Speaker 1: It's January of nineteen eighty four, and a Detroit local
Speaker 1: named Stephen Bell has become something of a rock star,
Speaker 1: one with a joystick in his hand instead of a guitar.
Speaker 1: He's the first ever winner of Atari's sword Quest contest,
Speaker 1: which promises one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in jewel
Speaker 1: encrusted treasures to players who can successfully navigate four adventure games.
Speaker 1: You might think word doesn't travel very far about a
Speaker 1: video game contest, but Atari is one of the most
Speaker 1: well known brands in the world, and Stephen is an
Speaker 1: Atari champion, the Tom Brady of video games. His picture
Speaker 1: appears in Atari Age, the magazine devoted to all things Atari.
Speaker 1: Each issue is poured over by tens of thousands of
Speaker 1: Atari fans. This means he was at least a little recognizable.
Speaker 1: So when Stephen arrives for the second sword Quest competition
Speaker 1: in Sunnyvale, California, a little kid spots him and kind
Speaker 1: of freaks out.
Speaker 2: They all knew because of a magazine. I actually had
Speaker 2: one younger kid come up and want my autograph. So
Speaker 2: one time in my life someb be wondered my autograph.
Speaker 1: The kid is starstruck. Stephen is one of gaming's first
Speaker 1: celebrity players. In fact, all the sword Quest finalists are,
Speaker 1: and that attention can sometimes get well a little creepy.
Speaker 3: And so they were calling the seven of us or
Speaker 3: eight of us to see if we could tell them
Speaker 3: what we did to solve the puzzle, and they wanted
Speaker 3: to give them clues as to what to do for
Speaker 3: the Fireworld was starting, and so as we turned in one,
Speaker 3: the next one was going, and everybody was calling to
Speaker 3: find out how we got to where we found the answer.
Speaker 1: That's Jackie Custer, another finalist in the first game Earth World.
Speaker 3: I actually had one guy who came to my house.
Speaker 3: Showed up at my house. I don't know. He found
Speaker 3: my address from somewhere.
Speaker 1: Like Stephen, Jackie is becoming a bit of a celebrity
Speaker 1: and maybe something else too. Maybe they're targets. Both are
Speaker 1: looking to the second leg of the contest, fire World.
Speaker 1: The two have qualified for the in person final and
Speaker 1: a chance to win the second prize, a gem studded
Speaker 1: chalice worth another twenty five thousand dollars. They have the
Speaker 1: experience like a prize fighter who's already made the walk
Speaker 1: to the ring. There were eight finalists in the first game,
Speaker 1: which was almost impossible to solve. Seven made it. One
Speaker 1: missed his flight. This time, seventy three people qualified for
Speaker 1: the contest in California. Stephen and Jackie will have far
Speaker 1: more competition than ever before. There are some familiar faces
Speaker 1: and some not so familiar, including the man who would
Speaker 1: become Stephen's earcist rival. When the smoke clears, another winner
Speaker 1: will be crowned, and someone will get one step closer
Speaker 1: to the grand prize, the fifty thousand dollars swored of
Speaker 1: Ultimate Sorcery, but behind the scenes, Atari is playing a
Speaker 1: different game entirely. It's a contest of survival in a
Speaker 1: brand new world of next level video games, one threatening
Speaker 1: to leave the company in the dust. To keep going,
Speaker 1: they'll try anything, including breeding players' minds for iHeartRadio. This
Speaker 1: is the Legend of sword Quest. I'm your host, Jamie Loftus,
Speaker 1: and this is Episode three. The Chalice. Fireworld, the second
Speaker 1: in the sword Quest series, hit stores in February of
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three. Like Earthworld, it came packaged with a
Speaker 1: DC Comics story that helped flesh out the narrative while
Speaker 1: providing game hints. Twins Tor and Tara were still in
Speaker 1: pursuit of the Sword of Ultimate Sorcery, which they need
Speaker 1: to defeat the evil king Tyrannus, the tyrant who murdered
Speaker 1: their parents. To do that, they'd have.
Speaker 4: To navigate a fire drenched hellscape. It was a fable, mythology,
Speaker 4: part Conan parked Star Wars, and all melodrama.
Speaker 5: Fireworld, and never was a place more aptly named. Volcanoes,
Speaker 5: blazing geysers, rivers of lava as far as that I.
Speaker 1: Can see, As you might expect, all the stress of
Speaker 1: exacting vengeance and suffering and hostile environments takes a toll
Speaker 1: on the relationship between the siblings.
