Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (set 1) - MAME machine

Arcade Video game published 39 years ago:

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom © 1985 Atari Games Corp.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is an action games based on the movie of the same same in which the player takes on the role of action hero, Indiana Jones. Indy must infiltrate the lair of the evil Thuggee cult and their boss, Mola Ram, armed only with his trademark whip. The goal is to free the children the cult has kidnapped as slaves, recover the stolen relics known as "Sankara Stones" and escape from the temple.

The game that takes place over three different zones; the mines, a mine-cart chase and the temple. Players can choose to start the game on any one of three difficulty levels: easy, medium and hard. These are selected by entering the corresponding door.

• The first zone is made up of ledges, ladders, slides and conveyor belts. Indy must free kidnapped children by finding their cages and whipping them open. Rattlesnakes and Thuggee guards patrol the ledges and must be avoided or whipped. Players must be careful to not fall from a ledge or a life is lost. Mola Ram himself occasionally appears and throws flaming hearts at Indy, these must be whipped or avoided.
• The second zone is a recreation of the famous mine cart chase from the movie and the player must guide Indy's cart to the bottom of the mine, keeping ahead of enemy carts and avoiding dead ends and track-side enemies. The cart can be steered left and right to different tracks to avoid obstacles.
• The third zone takes place in the temple itself and Indy must make his way to the altar and retrieve the Sankara stone. Indy must avoid guards, rattlesnakes and flaming hearts thrown by Mola Ram. Once a Sankara stone has been retrieved Indy must escape the temple through one of the four doors that opens.

The zones are then repeated twice more to collect the two remaining stones, although the lay-out and difficulty of the zones is different. Once all three Sankara stones have been collected, Indy must work his way through a final mine and mine-cart section, before making his escape on a rope bridge and facing Mola Ram for the final time.

•Note• The final rope bridge section doesn't appear if the game has been played on the 'Easy' level. Instead, a message will appear stating that Indy escaped on the rope bridge. The player is then returned to the game, starting over with a higher level of difficulty.

TECHNICAL
Game ID: 136036

Runs on the "Atari System 1" hardware.

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 1

TRIVIA
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was released in August 1985.

1139 dedicated units were produced in the USA. Selling price was $1945.
And 1696 conversion kits were produced. Selling price: $595.

Theme music and sound effects are from the movie of the same name. This is the first Atari System I game to use speech capability to talk to players.

Official world records for this game (for each difficulty and number of starting lives) are:
Hard (7 lives): Cliff Reese with 1,993,530 points
Hard (3 lives): Cliff Reese with 1,410,930 points
Med. (3 lives): Cliff Reese with 945,070 points
Easy (3 lives): Cliff Reese with 800,000 points

TIPS AND TRICKS
At the difficulty select screen, whip all the hanging skeletons and both snakes to receive a 5,000 point 'Completion Bonus'. Whipping all the gas cannisters in the mines stage gives a 'Pyro Bonus' and whipping every bone pile and snake in the altar stage also gives a bonus. On levels which feature pits of molten lava, whipping enemy guards until they fall in the lava will earn additional bonus points.

STAFF
Directed by: Peter Lipson
Produced by: Mike Hally
Location Supv.: Rob Rove
Voice Coach: Earl Vickers
Music / Audio effects: Hal Canon, Dennis Harper
Costumes & special effects: Susan G. McBride, Alan Murphy, Will Noble
Set designer: Dave Ralston

PORTS

• CONSOLES:

Nintendo Famicom (1988)

• COMPUTERS:

Atari ST (1985)
Amstrad CPC (1987)
Apple II
Commodore C64 (1987)
Commodore Amiga
Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1987)

CONTRIBUTE
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