Raiders of the Lost Ark

"Did Pablo Picasso do these graphics?"

Another great movie Atari was entrusted with translating to the 2600. This game was released the same year as E.T. the Atari game and I think was designed by the same person.

Story/Concept 7: Indiana Jones (you) must find the location and a way to get into the Temple of the Ancients. There you must find and retrieve important artifacts essential to help find the lost Ark of the Covenant. Using a special artifact in the secret map room at a certain time, Indi must find the location to the Well of Souls which contains the Lost Ark and then dig up the Ark just like in the movie.

Graphics 1: The look of this game reminds me of a conversation in a movie between two people about a painting. It went something like this:
person 1: This work is so disturbing.
person 2: It sure disturbs me.
person 1: She was asking for help.
person 2: With her art lessons?
What is on display here would have art critics swooning. It had me gagging. Let's start with shieks that look like gas ranges, a giant spider that looks more like a giant # sign. Then there are the thieves that look like hats with feet. A dark clad figure that seems to be a hat and cape with a bad case of the shakes. The most disturbing of them all has got to be the raving lunatic in the black market place that looks like a nonmoving disembodied head. Wonder what the guy who made this game was trying to express there? Did I also mention that in both the first screen and the very last Indi is lowered and raised on a ladder in the Well of Souls. The first screen shows the Ark briefly. If you find the Ark it hovers above you in the last screen. The ladder's length is supposed to be your score. You've heard of portrait of ''Woman Descending Staircase'' well this is ''Indi Descending On Ladder''. Perhaps it's a symbol of our journey through life juxtaposed with our search for a higher power. Hey man, who knew how deep and artistic this game could be!
The only things in this game that look as they should are the snakes in the opening screen, the dirt pile at the bottom of the Well of Souls that slowly disappears as you dig for the Ark and the Ark itself.

Music/Audio 5: Some of the great Raiders movie theme music is played in the Well of Souls screen at the beginning and end. Other than that it's your standard beeps and whistles.

Gameplay 7: This game is an early version of the kind of puzzle-solver that was seen in text adventures at the time and later role-playing games that we see now.
This game is definitely involving, with puzzles that do, refreshingly, harken back to the movie like the search for the map room and what you do there. The game, however, does break from the movie so it's not at all predictable.
Thank goodness there is some action too as swinging from mesa to mesa can be a little challenging. To actually get to the Well itself requires a little ingenuity and some terrific hand-eye coordination.
I must warn you, however, that the manual is a must-have. Not only are the hints inside important for solving the puzzles but the graphics are so bad you often won't know what you're supposed to be looking at. Also, having to use a second joystick to access your inventory can be a pain.

Replay Value 4: One of the problems with a game like this that once the mystery is solved there's no real reason to do it all over again. The only thing that might bring you back is a hidden ''Easter egg'' in the game that if found, will make your score higher (the ladder gets higher) and reveal a secret set of initials.
The only other reasons to come back are to see if you still have the skill to get back in the Well and to marvel at the impressionistic genius on display here.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/02, Updated 05/20/02