I'm a huge Indiana Jones fan and this game here is what started it all. When I got my Atari as a kid my friend gave this to me and without the manual. I was so obsessed with figuring this game out and having no clue who indiana jones even was. I wrote a letter to Atari asking for the instructions for the game. In the mean time I borrowed the Raiders movie book from the library and read it over and over. Then I rented the movie and watched it. Having learned the plot and the story I was able to figure out and beat the game somehow. That's when I received a hand typed 2 page detailed description and instructions for beating the game from some awesome guy over at Atari. I was 9 then and Indiana Jones is still my favorite!
That's really cool that you got a reply from Atari regarding the manual. It's a fun game. I was lucky to buy it new and still have it, but I imagine it would be almost unplayable without the manual.
In the end, it took my subscription to “Electronic Games” magazine in 1983 to beat the game. Fortunately there were tons of letters and tips in those magazines to help out.
I got this game in a lot of loose cartridges at a swap meet back in the late 80s. Having no access to the manual and having never seen the movie I just assumed the game was broken and gave up after repeated deaths to the snake and from falling off the cliff. I didn't even know you could do things with the items using the second controller. I think that like E.T. this game is just too ambitious for the hardware.
This was by far, the best game ever created for the 2600. And it was way ahead of it's time. We had about 20 people crammed in one room. People took turns on the sticks while everybody shouted out, "try this', "go there".
It was refreshing to see someone who shares the same view as me. I love Indiana Jones but I can't get into the game due to how confusing things are when it comes to what you're supposed to do, but like you said, it was impressive from a technical standpoint. I never thought of it as a hybrid with point and click adventure elements but I can see that.
My cousin doesn't like games with time, and this has a timer that means you have to be in the map room at a certain time, or stand around and wait. I don't remember how long the cycle was. They say Adventure was based on a text adventure game. Why they didn't take another one like that and build on it is beyond me. I did like the Scott Adams text adventures for the VIC-20. If you die in Adventureland then you know not to do that again! In Raiders you can die over and over due to the snake, falling, or bandit in the valley. Then it's back to the beginning. They say that your final score in Raiders (height on pedestal) is based on secret points that you gain or lose. Obviously if you don't die then you don't lose points. If you can find the secret passage and don't have to use the grenade you gain a couple points. But there's a scoring glitch so you can never get the perfect score that would put you all the way to the top with the ark. I think this could have been a truck-chasing game, similar to following the train in Wild Western.
They say Raiders didn't sell well. How many carts did they manufacture that didn't sell? A million? How much did they pay Spielberg for the rights to E.T. and Raiders? Did Atari actually make any money on these 2 games? Of the 15 games I count Atari made in 1982, 9 are in the top 50% of his 250 reviews: Yars' Revenge 3, Haunted House 5, Berzerk 29, RealSports Volleyball 68, Star Raiders 73, Demons to Diamonds 107, Submarine Commander 109, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial 112, Pac-Man 113. And 6 on the bottom: RealSports Football 152, Math Gran Prix 154, Raiders of the Lost Ark 182, Defender 202, RealSports Baseball 226. SwordQuest: EarthWorld 238. Of course this doesn't count sales or over-production losses.
My cousin and a school friend both solved the game prior to me borrowing it. They let me try to figure it out but anytime I got stuck they would tutor me. It took me about 3 weeks to figure out. My cousin got a ColecoVision shortly after this game was released so that was it for the 2600.
I liked this game back in the day and used to be able to beat it 90% of the time. However, I would NEVER have been able to get anywhere in it without reading the spoilers section of the manual. They label it as spoilers but in my opinion, that is all essential information that players should be given. Expecting them to figure those things out on their own would take hours of pure trial and error since the graphics and UI of the game are too primitive to really understand what you're doing. With just the information in the manual though, I was able to figure out not only how to play the game, but how to beat it.
