I am 51 years old and I remember playing this game and winning it. The key was just trying every possible thing and you slowly discover how things work and what to do with them. Yeah, it was very unintuitive but fun at the time. I liked it because it was kind of a followup to my favorite game Adventure.
I’m 52 and I beat the game as well when I was 12… but, I believe I had help from various magazines at the time. I just wished that Atari could have modeled more games after Adventure and/or Superman.
If you liked Adventure, the 8 bit Atari computers had a type of unofficial sequel, "Galahad and the Holy Grail" by Douglas Crawford. Game included a killer rabbit adversary and a holy hand grenade.. so even though the game isn't great, it's still worth playing at least once
@Queen4Country yeah, it wasn't that hard. The part I couldn't figure out was how to get Jones to the top at the end game screen. Sometimes it was higher, Sometimes lower. What caused that? Time?
There are many painfully boring explanations of equally boring games on You Tube, however, your commentary here has made this a most enjoyable watch, thanks much!
If I remember, the flute also makes you immune to the tsetse flies. Also, it helped to get 2 parachutes next to each other so if it gets caught on the branch, you have a second one to glide into the hole.
We bought our copy through the Atari game club. The day it arrived, we had friends and family gathered in the living room trying to figure this game out. After a while when we were stumped, we actually called Atari's toll free line to request the solution map (which I still have), but hours later we ended up beating the game anyway! Great fun. Absolutely one of the rare Atari-made gems for the 2600.
I remember sitting in the family room playing, and friends and family would offer suggestions to "solve" the game. This collective playing was like routing for your team and everyone who took a turn had the opportunity to "build" upon what was learned by the prior player's actions. I remember the Superman game being solved as a group. I did not know there was a help-line. I stuck with Raiders until I did solve it one day. No one understood it so I played alone, trying everything until that one success. Then we got a Colecovision and I played Donkey Kong without all the quarters fed into the machine in the back of our pizza joint.
I had this and so did a good friend of mine. We would come to school all excited to tell each other what new discoveries we made the night before. It was an absolute blast. This game was seriously, wonderfully weird.
Hint for not getting killed by the snake when moving going up to the start room from the market. Touch any basket to show the snake in the market, it will be in the same location in the start room. So now you can avoid it. I got lucky as a kid while playing this for hours. Like randomly holding the key and seeing and seeing the map room appear when walking past, etc...The feeling I got when I finally beat the game was amazing. The first thing I did was run to everyone in my family to share my accomplishment, at best I got was "wow, good for you" (sarcastically).
So, I just finished your video and thought I'd make one more comment... We DID finish this game and yes, it was hard, but, that's what you did in 1982. Games were expensive and you didn't finish them in three hours. You read the manuals and you explored every wall and corner and crevice. The "worlds" were tiny and the technical limitations forced programmers to be very creative in coming up with ways to represent ideas or scenes from the movie. I totally thought the shadow man was the Nazi and my friend and I thought it was really odd the manual referred to him as simply the thief. Loved this game so much and it really was a puzzle that kept us entertained and busy for quite some time.
I'm 52 years old and I remember in the summer of 1984 I had the game already for 2 and half years....after watching Raiders of the lost Ark one evening (Raiders VHS was then and still is my most watched movie..just now in 4k) and it finally HIT me!! I turned on the Atrai and finally found the Ark..you are very right about this game having its own logic. Thanks for doing a play through it brought back awesome memories.. 🤠
Vague and abstract was the perfect description. I remember as a kid (7/8 yrs old) wanting so badly to understand how to play this properly. I never got past a certain point much to my chagrin, but had fun watching my much older cousin play.
I beat the game too, but . . .and its a big BUT, to really win you are supposed to be at the height of the Ark at the end, its a ladder you are on and I remember the instructions said you actually get the ark when you are at the top of the ladder, you completed/solved the game but are only about 60% of the way up - I got to about 80% the way up but not 100%, the 1st time I completed it I was only about 10% the way up. You get to go further up the ladder (the top) by finding ALL the hidden rooms and easter eggs, you didnt find them all, so in the end you haven't GOT THE ARK, but only about 60% the way there!
It's broken as he took out a couple things that earned you points, so you can't get to the Ark for doing a perfect game. That is without losing points (for using the grenade, bribing the Lunatic, or dying), and extra points for finding the Yar.
This was so entertaining! Maybe it was the directors cut but I don't remember Indy using a parachute or grenade in the movie. Kids today will never understand the frustration of having to go all the way back to the beginning of the game. Thanks for sharing this!
I tried to finish this game so many times as a kid, until one day I finally got to the final room with the ark. I walked up to the mound of dirt and asked my sister (who was in charge of changing items) to select the shovel. My sister selected the shovel and dropped it. I never played the game again.