Speaker 5: We'll pass out from this terrible heat unless we find
Speaker 5: a cooler spot and quickly. We'd better talk this over,
Speaker 5: figure out which direction we should be going. I don't
Speaker 5: know which one's best. No time for that. This way
Speaker 5: lies as open as any. Come on, Wait, that path.
Speaker 4: Looks even worse to go down.
Speaker 5: I mean, look at it. Will you quit arguing and
Speaker 5: follow me.
Speaker 1: There wasn't as much drama in Fireworld the game as
Speaker 1: there was in the comic. That's because A TOI was
Speaker 1: always in a hurry to get games out to the market,
Speaker 1: even if they weren't necessarily entire shape. Here's Stephen Bell that.
Speaker 2: Was actually harder the actual game. Well, like I say,
Speaker 2: you know, the games were in the comic books, but
Speaker 2: the games themselves were they were okay. Once again, you
Speaker 2: could tell that they had this grand vision. They didn't
Speaker 2: have enough time to do what they really wanted to
Speaker 2: do because you know, somebody, wait at the top. You
Speaker 2: could get the next game out work, you said, selling
Speaker 2: like hotcakes. So as far as the gameplay goes, it
Speaker 2: was just okay.
Speaker 1: The comic held clues, but this time players had another
Speaker 1: source of information each other. When the Earth World Contest
Speaker 1: was held, a network began forming among gamers, not only
Speaker 1: in person, but in the pages of video gaming magazines
Speaker 1: and through the mail. Jackie Custer, another Earth World contestant, explains.
Speaker 3: Right after the contest, I was flooded with calls. I
Speaker 3: mean it was constant, and a lot of those kids
Speaker 3: were like teenagers and young adults that were into Atari
Speaker 3: and was in the contest but didn't win. You know,
Speaker 3: it didn't get to be a finalist.
Speaker 1: The newer sword Quest players wanted help. Some of the
Speaker 1: veteran players were fairly open minded about sharing tips and tricks,
Speaker 1: but Jackie was hesitant. It felt like giving the enemy
Speaker 1: strategies on war.
Speaker 3: I had all these people calling me saying, well, how'd
Speaker 3: you get the answer? How'd you get the answer? And
Speaker 3: I could have very easily told everybody, but we still
Speaker 3: had another contest, we had Fireworld, and I didn't want
Speaker 3: everybody to win. I mean, if the more people we
Speaker 3: had going, the less chance you had of doing well.
Speaker 3: And so I sort of tried to keep it to myself,
Speaker 3: you know, but some of these people would get on
Speaker 3: the phone and they would beg you and push you
Speaker 3: and push you and try to get you to break
Speaker 3: it down, you know, to where you would tell them
Speaker 3: the answer how you came up with it. So many
Speaker 3: people won the second one, and I think that some
Speaker 3: of the other guys that were finalists for Earth World,
Speaker 3: I think some of them gave out secrets, you know,
Speaker 3: kind of let their friends in on it.
Speaker 1: With Fireworld, Jackie was at a slight disadvantage for Earth World.
Speaker 1: She had done a lot of the puzzle solving while
Speaker 1: her husband Dana controlled the game using the joystick. This time,
Speaker 1: he wasn't as involved in helping her navigate the game.
Speaker 1: But she was still determined to make it through. The
Speaker 1: treasures in the game revolved around the Tree of Life,
Speaker 1: a concept found in the Kabbalah, a study of life
Speaker 1: from the perspective of the Jewish faith. There was depth
Speaker 1: in these games if you chose to look for it,
Speaker 1: but this was the eighties. Gamers liked Frogger. Most people
Speaker 1: skipped the subtext.
Speaker 3: I practiced until it was crazy, I mean constantly, and
Speaker 3: we even thought of, like Dana just churning in the
Speaker 3: second one, but he didn't have as much time to
Speaker 3: work on it. He was very, very busy with work,
Speaker 3: and when he came home he wanted to play with
Speaker 3: the sun, and so he didn't really get into it
Speaker 3: as much as I did. And so it kind of
Speaker 3: just was the belief that I would just churn it
Speaker 3: in and hopefully enjoy another trip to San Francisco. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I practiced and practiced, and I got better. I got
Speaker 3: quite a bit further on the fireworld.
Speaker 1: This time, more people qualified for the finals. Seventy three
Speaker 1: of them in fact, including Jackie and returning champion Stephen Bell,
Speaker 1: all had the correct answer. Leads to chalice. Power abounds.
Speaker 1: Like the first game, contestants had to know that the
Speaker 1: correct words were identified by a clue in the poem
Speaker 1: included in the comic.
