Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

aka: FoA, Indiana Jones IV, Indiana Jones et le Mystère de l'Atlantide, Indiana Jones i Sud'ba Atlantidy, Indiana Jones y el destino de la Atlántida, Indy IV
Moby ID: 316
DOS Specs
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Description official descriptions

Indiana Jones is back! The great archaeologist and adventurer has to solve a grand mystery once again, aided by his trusty whip, his sharp wit, and his courage. A man who calls himself Mr. Smith is interested in a certain ancient statue. When the unsuspecting Indy hands it over to the client, he finds out that Mr. Smith is in fact a colonel in the Nazi army! Why was he so interested in that statue? A young woman who had once worked together with Indy, the pretty red-haired (and a bit troublesome) Sophia, tells him the whole thing must have a connection with the legendary lost continent Atlantis. Gathering clues from all over the world, Indy and Sophia embark on a grand journey across the globe.

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a puzzle-solving adventure game conceived in the spirit of Indiana Jones movies; however, it is not based on a specific movie, introducing a new, independent story. The game utilizes LucasArts' SCUMM system, with action verbs the player chooses from a menu; objects that can be interacted with are highlighted. The game contains many puzzles of various kinds (mostly inventory-based) and dialogues with multiple choices. There are also a few simple hand-to-hand fights against the Nazis, some of which can be avoided.

The middle part of the game can be played in three "modes": co-operation (Indy and Sophia), adventure (Indy alone), and action (Indy alone, with fewer puzzles and more action). In each mode, there are different locations to visit, different puzzles to solve, and different characters to meet. The CD version of the game adds voice-overs to all the conversations.

Spellings

  • Индиана Джонс и Судьба Атлантиды - Russian spelling
  • אינדיאנה ג'ונס: בעקבות סודה של אטלנטיס - Hebrew spelling
  • インディ・ジョーンズ アトランティスの運命 - Japanese spelling
  • 印笫安那.瓊斯系列:亞特蘭提斯之謎 - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (DOS version)

127 People (125 developers, 2 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 91% (based on 47 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 438 ratings with 17 reviews)

I wish they could make movies with a storyline of this quality.

The Good
I like the whole idea of Indiana Jones in a game. Every since watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom I thought it was very exciting to live as Dr. Jones. So I would give a definite thumbs up to the story line which has Dr. Jones research the Lost City of Atlantis. The graphics at the time were quite fabulous. The game had voice acting that sounded pretty good at the time.

The Bad
There was not anything I really disliked about the game. Even though the game is pretty old in computer years I still play it occasionally.

The Bottom Line
The Fate of Atlantis puts you in the shoes of Dr. Indiana Jones as he investigates the Fate of Atlantis. This adventure sends you all over the globe investigating a variety of clues that you acquire. In the tradition of all LucasArts games the goal of the game is to tell a story and do it in such a way as the player has fun. If you get a chance to play a real adventure game then this is your chance.

DOS · by Seer (55) · 2000

The best Indiana Jones adventure since -- well, since the trilogy.

The Good
Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis is one of Lucas Arts best adventure games ever. It remains a classic and most players would remember this game instead of the new Indy adventures (Infernal Machine and Emperor's Tomb) if they were asked. Well, this one became really great.

The plot is just amazing. Fate Of Atlantis has a great storyline. It is involving. It is even realistic -- well, don't expect too much of truth, this is Indiana Jones we're talking about. This adventure game could have turned into another Indy movie. In fact, many people really thought Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis would be released in theaters. Well, Spielberg should have done this one.

This Indy adventure had everything it could have. There are lots of action. There are different scenarios (Indy travels a lot, of course). There are fighting scenes. There is a girl. Indy does amazing things with his whip. It is a typical Indiana Jones story, and it is only on computers. If you want to know it, then you'll have to play. Well, the game couldn't have been more fantastic, as George Lucas himself keeps quality control of his games and he would never let the image of the star of 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark' be spoiled.

The great involving story is the best part of the game. Well, the puzzles. The puzzles are part of the story. They follow the storyline (as true adventure games do) and provides lots of challenges and tons of fun. There are also some action parts. The rest is pure irrelevant detail. And this is what great adventure games are made of: first of all, a story and challenge.

Another plus: there is part where you choose your way among three options. You can opt to continue your adventure with Sonia (your mate, the girl I was talking about). She can give you hints and help you through the rest of the adventure. You may also choose to go on alone, following your own brains. Then, you'll have lots of puzzles to solve, some really difficult, and less action sequences. Finally, Indy may opt to go on by himself, following his instincts and filling the game with action. In this choice, puzzles are less frequent and there are more action scenes (such as fighting and racing). Each way has its own end. This choice brings the game an extraordinary replay value, as it can be played three times, without solving all the puzzles.

Gameplay is basically the same as Monkey Island: very good. The player controls almost every movement of the character (this means interaction, which some later games must have forgotten) and the buttons are simple and intuitive. The bar below the screen may take some precious space, but is very useful and was the best thing they had in 1992.