I really enjoyed this game as a kid (~10 years old). Very mysterious, like the movie. I remember beating it once or twice, but only because of tips I got from friends. Very similar to my favorite game of all-time, Dark Souls. It didn't tell you what to do, and it was a very elaborate and frustrating puzzle, which, I would assume, most people needed help with. But once it was being solved, it was a very exciting and memorable experience. Big love.
I remember being mesmerized by this game as a kid, because of "all the secrets" and yes, for that reason, I thought this game was soooo cool! I honestly don't even remember if I beat it. I feel like I might have, but after watching this walkthrough, I can't imagine 4 or 5 year old me figuring ALLLL that out
This was an incredible game. I’m 52 and when I finally learned to play after reading the manual and getting a tip from a school friend, I found the Ark a few times. This is awesome nostalgia.
My god thank you for this. I’ve lived 43 years and one of the things that has always pissed me off me was how to beat this game b4 I died. And now I’ve seen it 🙏
My dad and I spent a crazy amount of time playing this game and beat it several times when I was a kid. There are a handful of secrets not shown in this video but overall this was an enjoyable playthrough to watch.
Never knew about the Easter egg. Played this game a ton in the mid 80's. Took me a long time to parachute into that hole. Then when I did the first time as I'm celebrating a thief steals my shovel. Wanted to yank the game out and throw it against the wall.
I'm subscribing simply because you solved this for me. This miserable game plagued my life as a kid. I even got my family involved, and it plagued them as well. Thank you.
This is a game I played as a kid.... I NEVER finished it... My Parents do it... But as a kid I always failded^^ Nice to see this after AGES!!!! Love this Game"""" THX for this^^
This is such a great video - thank you for making it! At last the game and its strange appeal is explained. My sister and I logged many hours with this thing, we were confused but we kind of liked it.
I remember playing this in 1982...I bought a cheat guide (yes they had them back then) at the local Walgreens and read through how to beat the game. This brings back so many memories.....
I discovered nothing in this game myself without help. I would go on to play text adventures: Adventureland, Pirate Adventure, and Voodoo Castle and was able to win them on my own without hint books or walkthroughs.
My brother and I had played this game to death in the early 80's but never finished it till we found a walk through on UA-cam about 5 years or so ago. As a kid I was amused at the Shining Light room and the "death" sound the game makes when Indy dies lol. I still am now. That makes this one of my all time favorites along with Adventure, Berserk and Missile Command for the 2600, Venture for Coleco Vision and Bruce Lee and Toy Bizzare for Commodore 64. Before NES games of course.
When I was a kid I bought this from a boot fair, used and with no instructions. It took a while before I realised the other stick was for inventory! I eventually got as far as the treasure room but was defeated, I realise now, by not realising that you could walk right into the centre area! Also it didn't occur to me that the lower symbol is the item you should bring, and I thought the parachute on sale was a parcel so I never stood a chance! Thanks for finally tying up these loose ends for me.
This taught us all patience. It was a great memory game as well and I beat it with someone's help. I recall all the info being cryptically scattered in the booklet that led to the final key. Without it you couldn't win or play this game.
I think we all did. My gawd, I was 10 when this came out. I played the damn thing all the time, and I did know how to finish it, but I never seemed to have the patience to get it done, I was a country kid and always wanted to be outside more than in lol. Anyway, I finally beat it back in 1991 as a junior in high school. I have it now on the NES classic edition that’s been modified with thousands of games including Atari. Kinda fun to play it again, needed to remember how to negotiate that damn branch
Unfortunately for me, I was too lazy to read directions as a kid when I had this. I didn’t learn to finally play and beat this game until I discovered 2600 emulators.
thanks for the memories! this game was great for its time and pretty groundbreaking for 1982. I won this many times and it really made you work at it. I honestly don't remember consulting with the manual that much although I may have but I definitely don't remember it being very in depth.
Between my brother, my neighbor and myself, we must have logged hundreds of hours in front of this game! We totally solved it when I was 12. I busted my parachute on that stupid branch SO many times. But hey, it was the 80s and what else is there to do when you're 12 and their is 5 feet of snow on the ground and it gets dark at 3:30 in the afternoon?
GlitchGoblin I think I would have set my house on fire so that I wouldn't have to play E.T. Which is strange since the same guy that made ET, arguably the worst Atari game ever, also made Yar's Revenge, arguably one of the best Atari games ever. Go figure.
I was 14 or 15 when this out. I beat it but only by mail-order. I ordered a paper map with the solution by mail. Two months later when it arrived I finished the game. Thanks for the video
As a kid I would watch my cousins play this which watching you brought back memories of me not knowing what the heck to do on this game but it was still awesome to play!
Aww thanks it brings great memories of staying up half the night trying to complete it. There was no online walkthroughs in them days ! I recall it needing two joysticks to control ? Happy days !
