Swordquest: FireWorld

Swordquest: FireWorld followed up on EarthWorld in 1983 as the second installment of 20th Century Fox Games' adventure series for the Atari 2600, again tied to a competition for precious trophies and accompanied by a comic book from DC Comics. This time the player moves through a fiery, noticeably more dangerous environment full of traps, symbols, and logic puzzles that must be connected with clues hidden in the comic booklet included with the game. The principle remains the same as in the first installment - the game itself does not contain the complete solution; only a careful combination of the game screens and the printed material gives the player a real chance to actually win the competition and advance to the next round.

Visually, it is a slightly more elaborate production than EarthWorld, with more colorful areas evoking heat, lava, and ever-present danger, but the game mechanics remain essentially identical - moving through individual screens, collecting items, and avoiding enemies or placed traps. The controls are bare-bones, typical of adventures of the time on the Atari 2600, and the gameplay relies mainly on patient exploration of the environment and carefully noting down the symbols seen, their order, and the relationships between screens.

FireWorld was released at a time when the 1983 gaming market crash was already looming, and so the competition surrounding the entire series was ultimately cut short and left unfinished according to the original plans, which still gives it the aura of an unfinished legend full of unanswered questions. Nevertheless, FireWorld is a valuable testament to the creators' willingness to experiment with linking media - video games and printed comic books - long before transmedia storytelling became a commonly used term in the games industry. Today's players approach it mainly as a historical curiosity of Atari's golden era and as evidence of the boldness of publishers of the time to try new things.

Why play it: Thanks to the boldness of linking a video game with a printed comic book long before the term transmedia storytelling existed, FireWorld deserves the attention of collectors of Atari's golden era, even knowing its unfinished fate.