Speaker 6: In Earth World Gred, these twins have twelve beasts of
Speaker 6: Zodiac birth and mastered thieving as they sought for sword
Speaker 6: of Ultimate worth through Fireworld's flames. They now do rage well.
Speaker 6: Time it's told is ad to seven days a year,
Speaker 6: an age who knows in a world gone mad.
Speaker 1: In the comic, the phrase ad to seven is printed
Speaker 1: in a different typeface. The pages of the comic containing
Speaker 1: the right clues needed to add up to seven. But
Speaker 1: did that? Many more people figure that out on their own.
Speaker 1: Were a lot of twelve year olds really into typography.
Speaker 1: Jackie isn't sure.
Speaker 3: About that, Like this is how you do it, you know.
Speaker 3: I just don't think that all of a sudden to
Speaker 3: go from seven of us to fifty of well, I
Speaker 3: think it was seventy five of us that got it
Speaker 3: for the second one. I just think that some of
Speaker 3: the finalists on the first one. I think let lous
Speaker 3: on how it was done, you.
Speaker 1: Know, however it happened. Seventy three was way too many
Speaker 1: contestants for Atari. The company was committed to flying out
Speaker 1: all the finalists and putting them up in a hotel
Speaker 1: for three days in the Bay Area of California. This
Speaker 1: contest was already an expensive proposition, so when the number
Speaker 1: of winning entries grew to be too much, Atari went
Speaker 1: full grade school teacher.
Speaker 3: They couldn't afford to have that many people. It was
Speaker 3: just too big of an unmovie group, you know. So
Speaker 3: they cut it down and you had to write an
Speaker 3: essay about why you want it to go.
Speaker 1: Yes, an essay a homework assignment. Atari wrote back to
Speaker 1: the players and told them to submit a manifesto on
Speaker 1: why they loved Fireworld. So everyone wrote something, including Stephen Bell,
Speaker 1: but as he dropped it in the mail, he wasn't
Speaker 1: sure being a returning champion was necessarily an advantage.
Speaker 2: He had a little thing on what do you like
Speaker 2: about the game? Like I said, I was still in
Speaker 2: contact with a middle group of friends, and once again
Speaker 2: I was talking to Jackie on the phone. I said,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't think they're gonna pick me to
Speaker 2: be one of them because I already won one. And
Speaker 2: she says, no, they're going to pick you to see
Speaker 2: if you can win them all. Well, I guess we'll see, sure, enough,
Speaker 2: you know, I get my little acceptance letter. There you
Speaker 2: go coming back.
Speaker 1: Keep in mind, Fireworld was an often infuriating game, so
Speaker 1: many of these essays expressing their love for it were
Speaker 1: probably not entirely sincere. But a golden chalice was at stake,
Speaker 1: so a little creative license was to be expected. Atari
Speaker 1: got these seventy three essays and picked the fifty they
Speaker 1: liked best. Pretty soon, Stephen Bell, Jackie Custer, and forty
Speaker 1: eight other people got a letter in the mail inviting
Speaker 1: them to the finals, which would be held in January
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four. Stephen and Jackie had an advantage of swords.
Speaker 1: They knew what it was like to play a game
Speaker 1: under pressure, with a time limit and rows of television
Speaker 1: set up. They were the two veterans, but now there
Speaker 1: was just a one in fifty chance either one of
Speaker 1: them would come out on top. And that wasn't the
Speaker 1: only different thing this time around. As soon as Jackie
Speaker 1: and Stephen got dropped off, they found themselves in an
Speaker 1: entirely new environment.
Speaker 5: Our ghostly mentors challenged us to enter the second world
Speaker 5: that lies below to claim both the sword and our
Speaker 5: own destinies. Well, we've come this far, and by the gods,
Speaker 5: we won't stop now.
Speaker 1: The first thing Jackie Custer noticed upon returning to San
Speaker 1: Francisco was that things seemed a little more let's say,
Speaker 1: economical with Atari.
Speaker 3: Instead of having a catered dinner, they took us all
Speaker 3: and we walked a few blocks to Chinatown and we
Speaker 3: went to a Chinese restaurant and they served us kind
Speaker 3: of like not pot luck, but buffet style, you know,
Speaker 3: a Chinese dinner.
Speaker 1: Where the first event had players in a lavish hotel
Speaker 1: with the contest and Atari's headquarters, this one was being
Speaker 1: held at a holiday inn.
Speaker 5: It's like a roaring furnace, the greatest inferno we've encountered yet.
