WEBVTT - 2: Gentlemen, Start Your Joysticks 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:05.920 It's the nineteen eighties, and parents in news media are 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:12.160 seeing the devil in everything. Ritual animal killings, subliminal messages 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:16.239 and heavy metal songs, demonic imagery in the Smurfs, which 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:19.960 some religious fundamentalists have dubbed undead creatures because they were 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:23.920 blue and some were corpses. Some even believe Pamper's diapers 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:26.119 are the work of the devil. Because the Procter and 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:30.040 Gamble logo has an astrological design. It's a kind of 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.440 mass hyst area that comes to be known as Satanic panic. 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:38.200 Most of it, virtually all of it, is total nonsense. 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:41.280 But in May nineteen eighty three, in the bowels of 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:44.919 a building in California, a group of people really are 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:49.240 gathered around a giant Zodiac sign on the floor. If 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:51.720 you're one of the people concerned about Satan taking over 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:55.320 the world, this is one very weird scene. In the 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:58.080 middle of it as a thirty year old named Jackie Custer. 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:01.240 She's a new mom and a room full of strangers 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:04.720 where there will be a kind of ritual involved, a 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:09.560 ritual she's been participating in over and over again for months. 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:12.400 Well, I'm a night owl, and I know that I 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:15.120 would put my son down to bed before eight o'clock. 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.320 You know, he was usually asleep, and as a toddler, 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:21.520 he kept pushing that bedtime up. But I would start 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:24.479 and many times Dana would come home from work really 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:26.720 really late, and I'd still be sitting there doing it, 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:28.440 and he'd say, what are you doing. You know, you 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:30.080 got to get up with the baby. And I would 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:31.760 get into it, and I'd sort of lose track of 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:35.479 time and where I was and just kept going on it. 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:38.759 I would say, hm, oh, it had to have been 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:40.759 close to one hundred hours or more. 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:45.800 This ritual consumed Jackie's free time. But Jackie didn't have 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:48.240 to pledge her soul to the devil, nor is she 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:51.520 here in California to sacrifice her baby. All she has 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.559 to do is be better and faster than the six 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:58.520 other people in the room. Six others, all of whom 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:01.320 have practiced the same thing for most of the past year. 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:05.080 One is a member of the Coast Guard, another a 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:09.239 sixteen year old kid. They're all gathered at the headquarters 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:14.079 of Atari, the world's leading manufacturer of video games, and 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:17.040 while they didn't realize that at the time, they were 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:20.640 about to make video gaming history, for the first time 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:23.799 a home video game could pay off with a real, 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:28.120 tangible reward, a prize that held enough value to pay 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:31.280 for college, or a new car, or a lot of 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:35.800 demonic pampers diapers. One of these people is going to 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:39.880 leave with a gold talisman worth twenty five thousand dollars, 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:41.760 but they won't be able to hang on to it 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:48.120 for long. For iHeartRadio, this is the Legend of sword Quest. 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:52.000 I'm your host, Jamie Loftus, and this is episode two. Gentlemen, 0:02:52.120 --> 0:03:00.880 start your joysticks. In nineteen eighty two, a Atari launched 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:05.280 sword Quest, a contest that featured four games, four prizes, 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:07.880 and a chance for the winners to meet up again 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:11.440 to vie for the Sword of Ultimate Sorcery, a jewel 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:15.920 studied blade valued at fifty thousand dollars. Here's how the 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:20.680 first game Earth World worked. Your character explored twelve different 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:25.120 rooms that contained sixteen different objects. You had the option 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:28.560 of bringing the objects to different rooms. If you did 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:30.840 and it was a fit, you got a number that 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:34.040 corresponded to a page and panel in the included DC 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:39.000 comic book. The comic was hiding word clues. Put five 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:42.480 clues together and in the right sequence, and you cracked 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:46.200 the game. But there was one problem. None of this 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:48.040 was explained to players. 