Atari 2600

Swordquest WaterWorld

Game Instructions

NOTE: Always turn the console POWER switch OFF when inserting or removing an ATARI Game Program cartridge. This will protect the electronic components and prolong the life of your ATARI 2600 Video Computer System game.

(C) 1983 ATARI, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

ATARI GAME PROGRAM INSTRUCTIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. GAME OBJECTIVE

2. GAME PLAY

3. USING THE CONTROLLER

4. CONSOLE CONTROLS

5. HELPFUL HINTS

6. WATERWORLD MADE SIMPLE

GAME OBJECTIVE

WATERWORLD is the third in a series of four individual contests comprising the ATARI SWORDQUEST CHALLENGE.

The ultimate objective in the WATERWORLD contest is the jewelled Crown, made at a cost of $25,000. To win that Crown, you will have to pass certain tests of dexterity and cleverness - in both the video game and the accompanying comic book.

Your goal in the WATERWORLD game cartridge is to discover the seven "numerical clues" that will refer you to the appropriate page and frame number of the accompanying comic book. There you must look artfully for "word clues" to send to ATARI on the enclosed SWORDQUEST CHALLENGE entry form.

Not all the numerical clues are valid. Three are decoys. A careful poetic reading of the comic book is required in order to obtain information that will be helpful in selecting the valid word-clue answers from the false ones.

GAME PLAY

WATERWORLD is primarily a puzzle. There are seven rooms. Scattered throughout these rooms are 16 magical objects which are related to each other and to the seven rooms. Isolating the rooms from each other are three skill-and-action tests which you'll need to master in order to successfully enter a room and manipulate all the objects in that room.

Your task, SWORDQUEST CHALLENGE, is to travel successfully from room to room; discover the relationships of the objects to each other and to the rooms; and then place a correct combination of objects in the appropriate room to get a numerical clue. Each room needs a unique set of seven objects to trigger a clue. If you correctly place at least four of the seven objects designated for a specific room, a numerical clue will momentarily be revealed to you at the bottom of the screen. Use this numerical clue to search for a word clue in the accompanying comic book.

You can carry a total of six objects in your carrying pouch. You gain ain information about the objects and their interrelationships by transferring the objects back and forth from the room to the carrying pouch in each of the seven rooms. Interrelationships between the objects and the rooms will be displayed as "hints" at the bottom of the screen. Writing down these interrelationships and interpreting the resulting information is an essential prerequisite to successful game play in a puzzle like WATERWORLD.

Inventory of Magical Objects

Amulet

Chalice

Cloak of Invisibility

Crown

King's Ring

Peasant's Ring

Lamp

Medallion

Money Purse

Shield

Scepter

Royal Seal

Shoes of Stealth

Talisman of Passage

Throne

Warrior's Sword

SKILL-AND-ACTION TESTS

To simulate the challenging adventures Torr and Tarra must face in the comic book, part of your SWORDQUEST CHALLENGE requires you to pass certain tests successfully from room to room.

There are three skill-and action tests facing you:

- the Sea of Sharks

- the School of Octopi

- the Slippery Ice Floes

To enter a room with the power to manipulate all the objects in that room with your Joystick, you must guide your playing figure to the opposite side of the screen from where you start.

A certain amount of time is allotted for you to accomplish each test. If you fail to enter the next room through your own efforts, you will be automatically placed in that same room when time runs out. However, there will be a penalty: Not all the objects in that room will be visible to you.

Only if you succeeded in getting through a skill-and-action test can you manipulate all the objects allocated to that room. If you try to transfer an object in a room that you entered after time ran out, that object may disappear!

When you do complete a skill-and-action test successfully, an image of the Ultimate Sword of Sorcery will appear momentarily before you enter the room.

If you are not successful, the word "SWORDQUEST" will appear before you are placed in the room.

3. USING THE CONTROLLER

Plug your Joystick Controller into the LEFT CONTROLLER jack. Hold the controller with the fire button to your upper left, toward the television screen. See your owner's manual for further details.

Use your joystick to travel from room to room and to transfer objects from the room to your pouch and back. To transfer an object, move your playing figure directly over the object and press the red button.

To transfer objects back into the room you must first enter the carrying pouch. To do this, move your playing figure over the carrying pouch symbol at the top of the screen and press the red button. To emerge from the pouch, simply move your Joystick up toward the room.

Pressing the red button while a hint is being displayed at the bottom of the screen will immediately return you to game play. Doing this will eliminate the time it usually takes to cycle through each hint display.

