Lefloic Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 Hey guys,I'm looking for informations on SwordQuest, specifically Earthworld. I found a couple interviews with Micheal Rideout which are great but I'd like to find some stuff from the devs or even from Atari. I didn't find anything in the videogames history books I own or even in Atari Inc sadly. Do you know if anything like that even exist? Atari Age and Digital Press seem to be the best source about the game, but I'd like to find a bit more. Did Atari talked about it or in any history books?Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torr Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 (edited) There is nothing new to report. Trust me. About the only thing "new" is that I have an NTSC cartridge that has the PAL version's "solutions" but even that hasn't risen any interest. It's a shame, but Swordquest is dead... died about 30 years ago... Edited November 2, 2014 by Torr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timdu Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 2600 Connection has the most SWORDQUEST information: Archive of Adventure: http://www.2600connection.com/articles/swordquest_archive_of_adventure/swordquest_solutions.html SwordQuest Revisited: http://www.2600connection.com/articles/swordquest_revisited/swordquest_revisited.html SwordQuest FireWorld contest photos: http://www.2600connection.com/articles/swordquest_fireworld_contest/swordquest_fireworld_contest.html James Schweitzer interview: http://www.2600connection.com/interviews/james_schweitzer/interview_james_schweitzer.html John-Michael Battaglia interview: http://www.2600connection.com/interviews/john-michael_battaglia/interview_john-michael_battaglia.html comics http://www.2600connection.com/library/comics/comics.html ENJOY! Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IHATETHEBEARS Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 So have any of those T-shirts or special contest cartridges ever popped up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lefloic Posted November 2, 2014 Author Share Posted November 2, 2014 Thanks!I find it funny that pretty much nobody wrote about that in a book. It's such a great story!I guess I'll have to write it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IHATETHEBEARS Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 Thanks! I find it funny that pretty much nobody wrote about that in a book. It's such a great story! I guess I'll have to write it And the perfect ending would be finding the missing treasures and documenting the making of Airworld by one of our awesome homebrewers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Random Terrain Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 I found this old quote from one of the programmers: "Um, yeah. We got high and decided to just rip off existing arcade games. We thought it would be easier than coming up with actual adventure games. Now this was years before the minigame craze, so we were way ahead of our time. I credit the drugs. Drugs . . . drugs . . . drugs. I miss drugs." The quotation above is fake. Do not take drugs. Drugs make you lazy. Wait, I'm lazy, but I'm not on drugs. Maybe somebody is sneaking drugs into my food! OK, if I'm on not on drugs, this is proof that even thinking about drugs can make you paranoid. So don't do drugs and don't think about drugs. But check your food just in case. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro Rogue Posted November 4, 2014 Share Posted November 4, 2014 (edited) And the perfect ending would be finding the missing treasures and documenting the making of Airworld by one of our awesome homebrewers. There's nothing to find, they were returned to the Franklin Mint. All the other nonsense mentioned over the years are just rumors and myths. Thanks! I find it funny that pretty much nobody wrote about that in a book. It's such a great story! I guess I'll have to write it ataribook.com Edited November 4, 2014 by Retro Rogue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAC-MAN-RED Posted November 4, 2014 Share Posted November 4, 2014 And the perfect ending would be finding the missing treasures and documenting the making of Airworld by one of our awesome homebrewers. I have a titlescreen all ready for Airworld. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/169238-free-sprites-for-the-taking/page-17?do=findComment&comment=2840333 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lefloic Posted November 4, 2014 Author Share Posted November 4, 2014 ataribook.com I'd have to look again but I have the book and didn't come across anything about Swordquest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buyatari Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 There's nothing to find, they were returned to the Franklin Mint. All the other nonsense mentioned over the years are just rumors and myths. ataribook.com Were they? You can't squash an old rumor with a new one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro Rogue Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 Were they? You can't squash an old rumor with a new one. And you trying to frame what I said as a rumor doesn't make it one. They were returned, we have verification from Manny Gerard himself. Swordquest was an initiative from three separate (then) Warner subsidiaries. Atari Inc., DC Comics and the Franklin Mint. Each of those owned their respective parts of the project. Just as the remaining artwork remained with DC, the remaining prizes remained under The Franklin Mint. Atari never owned either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