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.200 There was no clues or hints anywhere in an instruction 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:57.680 manual or anywhere to explain what items go where. It 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:01.880 was literally trial and error, as I required one object 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:03.640 in one room, or two in this one, three in 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:05.720 this one, and I think you had like sixteen objects 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:06.720 or something like that. 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:10.440 That's Bert Wardahl. We met him in episode one. At 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.360 the time, he was thirteen years old and eager to 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:16.560 have a gold talisman worth twenty five thousand dollars on 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:21.040 his nightstand. But Atari wasn't making it easy. In fact, 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:24.520 the game was so hard it drove people to the brink. 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:28.480 The amount of combinations you could use are probably in 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:32.000 the millions or billions, and I just remember being very 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:34.040 frustrated by it because I didn't know what to do. 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:38.039 I did find one of the clues haphazardly, I don't 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:40.040 know what I did to generate it. 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:42.120 It was like being told to win at chess, but 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:46.120 not telling you how each piece moved. The best advice 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:48.720 Atari gave in the Owner's Manual was to keep a 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:51.320 pen and paper handy because you'd be doing a lot 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:53.919 of exploration. When it came to trying to solve the 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:58.880 puzzles Bert played, he played a lot. He wandered in 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:02.000 and out of rooms on this controlling a character that 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:05.480 was little more than a pair of legs and a torso. 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.279 This was the first Golden Age of gaming, but not 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.400 the Golden age of graphics. This was Theater of the 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:15.160 Mind stuff, an adventure that unfolded in your head and 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:17.880 was fueled by the packaging art which made it look 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:21.400 like a grand fantasy epic, and the included comic book, 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:25.720 which dramatized the whole affair. Twins Tour and Tara are 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:29.279 on a mission of revenge against King Tyrannus, who killed 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:33.040 their parents. To defeat him, they'll have to conquer a 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:36.719 series of quests. At least that's what a wise spirit 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.920 tells them in the DC comics, written by Jerry Conway 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:43.440 and Roy Thomas and illustrated by the late George Perez. 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:47.080 To achieve your goal, you must be willing to learn 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.720 what each world can teach you. You must have open minds 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:54.280 and yes, open hearts as well. You must put aside 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:57.200 your anger and your hate. You must learn to think 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:03.159 before acting. You must learn to judge before responding Descend 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.039 and you will enter the first of the four worlds. 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:08.159 You must conquer Earth World. 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:13.840 But Bert was, after all, thirteen years old. He wasn't 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:17.239 about to conquer anything, and he was getting slightly angry 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.359 at the game, which didn't have all the typical villains, 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:25.000 the aliens, the monsters. He was essentially playing against himself, 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:27.719 wandering around chambers with a zodiac theme. 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.159 Honestly, you know, the first week that I had that game, 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:34.400 I probably played it every day, tried to figure it out, 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:36.760 and nothing ever worked. I got to the point where 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:38.919 I couldn't find anything more in the game. There was 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:41.840 no hints or anything to help you. There was no 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:45.120 Internet you could look on for help. There was no 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:48.640 Atari eight hundred number you could call for help. It 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:51.360 was just you trying to figure this out. And I 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:54.360 remember trying to look through the comic book on my own. 0:06:56.120 --> 0:07:00.080 Bert wasn't the only one having trouble in Ourlita calif 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:04.520 Jackie Custer was equally befuddled by the chambers and their clues, 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:07.920 but she didn't fit the typical profile of a gamer, 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.880 at least not at the time. Jackie was an adult 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:14.920 married to Dana Custer and had a lot going on 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:18.520 in her life. Back surgery for some ruptured discs had 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:20.800 put her out of commission, but she still had to 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:24.600 tend to their new baby. Earthworld was a welcome distraction 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:28.320 of sorts. Even though she had initially bought the Atari 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:32.440 system for her husband, she wound up playing it a lot, 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.080 and she loved the idea of sword Quest almost as 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:37.360 much as Bert hated it. 