Speaker 3: The hotel we stayed in. It was in San Francisco,
Speaker 3: it was, but it just wasn't at the same caliber
Speaker 3: as the hotel we had for the first game.
Speaker 1: Jackie also felt like the number of finalists may have
Speaker 1: been too.
Speaker 3: Much the second one. I felt like I was being
Speaker 3: pushed here and there, and that there was too many
Speaker 3: of us, and it was it was kind of like
Speaker 3: more like a herd mentality, and you know, everybody hurrying
Speaker 3: getting here and eat your dinner and hurry back to
Speaker 3: this and you know, take the tour and then get
Speaker 3: back to the hotel and da da da da da.
Speaker 1: But not everyone agreed things were all that bad. Here's Steven.
Speaker 2: We just went to San Francisco, a hotel in San Francisco.
Speaker 2: But I was pretty cool because they took us to Alcatraz.
Speaker 2: I was pretty cool. I don't know if anyone's ever
Speaker 2: seen the movie Escape from Alcatraz, but we saw the
Speaker 2: cell Clint Eastwood was in and all that.
Speaker 1: There also seemed to be more camaraderie this time around,
Speaker 1: both between returning players and new ones.
Speaker 3: It was interesting in the hotel. I'm sure the other
Speaker 3: guests didn't know what was going on, but it got
Speaker 3: pretty rowdy and a lot of fun. A big party,
Speaker 3: kind of like in the halls where our rooms were,
Speaker 3: you know, a couple different floors, they had a whole
Speaker 3: bunch of rooms. They had our rooms kind of together.
Speaker 3: We go out in the hallway and everybody bring out
Speaker 3: their drinks or whatever they had and the food, and
Speaker 3: we sit around in the I remember sitting on the
Speaker 3: floor of my feet up on the wall, just talking
Speaker 3: and talking and talking till hours of the morning and
Speaker 3: getting to know each other and yeah, It was a
Speaker 3: big party.
Speaker 1: But not everyone wanted to party. Stephen was in the zone,
Speaker 1: and so were plenty of others. Owing to the number
Speaker 1: of players, Atari took over the holiday inns ballroom. Tables
Speaker 1: were set up with fifty televisions and fifty Atari systems.
Speaker 1: Heavy curtains covered the floorid to ceiling windows to block
Speaker 1: out the sunlight and reduce glare on the screens. Conference
Speaker 1: chairs were set up in front of each monitor. The
Speaker 1: whole scene looked a little bit like an old school
Speaker 1: computer class. One by one, the players began taking their
Speaker 1: seats under the drop ceiling a giant Atari sign set
Speaker 1: up to one side of the room. Off to another
Speaker 1: side was a glass case. Inside was the object of
Speaker 1: everyone's desire, the chalice, a cup from which to sip
Speaker 1: and save your victory.
Speaker 3: The chalice was really gorgeous and if you're Catholic and
Speaker 3: go to church, the chalice the priest has it was
Speaker 3: kind of like the same size as a large chalice
Speaker 3: in the church, and it was all yellow gold and
Speaker 3: just around the cup part just you know, so many
Speaker 3: stones inlaid and just so beautiful, really really neat prizes.
Speaker 1: An Atari employee described the rules like Earth World. Playing
Speaker 1: through Fireworld would be a timed competition. Players would have
Speaker 1: to gather objects and place them in their correct electronic
Speaker 1: rooms and in the right order to win. Atari made
Speaker 1: a special contest version of the game cartridge so players
Speaker 1: wouldn't merely be able to repeat what they had done
Speaker 1: with the home version. The televisions were turned on and
Speaker 1: the Atari systems engaged. Each player held a joystick, also
Speaker 1: provided by Atari to prevent someone from gaining an advantage.
Speaker 1: No one was allowed to bring and use their own controllers.
Speaker 1: With fifty players ready to go and Atari employee stepped forward,
Speaker 1: some players stole one last look at the chalice, which
Speaker 1: seemed to gleam even in the dark and dungeon like room,
Speaker 1: illuminated only by the glare of the tube televisions and
Speaker 1: some harsh fluorescent lighting. In this holiday Inn ballroom, the
Speaker 1: sight of wedding receptions, business conferences, and speed dating. Atari's
Speaker 1: second sword Quest competition was on. The clacking of the
Speaker 1: joysticks was symphonic. Each player consumed by navigating each room
Speaker 1: and grabbing objects an oil lamp and amulet, a grappling hook,
Speaker 1: and trying to figure out where each belonged. Some needed
Speaker 1: to be placed after you put the right object in
Speaker 1: another room. There was a lot of trial and error.
