Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a point-and-click adventure game created by LucasArts and released in June 1992 for computers like the Amiga, DOS, and Macintosh. Nearly a year later, it was released again on CD-ROM as an improved version with full voice acting and digitized sound effects. This game was the seventh to use a special programming language called SCUMM. Players explore settings and interact with objects and characters by choosing commands made from specific verbs. The game offers three different story paths that affect how the story, gameplay, and puzzles develop. It used an updated SCUMM engine and required a 286-based PC, though it still works as a real-mode DOS application. The CD version needed EMS memory to load voice data. A different version, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: The Action Game, was released at the same time, with a similar story but more combat-focused gameplay.
The story takes place in the Indiana Jones universe and follows Indiana Jones’s search for the legendary sunken city of Atlantis. Sophia Hapgood, a former coworker of Indiana Jones who became a psychic, helps him during the journey. The Nazis, who want to use Atlantis’s power for war, are the main antagonists. The story was written by Hal Barwood and Noah Falstein, the game’s designers, who changed the original plan to base the game on an unused film script. They developed the final idea by researching real-world sources for a plot device.
Fate of Atlantis received praise from critics and won awards for "Best Adventure Game of the Year" and "Game of the Year" from several publications. It sold over a million copies and is considered one of the greatest video games ever made. Two ideas for a sequel were planned but canceled due to problems during development. These ideas were later turned into two separate comic book series by Lee Marrs and Elaine Lee.
In June 2009, the game was included as an unlockable extra in the Wii game Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings. It was also released digitally on Steam for Microsoft Windows and OS X on July 8, 2009.
Gameplay
Fate of Atlantis uses a special game system called SCUMM, created by Ron Gilbert, Aric Wilmunder, Brad P. Taylor, and Vince Lee. This system makes the game play similarly to other point-and-click adventure games made by LucasArts in the 1980s and 1990s. Players explore the game's environments, which do not change as they move through them, while interacting with characters and objects that appear on the screen. They use a pointer to select actions from a list of specific verbs, such as "Pick up," "Use," and "Talk to." When speaking with characters who cannot be controlled by the player, the game shows a series of questions and answers that the player can choose.
At the beginning of the game, players choose from three different game modes: Team Path, Wits Path, and Fists Path. Each mode has unique movie scenes, puzzles, and places to explore. In the Team Path, the main character, Indiana Jones, is joined by a partner named Sophia Hapgood, who helps throughout the game. The Wits Path focuses on solving difficult puzzles, while the Fists Path includes many action scenes and hand-to-hand combat, which are not available in the other two modes. Unlike many other LucasArts games, players can lose their character in certain situations, but these dangers are clearly shown. A scoring system called the Indy Quotient Points tracks how many puzzles are solved, obstacles are overcome, and important items are found.
Plot
In 1939, just before World War II began, Indiana Jones, an archaeology professor and adventurer, searched for a small statue in the archives of Barnett College at the request of a visitor named Mr. Smith. After Indiana retrieved the horned figurine, Smith used a key to open it, revealing a shiny metal bead inside. Smith then pulled out a gun and ran away with the two items, but dropped his coat. A card inside the coat showed that "Smith" was actually Klaus Kerner, a Nazi agent. Inside the coat was also an old magazine with an article about an expedition Indiana had worked on with a woman named Sophia Hapgood. Sophia later stopped archaeology and became a psychic.
Fearing Sophia might be Kerner’s next target, Indiana traveled to New York City to warn her and learn more about the statue. There, he interrupted her lecture about the culture and fall of Atlantis, and they returned to her apartment. They found that Kerner had searched her office for Atlantean artifacts, but Sophia said she kept her most valuable item, a necklace, with her. She also owned another shiny bead, identified as orichalcum, a mystical metal. She placed it in the medallion’s mouth, calling upon the spirit of the Atlantean king Nur-Ab-Sal. She explained that a Nazi scientist, Dr. Hans Ubermann, was searching for Atlantis’s power to use as a weapon.
Sophia received a telepathic message from Nur-Ab-Sal, directing them to find the Lost Dialogue of Plato, called the Hermocrates, a book that would lead them to Atlantis. After researching, Indiana and Sophia found the book in a collection at Barnett College. Correcting a mistake in Plato’s writings, the document revealed Atlantis was located 300 miles from Greece, not 3000 miles as previously stated. It also mentioned three engraved stones were needed to access Atlantis and its colonies. At this point, players choose between three paths—Team, Wits, or Fists—which affect how the stones are obtained. In all paths, Indiana meets an artifact dealer in Monte Carlo, visits an archaeological site in Algiers, explores an Atlantean labyrinth in Knossos on Crete, and Sophia is captured by Nazis. Other locations include the remains of an Atlantean colony on Thera, a hydrogen balloon, and a Nazi submarine.