I remember playing this with my friend and i also remember finding many of these screens but being overall baffled. I think the part we missed was getting the map room to show us the right mesa to fall off from. Interesting if a little underwhelming to see the ending finally!
I had this game as a kid and I beat it several times. When I would play it I had to make sure I was able to be there for at least an hour or two. Took forever for me as a kid to play it. Watching this video I have no idea how I knew or found out what to do and how to beat it. The things we accomplished in the 80s without Google.
Your fascination with the abstract presentation combined with your dry but razor-sharp sarcasm and humor made this video an absolute pleasure. If you've never seen the series The Life And Times Of Tim, do yourself a favor and check it out...I was reminded of some of my favorite moments from that show when you'd drop gems like "Isn't this fun?" and "What am I doing. What do I need to be doing?" Thanks for a great video.
I played this game when it came out back in 1982 and remember how amazingly frustrating it was. A friend of mine had to walk me through the game, and I remember thinking, "how the hell is anyone supposed to figure that out?"
I'll be 51 in a couple weeks and I spent hours struggling against this beast, never knew what I was doing, always fell to my death after the second screen. This is the first time I've ever seen anything beyond that. People talk about E.T. being awful, which it was, but when you had no idea what to do, Raiders was just as bad. Ironically, Yar's Revenge is one of my favorite games ever. All three were designed by the same man, Howard Scott Warshaw.
I played this game forever as a kid. My cousin actually gave me the cartridge because he hated it. When you said you have to really study the manual i then decades later realized why i had such a problem with the game. My cousin threw everything out except the game.
In 82/83 somehow I found and called a 800 Atari phone number to request a map to finish this game. I’m thinking it was an ad on a box of cereal or something. Anyway, they actually sent me a beautiful map in the mail. It was made to look a old weathered treasure map. It was a step by step walkthrough of the whole game. So with the maps help I finished this game back when I was 9 or 10.
I remember agonizing over this game for months. I was the first one in my neighborhood to figure it out, though it took three of us to piece together all the different things you had to do. One trick you didn't know. If you give the Chai to the black merchant in the regular market, he will take you to the black market. Saves a lot of grappling hook travel.
Somehow, defying my own memories of how, my friends and I clocked a crazy amount of hours on this when it first came out and we loved every minute of it.
Wow, I played this game forever, and got all the way to the pile of dirt, with the shovel, but couldn't get the shovel to "dig" the dirt. I never figured out the action of walking back and forth over it. I kept trying to "use" the shovel with some action button or motion. Oh well. PS I was like 1000 😁😁
I remember playing this game with my friends back in the '80s. It took us months to figure out how to beat it. What a sense of accomplishment! We never did figure out the Easter Egg though.
I agree with much of what you said. It was frustrating, but cryptically fun. There was a mystery about it and that was part of it. There was NOTHING intuitive about Atari adventure games.
haha! I remember this game being really frustrating because I had to play my Atari on our Black and White TV (yes they used to have those) when I was a kid. When playing this game on a B&W TV, you can't see stuff that you need to see. Certain objects blend with the background basically making it impossible to finish the game but I was able to get about 80% of the way through it. Then we got a color TV for my Atari and it was a piece of cake then.
Who doesn't love an old black and white TV set? I used to put aluminum foil on the rabbit ears, a folded matchbook wedged under the UHF dial and watch Tom Baker in Dr. Who in the early 80's.
I missed it when it came out (didn't go to the movies in 1981), but got it on VHS later. I like how Amy on _The Big Bang Theory_ ruins _Raiders,_ for the guys with her logic. Beware.
The funny thing is that you keep taking about how unrecognizable everything is! My best friend and I spent almost our entire Christmas break playing this in 1982 and back then these graphics were pretty good for 2600 and the game itself was pretty complex when you keep in my there was just about nothing to compare or reference this to. So getting back to the graphics - this was all we had for "console" graphics. Until ColecoVision came along a year later, the 2600 was the pinnacle and I remember recognizing everything we found in the game! Compared to today's graphics, yes, they're unrecognizable, but 34 years ago, they were easily recognizable representations of everyday objects!
This game is what you call an RPG. Old RPGs from the early 80’s in PC or any system came with a huge book to read while you play! They were not self explanatory cuz the game lack memory.
I was in jr. high when this came out. No internet to figure it out but by word of mouth from school friends we figured it out quickly. At the time it was a completely diffferent than most Atari games. Each time the ark was a different place so you could play it even after you solved it. This and Pitfall were 2 of the best games of the 1982. Then Colecovision came out and Atari was over.
Moving the Ark just meant you had to go to the map room. Really not that replayable. Just like doing a walkthrough; I never figured anything out by myself.
Absolutely bonkers children were expected to figure this game out. My siblings and I would always play this for 5 minutes and be like “why are we doing this?”