Speaker 1: The layout of the rooms was more apparent if you
Speaker 1: knew the design of the Tree of Life from the
Speaker 1: Kabbala ten circles inside of three triangles. It acted as
Speaker 1: a kind of navigator. Stephen Bell got off to a
Speaker 1: good start, but pretty soon that optimism gave way to despair.
Speaker 2: I just wasn't getting these wouldn't get these clues as good,
Speaker 2: and I could tell like pretty quickly. I just remember,
Speaker 2: after about ten minutes, I'm like, yeah, I ain't went
Speaker 2: a nice one. You plu pulling away and I'm not gidneys.
Speaker 1: The same was true of Jackie Custer, who had a
Speaker 1: sense she was only plotting along. Using the joystick had
Speaker 1: not been her strong suit, but she had gotten better
Speaker 1: with it. That was thanks in part to Stephen, who
Speaker 1: had shared.
Speaker 3: Some of his Stephen Bell, who won the first one.
Speaker 3: He was a nice guy, and they were moving their joysticks.
Speaker 3: Later they were showing me how they could move through.
Speaker 3: And after it was over, we all kind of went
Speaker 3: around one of the screens and was looking and Stephen
Speaker 3: was showing us how he got through some of the
Speaker 3: mini games, and they were just so fast. It woggled
Speaker 3: my mind because I couldn't do.
Speaker 1: That, you know. Eventually Jackie still fell behind.
Speaker 3: I want to say that it was like the fourth
Speaker 3: or fifth level. Like I said, it was not fabulous.
Speaker 1: Instead, two other contestants new to the sword quest scene
Speaker 1: began to pull ahead curiously. Both were from South Carolina.
Speaker 1: One was Rick Davidson from Kershaw, the other was Michael
Speaker 1: Rideout from Aiken. Both were making great time. Michael knew
Speaker 1: about the Tree of Life and was able to speed
Speaker 1: through rooms more quickly than most of the others. Rick
Speaker 1: didn't know much about the Tree of Life, but still
Speaker 1: managed to find what he needed. After forty minutes of play,
Speaker 1: some players had tossed aside their joysticks in exasperation. The
Speaker 1: objects had been too hard to come by and their
Speaker 1: locations too difficult to discover. Others plowed ahead, but Michael
Speaker 1: and Rick were close, very close. As Rick plunked down
Speaker 1: his last object, he felt a surge of excitement. There
Speaker 1: was nothing left to do. He looked around and didn't
Speaker 1: see anyone else with their arms raised. He had done it.
Speaker 1: He had beaten Fireworld and obtained the Chalice. Except well,
Speaker 1: except Rick's judge didn't agree with him. As with the
Speaker 1: first contest, each player was assigned a judge. This time
Speaker 1: one judge supervised two players to watch out for any
Speaker 1: suspicious activity and make certain the players completed the tasks.
Speaker 1: What suspicious activity would have looked like in nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: four is a mystery.
Speaker 4: But still.
Speaker 1: Noticed that the judge wasn't giving him me all clear.
Speaker 1: Rick had gotten all the clues and their corresponding numbers,
Speaker 1: but one, just one, was out of order. The official
Speaker 1: told him he'd have to do it over again, so
Speaker 1: Rick did just that. He raced through, repeating his own steps.
Speaker 1: He had just minutes to go, but then there was
Speaker 1: a commotion on the other side of the room. Another
Speaker 1: contestant was standing up. Rick looked over and the contestant
Speaker 1: was getting his arm raised. Applause was breaking out. Michael
Speaker 1: not Rick had one fireworld. A dejected Rick put his
Speaker 1: joystick down. The rules were the rules. A little while later,
Speaker 1: the judge came up to him and handed him something.
Speaker 1: It was one of the game cartridges made especially for
Speaker 1: the contest. Attari always took them back and never allowed
Speaker 1: players to keep them, but the judge gave one to Rick.
Speaker 1: It was kind of a consolation prize and years later
Speaker 1: something that could fetch a pretty good price on eBay,
Speaker 1: but it was no substitute for the chalice. Michael Rideout
Speaker 1: had earned Atari's holy grail, and he was close to
Speaker 1: passing out. With forty nine slightly envious people looking on,
Speaker 1: twenty four year old Michael Rideout was ushered over to
Speaker 1: the glass case containing the chalice with a flourish and
Speaker 1: Atari Marketing employee lifted up the case and handed it over.
