Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure

VIDEO GAME
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
Developer	Lucasfilm Games
Publisher	Lucasfilm Games
Platforms	IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2, Tandy Commodore Amiga Atari ST Macintosh FM Towns
Released	July 1, 1989

"Hi, I'm Indiana Jones. Welcome to my game."

―Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure is a graphical adventure game, originally released in 1989, published by Lucasfilm Games (now LucasArts), based on the story of the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

It was the third Lucasfilm game to use the SCUMM engine for adventure games. It was one of two games released at that time to tie-in to the film, the other was the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game, which was less successful than the graphic adventure. While for most of the game, the player controls the actions of Indiana Jones, there are times when it is possible to switch to control Henry Jones.

On July 8, 2009, the game was re-released on the PC, directly downloadable through Steam and later through GOG.com.

Plot summary

In 1938, Indiana Jones returned to Barnett College with the Cross of Coronado, and eventually was brought to Walter Donovan who recruited him to help recover the Holy Grail and informed him that the previous expedition leader, his father, had gone missing.

Exploring the library

Jones and Marcus Brody traveled to Venice, where they met up with Dr. Elsa Schneider. Using clues found in his father's Grail Diary, Jones was able to discover the entrance to the catacombs beneath the library. Entering alone, he found a clue as to the appearance of the Holy Grail deep in the caves. Further along, he eventually found the second grail marker, in the tomb of a knight.

Meeting up with Schneider and Brody again, they split up - Brody off to Iskenderun, and Jones and Schneider to rescue Henry Jones from Castle Brunwald. At the castle, Jones entered alone, and snuck around the castle, occasionally being forced to either outwit or fight several Nazi guards. During his journey, he discovered that the Nazis were keeping a painting of the Holy Grail in a vault, which was another clue as to the Grail's appearance. Eventually, he snuck into the room where his father was being held, but learned of Schneider's and Donovan's true affiliation - as Nazi conspirators.

Talking to a Nazi in Castle Brunwald

Escaping with his father through a secret passage behind a fireplace, Jones and his father eventually reached the Canyon of the Crescent Moon. The two were captured again by Donovan and Schneider. After Donovan shot the elder Jones, Indiana was forced to enter the Grail sanctuary, passing through several lethal traps, to retrieve the Grail as the only way to save his father's life. After Jones found his way through the temple, Donovan and Schneider followed, with the Austrian doctor selecting a false grail for Donovan to drink from, killing the businessman. Jones then selected the true grail, and after sampling it to satisfy the Grail Knight, returned to his father with it. Henry Jones was restored to health, and the adventurers left the Grail in the temple and headed for home.

Differences from the film

• Young Indy's adventures in Utah are summed up in the opening credits as Boy Scout Indy crosses over the circus train cars bearing the game credits. The cars bear the logo "Lucasfun", instead of "Dunn & Duffy Combined Circus".
• The recovery of the Cross of Coronado is not depicted, as the game begins with a wet Jones arriving with the cross to Marcus Brody at Barnett College.
• In Venice, Brody does not accompany Jones and Schneider to the library, but chooses to go for a relaxing gondola ride instead. Once Jones has found the Knight's Tomb and escaped from the catacombs, Brody appears all wet, having presumably had an adventure with the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword and knows where Henry Jones is being held.
• Schneider disappears in the library, leaving Jones to discover the entrance to the catacombs on his own. She re-appears after Jones has returned to the piazza after finding the Knight's Tomb. Reaching the Knight's Tomb requires solving several puzzles.
• At Castle Brunwald, Schneider stays in the car when Jones enters the castle, but later disappears if Jones goes back outside. Jones may catch a glimpse of her with Nazis by looking out of some of the windows.
• At Castle Brunwald, Jones says that his name is "Robert McFalfa" instead of "Clarence McDonald". Also, Indy can deceive the Butler via speaking without knocking him out like in the film.
• After escaping the castle, it's possible to bypass the trip to Berlin to retrieve the Grail Diary and head directly to Iskenderun, if the grail diary is not turned over to the Nazis. The journey to Berlin (including the motorcycle chase) is left out. Also, in Berlin, it is possible to bypass the zeppelin flight for a biplane flight instead.
• In the Berlin bookburning rally, it's possible to convince Adolf Hitler of give Indy an autograph of his book Mein Kampf, which could later be used to pass a Nazi soldier.
• At the zeppelin, if Indy doesn't have a ticket, a ticket tacker named Fritz would fight against him.
• Leaving Nazi-controlled Europe by ground (either after having the biplane shot down, or by bypassing Berlin) involves passing through several checkpoints, not seen in the film.
• The Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, Sallah, Hatay scenes with the Sultan, and the entire battle on the way to the Canyon of the Crescent Moon do not appear. Therefore, Kazim's death is also omitted.
  • However, it's mentioned that Marcus had an adventure on the tank, indicating that he had to fight off Colonel Ernst Vogel and the other Nazis in the Desert prior to arriving at the Temple. However, if Marcus killed them or not is unknown.
• Walter Donovan is beheaded by the rotating blades at the Temple of the Sun, as Jones doesn't block the blades' mechanism like in the film. Neverthless, Indy himself will suffer Donovan's original fate if he drinks from the False Grail.
• If Jones retrieves the Grail before Elsa can grab it, the temple is not destroyed, and Elsa's life is saved. Even if the temple collapses and Elsa falls into the chasm, Indiana Jones can still retrieve the Grail with his whip and return it to the Grail Knight.