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:40.320 I kind of think I just ran into it, kind 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:44.000 of as an accident. We didn't subscribe to the Atari 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:47.520 magazine at the time, so I'm not sure how I 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:51.040 found out about it, but got the game and brought 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:55.240 it home and was fascinated by the fact that it 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.720 was an action adventure, that there was actually something to 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:02.560 figure out, and there's no instructions with the game whatsoever. 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:05.200 You know, you took it out of the box and 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:08.840 there was the comic book and the cassette and no 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:11.960 directions on you know, you go this way or that way, 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:15.440 or do this, do that, nothing, So you really had 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:17.440 to start from the very beginning to try to figure 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:18.200 it out yourself. 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:21.960 It was also kind of a bonding experience with Dana. 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:25.280 Jackie was good at solving puzzles, but not so good 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:26.400 using the joystick. 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:31.040 We worked as a team when he was home. He 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.320 was really good with joysticks and I was not. You know, 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:36.640 it was all thumbs and I had a really hard 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:40.679 time getting through the little games within the game. He 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:43.920 would take and control it for me and get me 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:46.800 into the rooms and I would keep copious notes and 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.240 write everything down and try to follow along and find 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:54.600 the clues, and together as a team, we worked on 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.040 this oh night after night. It was like instead of 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:59.400 watching TV, we just get out the game and start 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:00.000 working on it. 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.360 Sometimes this went on all day and into the night, 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:07.880 Dana coming home from work and seeing Jackie still at it, 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:13.280 still hoping to vanquish King Tyrannus. Finally Jackie realized what 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:14.200 the game was doing. 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:17.120 Every once in a while, the screen would go into 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:20.640 these bright colors, and these clues would show up two numbers, 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:24.600 and the comic book had beautiful pictures. But after I 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:26.760 looked at it a few times, I noticed that there 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:29.480 was words hidden in the pictures, and so I figured 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:31.679 that it had to do with trying to figure out 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.199 what the answer was. So I just started writing down 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:38.200 those numbers, and eventually I figured out that it must 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.240 stand for where it's at in the book. And so 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:44.400 I've found that a gourd hidden on one of the pages. 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:48.040 And then by looking at that page number, I noticed 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:51.520 that one of the clues was that number. So it 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.240 just hit me that that's the page number. And then 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:57.440 the second number was the panel the panel on the 0:09:57.480 --> 0:09:58.160 comic book. 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:02.880 This went on for months. Finally Jackie looked down at 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:05.800 a piece of paper. There were ten word clues total, 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:09.440 but only five of them were correct. To know which five, 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:12.560 you had to have noticed that a poem appeared on 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:13.959 the first page of the. 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:19.800 Comic Conquesting with Old Siblings, Twain Prime Thieves of Ravaged Earth, 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:23.720 Next journey to the fire World, Land of Volcanoes, Birth 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:28.440 Waves without number, Water's realm, but where if Evil's there? 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:32.400 Last read the Heir's winds Heaven High to claim a 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:33.560 prize most rare. 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:39.360 Okay, so it wasn't keats, but it was important. The 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:43.320 poem was printed in all brown ink except for two words, 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:47.720 which were in purple. Those words were prime and number. 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:53.040 Only the clues on prime number pages and panels were accurate. 0:10:53.800 --> 0:11:00.600 The five words were talisman, tower quest found and in 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:05.600 tower found in Quest Talisman. No, that didn't seem right. 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:09.160 It was just process of elimination, hours and hours and 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:12.160 hours of doing this and keeping notes, and then eventually 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:14.560 I got to the point where I had all the clues, 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:18.199 had all these panels laid out, and put the words together, 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:22.840 and it came out to say, Creston Tower Talsman found. 