SwordQuest: Earthworld — Atari Flashback: The Essential Companion eGuide

All you who enter EarthWorld will encounter danger, trials, tests, and obstacles. All will have an equal chance to decipher the hidden message.

As you explore EarthWorld, you will traverse 12 rooms, each named after a sign of the zodiac. You will encounter danger such as the horns of a charging Taurus bull and you will be called upon to demonstrate your skill and ingenuity.

A variety of magical objects will assist you in the challenging journey ahead. These are strewn about the various zodiac chambers. Carrying certain objects along with you helps with game play. For example, the lamp allows you to see the charging horns in the dark bull pit of Taurus. By leaving the right combination of objects in the right zodiac chamber, you’ll discover illuminating clues.

Object of the Game

As an explorer and clue seeker in the subterranean landscape represented in this game cartridge, your objective is to find the hidden clues and solve the puzzle. Clues must be completed in a specific order. If you meet conditions for a future clue, it will appear immediately after the clue one spot earlier in the list is revealed.

How to Play

Use the joystick to move through the maze rooms. Initially, only the top and bottom doorways in each maze room are active. Each maze room is linked to a zodiac chamber that shares the same color. Press the red controller button to enter the zodiac chamber tied to a given maze room. To exit a zodiac chamber, move the cursor over the door symbol and press the red controller button.

Eight of the 12 zodiac chambers are unguarded. You can freely enter and exit them. To enter the remaining four zodiac chambers (see the following table), you must complete a skill and action challenge. Press the red controller button during a challenge to return to the maze room. Keep in mind that you must complete the challenge (or carry the proper treasure) to reach the zodiac chamber and its contents.

Zodiac Chamber Challenges

Sign	Challenge	Description
Aquarius	Rafts in Aquarian Rapids	Push up or down (no lateral movement) to leap to the next line of rafts. Jump through the door at the top of the screen to enter Aquarius’s chamber. Falling off a raft returns you to the start point.
Aquarius
Leo	Leo Waterfall	Cross the room by passing through the gaps in the waterfalls. Waterfalls advance slowly to the left with each passage of their gap. Touching a waterfall returns you to the start point. Carry the Talisman of Passage to advance directly to Leo’s chamber.
Leo
Sagittarius	Sagittarius Spears	Avoid the spears while moving from the bottom of the screen to the top. Touching a spear returns you to the start point. Carry the Leather Armor to pass through the spears unharmed. Carry the Cloak of Invisibility to advance directly to Sagittarius’s chamber.
Sagittarius
Taurus	Charging Taurus Horns	Avoid the horns while moving from the bottom of the screen to the top. Touching a horn returns you to the start point. Unless you carry the lamp, the horns are invisible. Carry the Leather Armor to pass through the spears unharmed. Carry the Cloak of Invisibility to advance directly to Taurus’s chamber.
Taurus

Treasures

Most zodiac chambers contain one or more treasures (see the table on the following page). To pick up a treasure, position your cursor over a treasure and press the red controller button. The treasure moves to your inventory at the bottom of the screen. You can carry a maximum of six items in your inventory. You begin the game carrying a dagger, grappling hook, and rope, which all count toward your inventory maximum. To leave a treasure in a room (don’t worry, it will be there if you leave and return), go to the bottom of the screen, position your cursor over the object, and press the red controller button.

Zodiac Chamber Treasures
Sign	Initial Treasures
Aquarius		Talisman of Passage, Water
Aries	N/A
Cancer		Ring
Capricorn		Leather Armor
Gemini			Lamp, Short Sword
Leo		Food
Libra	N/A
Pisces	N/A
Sagittarius		Cloak of Invisibility
Scorpio		Amulet
Taurus			Key, Shoes of Stealth
Virgo		Necklace

Most items and treasures are used only for uncovering clues, however, a number of treasures grant additional abilities.

Treasures and Abilities
Treasure	Where Found	Ability in Inventory
Amulet	Scorpio’s Chamber	Maze room exits lead to random maze rooms.
Cloak of Invisibility	Sagittarius’s Chamber	Skip Charging Taurus Horns and Sagittarius Spears challenges.
Dagger	Starting Inventory	N/A
Food	Leo’s Chamber	N/A
Grappling Hook	Starting Inventory	N/A
Key	Taurus’s Chamber	You can now exit maze rooms to the left or right in addition to up or down.
Lamp	Gemini’s Chamber	Horns from Charging Taurus Horns challenge are now visible.
Leather Armor	Capricorn’s Chamber	Can walk through Charging Taurus Horns and Sagittarius Spears challenges unharmed.
Necklace	Virgo’s Chamber	Cancels random room effect of Amulet
Ring	Cancer’s Chamber	N/A
Rope	Starting Inventory	N/A
Shoes of Stealth	Taurus’s Chamber	Silent footfalls.
Short Sword	Gemini’s Chamber	N/A
Talisman of Passage	Aquarius’s Chamber	Skip Leo Waterfall challenge.
Warrior’s Sword	Complete the game	N/A
Water	Aquarius’s Chamber	N/A

Obtaining Clues

When you leave the correct treasures in appropriate chambers, the screen flashes a set of numbers upon entering the next maze room. The numbers are clues used in conjunction with the comic book that was packaged with the original game. For example, the first clue (which you see when you enter the maze room outside Aries’s chamber) is 16-4. This directed players to the fourth panel of the sixteenth page of the comic. There are eleven clues to uncover, but not all of the clues were valid. An additional clue hidden in the comic book provided guidance on picking out valid clues.

After gathering all the clues, you are returned to the SwordQuest screen, which had a final clue in place of the copyright notice. Players could read the clue, then push the red controller button to enter the Warrior’s Sword chamber.

These shots show the solution to obtaining the second clue (left) and the second clue itself (right).