I did not have the opportunity to play RAIDERS OF EHE LOST ARK, but to judge by what I see starting from the box and manual, then the game seems execellent game. Good video !! regards
It was the best game Atari had! My brother and I were young teenagers when this was released. We had seen the movie and actually got a couple of clues from that. I don’t know how we figured everything out but we were tenacious. It was a satisfying victory. Ahh... memories
Of your top 12 I have only heard of 6 of those games and I was there? Here's my top 12: 1 - Space Invaders 2 - Asteriods 3 - Pitfall 4 - Frogger 5 - Raiders of the Lost Ark 6 - Donkey Kong 7 - Missle Command 8 - Pinball 9 - Breakout 10 - combat 11 - Air/Sea Battle 12 - Yars Revenge. Honorble Mention - Fantastic Voyage
I don't think I ever beat the game. I remember getting as far as the map room, and then I lost interest. I do remember falling off that damn cliff and passing that tree a lot lol. Not nearly as much fun as Adventure, haunted House or Superman for me.
This game was amazing! Massive sense of accomplishment when completed it. The finding out what the different things did was so much fun. Although never did find the Yars Revenge Easter egg
Let the spinner shoot at you. Kill it with your missile thing while it’s in the safe zone. You will see a vertical black bar at the point where you killed the spiral. This is during the “celebration” time where you can fly around between levels. Put your nose in that black bar-you have to experiment with the position. Keep still and see if the initials appear
I can see how it might be confusing if you hadn't read the manual. And this one did challenge me a bit back in my Atari days. But that said, I still enjoyed it and had a ton of fun solving the mystery.
I can't remember anything I figured out for myself before reading spoilers part 1 and spoilers part 2 of the manual. I got as far as the correct cave, but didn't figure out to dig on that thing that was a dirt pile. So only "solved" it as an adult after reading the final action.
Kids these days and their walkthroughs.... It’s called “trial and error”...I started playing this game when I was 6... I didn’t complete it until I was 23. When you %100 this game, it feels like you found the actual ark.
The problem for many of us is, after 17 years of playing, the game has long since ceased to be any fun. A game that requires 17 years of trial-and-error is a flawed game.
Karl Sebastian Sollenhag. Yeah, you also bitched about Yar's Revenge. Is there an Atari game you don't bitch about? Or are you just enjoying being an asshole.
First of all, I like how this game has ended up ranked much, much lower than E.T. I agree that this is a far worse game than E.T. and for a lot of reasons. One point of contention though, is that this game is in no way similar to a point-and-click adventure in that there is neither pointing, nor clicking, nor any of the benefits that would go along with the consistency of such a system. Therein lies one of the main problems with this game; the sense of "what the heck am I doing" that comes from lack on consistency. This actually feels more like a spiritual ancestor to an early period non-parser Sierra game, a la Black Cauldron, although Black Cauldron is a far superior game. I appreciate what HSW was trying to do here, but I think it's safe to say that he overshot the mark, despite the fondness and nostalgia that a lot of people feel for this game. By the way man, the thing with the hair was "grodie to the max, like for real". Thanks for the video though! Informative as always!
NO SWEAR ITS NOT CHAI CH like chair its a hard CH as in ACHtung pronounced ACH or baCH a CHai is the hebrew word LIFE like L'CHiem to life the chet ח has the numerical value 8 and yood י 10 making word CHai or KHai חי
I'm a huge Indiana Jones fan and this game here is what started it all. When I got my Atari as a kid my friend gave this to me and without the manual. I was so obsessed with figuring this game out and having no clue who indiana jones even was. I wrote a letter to Atari asking for the instructions for the game. In the mean time I borrowed the Raiders movie book from the library and read it over and over. Then I rented the movie and watched it. Having learned the plot and the story I was able to figure out and beat the game somehow. That's when I received a hand typed 2 page detailed description and instructions for beating the game from some awesome guy over at Atari. I was 9 then and Indiana Jones is still my favorite!
That's really cool that you got a reply from Atari regarding the manual. It's a fun game. I was lucky to buy it new and still have it, but I imagine it would be almost unplayable without the manual.
In the end, it took my subscription to “Electronic Games” magazine in 1983 to beat the game. Fortunately there were tons of letters and tips in those magazines to help out.