Speaker 1: Both men froze for a moment to allow for a
Speaker 1: photo to be taken. There's Michael, bearded to make him
Speaker 1: look a little older than his years, shaking hands with
Speaker 1: a smiling Atari Marketing rep male model Handsome. Michael would
Speaker 1: later say he was so excited that he felt woozy
Speaker 1: and feared he might collapse.
Speaker 3: He was really excited now, he Yeah, it was kind
Speaker 3: of like, Wow, I thought Steven would react, you know
Speaker 3: at the first one. I really Michael just you know,
Speaker 3: he was so happy and jubilant and just really partying
Speaker 3: that night and having a lot of fun, and he
Speaker 3: was enjoying the attention. Everybody wanted to talk to him.
Speaker 3: Everyone wanted to a picture with him.
Speaker 1: Michael had done a number of things right. He had
Speaker 1: wisely sucked up to a taar rate during the essay
Speaker 1: portion of the contest, writing that he had preferred Fireworld
Speaker 1: to the first game, Earth World. But there were things
Speaker 1: going against Michael too. He hadn't been in the loop
Speaker 1: on trading strategies with other contestants. Winning was a surprise,
Speaker 1: a big one. Afterward, he and Stephen Bell struck up
Speaker 1: a conversation.
Speaker 2: I don't remember what was said, gratulations. I did remember
Speaker 2: because of what Jackie doing the last time. I think
Speaker 2: I said, yeah, well we both get to come back now.
Speaker 1: There were two finalists who would get to compete for
Speaker 1: the sword. Stephen had opted to take his initial prize,
Speaker 1: the Talisman, right away, but Michael didn't really have that option.
Speaker 1: After the first competition, Atari seemed to realize how dicey
Speaker 1: it was to just hand the prize, worth twenty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars to the winner and hope it didn't get
Speaker 1: lost or stolen. This time, they allowed Michael to hold
Speaker 1: it just long enough for some photos. Then they explained
Speaker 1: they'd have it sent to him, but not via the
Speaker 1: postal service. They did enlist a Brinks truck. Brinks, of course,
Speaker 1: is a national security transportation firm that moves around cash
Speaker 1: and other valuables, including apparently Atari prizes. Here's Stephen would
Speaker 1: Michael write out?
Speaker 2: Won his channelis the second one. They didn't give it
Speaker 2: to him right away, And if that was me, I
Speaker 2: would have said, oh no, no, no, if that's my property,
Speaker 2: you hand it over right now. But when he won,
Speaker 2: they went, yeah, and the first guy we just handed
Speaker 2: a tool when they were looking at me and they said,
Speaker 2: we thought that wasn't such a good idea. But I
Speaker 2: heard it took him like three months to finally get it.
Speaker 2: Of course, because him and I we you know, we
Speaker 2: exchanged photos when he finally got it. That's how I
Speaker 2: know what it took so long, because you know every color, Hey,
Speaker 2: you get it?
Speaker 5: Who really hear you?
Speaker 2: That's what I'm like, dude, you should have just said, no,
Speaker 2: it's mine, give it to me.
Speaker 1: Well, Michael had to wait for the literal Brinks truck
Speaker 1: to show up. He and the rest of the players
Speaker 1: got in some sight seeing. But again Jackie felt like
Speaker 1: things were a little different this time around, that maybe Atari,
Speaker 1: which was the king of video games, had a crown
Speaker 1: that was beginning to slide off.
Speaker 3: They put us on buses the next day after we
Speaker 3: had our competition, and they drove us all around the city,
Speaker 3: and pretty much the next day we left, so it
Speaker 3: was a much shorter trip and they didn't treat us
Speaker 3: quite as richly as they did on the first one.
Speaker 3: You know, the first one, it was like it was
Speaker 3: really really fancy and very very nicely done.
Speaker 1: That left Jackie empty handed, well almost, she actually got
Speaker 1: her hands on the sword technically sorta.
Speaker 3: So I brought a Fireworld T shirt and three cassettes
Speaker 3: that I have the games, one still sealed in the
Speaker 3: box because I bought a second and third one of
Speaker 3: some of them. And at the end of the contest,
Speaker 3: the first one, they had these big swords hanging down
Speaker 3: with the logo on it and everything. You've probably seen
Speaker 3: a poster, i'm sure, or online they have pictures of
Speaker 3: these swords. Well, there was these cardboard swords hanging from
Speaker 3: the ceiling all over where we had the competition, and
Speaker 3: at the end we got to take those down and
Speaker 3: take them home with us. So it took home a
Speaker 3: big sword. It was like about, oh, maybe as long
Speaker 3: as the yardstick. You know, three four feet something like that. Anyway,
Speaker 3: I had that all in one piece for a long
Speaker 3: long time and it broke into it's just like a
Speaker 3: corgated cardboard, you know, a thick and it broke a
Speaker 3: couple of years ago, and so I just saved part
Speaker 3: of it, and I had that and some other goodies
Speaker 3: that I brought home.