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. For what it's worth, I beat this game as a kid. I have no clue how my friend and I figured it all out, but I distinctly remember the map room, digging with the shovel and everything.
The Atari was released with a pair of paddles and two joysticks because it was envisioned as a two-player game with Combat, Air-Sea Battle, Video Olympics (Pong) and so on. Years later one-player games were the thing, so companies could get away with shipping just one controller. Too bad steering controllers weren't standard and only came with Indy 500, so we never got a follow-up or games like Tempest that needed 360 rotation.
OMG that was a parachute!!! I did everything in this game back then but figure out the parachute part. Never could fall into that hole under the branch LOL
AAHHHH!! I remember agonizing over this game for many, many months. I only beat it once and that was it, never touched it again. If I remember correctly, you could bribe the raving lunatic and he would let you pass but I can't remember for what reason.
My brother and I spent countless hours trying to solve this crazy game. I recall not being so much annoyed by it but intrigued by trying to figure it out. I honestly don’t know if we ever solved it. I’m thinking we didn’t but I know we made it to most of those screens (even if we had no clue what we were supposed to do once there and what items were needed to move on). I have fond memories of the challenge.
My friend Greg and I played this game for hours after school. We were 11 years old, and found that Amazing Ark in about a month. It helped having a partner. Hope your still alive Bro.!!
I beat this as a kid...I spent hours doing nothing but killing snakes and running around. Until I read the manual, I recall after reading the manual it told you everything you needed to finish the game. Thanks for the retro memories
Funny about killing snakes. The scoring system was atrocious, so it didn't tell you when you won or lost points, you had to count the lines under Indy. But I think it would have done better as an action game like chasing the truck on horseback, then driving the truck, etc. There was an arcade game I played a couple times _Wild Western_ where you pursue a train on horseback that's being attacked by train-robbers also on horseback.
No internet back then but we figured it out but only after calling Atari 4 times. I don't know if most people knew that back then but you could call and an operator would help you. I don't remember how we knew to do this. A phone number in the manual maybe? I don't remember.
Graphics beats everything on Odyssey², and all the 1977-8 Atari games. Starting with Superman in 1979 they learned to improve the graphics, but the best programmers left Atari for Activision, which graphics look pretty good, too.
I am 51 years old and I remember playing this game and winning it. The key was just trying every possible thing and you slowly discover how things work and what to do with them. Yeah, it was very unintuitive but fun at the time. I liked it because it was kind of a followup to my favorite game Adventure.
No youtube at that time 😂😂
I’m 52 and I beat the game as well when I was 12… but, I believe I had help from various magazines at the time. I just wished that Atari could have modeled more games after Adventure and/or Superman.
I sent off for the Hints & Tips feelies from Atari. Awesome stuff! Also helped A LOT with the game.
If you liked Adventure, the 8 bit Atari computers had a type of unofficial sequel, "Galahad and the Holy Grail" by Douglas Crawford.
Game included a killer rabbit adversary and a holy hand grenade.. so even though the game isn't great, it's still worth playing at least once
That's a pretty good atari game it actually can be beat not just score i always liked the arcade games but they did a great job
Finally seeing this game completed!! I suffered with this game for SO long. Thank you.
You neverr beat it?
@Queen4Country yeah, it wasn't that hard. The part I couldn't figure out was how to get Jones to the top at the end game screen. Sometimes it was higher, Sometimes lower. What caused that? Time?
There are many painfully boring explanations of equally boring games on You Tube, however, your commentary here has made this a most enjoyable watch, thanks much!
If I remember, the flute also makes you immune to the tsetse flies. Also, it helped to get 2 parachutes next to each other so if it gets caught on the branch, you have a second one to glide into the hole.
We bought our copy through the Atari game club. The day it arrived, we had friends and family gathered in the living room trying to figure this game out. After a while when we were stumped, we actually called Atari's toll free line to request the solution map (which I still have), but hours later we ended up beating the game anyway! Great fun. Absolutely one of the rare Atari-made gems for the 2600.
I remember sitting in the family room playing, and friends and family would offer suggestions to "solve" the game. This collective playing was like routing for your team and everyone who took a turn had the opportunity to "build" upon what was learned by the prior player's actions. I remember the Superman game being solved as a group.
I did not know there was a help-line. I stuck with Raiders until I did solve it one day. No one understood it so I played alone, trying everything until that one success. Then we got a Colecovision and I played Donkey Kong without all the quarters fed into the machine in the back of our pizza joint.
you really have to be in a certain mindset to enjoy this game(even slightly). it makes so little sense and thats why i love it
I had this and so did a good friend of mine. We would come to school all excited to tell each other what new discoveries we made the night before. It was an absolute blast. This game was seriously, wonderfully weird.
It is mighty kind of you to come along after all these years and show us how to play this %$&!@ game - you're a supergreatfriend!