high voltage Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 Airworld on 5200 from way back? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buyatari Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 And you trying to frame what I said as a rumor doesn't make it one. They were returned, we have verification from Manny Gerard himself. Swordquest was an initiative from three separate (then) Warner subsidiaries. Atari Inc., DC Comics and the Franklin Mint. Each of those owned their respective parts of the project. Just as the remaining artwork remained with DC, the remaining prizes remained under The Franklin Mint. Atari never owned either. I'm unsure how the DC comics deal was broken down. DC comics did have a mutually beneficial reason for putting their comics into the hands of this demographic of America. However, no matter of the agreement we do know for a fact that the Swordquest Atari Age cover painting done by DC comics George Perez was kept by Atari. What exactly did Manny Gerald provide as proof that these items were returned? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro Rogue Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 (edited) However, no matter of the agreement we do know for a fact that the Swordquest Atari Age cover painting done by DC comics George Perez was kept by Atari. No, apparently you don't know. That makes zero sense. The AtariAge covers themselves (the completed covers) were done by and owned by the Atari Age magazine (an Atari subsidiary), they own all work for hire imagery produced for these covers plus the actual completed covers themselves. 1) You're confusing an individual (Steve Morgenstern) keeping (being given) the original asset painting done for an Atari publication as "Atari keeping the painting." Steve Morgenstern is not Atari Inc. 2) Nor is this a case of Atari keeping "DC artwork," this was again artwork produced specifically for Atari Age magazine not Atari or Morgenstern keeping a Swordquest comic cover. That's how it works at magazines and publications, art assets for use in the project were either delivered via a professional photograph of the work or in some cases the original painting is delivered to be photographed and then used in the actual laid out cover to be printed. In the case of the source painting being delivered, the artist had the option of having said artwork returned (or in some cases set up those terms in the first place). Many of the original work for hire artists who did box covers and such for Atari, such as Cliff Spohn, also chose to keep and own their original paintings. (As did the artist that did our two new covers). They do not however own the IP in the painting itself, which is why some of the artists got in trouble in more recent times by trying to sell reproductions of their paintings such as Steve Hendriks and his allatariart.com venture back in 2011. Which brings us to DC comics. Even though are all under the direction of Warner for this project, Atari and DC did licensing agreements with each other for the Swordquest production, just like when any collective subsidiaries of a corporation do business. They treat themselves as unrelated businesses even though they're joined financially to a parent (and are receiving direction from that parent). DC Comics, as creator, publisher and owner of the comics, licensed the Atari related IP (Swordquest) to be able to produce them. That was the relationship. Hence, DC owns all the comics and their artwork and related original assets. However, DC could not for instance reproduce these comics without going to Atari SA/Atari Interactive and licensing the Swordquest IP again. What exactly did Manny Gerald provide as proof that these items were returned? Manny went over that entire transitional time (July through September) period in detail with us, which included the in progress projects (many of which Warner kept), assets splits, etc. This timeline also included the Swordquest contest. What he had to say was independently verified (see our vetting process here) by both Atari Inc. and Atari Corp. people we interviewed separately as well. He also balked at the idea of the Jack Tramiel claim, considering it humorous (as he did a lot of the claims floating around about Atari over the years that we repeated), starting again point blank they weren't Atari's or Jack's to keep in the first place and that they had been sent back to the Franklin Mint regardless. Unless you're accusing Manny and the others we interviewed as being in some sort of conspiracy and colluding with now dead Jack Tramiel, which is just as silly. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got two articles to write for both Retro Gamer and Retro magazine due this week, and quite frankly I don't feel like spending more time discussing this in detail with someone who brushes off our methodology used in well over a decade of very serious and organized research by Curt and Myself as "rumors." We will be revisiting some of this in the second book however for anyone else that's interested. Edited November 9, 2014 by Retro Rogue 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buyatari Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Just because something was supposed to be returned doesn't mean it was. Cliff Spohn told me himself that several of his paintings which were supposed to be returned to him never were. Indy 500 was supposed to be a gift for his father. After the original was copied he raced in to get it before anything happened to it but it simply vanished and no one claimed to know a thing. I didn't read this interview but your answers to the question are vague. Did he actually return them himself or does he just assume it was done because that was what was supposed to happen? I'm not saying he lying or even wrong. If there was ever an object that was supposed to be returned but was lost in the shuffle this would be it. I have no reason to doubt what he says is true but I have no reason to doubt ex-Atari employee who claim to have these these objects in recent times either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Adam - we have two independent sources in management at Atari who confirm the sword quest prizes were not retained. Manny Gerard who despite there being CEOs at star was really Warner's shadow CEO there, he confirms that the items were by Franklin Mint and were returned. The Tramiels also verified that the prizes were not part of the inventory of assets purchased. These weren't like a stray prototype or a artist game box painting, they were solid gold objects of high value, not the kind of things that would've just fallen through the cracks or were taken home by an employee. These were guarded where ever they were displayed and kept track of. Maybe we can find a smelting report of their eventual destruction if that will put this to rest, but to think a couple of $25,000 prizes and a $50,000 prize just managed to slip through the cracks is a hard sell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Also the only ex-employee I know who ever made a claim that the Tramiels had the prizes was Hans Martin Krober who claimed he saw them at Jack Tramiels home, so if that's the source that's not a reliable stance without evidence of they being there and they're continued existence. If it's not him and it's another ex-employee, then simply have a photo taken of the items and post it for examination to see if the items are in fact the original sq prizes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhd Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Maybe we can find a smelting report of their eventual destruction if that will put this to rest, but to think a couple of $25,000 prizes and a $50,000 prize just managed to slip through the cracks is a hard sell. So the Franklin Mint did not "repurpose" these prizes for some other business purpose or just sell them at auction? That is unfortunate that they were (presumably) destroyed. That would leave the Chalice as the only surviving contest prize. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buyatari Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 Also the only ex-employee I know who ever made a claim that the Tramiels had the prizes was Hans Martin Krober who claimed he saw them at Jack Tramiels home, so if that's the source that's not a reliable stance without evidence of they being there and they're continued existence. If it's not him and it's another ex-employee, then simply have a photo taken of the items and post it for examination to see if the items are in fact the original sq prizes. I thought it was a different employee and I'll send you a pm of who I thought it was. Perhaps we can find where this started. Were did the first rumor surface? DP message boards? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lefloic Posted November 11, 2014 Author Share Posted November 11, 2014 Adam - we have two independent sources in management at Atari who confirm the sword quest prizes were not retained. Manny Gerard who despite there being CEOs at star was really Warner's shadow CEO there, he confirms that the items were by Franklin Mint and were returned. The Tramiels also verified that the prizes were not part of the inventory of assets purchased. These weren't like a stray prototype or a artist game box painting, they were solid gold objects of high value, not the kind of things that would've just fallen through the cracks or were taken home by an employee. These were guarded where ever they were displayed and kept track of. Maybe we can find a smelting report of their eventual destruction if that will put this to rest, but to think a couple of $25,000 prizes and a $50,000 prize just managed to slip through the cracks is a hard sell. Thank you very much Curt! It's a bit sad to think that they are probably destroyed but reality isn't always as exciting as those rumors. This story needs to be closed once and for all. It's a really intersting one I think and better that the game on itself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timdu Posted November 15, 2014 Share Posted November 15, 2014 The earliest account of the Tramiel fireplace story I could find online is from a RGVC post dated 4/13/98: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.video.classic/sword$20jack$20fireplace/rec.games.video.classic/hsDxa89Oy5c/3aBeDM27lqYJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted November 15, 2014 Share Posted November 15, 2014 The earliest account of the Tramiel fireplace story I could find online is from a RGVC post dated 4/13/98: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/rec.games.video.classic/sword$20jack$20fireplace/rec.games.video.classic/hsDxa89Oy5c/3aBeDM27lqYJ Sure looks like someone just talking out of their ass, seems to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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