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Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a graphic adventure game. First released in 1992 and published by LucasArts, it was their seventh title to use the SCUMM adventure game engine. Based on writings by Plato, the game's plot is an original story.

As with LucasArts' adaptations of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the graphic adventure game saw an almost simultaneous release with a version of the story that focused more on combat. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: The Action Game loosely followed the same plot but in the arcade-adventure genre.

A four-issue Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis comic series was also produced in conjunction with Dark Horse. However, the adaptation began publication in 1991, just over a year before the game's own release as the latter was delayed to implement three playstyles which offered more choice to the player, a decision that created notable differences in the execution of the same storyline.

The game was later included as an extra on the Wii version of Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings in 2009 and re-released on July 8 that year for the PC via Steam. In 2014, the game was made available through GOG.com following GOG Ltd's agreement with Disney Interactive to republish a number of LucasArts titles.

Publisher's summary[]

Fateofatlantisboxback

Back of box.

The Man With The Hat Is Back In His Greatest Adventure Yet!!

1939 — the eve of World War II. Nazi agents are about to get their hands on a weapon more dangerous than the atom bomb. Only Indy can stop them before they unleash the deadly secret that sank Atlantis.

Plot summary[]

Introduction[]

Indy was asked by Marcus Brody and a certain Mr. Smith to find a particular strange idol from Barnett College's museum. Due to a stairway being closed for repairs, Indiana Jones had to swing through a roof window using his Bullwhip to search the junk and fakes of the museum's attic. As he looked at a rather peculiar looking statue, he accidentally fell through a trap door that someone had left unlocked.

Indyfalls

Indiana falls through the trap door

Recovering from his fall, Indy found himself in another part of the attic which housed textiles from the Shawmut Collection, and beadwork from the Phoenix Collection amongst other things. As he picked up a rope to climb through another open trap door, a large totem pole fell on him knocking him through it, into the college's library.

Searching the library, Indy came across some unfamiliar books on statues. Thinking they may aid in his search, he removed them from the bookshelf. Unfortunately, the shelf was unsecured and it fell over onto Indy and knocked him through the thin floor into the store room below.

In the store room, Indy found four cat figurines. As he examined them, one turned out to be a real cat, which hissed loudly, startling Indy and sending him reeling backward. Indy lost his balance and slipped down the coal chute into the boiler room.

Indy searched the boiler room, and found a Horned Statue in one of the lockers. This was the statue he had been looking for!

When Indy returns, inside the statue they find a small metal bead and Smith, to their surprise, steals the statue. Indy gives him a fight, but "Smith" escapes, without his coat. After searching his coat, it is revealed his real name is Klaus Kerner and he is an agent of the Third Reich and his next target is Sophia Hapgood.

Sophia Hapgood, an ex-colleague of Indy, now presents herself in New York as a psychic, giving seminars about Atlantis and communicating with the Atlantean god-king Nur-Ab-Sal. Kerner was after her medallion, which she and Indy found in Iceland during the Jastro Expedition, which helped her communicate with Nur-ab-sal. A race between Jones and the Nazis to find the mythical lost continent of Atlantis begins, which may contain technology vital to the future of the world, since Kerner discovered that the metal bead found in the statue was Orichalcum, the legendary metal that would give extreme power to machines and create bombs. Kerner finds this out after bringing the bead and statue to his mad scientist boss, Hans Ubermann.

On some point, the team must find Hermocrates, the lost dialogue of Plato discussing Atlantis further than his previous works (Timaeus and Critias). Indy and Sophia return to Iceland where Dr. Bjorn Heimdall directs them to two other scholars. In Tikal, Guatemala they meet Dr. Charles Sternhart who translated Plato's 'Hermocrates' into English. Inside the temple Sternhart takes care of Indy's discovery of a tomb and a stone disk, which Sternhart recognises as a 'Worldstone'. He grabs it and flees by a secret passage. Felipe Costa from Azores, on the other hand, tells the couple, after a bit of persuasion via an eel figurine artifact found back from Iceland, that a copy of the Hermocrates should be in one of the book collections at Barnett College.

The document speaks that in order to gain access to Atlantis, three stone disks, the Sunstone, the Moonstone, and the Worldstone, are needed. According to Sophia, one of two old associates had a Sunstone: either Alain Trottier from Monte Carlo or Omar Al-Jabbar from Algiers.