Pressing the red button while you are in the midst of a skill-and-action test is a sign of surrender. You will be transported directly into the desired room, but without the power to see or successfully manipulate all the objects in that room. In the ice floes sill-and-action test: Push the Joystick up away from you to jump up to the next floe. Pull the Joystick toward you to jump back.

CONSOLE CONTROLS

GAME RESET SWITCH: Press GAME RESET to start a new game.

TV TYPE SWITCH: Set this switch to COLOR if you're playing on a color television. Set it to B-W to play the game on a black and white television.

DIFFICULTY/GAME SELECT SWITCHES: These switches are not used in WATERWORLD.

NOTE: Just as you can leave the pieces of a chess game assembled overnight, you can also maintain the current status of WATERWORLD after a hard day's SWORDQUESTING by leaving the POWER of your console unite ON- even with your television turned OFF. To return to the place you left off, press the red button on your controller and resume game play.

HELPFUL HINTS

- In order to receive a numerical clue, all the objects you leave in a room must be part of a set that is designated for that particular room. If you include any object which does not belong, you cannot trigger a numerical clue.

- For each skill-and-action test, there is a different magical object which will allow you to pass directly into the next room without having to undergo that specific test. There is also one overarching object which will allow you to travel successfully from room to room without having to undergo any of the skill-and-action tests.

- WATERWORLD demands logical thinking along with trial and error methods. You will need to try several types of combinations befog you discover a set which will work.

- All of the hints are true. Some hints may not appear to be perfectly clear; they are capable of being interpreted in more than one way. Don't get lost. Make notes. Keep a journal.

EXAMPLES:

"...and I know a chariot goes in another..."

"...and I remember seeing a crown with a chariot together somewhere, but I can't be exactly sure where."

- Journal of a lost SWORDQUEST Challenger

Atari welcomes your comments. Please address all correspondence to:

Atari, Inc.

Customer Relations

1312 Crossman Avenue, P.O. Box 61657

Sunnyvale, California 94086

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS . . .

An Approach to solving the puzzle

The following instructions present a more simplified, step-by-step scenario on how to play WATERWORLD. While no critical secrets are revealed (of course), dedicated adventurers and puzzle solvers may wish to ignore these suggestions and work out their own approach.

1. Power ON. Press RESET to start. You're in the sea of sharks. Try to swim to the other side of the screen. There is a time limit for this particular skill-and-action test.

If you succeed in swimming past the sharks within the time limit, an image of the Ultimate Sword of Sorcery will appear briefly and you will enter room I with all objects in that room available to you. If you fail to swim past the sharks, the word "Swordquest" will appear instead and you will enter room I with only the Shoes of Stealth available to you.

2. With the red button pressed down, move your Joystick until your playing figure is directly over the shoes. It may take a few passes until you make the right connection, but when you do, the shoes will be transferred to the backpack at the bottom of the screen. Observe what happens during transfer; make a note of it. If "nothing" happens, then note that "nothing happened" when you transferred the shoes in room I from the room to the backpack.

3. By leaving objects in the backpack, you can carry them as you travel from room to room. So, leave the shoes in your backpack; carry them with you to the next room. Exit from room 1 through one of the lower exits. Oops! You're caught in a school of octopi. OK. Try to swim past them into the opening at the bottom of the screen.

If you succeed in swimming past the school of octopi, you'll enter room II with all the objects in that room visible and available to you. If you fail, only the Cloak of Invisibility will be available to you.

4. With the red button pressed down, move your playing figure directly over the carrying pouch symbol. You will be transferred to the pouch in the form of a flashing square (cursor). With your Joystick, move the flashing square (cursor) directly over the shoes and press the red button. Now observe what happens: You get a hint.

Your hint: The sword and the amulet are related to each other! You now know that they belong together in one (or more!) of the rooms and are part of a set that can trigger a numerical clue. Make a note of this.

5. Your task from here on is to take all of the objects in all the rooms and make a note of what happens when you transfer each object back and forth from each room to the backpack. With this information, you can now make some logical inferences as to which objects belong in which rooms.

6. Go to those rooms. Place combinations of objects in the rooms until you can trigger a numerical clue. Be prepared to make a note of the numerical clue when it appears, because it will remain on the screen for only a moment.

Then use that numerical clue to look for a word clue in the DC comic book.

7. Use this technique to find all seven numerical clues in the WATERWORLD video game. Look with the eye of an artist for the corresponding word clues in the comic book. Then - with the discrimitating pen of a poet - choose four of those seven word clues which you think are correct, write them on the entry form and send them to ATARI.