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 437 ratings with 17 reviews)

Best adventure game I have seen.

The Good
Indiana Jones is a legend of its own. Raiders were the first and because of that the movie became legendary. Temple was a mediocre filler and Crusade was a great hit because of a new character portrayed by fabulous Sean Connery. So LucasArts had great material at their disposal to base game upon. But no. It would not be LucasArts if they would not go the other way.

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis presents a completely new, original story. And it would not be LucasArts if they would not elaborate it. So the story not only is on par with any of the three movies that preceded the game (Crystal Skull was 15 years after this game) but the player's sheer involvement in a brand new Indy story makes this stand above any of the movies. It's pretty hard to explain if you didn't play the game. It's not like a game based on movie which follows the plot and you loose much of the surprise because you know what is supposed to happen. Not when you have a well known character in a brand new story. The game starts with a really great interactive intro with Indy making some funny remarks about Barnett College artifacts. It's this intro that captures you and sucks you into the game which then keeps you in till the very last image and the last tone of the music. Most of people don't like intros but this one is worth spending 10 minutes on, also because it explains the basic setting of the plot.

When I first played the game in 1997 it was already a bit dated. But since I am an oldskool player (and I know the internals of PC) I found the VGA graphics amazing (more so when I learned it was hand painted, every single background, character, movement and animation) and the music (especially Adlib) really captivating despite it was pretty primitive compared to other systems.

But what was really the most thrilling element of the game was the storyline. Starting of with the intro and an action sequence that set the game in motion the game story progressively builds up, Indy reveals more and more about the Atlantis. Nazis are a constant threat in the game (as in every Indy movie) but there is also something more in the air. This doesn't reveal itself till the very last stages of the game (and I will not reveal it either) but the game pacing, settings and music build up this tension as the player approaches the goal. The atmospheric highpoint for me was the Outer ring with its maze, gloomy music and Nazis walking all around where player had to take long distance trips through the maze. It really brought in the frustration and sense of threat that a real human in this setting would experience.

The puzzles are another highpoint of the game. You've got these, let's say eccentric puzzles in Day of the Tentacle or Monkey Island. Not so with Indy. If you want to make a balloon you have to use a real balloon bag, a real basket and something to tie it with. Puzzles like these contribute to the involvement of the player because the player doesn't feel like he's doing something outrageous. One big plus is many of the puzzles (almost all of the important ones) change with each replay - the things needed are hidden in different places, the player is required to use a different approach or a different object, search at different locations or take different steps to complete the objective. A great example of this is a search for Lost Dialogue in the first part of the game where the dialogue can be hidden in several places (I think it's more that five!) and to retrieve the Dialogue from each place takes a completely different set of steps to take.

If changing puzzles are not enough for you then there's something bigger in store for you - three different ways to complete the game. After the first part you make a decision and until the final parts the game progresses totally differently in each mode converging the three paths seamlessly after you reach Atlantis. What is so great about the three modes is that although Indy roughly follows the same locations in each mode (with a host of locations unique to each path) the storyline in each path is distinctively different and locations have different puzzles in each mode that serve different purposes. A topping on the cake of this is that even some characters change from path to path - while they are helpful in one they are evil in another and you never know what to expect or will stand surprised if you try to treat the character the same in different paths. Take the variation in puzzles AND three distinctive paths and you have myriads of possible gameplay combinations that will make you replay the game again and again.

Technically there's not much to say. Controls are so easy you won't be needing manual even in the fighting mode. This is the probably the cleanest most intuitive adventure game interface I've seen. The graphics is a 320x200 256 color VGA mode which was the best you could have on PC those days. Artists at Lucas took some big efforts to make the scenarios look good in this resolution and also make the important elements stand out so that the player doesn't have to do pixel-by-pixel search (except for some two or three occasions).

The music can play either through the PC speaker (no comments needed, you know the bleeps) or using Yamaha's OPL3 music chip found on Soundblaster cards (and clones). For the luckier who had Roland cards the MTU-41 interface was also available. The OPL3 music, although pretty simple stands in its own right and does the job right. First notes you'll hear is of course the obligatory theme (which of course is a positive thing) but the in house musicians created original soundtrack that has his own themes that fit the game and yet is bonded together with the well known Indy theme. Also the ending credits are incredibly well done (I won't spoil what's there) and with the music based on Indy theme rearranged and extended by different original melodies that transition to a grand finale based again on Indy theme with some nice arrangement touches from game musicians finishing with a final crescendo accompanied by a tiny bell sound that will make you smile.

Noteworthy is the iMUSE music system that pretty seamlessly mixes the music according to scenario or situation so that the player experiences a continuous movie-like sound scape that really adds to the game. The voiced version is also a very nice touch since reading silent letters on top of nonsilent music is not really natural, having voices AND music WITHOUT the letters is much more a cinematic experience and takes the player involvement a step further.