Hint for not getting killed by the snake when moving going up to the start room from the market. Touch any basket to show the snake in the market, it will be in the same location in the start room. So now you can avoid it. I got lucky as a kid while playing this for hours. Like randomly holding the key and seeing and seeing the map room appear when walking past, etc...The feeling I got when I finally beat the game was amazing. The first thing I did was run to everyone in my family to share my accomplishment, at best I got was "wow, good for you" (sarcastically).
Like Alex Rogan when he finally broke the record on Starfighter... "that's nice dear"
@@lainiwakura4678 I loved _The Last Starfighter._
my dad and I spent many hours trying to figure this out so many years ago .. nice to see the ending at least years later
So, I just finished your video and thought I'd make one more comment...
We DID finish this game and yes, it was hard, but, that's what you did in 1982. Games were expensive and you didn't finish them in three hours. You read the manuals and you explored every wall and corner and crevice. The "worlds" were tiny and the technical limitations forced programmers to be very creative in coming up with ways to represent ideas or scenes from the movie.
I totally thought the shadow man was the Nazi and my friend and I thought it was really odd the manual referred to him as simply the thief. Loved this game so much and it really was a puzzle that kept us entertained and busy for quite some time.
You probably didn't know this, but playing the flute also renders the tsetse flies harmless.
When I was a kid, that thief scared the crap out of me. To this day (Im 32 now), he still manages to make my skin crawl lol
Excellent play though!
Because he's black? RACIST!
I'm 52 years old and I remember in the summer of 1984 I had the game already for 2 and half years....after watching Raiders of the lost Ark one evening (Raiders VHS was then and still is my most watched movie..just now in 4k) and it finally HIT me!! I turned on the Atrai and finally found the Ark..you are very right about this game having its own logic. Thanks for doing a play through it brought back awesome memories.. 🤠
Vague and abstract was the perfect description. I remember as a kid (7/8 yrs old) wanting so badly to understand how to play this properly. I never got past a certain point much to my chagrin, but had fun watching my much older cousin play.
I beat the game too, but . . .and its a big BUT, to really win you are supposed to be at the height of the Ark at the end, its a ladder you are on and I remember the instructions said you actually get the ark when you are at the top of the ladder, you completed/solved the game but are only about 60% of the way up - I got to about 80% the way up but not 100%, the 1st time I completed it I was only about 10% the way up. You get to go further up the ladder (the top) by finding ALL the hidden rooms and easter eggs, you didnt find them all, so in the end you haven't GOT THE ARK, but only about 60% the way there!
It's broken as he took out a couple things that earned you points, so you can't get to the Ark for doing a perfect game. That is without losing points (for using the grenade, bribing the Lunatic, or dying), and extra points for finding the Yar.
I used to play this game in 1980s. I older brother figured out how to play through it. Man I feel old!
The appreciation for this video, and narrative which echos my sentiment if I could word them, are massively expressed. THANKS! ❤️
This was so entertaining! Maybe it was the directors cut but I don't remember Indy using a parachute or grenade in the movie. Kids today will never understand the frustration of having to go all the way back to the beginning of the game. Thanks for sharing this!
At least dying then Reset in Adventure allowed you to continue sort of where you left off.
I tried to finish this game so many times as a kid, until one day I finally got to the final room with the ark. I walked up to the mound of dirt and asked my sister (who was in charge of changing items) to select the shovel. My sister selected the shovel and dropped it.
I never played the game again.
I really enjoyed this game as a kid (~10 years old). Very mysterious, like the movie. I remember beating it once or twice, but only because of tips I got from friends. Very similar to my favorite game of all-time, Dark Souls. It didn't tell you what to do, and it was a very elaborate and frustrating puzzle, which, I would assume, most people needed help with. But once it was being solved, it was a very exciting and memorable experience. Big love.
I remember being mesmerized by this game as a kid, because of "all the secrets" and yes, for that reason, I thought this game was soooo cool!
I honestly don't even remember if I beat it. I feel like I might have, but after watching this walkthrough, I can't imagine 4 or 5 year old me figuring ALLLL that out
This was an incredible game. I’m 52 and when I finally learned to play after reading the manual and getting a tip from a school friend, I found the Ark a few times. This is awesome nostalgia.
Thank you for doing these!!. They are super awsome and mean alot. Please do more ..please!!!!
Wow memory lane. I was never able to beat this game as a kid but was always fascinated by the game for some reason.
After all these years, someone finally has beaten one of Atari's most frustrating games, Raiders Of The Lost Ark.
Thank You ever so much! 😁
This game brings me back to my childhood. My brother and I won this game many times over. And we did it by playing it a lot.
My god thank you for this. I’ve lived 43 years and one of the things that has always pissed me off me was how to beat this game b4 I died. And now I’ve seen it 🙏
My dad and I spent a crazy amount of time playing this game and beat it several times when I was a kid. There are a handful of secrets not shown in this video but overall this was an enjoyable playthrough to watch.