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:26.640 After hundreds of hours of playing, Jackie sent in her 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:29.560 submission form that had been included in the game. She 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.960 managed to finish it ahead of the contest deadline March fifteenth, 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:37.640 nineteen eighty three. Back in Wisconsin, Bert wasn't having as 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:39.959 much luck. The clues were too elusive. 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:43.080 You know, I'm a smart guy. I spent probably more 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:46.120 time than anybody, at least around my area, and I 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:48.280 was trying to use logic to figure these things out. 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:51.680 I was scouring that comic book and I just couldn't 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:54.320 do it. There was nothing that helped. It was very 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:56.520 frustrating to me because usually if I put my mind 0:11:56.520 --> 0:11:58.640 to something, I can figure it out, but this one 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.079 eluded me. I got tired of it. 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.480 So Bert finally set Earth World aside. He wouldn't be 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:09.959 going to Sunnyvale. The vast majority of players who didn't 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:13.280 have the time or patience wouldn't be going either. Those 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:15.920 that found an answer had no idea whether it was 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:18.800 the right answer. The game didn't tell them. They had 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.520 to learn the old fashioned way from the mail carrier. 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:25.680 In the spring of nineteen eighty three, Jackie got a letter. 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:29.479 When she opened it, she saw it was on Atari letterhead. 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:32.240 When I got the paper, I remember the day that 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:35.120 the letter arrived in the mail. I remember opening it, 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:38.440 and when I've read the words that congratulations, you've been 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.760 you know selected, I've lost it. It was unbelievable. When 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:45.240 I told Dana, he couldn't believe it either. It was 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:49.040 really a fun part of my life, a time when 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:51.880 things were real simple and I had the time to 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:52.920 do something like this. 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:57.200 The phrase had been correct quest in Tower Talisman found 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:01.360 was the answer Atari was looking for, although Jackie didn't 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:03.800 know it just then. She was one of only eight 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:08.199 people who submitted the correct answer. This was exciting, but 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.240 Jackie had a couple of problems. For one, she had 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:14.320 a baby. The baby itself was not the issue, but 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.080 it's not so easy to just leave an infant to 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:21.000 go attend a video game tournament. The second problem was 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:25.000 that Jackie and Dana were a team. Dana was the muscle, 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:29.319 sort of the joystick operator. Jackie was the brains of 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.040 the operation. But she still felt like she and her 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:35.760 husband were a pair like Frodo and Samwise or Bo 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:36.640 and Luke Duke. 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:39.880 And so when it came to filling out the application, 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:42.960 I just sort of thought it was kind of like 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:45.400 that we would be able to go up to Atari together. 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:48.480 What I sort of thought is that we were a team. 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:51.440 And I think I even filled out my name first 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.560 and then put his next to it in parentheses or something, 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:57.959 and wrote on there that we were a husband and wife. 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:01.480 But when it came back the letter from Atari saying 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:04.360 that I had been selected, I talked to them on 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:06.880 the phone and they said that because my name was 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:09.840 on there first, legally I had to be the one 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:11.480 that came up and played the game. 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:15.480 In a sports movie, this is the kind of moment 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:18.960 where the hero in this case, heroin sprain's an ankle 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:22.600 or gets a bad referee call. They're down ten points, 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:24.520 but Jackie was undeterred. 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:27.880 I go, my husband wants to be there while I'm 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:30.920 playing the game and won't know what to do with 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.560 the baby. So They said, well, do you have someone 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:35.960 that can care for the baby while you're doing the contest? 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:38.600 And I go, yeah, I'm my mom. So they paid 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:42.720 for my husband, my mom, myself, and my son to 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:43.280 I'll go. 