As a lone adventurer, you wander through the labyrinthine expanses of an underground dungeon in search of a lost treasure. You must cross Frogger-esque screens of fast-moving logs, avoid rooms full of deadly spears (not the Britney kind, but rather the pointy kind which will only kill you just enough to drop-kick your sorry butt back to the bottom of the screen), and enjoy the full capabilities of the Atari 2600's ability to generate varying frequencies of white noise. (Atari, 1982)

Oh, man! What ever happened to this thing? The SwordQuest series was a very heavily-hyped four-game saga which tried to break new ground in the adventure genre for the 2600 console. Sadly, it didn't even get close to breaking ground, or even wind for that matter - meaning that the fourth title, Airworld, was never released. Supposedly, the winners of each of the first three games would compete for a bejewelled prize and the opportunity to reconvene for a tournament to complete the fourth game first and win a wildly expensive sword.

The contest never got finished. Neither did this game - at least not in my house.

Nice try, gang, but Pitfall II still reigns supreme as the premiere Atari 2600 quest game. If the SwordQuest series had been made in the 1990s, the manufacturers would've at least had the marketing acumen and sheer greed to release expensive strategy guides to go along with each one.

Rating:  Ten cents - you figure it out.

Reviewed by Earl Green
theLogBook.com editor/webmaster