Three paths[]

It is at this point that the player has to choose between either the Team Path, in which Indy continues on with Sophia and the game consists mostly of puzzles involving tag teaming with her, the Fists Path, in which Indy goes alone and the game involves lighter puzzles and more fighting, or the Wits Path, in which Indy goes alone and there are harder puzzles and less fighting.

The Wits Path[]

Indy goes to Monte Carlo and meets Trottier, acquiring his business card. He then travels to Algiers where he shows Trottier's business card to Omar Al-Jabbar's assistant, but Indy still cannot see Al-Jabbar. After giving the assistant a red fez, Indy is able to track the assistant to Al-Jabbar's house. Locking Al-Jabbar in his own closet, Indy steals a map, several statues and a camel so he can venture to the dig site. After bribing patrols with the statues and asking nomads for accurate directions, Indy finds the dig site and an idol like the one from the opening sequence. He finds a note in a truck saying the Nazis are going after Trottier in Monte Carlo. Indy then repairs the truck and drives to Algiers. From there, he flies to Monte Carlo.

Indy arrives in Monte Carlo and tries to warn Trottier about the Nazis, but is too late and Trottier is kidnapped. Indy follows the Nazis' car and crashes into it, scaring them off and saving Trottier. Trottier explains he knows the entrance to the lost city is in Thera and that he threw the Sunstone out of the car to protect it. After searching the streets, Indy manages to find it.

Indy arrives in Thera and heads for the mountains. He finds a cave, and inside he uses the Sunstone to acquire a stone carving. Inside an entrenching tool, Indy finds a note from Sophia saying that she's been kidnapped and taken on board a Nazi U-boat heading to Crete. After trading the stone carving for a basket, picking up a net, and using an invoice to obtain a balloon, and hot air from the mountains, Indy creates a makeshift hot air balloon, and flies it onto the Nazis' U-boat, knocking out one of the ship's lieutenants and disguising himself with his uniform. Here, he manages to steal the Nazis' Moonstone and create a fire in the aft torpedo room. Using the fire as a distraction, Indy fires himself out of a forward torpedo tube and, once on shore, uses the Sun and Moon stones to open the Labyrinth.

Inside, Indy finds a deceased Doctor Sternhart and takes his Worldstone. He finds a map room which leads to an old subway, which he powers up with orichalcum. The train takes him all the way to Atlantis.

The Fists Path[]

Indy travels to Monte Carlo and meets Trottier, obtaining his business card. He then travels to Algiers, and saves Omar Al-Jabbar from a Nazi soldier. With the map and the camel Indy gets from Omar, he reaches an archaeological dig, where he finds the Sunstone. Stealing a hot air balloon from a Nazi guard, Indy flies to Crete.

In Crete, Indy follows a diagram and uncovers a Moonstone. He uses both the Sun and Moonstones to open a labyrinth. Inside, Indy finds a deceased Sternhart and takes his Worldstone. He uses his brute strength and his trusty whip to get past several traps and Nazi guards, and finds Sophia in a hole, from which he frees her. They find a map room which leads them out. They then travel to Thera.

There, Indy and Sophia hire a boat and Indy dives down, looking for an entrance to Atlantis. However, the boat was a set up, and a Nazi U-boat arrives, after which Kerner kidnaps Sophia and leaves Indy to die underwater with only 3 minutes of air. Indy manages to find the entrance to Atlantis just in time.

The Team Path[]

Indy and Sophia go to Monte Carlo and trick Trottier out of the Sunstone, before heading to Algiers, where they confront Omar Al-Jabbar, a shopkeeper. Omar reveals that there is a dig by the Germans somewhere in the desert. Indy steals a touring balloon but the balloon is shot down by one of the Nazis who is guarding the dig. At the dig site they discover a mural that gives Indy directions for Crete, the Palace of Knossos as an Atlantean colony.

At the ruins of Knossos, using the hints from Hermocrates, Indy and Sophia dig out a hidden Moonstone. Working with both disks they open an entrance to the Labyrinth. There they find the body of Doctor Sternhart, who starved while unable to get out from a certain chamber. Indy and Sophia take the Worldstone from him. After a lot of searching they reach a map room containing a detailed model of Atlantis.