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:47.480 Although Jackie's husband could come, he wasn't allowed to play 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:51.840 with her. The tournament was single player only. Jackie had 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:55.400 been playing the video game equivalent of doubles tennis. Now 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:57.840 she was being told her partner couldn't step foot on 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.280 the court. This was like limping into a championship game 0:15:01.320 --> 0:15:04.720 with a broken ankle. Even worse, her competition would be 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.200 the best of the best. It was time to find 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:10.840 out who would be crowned the first Champion of sword Quest, 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:21.360 but not everyone would show up. Jackie, her husband, and 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:25.360 their baby arrived in Sunnyville on May one, nineteen eighty three, 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:29.080 the day before the tournament was scheduled. They drove directly 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:31.880 to the hotel, which was fully paid for by Atari. 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:34.400 There she got a chance to check out her competition 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.840 for the very first time. One contestant was a lieutenant 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:40.520 with the US Coast Guard. Two were freshmen from the 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:44.000 University of New Orleans. One was just sixteen years old 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:45.880 and had to be accompanied by his parents. 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:49.160 Supposedly, there was only eight people at submitted all the 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:53.000 right answers, and there were one of their stipulations what 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:56.320 they were going to take up to fifty people, and 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:58.480 for the first game, they only had eight submit the 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:01.680 right answers. So off we all went, except for one 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:05.160 person missed their flight. I don't know who was, and 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:09.000 I kept thinking, you can get a chance for twenty. 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:11.160 Five thousand dollars prize. I might have booked another flight. 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.240 That's Stephen Bell. He was twenty years old and from 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:17.960 Saint Clair Shores, a suburb of Detroit. At the time, 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.320 he looked a bit like a roadie, long hair mustache. 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.360 Stephen was one of the seven, and believe it or not, 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:27.240 this is the first time he's talked publicly about sword 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:28.600 Quest since the eighties. 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:33.000 Yep, penty good first ever podcast I'm all school. 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:38.120 Stephen had gotten the answer right, but it happened by accident. 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:41.680 He didn't notice the clue hidden in the poem for. 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:44.880 The first one, and at that time that I sent 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.320 my answers in and I really didn't even know it 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.400 was a phrase because I just wrote them down in 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:53.120 the order I found him. The first game I think 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:57.840 five words were quest n tower, talisman found. A couple 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:00.119 of weeks later, I got a letter from him, and 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.960 my father at the time was like, no way, Like 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:04.560 here you go. 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:07.399 I wanted trip to California. 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:10.800 Jackie, meanwhile, was the only woman who had gotten the 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:14.320 answer correct and in nineteen eighty three, this made her 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:16.160 of great interest to everyone. 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:21.000 Atari immediately said, well, we're really excited that you're the 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:23.840 only female and all the stuff. At the time, it 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:25.800 was a big thing, you know. I know, a couple 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:29.200 of the guys that were there, the teenagers mostly were saying, 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:32.080 like interested whether or not I could figure it out, 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:36.040 or whether I knew what I was doing, and like 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:37.920 I said, I was not good with joysticks. 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:42.040 After meeting the competition, the contestants settled in for the night. 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:47.920 The next day they congregated at Atari's headquarters. Jackie looked around. 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:51.719 In the tournament room was a large zodiac sign and 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:55.199 seven television sets on rolling carts like the kind you 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:59.400 used to see in school. Each set had two folding chairs, 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:04.439 one for the player, one for a judge. Then Jackie 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:06.720 saw the prize that was up for grabs. 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:11.080 The talisman. It was very pretty. It wasn't exactly completely round. 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:13.960 It had kind of like scaloped edge to it, if 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:16.840 I remember right. So it was twelve pieces of the pie, 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:19.560 and at the head of each one they had the 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:23.480 zodiac symbol, all done in stones, rare stones, and I 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:28.840 think they used them birth stones, Aukland marines and topaths 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:32.720 and garnets and that sort of thing, and then diamonds 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:36.159 and rubies and pearls. But it was very beautiful, and 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:39.200 I think it had a combination of white and yellow gold. 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:41.440 I don't think it was all one or the other. 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:48.080 The talisman was eighteen carrots, solid gold, finished with diamonds 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:53.159 and other precious stones. Atari wisely kept a security guard nearby. 