Appearances

Characters

• Albert (Mentioned only)
• D. Alighieri (Mentioned only)
• Spielbergeron de Amblino (Mentioned only)
• Mike Angelo (Mentioned only)
• Aristophanes (Mentioned only)
• L. Borgia (Mentioned only)
• Boris (Mentioned only)
• Boxing Coach
• Marcus Brody
• Butler
• Julius Caesar (Mentioned only)
• Enrico Caruso (Mentioned only)
• Chuck
• Christopher Columbus (Mentioned only)
• Charles Darwin (Mentioned only)
• Herman Dietrich (Mentioned only)
• Walter Donovan
• Elsa (Mentioned only)
• Mark Ferrari (Mentioned only)
• Franz (Mentioned only)
• Friedrich (Mentioned only)
• Fritz (Mentioned only)
• Sigmund Freud (Mentioned only)
• Galahad (Mentioned only)
• Galileo Galilei (Mentioned only)
• Grail Knight
• Gustav (Mentioned only)
• Hannibal (Mentioned only)
• Hans (Mentioned only)
• Adolf Hitler
• Horst (Mentioned only)
• Indiana (Mentioned only)
• Irene
• Johann (Mentioned only)
• Henry Walton Jones, Senior
• Indiana Jones
• Kalani (Mentioned only)
• Kleist (Mentioned only)
• Kruger
• Lancelot duLac (Mentioned only)
• Librarian
• Giorgio Lucasi (Mentioned only)
• Marcus (Mentioned only)
• F. Magellan (Mentioned only)
• Man in Airport
• Edouard Manet (Mentioned only)
• G. Marx (Mentioned only)
• H. Marx (Mentioned only)
• K. Marx (Mentioned only)
• Mulbray (Mentioned only)
• Otto (Mentioned only)
• Marco Palmieri (Mentioned only)
• Giuseppe Palmieri (Mentioned only)
• Plato (Mentioned only)
• A. Ptoleous (Mentioned only)
• Ravenswood (Mentioned only)
• Remus (Mentioned only)
• Richard (Remains)
• Romulus (Mentioned only)
• Sebastian (Mentioned only)
• Elsa Schneider
• William Shakespeare (Mentioned only)
• Siegfried (Mentioned only)
• Sigfried
• Socrates (Mentioned only)
• S. Spielberg (Mentioned only)
• Georges Seurant (Mentioned only)
• Leo D. Vinci (Mentioned only)
• Ernst Vogel
• Werner (Mentioned only)
• Wolfgang (Mentioned only)