Graphics were very good for the time. They didn't follow the traditional Lucas Arts style of cheerful, colored backgrounds. Indiana Jones had sober graphics, in an effort to make them realistic. Well, one could notice they were as realistic as they could for the time. But they were also grainy, as VGA 320x200 resolution doesn't help in making them very sharp. It also has to be noted here that Lucas Arts always preferred to make accessible games. It is better to have a real good game with modest graphics which runs in every computer then to have an incredible realism which runs very slowly on your computer. This doesn't force the players to upgrade their machines to run the games. So, users should be thankful to Lucas Arts for releasing 320x200 games until 1996. Apart from that, Indy had very well elaborated graphics that look good even if compared to much newer games. Some backgrounds look like real paintings.

The music? Who would you choose to compose the game soundtrack? Is John Williams OK? Well, the music is exactly the same as the movies and it can be easily recognized even when played in PC speaker. Nothing to complain about it. Much on the contrary. Indiana Jones soundtrack is one of the best ever elaborated for movies and stands as one of John Williams favourites, as well as Star Wars and E.T. ones. Besides the main theme, all the other were also very good and provided a great atmosphere. In a few words: music couldn't be better. The CD-ROM version also featured digitised voices.

The Bad
Although the game is filled with the same magic as Monkey Island, it is sometimes too serious. The puzzles may be too logical at times, and may be a little obvious for some players. And some may look too realistic.

And it gets even more serious when you realize Indy can die in this game. Yes. But just in some occasions. Well, Lucas Arts always told the players they couldn't die in its games. In this one, they can, but just in a few situations, which is somewhat contradictory: adopting this possibility, why the danger of Indy dying is not present all the time? Maybe Lucas Arts was reluctant in doing that.

This game is also a little short. It could have been longer. This is probably because of the three versions it contains. But it would be really nice if it contained three long games instead of shorter ones.

Sound effects could have been better. They were just OK and didn't keep up with the great music. Besides it, Harrison Ford didn't play Indiana Jones voice in the CD-ROM version (it would have been just great, but the voice is nice anyway).

There are also some few glitches that could have been fixed. But they are most part of the story, which is great, and I'm not gonna spoil the fun by telling it.

The Bottom Line
TRUE CLASSIC. The best Indiana Jones game yet and maybe the only Lucas Arts adventure game that can keep up with Monkey Island.

DOS · by Mumm-Ra (393) · 2003

LucasArts got it right... again!

The Good
Well, it uses the SCUMM engine adventure game system. That's a GOOD thing. You know how sometimes companies have an engine and make a ton of repetitive games that are almost the same? Well, now that the adventure genre is (almost) dead, I wish they've made more. Beautiful system, practically flawless ease of gameplay.

You're Indiana Jones and you have to find Atlantis. On the way, you visit Crete, Egypt, Monaco, Iceland, Atlantis itself, and more locations. You can play as both Indiana Jones and his archaeologist female companion. You can play an adventure or action mode. Thus, it seems like you have more options available than in the usual adventure game.

The game is a tad more serious than most LucasArts adventures, but not as dark as its predecessor, Indy 3. While there is a sense of urgency and drama (the cutscenes whenever the evil Nazis do something, etc.), there's also the usual witty Indy humor. Also, Indiana Jones looks remarkably like Harrison Ford in this game.

The storyline is EXCELLENT. As a matter of fact - you know how they often make computer games after books, movies, etc.? They made ANOTHER computer game (the Indy 4 action game) and a 4-book comic book series (by Dark Horse Comics) after this game, THAT'S how good it was. Sure, nowadays when Warcraft has its own Paperback series, that's no big deal, but for ten years ago it was.

On a side note, this was the first game that I owned that actively supported Windows (it actually had a little .jpeg picture for the Windows desktop shortcut, something that games only slowly adopted).

The Bad
I hated all those dumb dial-a-wheel copy protections, but thankfully if you buy the game today (CD version on a compilation, or so) you won't have to do it.

The Bottom Line
Get it. Graphics and sound are not too outdated, and the storyline's worth it. I WISH the following Indiana Jones games (Infernal Machine, etc.) had still been SCUMM adventures and not Tomb Raider clones.

DOS · by Gothicgene (66) · 2001

[ View all 17 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

CD-ROM version

There are two versions of this game: a floppy version (11 disks) and a CD-ROM version. The floppy DOS version features talked interactions for only the introduction, while the CD-ROM one is a full "talkie".

LucasArts Logo Easter Egg

On the island of Crete while exploring the caverns, there are several rooms which have LucasArts logo etched in stone, to look as if they're something that came from Atlantis.

Comics

A Fate of Atlantis comic book series with four issues was published by Dark Horse in 1991. It was based on the story created by Hal Barwood and Noah Falstein, but only loosely followed the game's storyline.

Development

The original script for the game was written by Hal Barwood who also wrote movie scripts for The Sugarland Express (1974), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Dragonslayer (1981). He later created the story for Star Wars: Yoda Stories (1997).