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:57.159 He was with Pinkerton, the private security and detective agency 0:18:57.320 --> 0:19:00.879 that had been around since the eighteen hundreds. To Jackie 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.359 and the rest of the players, everything seemed pretty well organized. 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:08.240 They had flown in on time, had hotel accommodations, and 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:11.159 the zodiac sign was a nice touch. But behind the 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:15.679 scenes Atari was working on the fly Earth World was 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:18.640 not really a game with a beginning, middle, and end. 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:22.600 It was a game of strategy and curiosity, and it 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:25.399 didn't seem to dawn on anyone in marketing that holding 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:27.800 a tournament with that kind of game was going to 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:32.040 be difficult. With just days Togo before the contest, an 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:36.159 Atari employee started writing up rules. Earth World would have 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:39.560 to be a timed competition. The first person to reach 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:42.640 the eleventh level of the game by finding and placing 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:45.960 objects in the correct place would be declared the winner. 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:49.080 There would be a ninety minute time limit because Atari 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:51.359 had planned a catered lunch and needed to wrap the 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:55.199 contest up by noon. To help speed things along, a 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:57.720 special version of the game had to be prepared by 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:02.120 Dan Higgins, who wrote the original program, and John Michael Battaglia, 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.560 who came up with fresh clues. It was different enough 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:08.280 from the commercial release so that players wouldn't just be 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:11.679 able to mimic their own movements. They'd have to figure 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:15.240 things out in the moment, kind of like Atari's marketing team. 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:19.520 Finally everyone was ready. Jackie took her seat and a 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:23.359 judge sat beside her. The televisions began to be fired up. 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:28.840 Each TV had its own Atari console with Earthworld plugged in. 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:35.000 Those two were turned on. The rules were explained. Reached 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:39.120 the eleventh level, when the talisman a lot of Sleepless 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:42.840 Nights had come to this. It was time with seven 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:46.840 judges watching seven players. An Atari employee gave the signal, 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:49.439 and yes, he really said this. 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:54.520 Lady, gentlemen, start your joy say. 0:20:56.440 --> 0:20:59.680 Like a race. All seven players hit start and began 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:06.000 playing across the screens. Tiny characters began darting in and 0:21:06.040 --> 0:21:10.200 out of chambers. Each room had four possible exits. You'd 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:11.760 have to try them to see where they led. 0:21:12.240 --> 0:21:13.720 I sort of felt kind of funny while I was 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.399 playing the game. I was very nervous too, so it 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:19.400 made it even worse. And when I couldn't get through 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:22.000 to a room or whatever, I sort of turn around 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:23.919 and look at him and kind of give him a 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:26.880 look like, well, you know, I'm doing the best I can. 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:30.480 It was just fun. I knew the answers, I could 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:31.680 figure out the puzzle. 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:34.639 Because the screens were facing away from each other, it 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:37.480 wasn't easy to make out how the other players were doing, 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:41.800 but when a level was completed, a noise could be heard. 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:44.439 Pretty soon, the room began to fill up with the 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:48.560 chimes one after another. But Jackie realized that she and 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:52.440 Dana were really a team. Losing her partner was having 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:54.440 a dramatic effect on her gameplay. 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:58.479 It's too bad I wasn't better with joysticks because when 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:02.560 we were playing the playoff game, the one for the prize, 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:07.520 I had a horrible time getting through the different rooms. 0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:09.720 And it would have been so much better if Ganna 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:12.560 could have been there with me, playing the game with me, 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:14.320 but it didn't work out that way. 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:19.439 Near Jackie, with Stephen Bell and another player, Matt Belasa, 0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:22.680 a twenty one year old chemistry major from Michigan, they 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:25.720 began to pull away from the pack. Playing neck and neck. 0:22:26.600 --> 0:22:29.679 Stephen and Matt were in a two person race, but Matt, 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:32.480 like most of the players, began having trouble with the 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:37.000 fourth level. That left Stephen and another player, Stephen Dousa, 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:40.480 to pull ahead. One would complete a level, then the 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:41.600