Never knew about the Easter egg. Played this game a ton in the mid 80's. Took me a long time to parachute into that hole. Then when I did the first time as I'm celebrating a thief steals my shovel. Wanted to yank the game out and throw it against the wall.
I'm subscribing simply because you solved this for me. This miserable game plagued my life as a kid. I even got my family involved, and it plagued them as well. Thank you.
I had this game and it was a head ache, thanks for gave me peace of mind.
This is a game I played as a kid.... I NEVER finished it... My Parents do it... But as a kid I always failded^^ Nice to see this after AGES!!!! Love this Game"""" THX for this^^
This is such a great video - thank you for making it! At last the game and its strange appeal is explained. My sister and I logged many hours with this thing, we were confused but we kind of liked it.
I remember playing this in 1982...I bought a cheat guide (yes they had them back then) at the local Walgreens and read through how to beat the game. This brings back so many memories.....
Potent memories playing this game but it's amazing how impenetrable it is, even maybe moreso today than it was then somehow...
I discovered nothing in this game myself without help. I would go on to play text adventures: Adventureland, Pirate Adventure, and Voodoo Castle and was able to win them on my own without hint books or walkthroughs.
This was a great video. I had this game when I was like 7 or 8 and I could never beat it. It was fun to watch you go through all the craziness of it.
Thanks I give you a bag of gold for beating this game. Great memories thanks again!!!!
I last played this game back in 1985. It took many hours to finally beat the game.
My brother and I had played this game to death in the early 80's but never finished it till we found a walk through on UA-cam about 5 years or so ago. As a kid I was amused at the Shining Light room and the "death" sound the game makes when Indy dies lol. I still am now. That makes this one of my all time favorites along with Adventure, Berserk and Missile Command for the 2600, Venture for Coleco Vision and Bruce Lee and Toy Bizzare for Commodore 64. Before NES games of course.
go panthers
When I was a kid I bought this from a boot fair, used and with no instructions. It took a while before I realised the other stick was for inventory! I eventually got as far as the treasure room but was defeated, I realise now, by not realising that you could walk right into the centre area! Also it didn't occur to me that the lower symbol is the item you should bring, and I thought the parachute on sale was a parcel so I never stood a chance! Thanks for finally tying up these loose ends for me.
This taught us all patience. It was a great memory game as well and I beat it with someone's help. I recall all the info being cryptically scattered in the booklet that led to the final key. Without it you couldn't win or play this game.
It didn't teach me how and where to use the shovel or I'd have won it in 1983.
As a kid I always thought the Black Thief in the Valley of Poison was the Nazi in black from the movie.
I think we all did. My gawd, I was 10 when this came out. I played the damn thing all the time, and I did know how to finish it, but I never seemed to have the patience to get it done, I was a country kid and always wanted to be outside more than in lol. Anyway, I finally beat it back in 1991 as a junior in high school. I have it now on the NES classic edition that’s been modified with thousands of games including Atari. Kinda fun to play it again, needed to remember how to negotiate that damn branch
Unfortunately for me, I was too lazy to read directions as a kid when I had this. I didn’t learn to finally play and beat this game until I discovered 2600 emulators.
@@Saxysaboy77 these machines now with the 2600 emulators are pretty awesome. I’m discovering games I didn’t know existed on the old Atari
thanks for the memories! this game was great for its time and pretty groundbreaking for 1982. I won this many times and it really made you work at it. I honestly don't remember consulting with the manual that much although I may have but I definitely don't remember it being very in depth.
Thanks for the entertaining, and informative review. I enjoyed it very much!
Between my brother, my neighbor and myself, we must have logged hundreds of hours in front of this game! We totally solved it when I was 12. I busted my parachute on that stupid branch SO many times. But hey, it was the 80s and what else is there to do when you're 12 and their is 5 feet of snow on the ground and it gets dark at 3:30 in the afternoon?
GlitchGoblin I think I would have set my house on fire so that I wouldn't have to play E.T. Which is strange since the same guy that made ET, arguably the worst Atari game ever, also made Yar's Revenge, arguably one of the best Atari games ever. Go figure.
InformationIsTheEdge I know, it's weird.
InformationIsTheEdge HSW only had 4 1/2 - 5 weeks to get E.T. made. Stephen Spielberg played and approved of the game at the time.
MJKToys I still liked Yar's Revenge much better. I also loved Atari's version of Asteroids but didn't care for Atari Pac Man.
InformationIsTheEdge Ms. Pac Man was really good.
thank you so much for playing this i used to try and play this forever when i was a lil kid on a 13 inch black and white tv
I was 14 or 15 when this out. I beat it but only by mail-order. I ordered a paper map with the solution by mail. Two months later when it arrived I finished the game. Thanks for the video
Loved this game. Spent hours with my buddy trying to figure this out.