Meanwhile, a Nazi submarine surfaces off the island and the Nazis enter the labyrinth. They kidnap Sophia but Indy manages to get on the submarine and order the crew to gather in an out-of-the-way room by pretending to be the captain on the inter-com.. He quietly frees Sophia and gets the stolen disks back. Then he steers the ship towards an underwater entrance and dock, which is none other than the entrance to Atlantis itself.

Sophia is again kidnapped when they arrive to Atlantis. Atlantis is found in the Aegean sea, and as expected, it is depicted in ruins but in a strange alien-like manner.

Atlantis[]

After a lot of exploring and puzzle solving to rescue Sophia from a prison and enter Atlantis' second ring, Indy finds out that Nur-Ab-Sal guided Sophia to Atlantis through the medallion, in order to reclaim his old kingdom. His ghost possesses Sophia completely. Indy takes the opportunity to snatch the necklace and hurl it into a pool of lava in Nur-Ab-Sal's throne room.

Indy and Sophia continue on to the heart of the city, a massive chamber full of lava with passageways leading up and down. The two manage to navigate the chamber to the city's centre. In the Colossus - a huge machine in the centre of the capital, which gave the Atlanteans god-like powers, they are ambushed by Ubermann and Kerner. Kerner decides he is the most worthy one around to transform into a god. Based on Plato's tenfold error, Ubermann feeds the machine with 1 bead instead of 10, which turns Kerner into a grotesque horned dwarf, who falls into the lava below. The Nazis then force Indy to stand in the machine to be the target of the next experiment.

Jones manages to convince Ubermann not to use him as the experiment, lest Ubermann and the Nazis become targets of a godly Indiana Jones' wrath. Rather, he appeals to Ubermann's anger and lust for power to let him be transformed by the machine instead. He feeds the machine 100 beads and the machine turns him into a being of pure energy, who then explodes, activating the volcano that has been asleep for millennia. As the city is crumbling, Indy and Sophia make their way to the submarine and take it to the surface. The city collapses deeper under the water, while Indy and Sophia watch the sun set on the smoke.

Alternate endings[]

If Jones does not convince Ubermann to use the device, Jones himself undergoes the transformation and explodes; trapping the Nazis (and Sophia as a result) in the ruins.

If Indy leaves the ghost of Nur-Ab-Sal in Sophia, or if Indy doesn't rescue Sophia from the Nazis and instead continues into the inner ring on his own, then instead of Ubermann experiencing the final transformation, Sophia/Nur-Ab-Sal does. Ubermann is knocked into the lava pit by the exploding energy of Sophia. Indy escapes on his own and is left wondering why Sophia didn't listen to him.

Appearances[]

Characters[]

Artifacts[]

Miscellanea[]

  • Kareem's Sightseeing Tours

Behind the scenes[]

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis was developed under the working title Indiana Jones and the Key to Atlantis.[1] The adventure game was released simultaneously with Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: The Action Game, an arcade-adventure title which loosely followed the same storyline.

There were unsubstantiated rumors that Fate of Atlantis, affectionately known as Indiana Jones 4, was the official precursor to a fourth movie which was partly borne from confusion around the game's executable file name: indy4.exe. In 2017, Noah Falstein explained that it was selected as the game was the sequel of their adaptation of the third film which used the file name indy3.exe.[2]

In actuality, Fate of Atlantis had grown out of Lucasfilm Games approaching Hal Barwood and Falstein for a video game adaptation of Indiana Jones and the Monkey King, a screenplay developed for Last Crusade which went unrealized. However, neither man felt the story was suitable. In addition to finding the Betsy character misogynistic, Falstein didn't see the appeal of a narrative centered around Chinese mythology for a general Western audience unfamiliar with the subject matter and China itself being a relatively small gaming market.[3]

Technical details[]

More innovative than the earlier Indiana Jones adventure game, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure, Fate of Atlantis featured three differing paths to the completion of the game and multiple ways to solve puzzles. The player who finishes all of the puzzles in all three paths with all of the alternative solutions, receives a full IQ (Indy Quotient) score. At one point in the game, during a dialogue sequence, the player chooses between three paths: The Wits path concentrates on puzzles, the Fists path is more dependent on fist fights (the game includes a rudimentary engine for such fights), and the Team path combines both elements and features Sophia Hapgood as a sidekick.