Locations

• Europe
  • Austria
    • Castle Brunwald
    • Salzburg (Mentioned only)
    • Vienna (On map)
  • Belgium (On map)
  • France (On map)
  • Italy
    • Venice
      • Biblioteca di San Barnaba
  • Germany
    • Berlin
    • Hamburg (On map)
    • Munich (On map)
  • Hungary (On map)
    • Budapest (On map)
  • Netherlands (On map)
  • Poland (On map)
    • Warsaw (On map)
  • Romania (On map)
  • Switzerland (On map)
  • Yugoslavia (On map)
• United States of America
  • Barnett College

Artifacts

• Ark of the Covenant (Mentioned only)
• Holy Grail
• Thousand-year-old falcon

Vehicles and vessels

• German biplane
• Zeppelin
  • D-138

Animals

• Cat (Mentioned only)
• Dog
• Lion (Statue)

Miscellanea

• Cougars
• Silesian Surprise Sauce (Mentioned only)

Behind the scenes

Back of the product box

Technical details

One of the most innovative of the LucasArts adventures, it expanded on the traditional adventure game structure by including a flexible points (IQ, or "Indy Quotient") system and allowing the game to be completed in several different ways: The point system was similar to that of Sierra Entertainment games, however, when you restarted or restored the game, the Total IQ of your previous game was retained. The only way to augment it was to find the alternative solutions of the scenario (eg. fight a guard instead of bypassing him or the opposite) and reach a max of 800. This countered one common criticism of adventures games - that since there is one completely fixed way to complete them, they have no replayability value. Note that some of the alternative fights, like the one with the Zeppelin attendant in case you don't have the ticket, were practically next to impossible to pass, so the IQ max was hardly acquired.

The game was originally released with Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) and CGA graphics; it was later updated with VG graphics and an in-game orchestral soundtrack for the FM Towns; only the VGA graphics were backported to the DOS re-released version. The project was led by Noah Falstein, David Fox and Ron Gilbert.

Contents of the PC game with 5.25" disks

The game included a Grail Diary replica, intended to be a minimalistic version of Henry Jones' actual Grail diary, as featured in the movie. While very different from the film's version, it provided a wonderful collection of background information and acted as copy protection (several puzzles in the game reference grail descriptions in the text). Written by Mark Falstein, with art directed by Mark Shepard and illustrated by Steve Purcell (of "Sam and Max" fame), it had 64 pages of diary entries dating from 1898 to 1937, newspaper clippings, telegrams, sketches, and coffee stains. Notably, it contains several elements which were later altered with The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and the Ultimate Guide. It also mentions several of Jones' colleagues in his quest for the Grail, including a young Marcus Brody.

Also included with the game were a "Getting started" guide specific to the particular computer version of the game, and a game manual which had instructions for playing the game.

Since the floppy disks were designed to be copied (The Getting Started guide suggests making back up copies of the disks), the first versions of the game included a translation table and a red filter as the main copyright protection. At the beginning of the game, Brody would ask Jones for a particular translation, which would require the player to use the filter on the translation table to view a code, and then enter it. The red filter and red-blue translation table were designed to foil photocopying. If the correct code could not be entered, the game would switch to a demo mode, allowing Jones to only explore the Barnett College building, and not progress to Donovan's mission.

Continuity

Indy rediscovering his "Old Book"

An item that can be obtained in the game, is a diary that Indy had when was young. This item could be the first appearance of Indiana Jones' journal seen prominently in the Young Indiana Jones franchise, three years later. Since there is no known association between the production of the game and the series, it is not known if those items are related, or just a coincidence; so far no source had retconned them together.

For the German version of the game, the appearance swastikas in some scenes had to be removed in compliance with the German Criminal Code. The instances of swastikas were replaced with black squares and blank circles. The presence of the Iron Cross was kept as in the original releases. There is one overlooked instance in which swastikas are still seen: when a guard is knocked out during a fist fight, stars in swastika form appear over his head

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure also introduced the phrase "Hello, I'm selling these fine leather jackets," which became a running gag in future LucasArts games. The phrase is a reference to an in-house promotion that was going on during the game's production.

Sequels

One final Indiana Jones graphic adventure, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, was released in 1992.

External links

• Indiana Jones® and the Last Crusade™ on Steam
• Online game guide
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure at Moby Games