Montezuma's Revenge

aka: Montezuma's Revenge: Featuring Panama Joe, Panama Joe, Predatore
Moby ID: 1178
PC Booter Specs
Buy on Commodore 64
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Description official descriptions

You play as a treasure hunter named Panama Joe, whose goal is to find an ancient treasure hidden by Aztec warrior deep inside catacombs. But beware, the catacombs are a large maze inhabited by monsters. Bouncing and rolling skulls, dancing spiders, disappearing and re-appearing chains and tons of fire await you. You'll have to find many keys and unlock doors in order to reach your goal. Panama Joe can jump and climb ladders, but doesn't have much to offer in terms of combat. That's why the monsters in the game should be avoided: a collision with an enemy leads to a premature death. He will also find amulets which make him invulnerable for a short time. Except for the Master System version, they are activated directly when picked up.

The Atari 2600 port is a truncated version of the game and has only 24 rooms instead of 100. The room layouts are more of an approximation of the original version than being a direct copy due to the limited power of the console. The ZX Spectrum version has identical room layouts, however, the rooms are arranged differently and a few were removed. The Normal Distribution port has both a retro and modern mode. While the retro mode attempts to be faithful to the original version, the modern mode offers enhanced visuals plus has scrolling instead of the flip-screen of the original.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (ZX Spectrum version)

4 People

Software (c)
  • Parker Brothers
  • Division of CPG Products Corp.
Documentation and Packaging (c)
  • Sinclair Research Ltd 1984
Illustration (c) 1984

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 73% (based on 15 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 80 ratings with 4 reviews)

This gets very hard, very fast

The Good
I liked the way the levels are designed. This is not a form of game I'm familiar with and I found that the levels got very hard very fast. This is not a game I could rush into, I had to stop and think my way through them and plan ahead.



The Bad
The penalty for getting something wrong is losing a life. You start with five but it's very easy to lose them all and be put back to the beginning. This is typical of an old game of this type but it's very frustrating nevertheless



The Bottom Line
I haven't played many games of this type and, after a while I remembered why. The puzzle element sucks you in and it's fun for a while, but having to continually replay the early levels because you mistimed a jump in a later level turns the game into an exercise in endurance and perseverance.

ZX Spectrum · by piltdown_man (232931) · 2023

Solid title but needs patience

The Good
Very solid title for 1984 year. It's possible to run it in 16-color mode but it was not so straightforward (I think machine in DOSBox needed to be setup as PCjr, no Tandy/EGA support). But it's worth it, in 16-color it looks so much better than in CGA. The game was quite revolutionary, 100 interconnected screens, between which you can move freely around. I think it was first such title. Gameplay was fun, albeit the game is a bit hard.

The Bad
I stated it in 'Good' section already. The game can be a bit hard. I tried to setup controller, it was quite sensitive, no problem to die every moment. Plus, sound was only PC speaker. Pity that the game didn't use PCjr 3-way sound.

The Bottom Line
Challenging arcade title, first of its kind, which has its place in gaming history. If you're patient and don't mind a bit harder difficulty, it's really recommended. Personally I kept it in my archive to play it on HTPC on big TV with controller.

PC Booter · by Vladimir Dienes · 2023

Montezuma’s Review of all time

The Good
The SMS version pleasantly opens with a vastly coloured title screen playing some Indiana Jones theme remix, followed by a little cutscene with the “Mexican Hat Dance” tune, and finally a text introduction of the current level, which also hints what is different from the previous level, with little gimmicks now and again, especially the parachute. The real challenge is the next level will always be familiar to you, and at the same time it won’t be.

Even with the same colour scheme being used through the levels, the details are eye-catching and just the right amount to keep the screen interesting and give the right amount of visual feedback during the gameplay. Even the sprite animations are decently fluid and don’t look stiff in any frame.

The Bad
Quality of the visuals and gameplay are apparent. Audio cues on the other hand get boring after a while, especially when collecting the treasure and hearing the “La Cucaracha” jingle time and time again. Even though this game is set in Mexico, the game makers could have at least tried to put more tunes like “Besame Mucho”. No matter, what you hear is what you get, turn off the sound if it becomes a pain.

The Bottom Line
This was quite the interesting port of he game. Those who played the computer and early console versions of the game might not recognise this conversion. Panama Joe really stands out among the fictional archaeologists next to Alabama and Nevada Smith. If you want the best experience in Montezuma’s Revenge, the Master System port does it best.

PC Booter · by Kayburt (30392) · 2024

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Trivia

Prototype version

A 35kb prototype version of the game was created by Robert Jaeger based on the concept given to him by his friend Mark Sunshine. Robert Jaeger began making the game at the age of 15. The game was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1983. The game was bought by Parker Brothers. Parker Brothers decided to release Montezuma's Revenge in 1984, but the game was adapted to the version that required only 16kb of RAM by removing some game elements. Parker Brothers made ​some ​cuts to the graphics, removed the intro, simplified maze construction, and changed the name of the main character from Pedro to Panama Joe.

Graphics

Montezuma's Revenge is one of the few PC titles that supports 16 colors exclusively in PCjr mode.

Awards

  • Commodore Format
    • April 1991 (Issue 7) - listed in the A to Z of Classic Games article (Great)

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 1178
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Will D.

Apple II, Atari 8-bit, ZX Spectrum added by Martin Smith. Windows added by lights out party. Atari 2600, Commodore 64, ColecoVision added by Servo. SEGA Master System added by Katakis | ă‚«ă‚żă‚­ă‚ą. Atari 5200 added by Jeanne.

Additional contributors: Alaka, Martin Smith, formercontrib, LepricahnsGold, Neville, nicholas mccolm, Karsa Orlong, Jo ST, FatherJack.

Game added March 27, 2000. Last modified November 24, 2023.