I got this game in a lot of loose cartridges at a swap meet back in the late 80s. Having no access to the manual and having never seen the movie I just assumed the game was broken and gave up after repeated deaths to the snake and from falling off the cliff. I didn't even know you could do things with the items using the second controller. I think that like E.T. this game is just too ambitious for the hardware.
This was by far, the best game ever created for the 2600. And it was way ahead of it's time. We had about 20 people crammed in one room. People took turns on the sticks while everybody shouted out, "try this', "go there".
Sounds like how we played Loom in 1990.
This was a frustrating game. By the time I figured out what I was supposed to do I had lost interest and never completed it.
It was refreshing to see someone who shares the same view as me. I love Indiana Jones but I can't get into the game due to how confusing things are when it comes to what you're supposed to do, but like you said, it was impressive from a technical standpoint. I never thought of it as a hybrid with point and click adventure elements but I can see that.
I beat this back in the day legitimately. 😁
It turns out there's a glitch so you can never get full points, so won't ever be lifted to the top level.
This is the best game of the atari 2600 ( after Adventure ).
Gian Scolaro I disagree... it’s one of the games I like the least. But everyone has different taste.
Gian Scolaro agree!
Games with a sharp learning curve for 2600 are only sentimental for those who played them a ton as a kid
My cousin doesn't like games with time, and this has a timer that means you have to be in the map room at a certain time, or stand around and wait. I don't remember how long the cycle was. They say Adventure was based on a text adventure game. Why they didn't take another one like that and build on it is beyond me. I did like the Scott Adams text adventures for the VIC-20. If you die in Adventureland then you know not to do that again! In Raiders you can die over and over due to the snake, falling, or bandit in the valley. Then it's back to the beginning.
They say that your final score in Raiders (height on pedestal) is based on secret points that you gain or lose. Obviously if you don't die then you don't lose points. If you can find the secret passage and don't have to use the grenade you gain a couple points. But there's a scoring glitch so you can never get the perfect score that would put you all the way to the top with the ark.
I think this could have been a truck-chasing game, similar to following the train in Wild Western.
They say Raiders didn't sell well. How many carts did they manufacture that didn't sell? A million? How much did they pay Spielberg for the rights to E.T. and Raiders? Did Atari actually make any money on these 2 games?
Of the 15 games I count Atari made in 1982, 9 are in the top 50% of his 250 reviews: Yars' Revenge 3, Haunted House 5, Berzerk 29, RealSports Volleyball 68, Star Raiders 73, Demons to Diamonds 107, Submarine Commander 109, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial 112, Pac-Man 113.
And 6 on the bottom: RealSports Football 152, Math Gran Prix 154, Raiders of the Lost Ark 182, Defender 202, RealSports Baseball 226. SwordQuest: EarthWorld 238.
Of course this doesn't count sales or over-production losses.
My cousin and a school friend both solved the game prior to me borrowing it. They let me try to figure it out but anytime I got stuck they would tutor me. It took me about 3 weeks to figure out.
My cousin got a ColecoVision shortly after this game was released so that was it for the 2600.
I bothered to call the 1-900 helpline and get the free help sheets. Without those I’d never solved it. 😂😂
I didn't complete the game a few times but it was maddening in getting everything just right.
I liked this game back in the day and used to be able to beat it 90% of the time. However, I would NEVER have been able to get anywhere in it without reading the spoilers section of the manual. They label it as spoilers but in my opinion, that is all essential information that players should be given. Expecting them to figure those things out on their own would take hours of pure trial and error since the graphics and UI of the game are too primitive to really understand what you're doing.
With just the information in the manual though, I was able to figure out not only how to play the game, but how to beat it.
Adventure at least had a game 1 so you could get the gist of how things worked.
