Aztec Challenge

Aztec Challenge is an original game designed and programmed by Robert Tegel Bonifacio in 1981 for the Atari 400/800. It was 6K total in size so it could work in a minimum of 8K RAM for the Atari 400 and available on cassette and 5 1/4" floppy. It was originally called 'The Bonifas' and the original theme was a robot running a futuristic obstacle course. It was first submitted to the Atari Program Exchange (APX) but non-exclusively picked up by COSMI instead when it was renamed 'Aztec Challenge' and redesigned to feature more detailed graphics and two-player simultaneous play. The redesigned game was released on floppy disk only as its code size exceeded that which could be played on the Atari 400. It was advertised by COSMI to run in 16K RAM as well just to be sure of good operation on limited systems. The original designer and programmer Robert Tegel Bonifacio is now President and CTO of Code Robert, LLC at http://CodeRobert.com located in Maui, Hawaii.

Both versions of Aztec Challenge relied upon the same basic gameplay and control structure. The game presented itself as a side-scroller, with the player's character running continuously from left to right as the background and path continuously scrolled. Control was limited to jumping at three different heights; holding the joystick down and pressing the button resulted in a low jump, holding the joystick up and pressing the button resulted in a high jump, and pressing the button by itself resulted in a medium jump.

The running speed of the character was constant; only the height of the jumps differed, although speed of the character gradually increased of its own accord with each passing level.

In two-player mode, each player controlled a different colored character with one character running in front of the other.

The object of the game was to cover as much distance as possible without succumbing to the assorted perils of the path. Obstacles included platforms and ceilings of differing heights, pits, spikes, platform steps of staggered heights, and other assorted pitfalls. Contact with any part of the landscape other than the path would result in the loss of a player's life and would return the player to the beginning of that level. The game's collision detection system had a reputation of being utterly unforgiving, often killing a character for the sake of a single pixel. Coupled with the inability to save a game in progress or resume from a specific level, this was the cause of much frustration.

Level changes were indicated by an overall color shift in the game, a very brief hiatus where the character was running on an unchallenging level surface, and a slight increase in the character's running speed.

Completing each level became a matter of determining what height jump to use and exactly when to use it, usually (especially in the higher levels) though a system of trial and error.

As Aztec Challenge was COSMI's first big seller, they eventually wanted a Commodore 64 version. Aztec Challenge was later redesigned and programmed by Paul Norman and published by Cosmi in 1983. While based on the original Atari version, the Commodore 64 version had 48K+ usable RAM to work with and a better graphics and sound chip, so that version benefited greatly by having more different levels and a very good sound track written by Paul Norman.

At the same time, COSMI did a moderate update to the original Atari 'Aztec Challenge' which featured slightly better graphics and an Instant Replay at the end of each level. This was also released in 1983.

This game was remade in 2003 by Paul Norman as Azteca: Queen of Quezalcoatl, It is only found on his website, DigiTTARIUS.

External links

• Video from the C64 Version on archive.org (no 27)