Swordquest: Airworld (Unreleased 1980s Atari 2600 Game)

The Swordquest series of games were very ambitious for their time, in that tie-in competitions to win 4 seperate prizes each worth $25,000 formed the basis of each game (with a final prize worth $50,000 awarded to one of the previous 4 winners, who were to face off against each other). The games in the series were as follows:


 * Earthworld, released October 1982; contest prize was the $25k Talisman of Penultimate Truth.


 * Fireworld, released February 1983; contest prize was the $25k Chalice of Light.

The winners of said prizes would then compete against each other for the $50k Sword of Ultimate Sorcery. The means of entering these competitions was to find clues scattered throughout the game (as well as in a tie-in comic book of which seperate volumes were included with each game). For Earthworld, only 8 of 5,000 contest entrants found the correct 5 clues needed, with the first place winner being Stephen Bell of Detroit, taking home the coveted Talisman of Penultimate Truth. However, in the case of Fireworld, more than 50 contestants (50 being the planned cap) answered correctly, and a preliminary competition was held to choose which 50 would go through, although for this competition, entrants were asked to write what they liked best about the game. Of the 50 who went through, Michael Rideout reigned victorious, and took home the Chalice of Light.
 * Waterworld, released February 1983 (in limited numbers due to the beginning of the 1983 video game crash); contest prize was to be the $25k Crown of Life.
 * Airworld, which was never released due to the aforementioned 1983 crash; contest prize was to be the $25k Philosopher's Stone.

Waterworld, as mentioned earlier, was subject to a limited release due to the 1983 video game crash, and as a result of said crash, the competition to win the Crown of Life was cancelled. Airworld was cancelled entirely, and as such, was never released. No prototypes have ever turned up, though there have been several claims made by various parties that such a prototype exists, some even providing photographs, although their validity has never been proven. Programmer Tod Frye has stated that Airworld was intended to be based upon the I Ching (an ancient Chinese text), with 64 rooms, each room represented by a six digit number (each digit in turn representing an aspect of the room's environment); though this mechanic (which only ever reached the design phase), upon further study had several combinations that would have rendered the game unplayable, and the idea was scrapped. It is still unknown exactly what stage in development Airworld managed to reach, and whether a playable prototype does indeed exist, or is simply the product of rumor.