Summed up - if you are able to switch your brain to year 1993 play this game if you haven't. The story, atmosphere, technical quality and huge replay value are so attractive you will find enjoying this game more than you would find healthy to. For me the game stands in the adventure genre as a highpoint, as the best adventure game ever.

The Bad
There's not too much bad to say - it IS a best adventure game after all (for me at least). Maybe some parts were too long and frustrating (e.g. the outer ring). Maybe some animations and movements could be better (especially in final scenes where Indy and Sophia are expect to run from Atlantis yet the animations shows them Sunday walking). Also there is this quirk - some sound effects are presented as text (or sampled sound in talkie version) while others are played back through MIDI/OPL3 chip. This might be distracting to some (it was to me) since you never know what you're going to hear/read and it makes some scenes unnatural (like Indy pushing a stuck door, first the text reads "ouch, oof" but nothing is heard and then the doors move and suddenly you can hear the door squeak). This is probably my biggest criticism of this game, apart from that there is really hard to find something bad in this game.

The Bottom Line
A legend in adventure gaming, a must have for anyone who is able to appreciate a game in the context of its age.

DOS · by Mike Spicely (5) · 2009

A good game, though probably over-hyped by adventure buffs.

The Good
The game opens in a grand way that is a true cross between Indiana Jones and Lucasarts games, with a witty intro that intertwines the credits with actually playing the game, I loved this and wish more games were creative this way.

The plot of the game is very in the Indy vein, taking the much over-used idea of Atlantis and putting the Nazi spin on it. True to Jones form the game doesn't dwell in ancient scriptures and instead constructs an almost plausible story involving a lost dialogue of Plato as a cue for sending our hero across the world. Being an adventure game it gets pretty close to the feel of the film, given the constraints of being played out across static screens and being unable to use proper cinematography. The SCUMM game engine has clearly been used well, performing admirably and enhanced by great voice acting and an excellent score (helped along by the famous Indy motif).

The famous thing everyone says about the game is the different paths through depending on you playing style, which add a replayability to it, though I suppose were it a real Jones film, the muscles path would have to be taken.

The Bad
Being an adventure game the game has to have challenging elements I suppose, but sometimes these challenges are ramped beyond what you'd get in at the cinema. I felt that these detracted from the romping across the globe feel, as you were left sometimes doing a fairly ridiculous travel back and forth across the globe to attempt a different puzzle whilst figuring another out.

This kind of criticism may seem unjust given it does the best it can do as a game, but then it is trying to follow in the steps of a film series. I would write that the plot and ending is a little too overblown for an Indy story, but then I've now seen the Crystal Skull, so even the Infernal Machines plot devices could seem reasonable now. The staging of the story doesn't quite work so well, as the tone of the game is more light-hearted than the films, following more on LucasArts other games such as Monkey Island, though I suppose it might help relieve the pressure of 'using item a on object b' to solve a puzzle.

The Bottom Line
In term of where the genre was at when the game was released, it's a milestone, playing other games from the same era allows you to realise how smoothly this game plays and how well the 'never die' (at least giving you a fair warning otherwise) device works well and helps the game continue.

There are lessons to be learnt from this game on how to write and design a good adventure game, though also improvements that could come forth too such as injecting more a free-flowing film dynamism to the game, making the action sequences less stifled (long-winded boxing matches, anyone?).

Definitely worth playing for all adventure buffs and Indiana Jones fans who felt that maybe the latest movie installment didn't deliver.

DOS · by RussS (807) · 2009

Played it with my dogs.

The Good
And they loved it. OMG this game is so good! Not like modern games which are all boring and who don't have a soul. Old games were so much better. I remember when I played when I was like 14 years old and it was so amazing and it was summer and I jumped out of my window and went to a walk in the forest with my dogs to eat some berries and everything was just so special.

So I played it again and went for a walk with my dogs like I did back then and it still was amazing.

The Bad
Are you crazy?! This is the best game ever. Like for realsies. Well, that and that this wasn't made into Indy 4. Crystal Skulls like sucked and everything.

The Bottom Line
Played it with my dogs.

Okay, now the real review.

I'm here sitting and looking at the release date of this game – 1992. Wow. 18 years old. And I'm now vaguely sensing and realizing a difference between adventure games of today and adventure games of those days.

Adventure games of those days overshadowed other genres, and this here overshadows games that had yet to come in the world. What I'm talking about is the user-friendliness of the title. It's so easy to play it, and it's so wonderful to play it with it's dynamic atmospheric soundtrack and puzzles that don't bore you.

Today adventure games are a boring, uninspired mess, using Dan Brown as a basis for their stories and characters, and who have really dated puzzles. Writing wise Fate of Atlantis isn't much better. There's hardly any story or characters. It's all just a series of puzzles, sometimes they appear as human characters, sometimes they're just honest objects. For Fate of Atlantis is really a puzzle game. This is not something to be hold as example for how adventure games were about "story" or something.