Speaker 1: But for some players there was a reward beyond a
Speaker 1: material prize. It was something Jackie had noticed while talking
Speaker 1: with other contestants.
Speaker 3: There were several Vietnam veterans that still were dealing with
Speaker 3: coming home from the war, and they had taken up
Speaker 3: this game. One of them I talked to quite a bit,
Speaker 3: and he said it gave him a sense of something
Speaker 3: to do, like something to keep him busy, because he
Speaker 3: had such bad thoughts from the war and it was
Speaker 3: very difficult for him to get settled back into everyday life.
Speaker 3: And so he was going through a lot of medical
Speaker 3: problems and he was playing the game and happened to
Speaker 3: get the right answer and was at the second one.
Speaker 1: This was a kind of video game therapy, a concept
Speaker 1: that was slowly gaining attention but still largely unheard of
Speaker 1: at the time time. But there was one inherent problem
Speaker 1: with sword Quest. It was virtually impossible to qualify for
Speaker 1: the finals and a shot at a real prize. Only
Speaker 1: the best of the best had a hope in hell
Speaker 1: or fireworld of doing it. There was another way to
Speaker 1: play video games for profit, and unlike Atari's promotion, players
Speaker 1: could do it on national television. In the early nineteen eighties,
Speaker 1: producers James Caruso and Mavis Arthur produced a nationally syndicated
Speaker 1: television series called Starcade, and it was a chance for
Speaker 1: kids and adults to compete against one another in video
Speaker 1: games in front of a wide audience.
Speaker 7: This is docade TV's first video arcade game show, starring
Speaker 7: your favorite video games and some brand new ones being
Speaker 7: introduced to the public for the first time.
Speaker 1: Anyone Starcaid had an Atari connection. For the pilot episode,
Speaker 1: Atari co founder Nolan Bushnell helped producers source the game
Speaker 1: cabinets and find contestants. They played arcade games like Centipede
Speaker 1: or pac Man, and their scores were totaled up. The
Speaker 1: highest scoring player who also answered some trivia questions correctly,
Speaker 1: would get to play against a celebrity. In the first episode,
Speaker 1: it was Larry Wilcox, who co starred in the California
Speaker 1: Highway Patrol drama Chips. Sometimes parents would team up with
Speaker 1: their kids to play. The winner might receive a full
Speaker 1: size Arcade cabinet, or even a vacation to Hawaii. But
Speaker 1: Starkaid had a couple of things going against it. For one,
Speaker 1: television stations believed no one would want to watch people
Speaker 1: playing games. For another, there was still a concern video
Speaker 1: games were making kids lazy and rotting their brains to
Speaker 1: try and perfect the format. Darcade shot a few pilots,
Speaker 1: three of which were hosted by Alex Trebek. Yes, my
Speaker 1: childhood crush Alex Trebek. When Starcade was picked up by
Speaker 1: cable channel TBS, Trebec was long gone and would soon
Speaker 1: move on to another job, Jeopardy. Maybe you've heard of it.
Speaker 1: The format was also different, with producers ditching the celebrities
Speaker 1: and team format, but the show was further proof that
Speaker 1: competitive gaming could catch on. It may have even motivated
Speaker 1: some gamers to enter the sword Quest contest, or some
Speaker 1: sword Quest players to audition First Arcade. Of course, Atari
Speaker 1: already knew competitive gaming could be the next big thing.
Speaker 1: All indications were that sword Quest was a massive success,
Speaker 1: Atari sold five hundred thousand copies of the first game,
Speaker 1: Earth World. Fireworld was another hit. This was also a
Speaker 1: time of real ambition for the company, where it was
Speaker 1: trying very hard to break out of its wood paneled
Speaker 1: paradigm and into something new. Like mind Link, an accessory
Speaker 1: for the Atari that seemed to be able to read minds.
Speaker 1: Players would strap the device to their foreheads, then, using biofeedback,
Speaker 1: users could control characters on screen, to the dismay of
Speaker 1: impressionable kids everywhere. The mind Link couldn't actually read your thoughts.
