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Chapter 5: Searching for the Sword


A long time ago, video games were not just games, they were the great adventures of our childhood.

In the 21st century, we can sit on the subway, lie on the sofa, or even play s in class, and complain about how bad the game resources we downloaded for free are; we can hold the x-box controller and play on the TV Sitting in front of the computer for a day, commenting on the bloody elements and sexy beauties in the game; we will also lament over and over again that no matter how advanced the audio and video technology is today, the Ystation of the 1990s has still become the last classic console platform.

But in the early 1980s, in that era when even the Japanese version of NES was abbreviated as FC, which was the familiar red and white console, people's tolerance and enthusiasm for games were so simple and strong.

That was the beginning of a golden age.

In the early 1970s, people even flocked to games like ong.

They played table tennis with a ball of light and two vertical bars.

People today may find it incredible, but back then, ong was a The game has more than ten independent hosts, please note , not a game cartridge, but a game console, that is to say, there are more than ten kinds of game consoles specially used to play ong.

In fact, there was no concept of "game cartridge" at all in those days.

They developed a game console specifically for ong.

One after another, each one only has the game ong on it It was the "Wood Age" of the video game industry.

I don't know why it was called that.

Maybe it was because most of the game consoles at that time had a wooden appearance.

From the large ong that first appeared in some stores, which can be regarded as the originator of arcade machines, to those "wide variety" of ong home machines, to Odyssey, one of the earliest professional home game consoles, with a printer-sized appearance and a shape similar to a gaming machine The thick version of the handle line of the infusion tube, the huge toaster-shaped handle, no There is a game cartridge with a name, a casing, and only a number.

Well, at least he can change the cartridge.

Even later, Odyssey also launched the first game gun in the history of home video games.

On the surface, it looks like a real game cartridge.

The rifle was the same, except for the appearance of a wire attached to the end that couldn't be pulled out.

Throughout the 1970s, video games progressed slowly but gradually.

Maybe you will ask, who would buy such a thing and who developed those crude junk gadgets?

Let Conan children tell you, there is only one answer: the earliest hardcore players and pioneers of the game development industry in modern society.

So let's go back to what I just said, the early 1980s, the beginning of the golden age.

At that time, the gaming industry was not as big as Nintendo and Sega.

Please don't be too eager to try it, sit down, shut up and watch.

At that time, the king of the video game industry was Atari.

The Atari 2600 was a landmark game console and the longest-lived console in human history.

It has witnessed the rise of the Famicom and the White Machine since the Wooden Age.

The 1990s when heroes were fighting for each other.

This aging pioneer was finally announced to be discontinued in January 1992.

The record of 14 years and 2 months will forever shine in the history of video games.

There is only one button but a joystick is installed on the handle, simple operation, simple picture, and simple sound effects.

But at the time, it seemed good enough Perhaps today's players can no longer imagine what video games were like before the advent of red and white consoles.

I can roughly describe it.

You only need to mosaic and blur the images of the eight-bit consoles, and then simplify the game sound effects to explosions.

You will find it very interesting if you add single tone rates such as beeps and beeps, and finally add your own rich imagination.

On such a console, there was a legend, a legend that has not yet been completed.

At the beginning of the 1980s, a game series called Swordest was successively released on the Atari 2600, consisting of four parts in total.

The world view of the game is based on the four basic elements of the universe, so these four games are the earth world, the fire world, the water world, the air world.

Its main purpose is the sword-hunting just mentioned.

In the game, you control a character to explore some mysterious chambers and find some hidden clues and treasures.

It sounds like an ordinary puzzle game, but it's more than that.

You're not just playing a game, you're on a real adventure looking for real treasures.

The rules are roughly like this.

You buy these four games released by Atari in sequence.

In the games, you will find many clues.

You just need to find as many clues as possible and then send them to Atari.

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The person who finds the most clues can go to the company headquarters for the finals.

In the finals, Atari has specially designed a version of the game for the players.

The first person to complete the game process within 90 minutes is the champion.

Don't think that a puzzle game on an old gaming platform is easy.

In fact, its difficulty is jaw-dropping.

Take the underground world as an example.

You insert the game card.

If you don’t read the game instruction manual, congratulations, you don’t know what you should do at all.

The character you control walks through some diamond-shaped rooms that look exactly the same.

When you walk out, you can't feel any game progress at all, except of course the explosion sound effect at the moment you enter the room.

Okay, let's open the game manual, and you will see the instructions.

There are twelve rooms in total, each with a different color.

Each room represents a constellation, and each room actually has a secret room, which sometimes can Go in directly, and sometimes you have to play some mini-games across the waterfall of light.

In short, when you go in, you can find a few hidden treasures.

Characters can choose to pick up or drop treasures, and as long as you place certain items in a specific order, you can see the game screen change and get a clue.

The clue is that there are two very annoying numbers in the middle of the screen, whose meaning is completely unclear.

Guess what you will do next, you will never expect it.

Now you have to take out the peripherals of this game.

Yes, you heard it right.

There are peripherals for the game on Atari 2600.

Those scum who don’t buy the genuine ones, go Shit We can ignore T-shirts and posters, but each game in the Sword Hunt series comes with a comic book.

Then let us open the comic and find the number of pages and grids corresponding to the numbers on the screen.

