How to play Swordquest: Fireworld online
- Move the warrior or the cursor: arrow keys
- Start the game, enter a room, pick up or drop an object: Space bar
- Restart the game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
The Select switch and both difficulty switches are not used.
Gameplay
You play a warrior on the quest for the Sword of Ultimate Sorcery, alongside Torr and Tarra, the heroes of the comic book. Fireworld has ten treasure rooms, connected by doorways, and 16 magical objects spread across them: among others an oil lamp, a rope, a grappling hook, a cloak of invisibility, shoes of stealth, a dagger, a shield and food. You can carry six at a time. To pick one up, place the cursor over it and press the button; to leave one in a room, move down to the objects you are carrying at the bottom of the screen and press the button again.
The most important object is the chalice. Without it you cannot enter the secret room at the centre of the Tree of Life, and once you have it, magic doors open for you. Some objects also open hidden doors, and one object can matter in more than one puzzle.
On the way into treasure rooms you meet six action tests: a pit of snakes, flaming firebirds, flying fire goblins that you catch and box, hot knives that you guide into a pit as they fall, fire-breathing dragons that you shoot with arrows, and snapping salamanders. When you have left the right objects in a room, a pair of numbers appears. For the contest, these pointed to a page and panel of the comic book where a word was hidden.
Tips
- Keep a log. The manual tells you to use paper and pencil: note every clue and which objects you left in which room.
- Find the chalice first. The central room is closed to you until you carry it.
- Think Tree of Life. The contest winner, Michael Rideout, said it helped him to notice that the room layout matched the Kabbalah tree.
- Save before a test. A save state before a hard action sequence lets you retry without walking back.
The Fireworld contest
Swordquest grew out of plans for a sequel to Adventure. Each game came with a DC Comics comic book, and each had its own contest with a Franklin Mint treasure as the prize. For Fireworld it was the Chalice of Light, a platinum and gold goblet set with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, pearls and green jade.
73 players sent in correct answers. Atari asked them to write a short essay about what they liked in the game and picked 50 for the final in January 1984, held at a Holiday Inn in San Francisco. Michael Rideout won in about 45 minutes, playing a contest version that was easier than the shop cartridge. By then Atari was losing money after the 1983 crash, and the series was cancelled: the third game, Waterworld, was released, but Airworld was never finished and the final round for the sword never took place.