For a short period, lead artist Bill Eaken worked at Sierra On-Line, and he hated every second of it. When he did the evil ghost animation at the end of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, where it swirls around and comes right up to the player and speaks, he made it say "F**k Sierra."

Fights

You can press Insert during fights to "sucker punch" your opponents and win immediately. Some enemies which can be circumvented by solving a puzzle are immune to this move. To this day this is being reported as a cheat, even though it is a feature of the game and clearly pointed out in the manual (page seven).

This is either a sign of how widely this game was pirated or of how few people actually read manuals.

German version

In the German CD-ROM version a small swastika in Kerner's pass was removed. It is still there in the disk version.

Plot

The story line of this game is fairly accurately based on history. Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler attempted to rewrite history in an effort to prove that the Aryan race in fact descended from the Atlanteans. To this end he instigated archaeological digs in Iceland, the Middle East and Tibet. Similar occult/Nazi material appears in Raven Software's Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

More information about this can be found in the book Himmler's Crusade: The Nazi Expedition to Find the Origins of the Aryan Race.

References

  • When you are trying to sell the mask to Omar-Al-Jabbar, one of the things he gives to you is a baseball ball "signed by Lou Gherigh", as he says. But if you look at the ball, it's signed by "Ron Gilbert". Ron Gilbert worked for Lucasarts and was the creator of Monkey Island.
  • Several Harrison Ford movies are referenced in FoA. For Example, Indy complains that when he was in school, the principle would always send letters home to his father that began with "Regarding Henry..." (Regarding Harry is a 1991 drama which Ford starred in)
  • When Indy plays with the flashlight in the Monte Carlo hotel, one of the shadow puppets is the comic book character Max known from comics and the later Sam & Max Hit the Road.
  • In the CD-ROM "talkie" version, when Indiana strains physically he lets out a Wookie roar.
  • Many of the street names in Monte Carlo are insider gags. Among other things there is an "Avenue des Troi Bois" and a "Boulevard des Guerres des Etoiles". "Trois Bois" is French for "three wood", which is obviously a reference to Guybrush Threepwood from Monkey Island. "Guerres des Etoiles" translates as "Star Wars".

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) - #93 overall among the “150 Best Games of All Time”
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #4 Most Memorable Game Hero (Madame Sophia)
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #14 Most Memorable Game Hero (Indiana Jones)
  • Amiga Joker
    • Issue 02/1994 – Best Game in 1993 (Readers' Vote)
    • Issue 02/1994 – Best Adventure in 1993 (Readers' Vote)
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 12/1999 - #37 in the "100 Most Important PC Games of the Nineties" ranking
  • PC Gamer
    • November 1999 - #42 Best Game of All Time
  • PC Games (Germany)
    • Issue 01/1993– Best Adventure in 1992
  • Power Play
    • Issue 02/1993 – Best Adventure Game in 1992
    • Issue 02/1993 – Best Presentation in 1992

Information also contributed by Agent 5, ClydeFrog, game nostalgia, Garcia, Istari, James1, PCGamer77, Rupert Breheny, St. Emydius, Swordmaster, Terrence Bosky and William Shawn McDonie

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Related Sites +

  • AmberfishArts - Fate of Atlantis 2 Fangame
    Founded in 1998, IndyProject set out to create a sequel to the 1992 LucasArts adventure Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. FoA2 will resume where the original game ended, and tell its story to the end. It will be a faithful recreation of the feel and atmosphere of the original.
  • Game Nostalgia
    Provides extensive background info for Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, pictures of the cast and examples of voice-overs, full credits with shots and info about the design team, demos of the game, specific details about the game, various goodies, all musical themes, shots of every location in the game, saved games, a list of reviews, including a "nostalgic" review and tech specs.
  • Hints for Indy - Fate of Atlantis
    Jason does it again with wonderful hints for this game.
  • Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis wallpaper (archived)
    A desktop wallpaper for the game. It seems to be a close-up scan of a section of the box cover or manual.
  • ScummVM
    Get "Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis", as well as many other adventure games, to run on modern systems by using ScummVM, a legal and free program.
  • The COMPLETE Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Walkthrough!
    The only 100% complete guide on the web!
  • Wikipedia
    Talks about technical details of the game, it's history, the making of it, and more.
  • iMDB: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
    General information about the game, including user reviews, ratings, and a message board.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 316
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Olivier Masse.

Windows added by Picard. Amiga added by POMAH. Antstream added by lights out party. FM Towns added by Terok Nor. Macintosh added by Jason Savage. Linux added by me3D31337.

Additional contributors: MAT, Istari, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Apogee IV, Johnny "ThunderPeel2001" Walker, Michael Zöller, CubbyKatz, DarkDante, martin jurgens, Ricky Derocher, 6⅞ of Nine, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, mailmanppa, Ingsoc, FatherJack.

Game added October 20, 1999. Last modified March 13, 2024.