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Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

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Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Package illustration by William L. Eaken
Developer(s)LucasArts
Publisher(s)LucasArts
Designer(s)Hal Barwood
Noah Falstein
Writer(s)Hal Barwood[5]
Composer(s)Clint Bajakian
Peter McConnell
Michael Z. Land
EngineSCUMM
iMUSE
Platform(s)DOS, Mac OS (7.1 - 9.2.2), Amiga, FM Towns, Wii, Steam
Release
June 1992
  • Original release:
    June 1992[1] Enhanced edition:
    May 1993[2]
    Wii:
    Steam:
    July 8, 2009[4]
Genre(s)Graphic adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a point-and-click adventure game by LucasArts originally released in 1992.[1] Almost a year later, the title was reissued as an enhanced "talkie" edition on CD-ROM with full voice acting and digitized sound effects.[6] This version was released both as part of Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings and as a Steam title in 2009.[4][7] Fate of Atlantis was the seventh game to use the script language SCUMM and is widely regarded as a classic of its genre.[8][7] The title features three unique paths for the player to select, influencing story development, gameplay, and puzzles.[9]

Gameplay

Fate of Atlantis is based on the SCUMM story system by Ron Gilbert, Aric Wilmunder, Brad P. Taylor, and Vince Lee, thus employing similar gameplay to other adventure titles developed by LucasArts in the 1980s and 1990s.[10] The player explores the game's static environments while interacting with sprite-based characters and objects by means of commands constructed with a number of predetermined verbs.[11] Conversations with NPCs unfold in a series of selectable questions and answers.[12]

Early on, the player is given the choice between three different game modes, each with unique cutscenes, puzzles to solve, and locations to visit: the Team Path, the Wits Path, and the Fists Path.[9] In the Team Path, Indiana Jones is joined by his partner Sophia Hapgood who will provide support throughout the game.[9] The Wits Path features an abundance of complex puzzles while the Fists Path focuses heavily on action sequences and fist fighting, the latter of which is completely optional in the other two modes.[9] Atypical for LucasArts titles, it is possible for the player character to die at certain points in the game, though dangerous situations were designed to be easily recognizable.[13] A score system, the Indy Quotient (IQ) Points, keeps track of the puzzles solved, the obstacles overcome and the important objects found.[13] The maximum number of IQ Points is 1000 and can only be achieved by clearing all three of the game's paths.[13]

Plot

The story of Fate of Atlantis is set in 1939, on the eve of World War II.[14] The adventure begins with Indiana Jones looking for a small statue at the request of a certain Mr. Smith. Together, they open the horned figurine with another part the blond man brought,[15] revealing a sparkling metal bead inside. Smith then pulls out a gun and escapes with the two artifacts, though he loses his coat in the process. The ID inside reveals the man to be Klaus Kerner, an agent from the Third Reich.[16] In another pocket of the coat, Marcus Brody finds an old article about an expedition in Iceland on which Indy collaborated with Sophia Hapgood who has since given up archeology to become a psychic.[17] Fearing that she might be Kerner's next target, Indy travels to New York in order to warn her and to find out more about the mysterious statue.[18] There, he interrupts her lecture on Atlantis,[19] and the two return to Sophia's apartment, where they discover that Kerner ransacked her office in search for Atlantean artifacts, though he could not get the necklace she always wears.[20] Sophia owns another of the shiny beads, now identified as the mystical orichalcum, and places it in the medallion's mouth, invoking the spirit of the Atlantean god Nur-Ab-Sal.[21] She explains that a Nazi scientist called Dr. Hans Ubermann is searching for the power of Atlantis to use it as an energy source for warfare.[22] Sophia then gets a telepathic message from Nur-Ab-Sal, instructing them to find the Lost Dialogue of Plato, the Hermocrates, that will guide them to the city.[23]