I did not have the opportunity to play RAIDERS OF EHE LOST ARK, but to judge by what I see starting from the box and manual, then the game seems execellent game. Good video !! regards
It was the best game Atari had! My brother and I were young teenagers when this was released. We had seen the movie and actually got a couple of clues from that. I don’t know how we figured everything out but we were tenacious. It was a satisfying victory. Ahh... memories
Of your top 12 I have only heard of 6 of those games and I was there? Here's my top 12: 1 - Space Invaders 2 - Asteriods 3 - Pitfall 4 - Frogger 5 - Raiders of the Lost Ark 6 - Donkey Kong 7 - Missle Command 8 - Pinball 9 - Breakout 10 - combat 11 - Air/Sea Battle 12 - Yars Revenge. Honorble Mention - Fantastic Voyage
I had both this *and* ET back in the day.
While I beat ET many times, I beat this one exactly *once* !
I beat this 0 times in 1983.
I know you'll probably never see this comment, but you're good! Like, REALLY good!
I don't think I ever beat the game. I remember getting as far as the map room, and then I lost interest. I do remember falling off that damn cliff and passing that tree a lot lol. Not nearly as much fun as Adventure, haunted House or Superman for me.
I don't think they tested it with kids for feedback, like in the Imagic documentary where a couple kids test Atlantis.
This game was amazing! Massive sense of accomplishment when completed it. The finding out what the different things did was so much fun. Although never did find the Yars Revenge Easter egg
Let the spinner shoot at you. Kill it with your missile thing while it’s in the safe zone. You will see a vertical black bar at the point where you killed the spiral. This is during the “celebration” time where you can fly around between levels. Put your nose in that black bar-you have to experiment with the position. Keep still and see if the initials appear
I can see how it might be confusing if you hadn't read the manual. And this one did challenge me a bit back in my Atari days. But that said, I still enjoyed it and had a ton of fun solving the mystery.
I can't remember anything I figured out for myself before reading spoilers part 1 and spoilers part 2 of the manual. I got as far as the correct cave, but didn't figure out to dig on that thing that was a dirt pile. So only "solved" it as an adult after reading the final action.
Kids these days and their walkthroughs....
It’s called “trial and error”...I started playing this game when I was 6... I didn’t complete it until I was 23. When you %100 this game, it feels like you found the actual ark.
The problem for many of us is, after 17 years of playing, the game has long since ceased to be any fun. A game that requires 17 years of trial-and-error is a flawed game.
fun and challenging game. still play it to this day
Did you read the instruction manual? The moment you said "it's too big for an Atari game", I rolled my eyes.
I was in an Indiana Jones craze as a kid, but I didn’t like this game. The advature games from LucasArts were cool later on.
Karl Sebastian Sollenhag. Yeah, you also bitched about Yar's Revenge. Is there an Atari game you don't bitch about? Or are you just enjoying being an asshole.
@@IslandBoy-808 Calm down Boom(er).
@@curcumin417 The statement he made was perfectly calm.
@@speedgriffon2504 NO WAY BOOOMER!!!! j/k
@@curcumin417 (gif of Michael Scott laughing)
not fun game
First of all, I like how this game has ended up ranked much, much lower than E.T. I agree that this is a far worse game than E.T. and for a lot of reasons. One point of contention though, is that this game is in no way similar to a point-and-click adventure in that there is neither pointing, nor clicking, nor any of the benefits that would go along with the consistency of such a system. Therein lies one of the main problems with this game; the sense of "what the heck am I doing" that comes from lack on consistency. This actually feels more like a spiritual ancestor to an early period non-parser Sierra game, a la Black Cauldron, although Black Cauldron is a far superior game. I appreciate what HSW was trying to do here, but I think it's safe to say that he overshot the mark, despite the fondness and nostalgia that a lot of people feel for this game. By the way man, the thing with the hair was "grodie to the max, like for real". Thanks for the video though! Informative as always!
this is the best game for the 2600 after blueprint
NO SWEAR ITS NOT CHAI CH like chair its a hard CH as in ACHtung pronounced ACH or baCH a CHai is the hebrew word LIFE like L'CHiem to life the chet ח has the numerical value 8 and yood י 10 making word CHai or KHai חי
This game is just unplayable.