Damn, where is that?

There is a word hidden in the grid that you can’t find unless you look carefully.

When you find all 10 hidden words, you have to find a way to form them into a sentence, but before that, you have to kill five words.

How to filter?

Talent, you guessed it, let's get it again Starting from the game manual, there is a hidden hint on the first page.

There are two words in a large paragraph with slightly different colors, namely "ri" and "nuber".

Then we will follow the hints of "quality" and "number". , cut the words found throughout the game down to five to form a sentence. 1982 was not an information age where the Internet was widespread, but believe me, people in those days had a lot of free time, and it was nothing to solve this step.

Among the five thousand answers in the end, only eight high-level players solved it correctly. sentence, and the winner emerged, 20-year-old stevenbe.

Brave young man, you are simply creating a miracle.

The above is the competition situation in the earth world.

Its difficulty may be more complicated than what I described.

After all, times have changed and many details at that time were beyond our imagination.

Why do I say that this kind of competition is a legend?

Of course the difficulty of the legend level is not, but the prizes.

The winner of the "Earth World" will receive an "talisman" made of 18k pure gold, set with 12 diamonds, and engraved with gold patterns of the zodiac around it.

The winner of the "Fire World" will receive a Holy Grail, made of platinum and decorated with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, pearls, jaspers, etc.

The prize of "Water World" is a crown made of pure gold, embellished with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and aquamarines.

The prize of "Qi World" is a "Philosopher's Stone" whose shape is hard to describe.

It is a bit like a squat version of an obelisk.

The body is a large piece of pure white jade, wrapped in a layer of 18k gold, and inlaid with yellow sapphires, rubies, diamond.

According to Atari's advertising, each prize is worth $250,000, but this is not the end.

At the end of the four competitions, the four winners will have a final battle.

The only and final winner will receive the ultimate prize, a sword.

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The hilt of the sword is made of 18k pure gold, and the sword body is made of pure silver, embellished with diamonds, topaz, sapphires and rubies, and is worth up to $50,000.

So, the total price of all the prizes is a full $150,000.

Don’t forget, this was 1982-1983.

Even if the prizes themselves no longer appreciate in value, let’s calculate the value of the U.S. dollar alone at that time.

How much money is this for you sitting now?

Can you imagine at home that you can get these by playing video games?

We may sometimes envy those "professional gamers" who can support themselves by playing games.

But this is the largest treasure hunt I've heard of since the Middle Ages.

This is a real adventure.

However, all this has not come to fruition so far, but has become the tears of the times.

Soon after, World of Fire was released, with the basic decryption concept being the same as World of Earth, except this time the arrangement of the houses was based on the Kabbalah tree of life graphic.

This game seems to be simpler than Earth World, because more than 50 high-level players got the answer this time, so Atari held a playoff to write down what you love about this game.

Do you know what I would write?

I would write "two hundred and five" followed by two zeros.

Anyway, they got the winner ichaerideout from fifty hot-blooded teenagers, and the Holy Grail found its owner.

The third Water World brought the entire game to its climax, but the infamous Atari Shock incident in 1983 had an impact on the game, so this game was only released in limited quantities and became an extremely rare limited edition game. .

The concept is similar, this time it is based on the "seven realms of the world" and is decrypted in seven rooms.

However, the finals of Water World could not be held.

Atari suffered financial setbacks and was acquired, and the "Looking for the Sword" event came to an end.

The fourth game, Air World, truly lived up to its name and became air, and although there were rumors that some of the game's prototype designs leaked, the game was never released.

This is the ending, and this is often the case in the real world.

Originally, this game would have become one of the most influential legendary events in the history of the game.

Ancient myths and legends, the four elements of the universe, puzzles in the secret room, comic books, game instructions, and the real prize, no, I should say "treasure".

The combination of all this will undoubtedly become immortal, but just like that, it disappears in the wind The legend was discontinued, but a bigger mystery remained, that is, the whereabouts of the treasure.

Where did the remaining three treasures go?

Some well-informed sources have revealed that Jacktraie, who acquired Atari, obtained them and vividly described seeing the "sword" in the living room of his home, but there was no photo or other credible evidence.

Prove those rumors.

But if, just if, the sword is really with him, then he must also hold the crown and the Philosopher's Stone at the same time.

Vincent narrated this in combination with the ever-changing big screen, and finally the picture was once again fixed on the four-frame animated poster.

Now everyone present understood that it should be the poster for the four Sword Hunting series games.

Vincent cleared his throat and spoke again: "Those treasures belong to the players.

Every player who inserts the game card into Atari has a chance to win them.

This is a dream."

He shrugged helplessly.

He shrugged: "It's a pity that this dream has been thrown into the toilet."

Mr.

Cat sighed deeply: "Hey, what do you want to do now?"

"What do you want?"

Wang Xu and Li Yadi looked back at Master Mao with their eyes widened, and said in unison: "He made it so clear and you still don't understand."

"Even after thirty years"

"The game must continue" "There cannot be no air among the four elements" "The balance of the universe must be restored" "The sword must find its true master" The two of them said something to each other, and they cooperated seamlessly.

In the end, they shouted together: "The stability of the Otaku Kingdom must be maintained by this sword."

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