The story converges as Indiana reaches the underwater entrance of Atlantis near Thera and explores the Lost City. He learns how to use Atlantean devices to create orichalcum beads. Using this knowledge, he rescues Sophia and follows her medallion to the home of Nur-Ab-Sal. The spirit takes control of Sophia, but Indiana tricks her into removing the necklace, destroying it and freeing her. They find grotesquely deformed bones scattered around the city. They continue to a large colossus, a statue built by Atlantis’s people to transform themselves into gods. The people had hoped ten orichalcum beads would let them control water to prevent a disaster.
Unknowingly, Indiana activates the machine, and Kerner, Ubermann, and Nazi troops arrive, planning to use the machine to become gods. The machine caused the mutated bones, but the Nazis believed it would work on them due to their "Aryan" traits. Kerner insisted on being the first to use the machine, claiming he was the best choice. After Indiana reminded him of Plato’s error, Kerner used only one bead, turning him into a deformed creature who jumped into lava. Indiana then stepped onto the platform but threatened Ubermann with punishment if he became a god. Fearing this, Ubermann used the machine with 100 beads, turning him into a green, unstable being that shattered.
If Indiana failed to convince Ubermann or if Sophia remained trapped, two alternative endings occur where one of the protagonists undergoes a transformation. In the happy ending, Atlantis collapses due to a volcanic eruption as Indiana and Sophia escape. The final scene shows Indiana kissing Sophia on a submarine, comforting himself over the lack of proof for their discovery.
Development
At the time a sequel to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure was planned, most Lucasfilm Games staff were working on other projects, such as The Secret of Monkey Island and The Dig. Designer Hal Barwood had created two computer games on his own before, but he was chosen to lead the project because of his experience as a film producer and writer. The company originally wanted him to base the game on a rejected script by Chris Columbus for the third Indiana Jones movie, which would have involved Indiana Jones searching for Chinese artifacts in Africa. However, after reviewing the script, Barwood believed the idea was weak and instead asked to create an original story. With co-worker Noah Falstein, he visited the library at George Lucas’s workplace, Skywalker Ranch, to find plot ideas. They eventually chose Atlantis after seeing a diagram in a book about unsolved mysteries that showed the city as built in three concentric circles. Initially, they considered the mythical sword Excalibur as a plot device, but the idea was abandoned because it would not provide a clear reason for Indiana Jones to travel beyond England.
Creating the story required research into books about fake science. Inspiration for the city’s description and the metal orichalcum came mainly from Plato’s writings Timaeus and Critias, as well as from Ignatius Loyola Donnelly’s book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, which revived interest in the Atlantis myth in the 1800s. The magical properties of orichalcum and Atlantean technology were partly based on ideas from Russian spiritualist Helena Blavatsky’s writings about the force vril. The giant colossus that produces gods was inspired by a device called “firestone,” described by American psychic Edgar Cayce.
Once Barwood and Falstein completed the story outline, Barwood wrote the script, and the team began designing puzzles and environments. The Atlantean artifacts and architecture, created by lead artist William Eaken, were modeled after the Minoan civilization, and the game suggests the Minoans were influenced by Atlantis. Barwood wanted the Atlantean art to feel “alien,” with machines appearing to operate on unknown physics rather than magic. Backgrounds were first sketched by hand, then colored with basic hues and converted to 256-color images using Deluxe Paint. About 10% of the images were scanned paintings completed near the end of development. Artists often revised images due to frequent design changes. Character animations were created by rotoscoping, using real-life video footage of Steve Purcell for Indiana Jones and Collette Michaud for Sophia. The main art team, including Eaken, James Dollar, and Avril Harrison, sometimes helped with graphical puzzles, such as a broken robot in Atlantis.
Adding three different story paths, suggested by Falstein, added about six months to the development time because of the extra dialogue needed for interactions between Indiana Jones and Sophia. The game took about two years to complete, starting in early 1990 and finishing in June 1992 with a floppy disk release. Barwood was not involved in the voice acting for the enhanced “talkie” edition released on CD-ROM in May 1993, which was handled by Tamlynn Barra. Voice recordings for the game’s 8,000 lines of dialogue took about four weeks and used actors from the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Harrison Ford was unavailable to voice Indiana Jones, so actor Doug Lee was used instead. Victor Entertainment published the game for FM Towns in August 1993. The “talkie” version later appeared as an extra mode in the 2009 Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings game on the Wii and was released for Windows XP, Vista, and Mac OS X via Steam in July 2008. These versions included improved music, voices, and text. Lucasfilm released the game for Linux as part of a Disney classics collection, including Sam & Max Hit the Road, on the GOG platform in October 2014.
