Game Discussion of the Week: SwordQuest series

Added and stickied.

Sword Quest was such an awesome project for its time and is a very early example (possibly the first) of competitive or MLG gaming (as in, competing in video games for a prize), so for that fact alone it deserves a place in video game history. The prizes were fucking incredible, probably some of the most expensive non-cash prizes ever awarded for any game-related contest or draw (each worth $25k, the sword being worth $50k). It sucks that only one of the prizes (the chalice) still exists. From what I've read, the guy who won the talisman had it melted down and recycled to pay his taxes, and the sword and the philosopher's stone were both recycled before their contests were ever held (because Atari went bankrupt around that time). Nobody knows what became of the crown; according to legend, the contest for Waterworld (the last Sword Quest game to be released) was indeed held, but no information about it was ever made public.

The real treasure, though, is SwordQuest Airworld, the final SwordQuest game which was never finished. According to rumor, one or two prototype cartridges may exist, which would make it the rarest Atari 2600 game in existence. And seeing as how the current rarest un-boxed Atari 2600 game (Red Sea Crossing) usually sells for over $10,000 whenever it appears on auction sites, Airworld would probably fetch a fortune for anyone lucky enough to discover a copy.

Taking inflation into account, the grand total amount of money spent on the entire Sword Quest project (including the prizes) was probably several million dollars, which was FAR more than what was spent on any other game series at the time. Atari was really taking a big gamble with this series, and clearly it wasn't organized or handled as well as game events are handled today, seeing as how they ended one of the contests by simply having the entrees write a list of all the things they liked about the game, and Atari selected a winner based on that. Ridiculous!

Overall SwordQuest was just a radical project which would unfortunately never happen today because of the internet making such competitions impossible. It should be noted that Mark actually owns a copy of the rare Water World and reviewed it many years ago.

I highly recommend watching the AVGN episode on Sword Quest that Balder linked. It's one of my personal favorite AVGN episodes, even though it's one of the few episodes where he doesn't get angry, and a lot of the speculation James references in the video has since been debunked. Still a great episode though.

The whole story behind it is awesome, but I must say that the games themselves, as far as 2600 games go, look average at best.

It won't be happening again, at least not with Atari, that's for sure. They're to busy with creating crypto-currencies and the Coleco Chameleon 2.0.

I'd be amazed and would forgive them for all their sins against their fans.

If there's one channel that never sold out, it's Cinemassacre. I'd even argue that Cinemassacre is better than CGR these days. Mark lost his flame this last year. Just complaining to his fans all the time, even in his premium products.

(late, but I don't care)

1: What's wrong with talking about games CGR hasn't covered?

2: Mark DID talk about this series already in his review of Swordquest Waterworld years ago: