and how excited I was. Then the crash hit and everything went south in a hurry. I really miss those days.
 

Doppel

Lifer
Feb 5, 2011
13,306
3
0
The way I see it, I'm owed this prize.

When this game came out, I was given it for christmas by my aunt. I had opened the box to look at it, then moved on to other presents. In the chaos of everything, somehow the instruction manual was thrown out (I assume) if it was even in the box I really don't know.

When I went to play it, I was promptly greeted with what was basically the first (and only that I've ever seen) Atari cartridge DRM. You NEEDED the manual to even play the game! This was long before the internet of today. Basically NO way to play this game. As a kid I was pretty pissed.

Alas, because of their draconian DRM, i missed my chance of winning said prize. Therefore, give me my prize bitches. :colbert:
Wow now THAT is a memory jog. Now that you mention it, this was not entirely uncommon was it? I swear I can remember loading up games back in the day and having to plug in some numbers based on a wheel or something that came with the game.

EDIT: found it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_protection
 

Fingolfin269

Lifer
Feb 28, 2003
17,948
31
91
I remember using a wheel for Pools of Radiance and other SSI D&D games but never for any Atari 2600 games. I was pretty young when we had a 2600 so the thought of copy protection, stealing games, etc. never crossed my mind. But now I wonder... what was the reason for DRM back then? Were people copying 2600 games?
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
I remember using a wheel for Pools of Radiance and other SSI D&D games but never for any Atari 2600 games. I was pretty young when we had a 2600 so the thought of copy protection, stealing games, etc. never crossed my mind. But now I wonder... what was the reason for DRM back then? Were people copying 2600 games?

http://www.gooddealgames.com/articles/SwordQuest.html

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"1. Your success in the play of this new Atari video adventure game depends on your ability to progress through the Earthworld Kingdom. Proper progress will uncover "number clues" on the screen that lead to "word clues" in the DC booklet which accompanies your cartridge. Part of the analysis and reasoning required in this contest will involve your making correct choices among these clues... specifically, while there are ten "word clues", only five are correct. One more clue, found in the DC booklet will be of help in determining which "word clues" are the correct ones.[/FONT]


This explains it, now that I read it, it wasn't so much DRM as part of what was required for the contest. I do explicitly remember that as soon as you hit start you needed to find a word from the manual to proceed, which made it impossible to play. (If I recall, I had Fireworld)