Swordquest, the ill-fated Atari series, is returning in comic form

Sans prize money

Swordquest is one of the more interesting pieces of video game history to come out of the Atari 2600 era. Atari had massive plans to make a multi-game franchise that spun an intense narrative design that far outclassed the limitations of its home console. Along with creating this new world came the chance for players to win $150,000 and a bunch of replica weapons from the individual games in the series.

Sadly, the video game crash of 1983 ruined Atari’s plans and the scheduled fourth game in the series, Airworld, never happened. Fans that were looking forward to the end of the competition have desperately searched for any kind of clues of the prizes or even game code, but that has basically yielded nothing.

It looks like Swordquest isn’t quite finished as Dynamite Entertainment is looking to sort of reboot the series in comic form. The new Swordquest comic is going to follow a fan playing the original games and looking to eventually win the contest that Atari had planned.

Here is a synopsis from Dynamite Entertainment:


Some of the original artists for Swordquest, namely Dick Giordano and George Perez, have provided artwork for the cover art of the comics. It looks super neat and I hope this series can spark enough interest to get at least some kind of closure on what happened to the prizes Atari had lined up. Last I read, one of the executives had the sword locked in storage somewhere.

Atari resurrects cult classic Swordquest after 30-year absence [PC Gamer]

Peter Glagowski
Former Dtoid staff member.