Swordquest idea

[Lord Thag]

Ok, well all know the dreadful swordquest series, right? Most people would rather eat boiled slug, or smear themselves with moldy gopher poo before playing these incomprehensible instruments of torture, right?

 

Naturally! So why am I bringing this up?

 

Here's the deal. I was doing one of my occasional 'sift through the collection and play stuff that I never play' days, and I popped in Earthworld. While pretty pointless, I must admit that some of the 'action sequences' are fairly fun, and I kind of like the puzzle solving thing AS A CONCEPT, but not at all in it's actual execution. This got me to thinking why these games are so hated. The answer, obviously, is that all of the clues that you find are arrived at by chance and endless, mind-numbing trial and error. There is no 'problem sloving', only random item placement ad nauseum right?

 

Here's my idea. Since the solutions to all three games have been released, what if someone 'reverse engineered' a series of puzzles and clues based on the actual correct solutions, and based on the mythos that the games were supposedly based on (zodiac, tree of life etc.)? That way, if you were to occasionally pop one of these games in, there would be, umm, a POINT.

 

Here's what I mean:

 

Lets say to get a clue in earthworld (I'm making this one up) you have to put the shield and the ring in, oh, lets say pisces. I could do a clue like this:

 

'In lightless depths of memory entwined

A darkness circles 'round the mind

Worn by hand in shadowed places

For surcease of woe, clear coucil bears

A warding against the darts of innocence'

 

Or something like. With a little group effort, we might be able to do graphical clues, or even put together a printable booklet. I think, if you actually had something to work with, something to actually solve, the games might actually be playable.

 

What do you all think? Would anyone be interested in this, or should I just go eat an nice bowl of boiled slug?

[FIXcoffeehouse]

Awesome idea, I'm totally obsessed with swordquest (who knows why, maybe the concept) My husband is right now recreating the contest items for me (the sword, talisman, etc.) so I can be like J.T. and hang it over my fire..lol

[Shaggy the Atarian]

Awesome idea, I'm totally obsessed with swordquest (who knows why, maybe the concept) My husband is right now recreating the contest items for me (the sword, talisman, etc.) so I can be like J.T. and hang it over my fire..lol

 

Now that's dedication.

 

I think it would be great to have a sort of Swordquest-"Enhanced" series. Make it so you don't need the comic book and as LT mentioned, give the game a point. Of course I'd like to see a reiteration of it done on the 7800, but the 2600 would be just as nice to see it on.