Twenty-One Inches of Atlantis
March 2nd, 2008 by Benj Edwards
Sometimes people ask me if I’ve played any good games recently. At present, I must reply a resounding “YES!”
The title I’m engaged in at the moment is one of the most fun computer games I’ve played in years. It’s called Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, a graphical point-and-click released by LucasArts in 1992. I’m playing it on my favorite MS-DOS computer, a generic 386SX with 4 megs of RAM and a 21″ Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 100E monitor that I bought last year at the NCSU surplus sale for $1 (Yes, one whole dollar, and they have plenty more where that came from).
Spielburg should have turned this game into a movie — or at least one with Atlantis in it — although I’m looking forward to the new Indy flick coming out later this year. Anyway, I have to get back to the game.
March 2nd, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Oh man! I’m so glad I found your blog, I was searching for BBSes still active, came across a Boing Boing link, and here I am. I played Fate of Atlantis on my old Mac (Quadra 660AV), and I had such a hoot. I remember there was a dark scene where you had to find a light, and my brother and I cheated by turning up the monitor’s brightness… we could actually see what was going on, haha! The game had such great graphics, music, and overall humor. Definitely a classic in my books, and being the Indy Jones fan that I am, I’m looking forward to the Crystal Skull movie!
Keep up the awesomelicious work on your blog, I’ve blogged from time to time about classic computer games + history and am going to RSS you so I can keep up-to-date with your new findings of the old!
All the very best!
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:52 am
Funny, that monitor doesn’t really look that big from the picture. But that may be a testament to the size of the keyboard.
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:55 am
I’m glad you found the site too, Torley. Thanks for commenting.
And Mike, you’re right about the keyboard. It’s a Chicony Electronics boat-of-keyboard from the AT-clone era. Nice and clicky though. Its only flaw in my book is its 84-Key AT Keyboard Layout-style backspace/enter/backslash arrangement.
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:30 am
If you can’t find an old MS-DOS box, try ScummVM:
http://www.scummvm.org/
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I remember that game! It’s still one of my favorites. Alas, I don’t have a working MS-DOS to go back for the nostalgia, but I’ll fix that in the near future.
The guinea pig looks very absorbed in the game as well. 😉
March 3rd, 2008 at 7:16 pm
I was wondering when someone was going to mention the guinea pig. I thought he’d make the picture a little more interesting. Heh.
By the way, Fate of Atlantis (and many, many other games) works fine under DOSbox. Try it out; it’s awesome.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Another vote for DOSbox here. I’m running Win2K and DOSbox has run every game I’ve tried. It has excellent sound support too. My MB has onboard AC97 sound and DOSbox found it without a hitch.
March 4th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
This pic is so classic. My Guinea pig used to love watching me play nes. she was so content just sitting on her blanket watching me play. I think she like Adventure Island the best :). and yes DOSbox is outstanding now. It used to be a little shaky but it’s very solid now. I can run all of my old faves.
March 4th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
I normally don’t take my (actually my wife’s) guinea pig out of his cage for gaming sessions, but I thought he’d enjoy the photo-op. 🙂
My cats, on the other hand, love to get in the way. And they’re happy watching me play NES games.