Speaker 1: All it really did was detect minor muscle movements in
Speaker 1: your forehead. Supposedly, when an Atari executive demonstrated it at
Speaker 1: the Consumer Electronics Show, it fell off his head and broke.
Speaker 1: When the company tested it with players, they complained it
Speaker 1: gave them headaches. The mind Link was never actually released.
Speaker 1: Another major project Atari planned was by passing physical media,
Speaker 1: years before downloadable gaming became the norm. Atari wanted to
Speaker 1: deliver titles through an FM radio station. The data would
Speaker 1: be sent through the station and then received by a
Speaker 1: special Atari peripheral. It was exciting technology, but it also
Speaker 1: had the added benefit of helping Atari save money on inventory.
Speaker 1: After all, if you didn't need to store plastic cartridges,
Speaker 1: you need less warehouse space. Though it was tested in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, it never rolled out nationwide. It would be
Speaker 1: several more years before modems and downloadable games took hold
Speaker 1: in American homes. They also re released their system so
Speaker 1: it came in all black, abandoning the wood grain finish
Speaker 1: common to audio equipment and station wagons. This was, after all,
Speaker 1: the eighties, an era of increasingly slick esthetic choices. A
Speaker 1: version of the console even wound up in Japan, where
Speaker 1: it competed for gamers with a system called the Family
Speaker 1: Computer or Famicom, made by a company named Nintendo. Prior
Speaker 1: to the second sword Quest contest, Stephen hurt Atari might
Speaker 1: even move the tournament over to the mecca of video games, Japan.
Speaker 2: I think we were all like, are we going to Japan? No,
Speaker 2: we just went to San Francisco, a hotel in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: The Atari console cost twenty four thousand, eight hundred yen
Speaker 1: or about one hundred five dollars, while the Famicom was
Speaker 1: only fourteen thousand, eight hundred yen or sixty dollars. Despite
Speaker 1: taking their name from Japan, Atari means to hit a target.
Speaker 1: They didn't do well over there, but still all signs
Speaker 1: were pointing to both Atari and video games in general
Speaker 1: becoming a powerful force in entertainment. But that didn't gel
Speaker 1: with Jackie's experience. She had been to two contests and
Speaker 1: there was a marked difference between the two, and it
Speaker 1: didn't match with something Michael Rideout heard when he was
Speaker 1: at the Fireworld tournament. When Michael later gave an interview
Speaker 1: about his experience to gaming journalist John Hardy, he mentioned
Speaker 1: something odd had happened at the contest. Someone had walked
Speaker 1: up to him and given him a warning. No matter
Speaker 1: what the person said, don't agree to let Atari cancel
Speaker 1: the contest. Cancel the contest. Why would they cancel the contest?
Speaker 1: Was that even legal at the time. Michael had no
Speaker 1: idea what they meant. He was in it for the
Speaker 1: long haul. For one thing, he was keeping the jalice.
Speaker 1: Unlike Stephen, who sold his prize to buy a car,
Speaker 1: Michael wanted to savor his victory. There were two more
Speaker 1: games to be played and then a final event with
Speaker 1: a fifty thousand dollars sword on the line. Even with
Speaker 1: a mind link, it was impossible to read Atari's mind
Speaker 1: and know what they were thinking. But a lot was
Speaker 1: happening in the video game industry and at Atari that
Speaker 1: would have far reaching consequences. The third contest was due
Speaker 1: to be held soon, at least that was the plan. Instead,
Speaker 1: it would be over two years before Stephen and Michael
Speaker 1: heard from Atari again. That's when they both got the letter.
Speaker 2: That's when it hit the wall, and so they sent
Speaker 2: out a letter to the twelve people involved. They just
Speaker 2: wanted to end it and here's some money.
Speaker 1: That's next time on sword Quest.
Speaker 8: The Legend of sword Quest is a production of iHeart
Speaker 8: Podcasts and School of Humans. This episode was written by
Speaker 8: Jake Rosson and hosted by Jamie Loftus producers are Miranda
Speaker 8: Hawkins and Josh Fisher. Executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Elc Crowley,
Speaker 8: Brandon Barr, and Jason Ing English. Our show editor is
Speaker 8: Mary Doo. Audio engineering by Graham Gibson, Research and fact
Speaker 8: checking by Austin Thompson and Jake Rosson. Original score by
Speaker 8: Jesse Niswanger. This episode was sound designed by Josh Fisher,
Speaker 8: mixing and mastering by Jake Cook. Show logo by Lucy
Speaker 8: Quintonia Voices in this episode are provided by Miranda Hawkins,
Speaker 8: Haley Ellman, and Graham Parker.