It is also significant for breaking with the usual LucasArts adventure game tradition of not punishing players with in-game deaths (though it was also possible to die at some points in Last Crusade and Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders). After Indy's death, a short "outcome" plot summary and a score appear. To the player's advantage, the game conveniently alerts them of impending danger so that they can play more cautiously.

The project was led by Hal Barwood; Barwood wrote the story and designed the game together with Noah Falstein. The music was composed by Michael Land, Clint Bajakian, and Peter McConnell, based heavily upon the works of John Williams.

The game was re-released on CD-ROM with a full voiceover soundtrack in 1993. LucasArts had planned on releasing a port for the Sega CD, but canceled the game after its Sega CD version of The Secret of Monkey Island failed to be much of a commercial success.

Game resource editing programs like ScummRev have revealed that there is an unused room 'hidden' in the game code that didn't make it to the final version. This room, holding a couch and table with two chairs, connects to Sophia Hapgood's ransacked office, indicating that the programmers had originally planned some more action in Sophia's apartment but reconsidered. Some usable objects can be identified, likely as part of a puzzle to be solved by the player, one of which is labeled Chuck the Plant, a running gag across several LucasArts games.[4]

In the Fate of Atlantis comic adaptation, released a year ahead of the delayed game release, Sophia's apartment is where her lecture on Atlantis takes place and includes Indiana Jones staying the night to catalog Hapgood's private collection of artifacts only to be attacked by Klaus Kerner and his men raiding the office for the Atlantean pieces.[5]

Sequels[]

The epilogue of the game mentions the return of Indiana Jones in an adventure "as a much younger man", in a way foreshadowing The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television which aired around the same time, but there had been plans for an IBM video game based on the show which ultimately went unreleased.

There were also attempts to develop a standalone sequel game, Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix, but the work was discontinued in 1995. Like Fate of Atlantis, a comic of the same name was published by Dark Horse Comics, in 1994, based on the plot of the game. Another follow-up, known simply as "Spear of Destiny", was also considered as a project outsourced to another developer but that too was abandoned.

LucasArts later released three 3D action titles using the Indiana Jones license: Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (1999), featuring the return of Sophia Hapgood, Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb (2003), and Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (2009).

After the announcement of the fifth Indiana Jones movie in 2016, Noah Falstein, David Fox and Ron Gilbert, considered pitching a new, retro-influenced follow-up to the LucasArts Indiana Jones adventure games akin to Return to Monkey Island but the idea didn't progress beyond a discussion between themselves.[6]

Notes and references[]

External links[]

Indiana Jones video games
Adaptations
Raiders of the Lost Ark · Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game · The Graphic Adventure · Taito game
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Mobile game · Didj game
Film series: Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures · Cancelled trilogy adaptation
Young Indiana Jones
Chronicles · Revolution · Special Delivery · Hunting for Treasure · Cancelled IBM game
LEGO Indiana Jones
Console: The Original Adventures · The Adventure Continues
Desktop: Indiana Jones Adventures · Shanghai Chase
Mobile Adventure
Original stories
Indiana Jones in the Lost Kingdom · Indiana Jones in Revenge of the Ancients
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: The Action Game · The Graphic Adventure
Instruments of Chaos starring Young Indiana Jones · Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventures
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine · Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (Scavenger Hunt) · Indiana Jones and the Lost Puzzles
Indiana Jones Adventure World · The Gifts of Mara
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Cancelled: Young Indiana Jones at the World's Fair · Iron Phoenix · Spear of Destiny
Tie-ins and crossovers
Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction · Pinball FX/Pinball FX3/Williams Pinball · Fortnite
Disney
Disney Magic Kingdoms · Disney Emoji Blitz
Star Wars
Yoda Stories · Republic Heroes · Galactic Spy
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga · The Clone Wars · The Force Awakens
Related
Timeline of video games
ADVENTURE TIMELINE
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March 1939 May 1939 July 1939
Indiana Jones und das Schiff der Götter Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Indiana Jones and the Ape Slaves of Howling Island
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