For there is no proper story. You meet a guy, he says he needs stuff, you travel to the other side of the world, get stuff, come back and then guy tells you where you can get more stuff. And it's all coated in this Indiana Jones exterior. But Indy is not really a wisecracking swashbuckling hero in here, he solely relies on the player to fill in the blanks. Well that's a bit harsh – not solely, but most of the dialogue in this game is just puzzle-talk. Examples:

1) "What should we do now?"
"We should find this thing!"

2) "Hello, I'm Indiana Jones."
"Hello doctor Jones, answer me these questions and then you can get this stuff you want to solve your next puzzle."

There's not really any decoration to these lines and characters in these game. It's very pure puzzle-talk with no extra. Very barren of juice, if you know what I mean. It's quite different from Monkey Island 2 for example, which had loads of different dialogue not at all relevant to puzzles or the game at all. But in MI2 they helped to flesh out the world and the characters.

Though, most adventure games were very puzzle-oriented in those days and can hardly be called story games. There were largely two different kinds. There were the Sierra type where the extra was given through the narrator and descriptions, which were all full of craziness and/or world-building. Lucasarts type of games it was the main character himself who made all sorts of jokes to enhance the basic puzzle-game. None of these games really told stories, though around this time adventure games were starting to do things that later culminated into games like Pandora Directive, Gabriel Knight and Grim Fandango. You know, story-telling games.

But Fate is before that. And unlike others of it's era, it doesn't really have any extra.

Fate of Atlantis is a pure puzzle-oriented adventure game. In fact it's so pure that it boasts three different paths with three different kinds of puzzles. And it's not bad. It's great and fun.

For what it is lacking in dialogue and characters, it makes up for with atmosphere visuals and music. And this game is atmospheric! You know, that bit about playing with my dogs wasn't made up at all. There's this very unique atmosphere or vibe or feeling to the game that stays with you for a while.

Now this atmosphere or vibe is not perhaps the most Indy. I mean, remember when people hoped that Fate of Atlantis would be Indy 4? But it's not. It stars Indiana Jones, but for some reason this whole supernatural Atlantis a la Helena Blavatsky, carries a whole different kind of vibe than the 30's pulp of the film series. And Hal Barwood actually researched Blavatsky for this game.

You know, this special feeling that I talked about before? I'm gonna go crazy and say that this feeling was actually the spirit of Helena Blavatsky, who found my essence and locked on to this, while I was playing the game and then followed me when I was walking in the forest with my dogs. Did I mention I was seeing dead atlantean gods in that forest?

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I don't find the game and it's atmosphere most Indy-like. But then again, most of non-trilogy Indy-stuff is un-Indy like. And unlike some un-Indy like Indy-stuff, this one here is quite an enjoyable experience.

So time to talk about why these puzzles are not depressing. Well, they're not crazy non-logical puzzles. They're seamless. They feel natural. And they depend on which kind of game are you playing - the wits path, the fist path or the team path. The game chooses it for you on how you solve the first puzzle of the game, though you can reject that choice and choose your own.

The team path should be sort of like Indy and the snarky girl out on an adventure, having funny unresolved sexual tension. But since most of the dialogue is so puzzle-oriented and no extra, very few moments actually create that effect. Not the most exciting path for me.

The wits path is like the team path, in that it's puzzles require thinking, but it's all solo. There's no Sophia. And except for a fun Monte Carlo segment, I think this is inferior to other paths.

The fist path is sort of like an action adventure game in the form of early 90's Lucasarts adventure game and is my favorite. Mostly because you get to fight and kill people here. And most of the puzzles are sort of physical – should I fight Arnold over there or should I roll this giant boulder over him? And it's not all solo, there are times when you and Sophia are together. So it's best of both worlds.

But of course it's fun to experience all these different paths. Unfortunately the paths are only the middle part of the game. The ending chapter is still the same, and can become boring and tiresome on your third path.

But there were not many games in 1992 with this sort of seamless natural puzzles and multiple paths. Not to mention these production values. There was an other brilliant game in 1992 and that was King's Quest 6, and largely for the same reasons that Fate of Atlantis is. Most adventure games tended to have idiotic torturous puzzles and no replayability; though very recommended as retro experiences.

But Fate of Atlantis has a touch of genius to it that makes it unique and I hope I managed to describe what this touch was, while honestly describing the faults too.

So, a tl;dr version too.

  • lifeless dialogue
  • world locations just a collection of decorated puzzles
  • no interesting comments from the main characters
  • characters not really characters, but obstacles
  • multiple paths
  • seamless natural puzzles
  • marvelous atmosphere getting me possessed by Blavatsky
  • IMUSE dynamic soundtrack
  • very easy to play

It's a great piece of work. Played it with my dogs and they loved it. It's funny that a game by a veteran Hollywood screenwriter that hanged out with Spielberg in 70's, is greatly designed in gameplay but lacking in dialogue. But there it is. Unfortunately the same approach fails Hal Barwood in his recent adventure game – Mata Hari.

DOS · by The Fabulous King (1332) · 2010

[ 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.

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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.