Indy and Sophia in the Labyrinth of Knossos

After gathering information in Iceland, Tikal, and the Azores, Indy and Sophia eventually find the book in a collection of Barnett College.[24] Correcting Plato's "tenfold error", a mistranslation from Egyptian to Greek, the document pinpoints the location of Atlantis in the Mediterranean, 300 miles from Greece instead of 3000 as mentioned in the Critias.[25][26] It also says that in order to gain access to the Lost City and its colonies, three special stones are needed.[27] At this point, the player has to choose between the Team, Wits, or Fists Path, which influences the way the stones are acquired. In all three paths, Sophia gets captured by the Nazis, and Indy makes his way to the underwater entrance of Atlantis near Thera.[28]

The individual scenarios converge at this point and Indy starts to explore the Lost City. After a series of puzzles, he saves Sophia from her prison and they make their way to the center of Atlantis, where her medallion guides them to the home of Nur-Ab-Sal. The Atlantean god takes full possession of Sophia[29] and it is only by a trick that Indy rids her of the necklace and destroys it, thus freeing her. They venture further even deeper and eventually reach a large colossus the inhabitants of the city built to transform themselves into gods. Using ten orichalcum beads at a time would enable them to control the water with the powers gained, keeping the sea level down to prevent an impending catastrophe.[30] Unknowingly, Indy starts the machine with the stones, upon which Kerner, Ubermann, and the Nazi troops invade the place. Ubermann wants to use Indy as a test subject, but Kerner steps onto the platform first, claiming himself to be most suitable for godhood. Just as Ubermann wants to start the machine, Indy mentions Plato's tenfold error, which convinces Kerner to use one bead instead of ten. He is then turned into a horribly deformed and horned creature, and falls into the lava.[30] Indy is forced to step on the platform next but threatens Ubermann to send him straight to hell once he is a god. Fearing Jones' wrath, Ubermann uses the machine on himself, feeding it one hundred beads. He is turned into a green ethereal being before vanishing completely. Alternate bad endings see one of the protagonists undergoing the second transformation if Indy could not convince Ubermann to use the machine instead or if Sophia was not freed from her prison or Nur-Ab-Sal's influence. In the good ending, Atlantis succumbs to the eruption of the still active volcano as the duo flees from the city. The final scene depicts Indy kissing Sophia on top of the U-boat, to comfort himself for the lack of any evidence for their discovery.[31]

Development

At the time a sequel to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure was decided, most of the staff of Lucasfilm Games was occupied with other projects such as The Secret of Monkey Island and The Dig.[32][33] Designer Hal Barwood had only created two computer games on his own before, but was put in charge of the project because of his experience as a producer and writer of feature films.[32][33] The company originally wanted him to create a game from Indiana Jones and the Monkey King/Garden of Life, a rejected script written by Chris Columbus for the third movie[33] that would have seen Indy looking for Chinese artifacts in Africa.[34][33] However, Barwood thought the idea was substandard, having been declined for a reason, and requested to create an original story for the game instead.[33][35] Along with Noah Falstein, he visited the library of Skywalker Ranch to look for possible MacGuffins.[33] They eventually decided upon Atlantis when they looked at a diagram of the city in a Time Life volume, which depicted it as built in three concentric circles.[35]

Writing the story and the actual script involved extensive research on a plethora of pseudo-scientific books.[35] Inspiration for the mythology in the game, like the description of the city and the appearance of the metal orichalcum, was primarily drawn from Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, and from Ignatius Loyola Donnelly's book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World that revived interest in the myth during the nineteenth century.[32] The magical properties of orichalcum and the Atlantean technology depicted in the game were partly adopted from Russian spiritualist Helena Blavatsky's publications on the force vril, and the giant colossus producing gods was based on a power-concentrating device called "firestone" formerly described by American psychic Edgar Cayce.[32]