As a kid I would watch my cousins play this which watching you brought back memories of me not knowing what the heck to do on this game but it was still awesome to play!
Aww thanks it brings great memories of staying up half the night trying to complete it. There was no online walkthroughs in them days ! I recall it needing two joysticks to control ? Happy days !
Thanks for this! I remember playing when I was 5 or 6. It was completely baffling. Appreciate the walk through!
I remember playing this with my friend and i also remember finding many of these screens but being overall baffled. I think the part we missed was getting the map room to show us the right mesa to fall off from. Interesting if a little underwhelming to see the ending finally!
Spent many days playing it as a kid, and never figured it out.
I had this game as a kid and I beat it several times. When I would play it I had to make sure I was able to be there for at least an hour or two. Took forever for me as a kid to play it. Watching this video I have no idea how I knew or found out what to do and how to beat it. The things we accomplished in the 80s without Google.
Your fascination with the abstract presentation combined with your dry but razor-sharp sarcasm and humor made this video an absolute pleasure. If you've never seen the series The Life And Times Of Tim, do yourself a favor and check it out...I was reminded of some of my favorite moments from that show when you'd drop gems like "Isn't this fun?" and "What am I doing. What do I need to be doing?" Thanks for a great video.
Thank you. This was a very special game for me as a child
Thank you for this video. I always wondered how to beat this freaking game when I was a kid!!!
I played this game when it came out back in 1982 and remember how amazingly frustrating it was. A friend of mine had to walk me through the game, and I remember thinking, "how the hell is anyone supposed to figure that out?"
That’s so many of my childhood memories right there, I never finished it and always wondered where I was going wrong!!
Same boat (never completed it, don’t remember how I even got as far as I did) thanks for resolving that long time mystery
I'll be 51 in a couple weeks and I spent hours struggling against this beast, never knew what I was doing, always fell to my death after the second screen. This is the first time I've ever seen anything beyond that. People talk about E.T. being awful, which it was, but when you had no idea what to do, Raiders was just as bad.
Ironically, Yar's Revenge is one of my favorite games ever. All three were designed by the same man, Howard Scott Warshaw.
My brother and I played this game for hours. He worked Indy with Joystick 1, I controlled the "inventory" with the other one.
I played this game forever as a kid. My cousin actually gave me the cartridge because he hated it. When you said you have to really study the manual i then decades later realized why i had such a problem with the game. My cousin threw everything out except the game.
Who knew that if you wrote (or called the 800 number) they'd send you the solution?!
In 82/83 somehow I found and called a 800 Atari phone number to request a map to finish this game. I’m thinking it was an ad on a box of cereal or something. Anyway, they actually sent me a beautiful map in the mail. It was made to look a old weathered treasure map. It was a step by step walkthrough of the whole game. So with the maps help I finished this game back when I was 9 or 10.
I did when I was a kid, and this game first came out. It took me 2 weeks, but it was worth it. My dad and friends all helped figure it out. 😁
Owned this as a kid. Never even got past the merchant screen.
If people took it back for a refund or exchange it might have gotten the same reputation as E.T.
I remember agonizing over this game for months. I was the first one in my neighborhood to figure it out, though it took three of us to piece together all the different things you had to do.
One trick you didn't know. If you give the Chai to the black merchant in the regular market, he will take you to the black market. Saves a lot of grappling hook travel.
Somehow, defying my own memories of how, my friends and I clocked a crazy amount of hours on this when it first came out and we loved every minute of it.
Wow, I played this game forever, and got all the way to the pile of dirt, with the shovel, but couldn't get the shovel to "dig" the dirt. I never figured out the action of walking back and forth over it. I kept trying to "use" the shovel with some action button or motion. Oh well. PS I was like 1000 😁😁
I think I remember my brothers playing the game when we were all kids, but the game was too complicated and they never beat it. So many memories!
I remember playing this game with my friends back in the '80s. It took us months to figure out how to beat it. What a sense of accomplishment! We never did figure out the Easter Egg though.
I was ten when this game came out and I remember beating it back then somehow. I loved it and ET
I was haunted by this game. I finally finished it in the 90's. The spider room is completely optional.
Man, I loved this hame as a kid.
I was hooked.
I agree with much of what you said. It was frustrating, but cryptically fun. There was a mystery about it and that was part of it. There was NOTHING intuitive about Atari adventure games.
Wicked!! So I did solve it. I always thought there was something more to it and I hadn't actually completed it by getting that far. Thanks!
wow thanks for this video. i couldn't figure it out when i was little.
thanks for beating this game,i never could!!!
haha! I remember this game being really frustrating because I had to play my Atari on our Black and White TV (yes they used to have those) when I was a kid. When playing this game on a B&W TV, you can't see stuff that you need to see. Certain objects blend with the background basically making it impossible to finish the game but I was able to get about 80% of the way through it. Then we got a color TV for my Atari and it was a piece of cake then.