The cover art for Fate of Atlantis was inspired by Indiana Jones film posters created by Drew Struzan. It was drawn by Eaken in three days after disagreements with the marketing team and an external art director about the design. Clint Bajakian, Peter McConnell, and Michael Land composed the soundtrack, adapting John Williams’ Raiders March for various musical pieces. The DOS version used music played through internal speakers, AdLib or Sound Blaster sound cards, or Roland MT-32 modules. During development, William Messner-Loebs and Dan Barry wrote a Dark Horse Comics series based on Barwood’s and Falstein’s story, then titled Indiana Jones and the Keys to Atlantis. Eaken mentioned that the team spent hours trying to find a better title than Fate of Atlantis, but they could not think of anything better than names like “Indiana Jones Does Atlantis.” Barwood suggested the final title and convinced the company’s management and marketing team not to use “Indy’s Next Adventure.”
LucasArts created a version of the enhanced game for the Sega CD, but the release was canceled because The Secret of Monkey Island did not sell well on that platform. An arcade-style game, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: The Action Game, designed by Attention to Detail, was released around the same time as the adventure game and loosely followed its story.
Reception
According to Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts, Fate of Atlantis was "a commercial hit." Noah Falstein reported that by 2009, it was LucasArts' most successful adventure game ever, with more than 1 million copies sold. He noted that 30% of the players were female, a higher percentage than most LucasArts games had achieved before its release.
Reviewers from Game Informer, Computer Game Review, Games Magazine, and Game Players Magazine named Fate of Atlantis the "Best Adventure Game of the Year." Later, IGN called it a "classic." Patricia Hartley and Kirk Lesser of Dragon described it as "terrific" and "thought-provoking." They praised the "Team, Wits, Fists" system for making the game fun to play again, but they believed the "Team" option was the best. The reviewers said it was a "must-buy." Lim Choon Wee of the New Straits Times praised the game's graphics and arcade-style sequences. He wrote that the game had bright colors and excellent sprite animation. He agreed with Hartley and Lesser that the "Team" mode was the best. Wee called Fate of Atlantis "a brilliant game" and said it was better than Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge.
Charles Ardai of Computer Gaming World in September 1992 praised the game's setting for combining "gravity, silliness, genuine scholarship, and mystical mumbo-jumbo." He said the story was strong enough to stand beside Indiana Jones movies. He highly praised the "Team, Wits, Fists" system, as well as the graphics and varied locations. Although he mentioned the blocky character designs and lack of voice acting as weaknesses, Ardai called the game "exuberant, funny, well-crafted, and clever," and said it was better than The Last Crusade. QuestBusters also praised the game, stating it was "not only the best adventure ever done by LucasArts… but also probably the nicest graphic adventure ever… just about perfect in all areas." The reviewer wrote that the game "shines in 256 colors" and that the music and sound effects "complete the effect of playing a movie." He described the puzzles as creative and fair and said the game had multiple solutions. The reviewer concluded that the game was a "must-buy for all adventurers" and called it "the best quest of the year," tied with Ultima Underworld, both of which "redefine the state-of-the-art in their genres."
In 1993, Computer Gaming World named Fate of Atlantis one of the year's four best adventure games. It was nominated for an award at the 1993 Game Developers Conference. In 1994, PC Gamer US named the CD-ROM version of Fate of Atlantis the 38th best computer game ever. The editors said the floppy disk version was "a terrific game," but the CD-ROM edition improved it by setting a new industry standard for voice acting. That same year, PC Gamer UK named it the 13th best computer game of all time. The editors called it "a sumptuous feast for adventure and Indiana Jones fans alike." In 1996, Computer Gaming World declared Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis the 93rd-best computer game ever released. In 2011, Adventure Gamers named Fate of Atlantis the 11th-best adventure game ever released.
In 1998, PC Gamer declared it the 41st-best computer game ever released. The editors called it "a milestone achievement for LucasArts, this genre's greatest exponent, and it remains required playing for adventurers everywhere."
Planned sequels
After the first game was released, Joe Pinney, Hal Barwood, Bill Stoneham, and Aric Wilmunder created a story for a new adventure game called Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix. The story took place after World War II and involved Nazis hiding in Bolivia trying to bring Adolf Hitler back to life using the philosopher's stone. The game was being made for 15 months before it was shown at the European Computer Trade Show.
When German officials found out how much the game focused on Neo-Nazism, they told LucasArts that it would be hard to sell the game in Germany. Because Germany was an important market for adventure games, LucasArts worried that the game might not make enough money to cover its development costs. As a result, the company canceled the game. The story was later turned into a four-part comic book series by Lee Marrs, published from December 1994 to March 1995. In an interview, Barwood said the team should have thought more carefully about the story before creating it, calling it insensitive and not regretting the cancellation.
Another game called Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny was planned, focusing on the Spear of Longinus. LucasArts hired a small studio to develop the game, but the project stopped because LucasArts did not have experience managing outside teams. Elaine Lee changed the story into a four-part comic book series, released from April to July 1995.
Fans who tried to make a remastered version of the game received a cease and desist letter from Lucasfilm, the company that owns the rights.