Once the rough outline of the story was completed, the team began to conceive the puzzles and to design the environments.[32] Barwood made the Atlantean artifacts and architecture resemble those of the Minoan civilization, while the game in turn implies that the Minoans were inspired by Atlantis.[36] The majority of the 256-color backgrounds in the game were mostly mouse-drawn with Deluxe Paint, though roughly ten percent were paintings scanned at the end of the development cycle.[36] Character animations were fully rotoscoped with video footage of Steve Purcell for Indy's and Collette Michaud for Sophia's motions.[33] The art team consisted of three people only and was sometimes consulted by Barwood to help out with the more graphical puzzles in the game, such as the broken door robot in Atlantis.[36] The addition of three different paths was suggested by Falstein and added about six more months of development time, mainly because of all the extra dialogue that had to be implemented for Indy and Sophia.[33] Altogether, the game took more than two years to finish, starting in spring of 1990.[35] The only aspect Barwood was not involved in at all was the production of voices for the CD-ROM version, which was instead handled by Tamlynn Barra.[33]

The package illustration was drawn by lead artist William L. Eaken within three days and was inspired by the Indiana Jones movie posters of Drew Struzan.[33][36] During development of the game, William Messner-Loebs and Dan Barry wrote a Dark Horse Comics series based on Barwood's and Falstein's story, then titled Indiana Jones and the Keys to Atlantis.[37] In an interview, Bill Eaken mentioned hour-long meetings of the team trying to come up with a better title than Fate of Atlantis, though they could never think of one.[36] The final name was Barwood's idea who first had to convince the company's management and the marketing team not to simply call the game Indy's Next Adventure.[33]

LucasArts developed a port of the enhanced edition for the Sega CD[38] but the release was eventually cancelled, allegedly because The Secret of Monkey Island failed to be much of a commercial success on the platform.[39] The arcade-style game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: The Action Game designed by Attention To Detail was released almost simultaneously with its adventure counterpart and loosely follows its plot.[40]

Legacy

File:Ironphoenixhitler.gif
An animation for Iron Phoenix created by Anson Jew

After the release of the game, a story for a supposed successor in the adventure genre was conceived by Joe Pinney, Hal Barwood, Bill Stoneham and Aric Wilmunder.[41] Titled Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix, it was set after World War II and featured Nazis seeking refuge in Bolivia, trying to resurrect Adolf Hitler with the philosophers' stone.[35] The game was in development for 15 months before it was showcased at the ECTS.[35] However, when the German coordinators discovered how extensively the game dealt with Neo-Nazism, they informed LucasArts about the difficulty of marketing the game in their country.[34] As Germany was an important overseas market for adventure games, LucasArts feared that the lower revenues would not recoup development costs and subsequently cancelled the game.[34] The plot was later adapted into a four-part comic book series by Lee Marrs,[41] published monthly from December 1994 to March 1995.[42][43] In an interview, Barwood later mentioned the development team should have thought about the story more thoroughly beforehand, calling it insensitive and not regretting the cancellation of the title.[34]

Another follow-up game called Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny that revolved around the Spear of Longinus was planned.[34] Development was outsourced to a small Canadian studio, but eventually stopped as LucasArts did not have experience with the supervision of external teams.[34] Elaine Lee loosely reworked the story into another four-part comic series, released from April to July 1995.[44][45]

Reception

At the time of its release, Fate of Atlantis was met with considerable critical acclaim, being called the best adventure game of the year by Game Informer, Computer Game Review, Games Magazine and Game Players Magazine.[2] A review in Dragon Magazine #193 called it a must-buy and gave it five out of five stars, commending the title's replay value and many cutscenes.[46] In 2008, Retro Gamer Magazine praised it for being "a masterful piece of storytelling, and a spellbinding adventure".[33] Based on six reviews, GameRankings calculates an average score of 90% for the game.[47] The title is considered a genre classic and became a million-unit seller across all platforms it was released on.[33]