Who doesn't love an old black and white TV set? I used to put aluminum foil on the rabbit ears, a folded matchbook wedged under the UHF dial and watch Tom Baker in Dr. Who in the early 80's.
Good memories! Thank you for the video!
Thanks. As a kid never finished last part.
"Raiders of the Lost Ark" is still my favorite movie of all time since its debut.
I missed it when it came out (didn't go to the movies in 1981), but got it on VHS later. I like how Amy on _The Big Bang Theory_ ruins _Raiders,_ for the guys with her logic. Beware.
The funny thing is that you keep taking about how unrecognizable everything is!
My best friend and I spent almost our entire Christmas break playing this in 1982 and back then these graphics were pretty good for 2600 and the game itself was pretty complex when you keep in my there was just about nothing to compare or reference this to.
So getting back to the graphics - this was all we had for "console" graphics. Until ColecoVision came along a year later, the 2600 was the pinnacle and I remember recognizing everything we found in the game! Compared to today's graphics, yes, they're unrecognizable, but 34 years ago, they were easily recognizable representations of everyday objects!
This game is what you call an RPG. Old RPGs from the early 80’s in PC or any system came with a huge book to read while you play! They were not self explanatory cuz the game lack memory.
You never have to go to the spider room. You can exit the sun room from the lower left side.
I was in jr. high when this came out. No internet to figure it out but by word of mouth from school friends we figured it out quickly.
At the time it was a completely diffferent than most Atari games. Each time the ark was a different place so you could play it even after you solved it. This and Pitfall were 2 of the best games of the 1982. Then Colecovision came out and Atari was over.
Moving the Ark just meant you had to go to the map room. Really not that replayable. Just like doing a walkthrough; I never figured anything out by myself.
@@sandal_thong8631 We played it over and over just to beat our time and the ark was in a different location each time.
Absolutely bonkers children were expected to figure this game out. My siblings and I would always play this for 5 minutes and be like “why are we doing this?”
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. For what it's worth, I beat this game as a kid. I have no clue how my friend and I figured it all out, but I distinctly remember the map room, digging with the shovel and everything.
I remember beating the game back in the fall of ‘84 without even using the map room. Got lucky and jumped off a random mesa that the Ark was located 😊
I wonder how many kids for some reason didn't have a second joystick and were screwed from playing on day one.
That was me, I just figured out..30 yrs later 😅
The Atari was released with a pair of paddles and two joysticks because it was envisioned as a two-player game with Combat, Air-Sea Battle, Video Olympics (Pong) and so on. Years later one-player games were the thing, so companies could get away with shipping just one controller. Too bad steering controllers weren't standard and only came with Indy 500, so we never got a follow-up or games like Tempest that needed 360 rotation.
I never ever could finish and end the game once, always fell off the cliff when digging for the ark!!!
OMG that was a parachute!!! I did everything in this game back then but figure out the parachute part. Never could fall into that hole under the branch LOL
If you got killed with the parachute open, the chute disentigrated to
AAHHHH!! I remember agonizing over this game for many, many months. I only beat it once and that was it, never touched it again. If I remember correctly, you could bribe the raving lunatic and he would let you pass but I can't remember for what reason.
My brother and I spent countless hours trying to solve this crazy game. I recall not being so much annoyed by it but intrigued by trying to figure it out. I honestly don’t know if we ever solved it. I’m thinking we didn’t but I know we made it to most of those screens (even if we had no clue what we were supposed to do once there and what items were needed to move on). I have fond memories of the challenge.
Ah good memories of this game... thanks!
My friend Greg and I played this game for hours after school. We were 11 years old, and found that Amazing Ark in about a month. It helped having a partner. Hope your still alive Bro.!!
I beat this as a kid...I spent hours doing nothing but killing snakes and running around. Until I read the manual, I recall after reading the manual it told you everything you needed to finish the game. Thanks for the retro memories
Funny about killing snakes. The scoring system was atrocious, so it didn't tell you when you won or lost points, you had to count the lines under Indy. But I think it would have done better as an action game like chasing the truck on horseback, then driving the truck, etc. There was an arcade game I played a couple times _Wild Western_ where you pursue a train on horseback that's being attacked by train-robbers also on horseback.
No internet back then but we figured it out but only after calling Atari 4 times. I don't know if most people knew that back then but you could call and an operator would help you. I don't remember how we knew to do this. A phone number in the manual maybe? I don't remember.
Best graphics I've ever seen. This game should have ps4 worried.
Graphics beats everything on Odyssey², and all the 1977-8 Atari games. Starting with Superman in 1979 they learned to improve the graphics, but the best programmers left Atari for Activision, which graphics look pretty good, too.