Indiana Jones and the...

I'm not much of an Indiana Jones fan, but I have to admit the franchise has an extensive portfolio; five major motion pictures, a TV mini-series, a couple of comic book runs, novels and a bunch of video games.  Since this blog is mostly about that last category that's what I'll be focusing on...and more specifically one game in particular.  Before that though, lets look at the franchise conceptually for a bit.

When it comes to video game adaptations of everyone's favorite archeological adventurer, there have been a few.  I'm of course referring to Lara Croft...no, wait...I mean Nathan Drake...just kidding!  Jokes aside, what makes Indiana Jones special is the time period in which he thrived.  Unlike more contemporary characters like Croft or Drake, Dr. Jones is a man of the interwar years.  Honestly, I feel like the setting makes the character since he is archetypal and very much a product of that era.  The original trilogy did an excellent job of cementing the format and serial nature of his adventures.  A quick rundown might look something like this:

• The bad guys are Nazis, cultists or criminals of some kind
• Indiana Jones has allies and acquittances who help him (including a love interest)
• There are a bunch of action scenes including fist-fights, shootouts and chases
• He gets captured at least once
• There's a McGuffin artifact that has some sort of real world tie-in with supernatural qualities

What makes each individual story special is the creative ideas woven into it all.  Overall, the tone is pretty light though it can have some dark or grewsome bits to juxtapose with the comical stuff.  Sometimes it's slapstick and sometimes it's almost a mini-history lesson.  Indiana Jones himself is generally an honorable man, but can fight dirty when the preverbal chips are down.  This back-and-forth is part of what gives the IP its roller-coaster vibe.  So, now with all that out of the way lets focus in on that one game I mentioned back at the beginning.

I've embedded images of box art from several original stories found within the franchise.  The thing is, the overwhelming majority of Indiana Jones video games are action-driven experiences which (paradoxical as it might sound) aren't the best fit for the source material.  Oddly enough, the one original title that fits the Indiana Jones formula is a point-and-click adventure game - The Fate of Atlantis.  It's actually a direct sequel to the movie tie-in game The Last Crusade, and about three times as long.  It was Lucas Arts first "talkie", the studio's first video game to feature a fully voiced cast (for the CD-ROM version).  Developed using the SCUMM interface, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis has beautiful pixel art similar to Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island and The Dig.  What really makes the game standout though is the three different paths players can take; "team", "wits" or "fists".  Each path features events that may or may not happen in a different path, which (in turn) provides a degree of replayability typically lacking in these kinds of games.  Regardless of the player's chosen path, the story adheres closely to the formula.  It features a love interest (Sophia Upgood), bad guys (Nazis again), various action sequences, and our titular hero getting captured at least once.  The McGuffin is (as implied by the title) a location - the lost city of Atlantis.  Rumored to have been a treasure trove of extraordinarily advanced technology, the Nazis obviously want to obtain its secrets for their own nefarious ends.  In particular, Orichalcum beads thought to have come from Atlantis seem to hold vast amounts of non-radioactive energy.  While not explored in detail, the backstory for Atlantean technology is the byproduct of a visit by ancient aliens.  The various devices powered by these beads are bronze-age knock-offs of the alien's tech, making the people of Atlantis a long-vanished cargo cult of sorts.  Funny how a lot of these ideas got recycled in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (along with a few more from an unmade video game-turned-comic-book, Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix).

On top of checking all the boxes typical associated with an Indiana Jones adventure, Fate of Atlantis also has a couple of callbacks.  The golden idol from the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark can be seen in Indy's office at one point.  Looking at a statue of a falcon in the college museum will prompt Indy to say "it's the stuff dreams are made of," which is a reference to the 1941 film The Maltese Falcon.  Similarly, looking at some scribbles on the the stone walls of Atlantis will lead Indy to comment "Atlantean Graffiti."  Younger me thought this was an attempt at verisimilitude specific to real archeological discoveries made at the ancient ruins of Pompeii, but it's far more likely a world play joke referencing the George Lucas' film "American Graffiti".  Another similar example is a street in the Monte Carlo section of the game named "Rue des Guerres des Étoiles", a rough French to English translation being "Star Wars Road".  One last language related joke comes from some of the controls for a German U-boat.  Three, in particular, are labeled "Ausgeschnitzel", "Flugeldufel" and "Krauskefarben".  These words have no meaning which I suppose is a good way to keep it from being too easy for people fluent in German (or those who happen to have a German-to-English dictionary on hand).

Of course, it's not a perfect game.  The keystone puzzles are somewhat tedious and were part of the copy protection for the original disk-based version.  The music is also a bit bland though the Indiana Jones theme does come through at the appropriate moments.  Obviously, Harrison Ford would have been prohibitively expensive so they had to hire someone with a different, albeit, appropriate sounding delivery.  Some of the other characters drift a little bit more toward Saturday morning cartoons in terms of delivery, but overall the cast ranges from good to competent.  

I sometimes wonder what it would have been like had we gotten a live-action version of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.  Considering the lackluster reception Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Dial of Destiny got, I doubt it could have faired worse.  Sadly, we'll never know, but at least we have the video game to enjoy.