References

  1. ^ a b "20th Anniversary". LucasArts Entertainment Company (via Internet Archive). Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  2. ^ a b LucasArts Entertainment Company (22 April 1993). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Talkie Demo. LucasArts Entertainment Company.
  3. ^ a b c "Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings Release Summary". GameSpot. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  4. ^ a b "Back by Popular Demand, LOOM, The Dig, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Star Wars Battlefront II Headline List of Games Soon to be Available via Direct Download!". LucasArts Entertainment Company. 6 July 2009. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  5. ^ "Hal Credits". Finite Arts. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  6. ^ "About Us". Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  7. ^ a b Brett Todd (22 June 2009). "Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  8. ^ Levi Buchanan (20 May 2008). "Top 10 Indiana Jones Games". IGN.com. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  9. ^ a b c d Shepard, Mark (1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Manual. LucasArts Entertainment Company. p. 6.
  10. ^ Shepard, Mark (1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Manual. LucasArts Entertainment Company. p. 14.
  11. ^ Shepard, Mark (1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Manual. LucasArts Entertainment Company. p. 3.
  12. ^ Shepard, Mark (1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Manual. LucasArts Entertainment Company. p. 7.
  13. ^ a b c Shepard, Mark (1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Manual. LucasArts Entertainment Company. p. 11.
  14. ^ "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Back Cover". MobyGames. 3 January 2000. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
  15. ^ LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Klaus Kerner: ...did you find a lock to match my key?
  16. ^ LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Indiana Jones: Klaus Kerner, huh? Marcus Brody: Good Lord, Indy, the man's some sort of agent from the Third Reich. What does a SPY want with a PHONY STATUE?
  17. ^ LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Marcus Brody: Look what else our friend was carrying, an old copy of National Archaeology, and there you are in ICELAND. Indiana Jones: Yeah...field supervisor for the Jastro expedition, my first real job. Marcus Brody: Who's the woman? Indiana Jones: Sophia Hapgood. She was my assistant, a spoiled rich kid from Boston rebelling against her family. Marcus Brody: Where is she now? Indiana Jones: She gave up archaeology to become a PSYCHIC.
  18. ^ LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Marcus Brody: Indy, Kerner found YOU, what if he finds HER? We should WARN the woman. Indiana Jones: You're right. I want to know more about that statue!
  19. ^ LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Sophia Hapgood: Here, my friends, is ATLANTIS as it might have appeared in its heyday...glorious...prosperous...socially and technically advanced beyond our wildest dreams! [...] However it happened, on that fateful day when proud Atlantis sank beneath the waves...or perhaps it was a volcanic eruption, and SOMETHING remains even now.
  20. ^ LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Sophia Hapgood: Kerner missed the grand prize... Indiana Jones: What? Sophia Hapgood: ...my necklace.
  21. ^ LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Sophia Hapgood: Watch closely. The bead is made of ORICHALCUM, the mystery metal first mentioned by Plato. Now I'll place it in the medallion's mouth. Did you see that? Indiana Jones: Yeah. Creepy. Is your electric bill paid up? Sophia Hapgood: That was Nur-Ab-Sal. His spirit is close!
  22. ^ LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Sophia Hapgood: Listen to this... "Germans claim victory in worldwide race to smash the uranium atom. Chief scientist Dr. Hans Ubermann announces plan to harness new sources of energy for the Third Reich." Indiana Jones: So? Practical results are years away. Sophia Hapgood: Of course they are. That's why they're looking for the POWER OF ATLANTIS.
  23. ^ LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Sophia Hapgood: Shhhh! ...I'm getting something! Nur-Ab-Sal SPEAKS...he bids us find the...what...a book...yes...the LOST DIALOGUE OF PLATO!
  24. ^ LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Indiana Jones: I believe BARNETT COLLEGE owns the Ashkenazy/Dunlop/Pearce/Sprague/Ward collection.
  25. ^ LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Hermocrates: In shame I hereby recant the time and place whereof Critias spoke. In rendering Egyptian into Greek he made a tenfold error. Instead of lying 3,000 miles hence, Atlantis may well have been 30,000 miles away. Or perhaps it was less than 300 miles from our own shores.
  26. ^ LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Indiana Jones: Didn't you notice Plato's tenfold numbering error? Sophia Hapgood: So he got his dates mixed up, why is that so important? Indiana Jones: Plato's error means distances could ALSO be wrong. Sophia Hapgood: So what if they are? Indiana Jones: If Plato is right, Atlantis is in the MEDITERRANEAN. Sophia Hapgood: You mean-- 300 miles from Greece instead of 3,000. Indiana Jones: Yes! The cradle of civilization. Sophia Hapgood: You could be right. He once told me he came from the middle of the world. That's what "Mediterranean" means!
  27. ^ LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Hermocrates: Gates of the kingdom opened only with the aid of special stones. At many outposts, a Sunstone sufficed [...] At the Greater Colony a Moonstone was also needed [...] To approach Atlantis itself a Worldstone was required as well [...]
  28. ^ LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Alain Trottier: More important, I know where to find an entrance to the Lost City itself. [...] It's on the island of Thera, South of Greece. [...] You've read about the Lesser Colony in Plato's Lost Dialogue, have you not? [...] Of course. I'm convinced Thera is the Lesser Colony and I believe it's the way in.
  29. ^ LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Nur-Ab-Sal: The woman that WAS is now THE KING THAT SHALL EVER BE! Address me accordingly, please.
  30. ^ a b LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Hermocrates: ...as the waters rose around their city, the Kings of Atlantis, one after another, sought to hold off fate. Knowing mortal men would never rule the sea, they planned a huge colossus, which by use of orichalcum, ten beads at a time, would make them like the gods themselves. Nur-Ab-Sal was one such king. He it was, say the wise men of Egypt, who first put men in the colossus, making many freaks of nature at times when the celestial spheres were well aligned.
  31. ^ LucasArts Entertainment Company (June 1992). Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (DOS). LucasArts Entertainment Company. Indiana Jones: You know, a lot of my discoveries seem like tall tales, even to me. At least there's some evidence this time. Sophia Hapgood: Then again...maybe not... [...] What was that for? Indiana Jones: To ease the pain.
  32. ^ a b c d e Hal Barwood (January 1991). "Afterword". Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis #1. Dark Horse Comics: 28–29.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  33. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Mike Bevan (2008). "The Making of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis". Retro Gamer Magazine (51). Imagine Publishing Ltd.: 44–49.
  34. ^ a b c d e f Hans Frank (18 July 2007). "Interview: Hal Barwood". Adventure-Treff. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  35. ^ a b c d e f Eddie Mishan (10 October 2004). "Interview with Hal Barwood". The Indy Experience (via Internet Archive). Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  36. ^ a b c d e "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: Developer Reflections". The International House of Mojo. Mixnmojo. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
  37. ^ Jeffrey Lang (1991). "Indiana Jones at Dark Horse" (PDF). Amazing Heroes (189). Fantagraphics Books: 28–33.
  38. ^ "Just Review It: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis". Sega Visions (December/January 1994). Infotainment World: 58. 1994.
  39. ^ Jo Ellen Reiss (2006). "The Adventurer". LucasArts Entertainment Company. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  40. ^ Kim Lemon (2 July 2004). "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: The Action Game". Lemon Amiga. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
  41. ^ a b Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix, no. 1 of 4, p. page 1 (1 December 1994). Dark Horse Comics.
  42. ^ "Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix #1 (of 4)". Dark Horse Comics. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  43. ^ "Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix #4 (of 4)". Dark Horse Comics. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  44. ^ "Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny #1 (of 4)". Dark Horse Comics. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  45. ^ "Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny #4 (of 4)". Dark Horse Comics. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  46. ^ Hartley, Patricia, Kirk Lesser (May 1993). "The Role of Computers". Dragon Magazine (193): 60–61.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  47. ^ "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis for PC". Game Rankings. Retrieved 30 March 2009.
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