Once upon a time, video games were not just games, but the big adventures of our childhood.

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In the 21st century, we can sit on the subway, lie on the couch, or even play PSP in class, and complain about how rotten the game resources that are available for free download. We can sit in front of the TV for a day with the X-BOX controller in hand, and judge the gore and sexy beauties in the game; We will also sigh again and again that no matter how advanced the audio-visual technology is today, the PlayStation in the 90s has still become the last classic console platform.

But in the early '80s, when NES had not even been developed, people's tolerance and enthusiasm for games were so simple and strong.

It was the beginning of a golden age, in the earlier seventies, people even flocked to games like PONG (a ball of light, two vertical bars to play ping-pong), maybe people today will find it incredible, but back then, PONG this game had more than a dozen independent hosts, please note, not game cartridges, but game consoles, that is, there are more than ten kinds of game consoles specifically used to play PONG, in fact, there was no concept of "game cartridge" at all, They developed a gaming console specifically for PONG...... One by one, each with only one game on it, PONG......

It was the "wooden age" of the video game industry, and I don't know why it's called that, maybe because most of the consoles at that time had a wooden appearance. From the large PONGs that first appeared in some stores (which can be considered the originator of arcade machines), to those "wide variety" of PONG home consoles, to the odyssey (Odyssey, one of the first professional home game consoles, the printer-sized appearance, the handle line that resembles a bold version of the infusion tube, the huge toaster-like handle, the game cartridge with no name, no case, only a numeric number, well, at least he can change the cartridge...... Even later, Odyssey introduced the first game gun in the history of home video games, which was superficially indistinguishable from a real rifle, except that the end was connected to an uprooted wire). Throughout the seventies, the progress of video games was slow, but gradual.

You may ask, who would buy something like that? And who developed those crude? Let Conan tell you that there is only one answer: the earliest hardcore gamers in modern society and the pioneers of the game development industry.

So let's go back to what I just said, the early eighties, the beginning of the golden age. At that time, the game industry didn't have anything to do with Nintendo and Sega, so please don't be eager to try, sit down, and shut up.

At that time, the king of the video game industry was Atari, Atari 2600, a landmark game console, the most vigorous console in human history, from the wooden age, witnessing the rise of red and white machines, until the nineties. The veteran pioneer was finally discontinued in January 1992, and the 14 years and 2 months record went on in the history of video games.

There is only one button but there is also a joystick handle, simple operation, simple picture, simple sound effect. But at the time, it seemed good enough!

Maybe it's hard for today's gamers to imagine what a video game was like before the advent of the red and white machine, but I can roughly describe it, you just need to mosaic the picture of the eight-bit machine, and then simplify the game sound effect to a single sound rate such as explosions and beeps, and finally add your own rich imagination, you will find it very interesting.

On such a host, there was a legend, a legend that has not yet been completed......

At the beginning of the eighties, a four-part series of games called "Swordquest" was released on the Atari 2600. The worldview of the game is based on the four basic elements of the universe, so these four games are "Earth World", "Fire World", "Water World" and "Air World". The main idea is what I just mentioned - sword hunting.

In the game, you control a character as he explores mysterious secret rooms in search of hidden clues and treasures. Sounds like a normal puzzle game? No! It's much more than that.

You're not just playing a game, you're on a real adventure in search of real treasures.

The rules are roughly like this, you buy these four games released by Atari in turn, and in the game, you will find many clues, you just have to find as many clues as you can and send them to Atari. The person who finds the most clues can go to the company's headquarters for the finals, in which Atari has created a special version of the game for the contestants, and the first person to complete the game process within 90 minutes is the champion.

Don't think that a puzzle game on an old platform is easy, in fact, it's jaw-droppingly difficult. In the case of Earthworld, you plug in a game card, and if you don't read the game manual, congratulations, you don't know what you're supposed to do, and you control a character who walks through some diamond-shaped rooms that look exactly the same, and you don't feel any of the game progressing at all, except for the explosion sound when you enter the room, of course......

Well, let's open the game manual, you will see the guide, there are a total of twelve rooms, each with different colors, each room represents a constellation, and each room, in fact, has a secret room, sometimes you can go in directly, sometimes you have to play some small games through the light strip waterfall, in short, when you go in, you can find a few hidden treasures.

Characters can choose to pick up or drop treasures, and as long as you place certain items in a specific order (which is too puzzling), you'll be able to see the game screen change and get a clue.

The clue is that two very painful numbers appear in the middle of the screen, and the meaning is completely unclear. Guess what's next? You would never have imagined that now you have to take out the peripherals of this game, yes, you heard it right, the game on the Atari 2600 still has peripherals, don't buy genuine scumbags, go shit!

We can ignore T-shirts and posters, but the game of the Sword Hunt series, each of which gives a comic book, and then let's open the comic, find the number of pages and grids corresponding to the numbers on the screen, and! There's a word hidden in that frame! You can't find it if you don't look closely!

Once you've found all 10 hidden words, you'll have to figure out how to put them together in a sentence, but before that, you'll have to kill five words, so how do you filter them? Talent, you guessed it, let's pick up the game manual again, there is a hidden hint on the first page, there are two words in a large paragraph with slightly different colors, namely "Prime" and "Number", then we will cut down the words found in the whole game into five according to the hint of "quality" and "number", and form a sentence.

1982 was not the era of the Internet, but believe me, people in those days had free time, and it was nothing to solve this step...... Out of the final 5,000 answers, only eight players solved the correct sentence, and the winner was born, 20-year-old Steven Bell.

Brave boy, you are a miracle!

That's it for Earthworld, and it's more difficult than I might have described, because time has changed and there are many details that we can't imagine.

Why do I say that such a game is a legend? Legendary difficulty? Of course not, but prizes.

The winner of the "Earth World" will receive an "amulet" made of 18-karat pure gold set with 12 diamonds and engraved with the gold pattern of the zodiac around the perimeter.

The winner of the "World of Fire" will receive a Holy Grail, made of platinum, decorated with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, pearls, jasper, and more.

The prize of "Water World" is a crown made of pure gold, embellished with diamonds, rubies, sapphires and aquamarines.

The prize for the "Qi World" is a "Philosopher's Stone" (the shape is difficult to describe, a bit like a chunky version of an obelisk), the body is a large piece of pure white jade, wrapped in a layer of 18-karat gold, set with topazes, rubies, and diamonds.

According to Atari's advertising campaign, each prize is worth $25,000, but that's not the end of the story, with the four winners having a final showdown at the end of the four competitions.

The one-of-a-kind, eventual winner, will receive the ultimate prize, a sword. The hilt is made of 18-karat solid gold and the body is made of sterling silver, embellished with diamonds, topazes, sapphires and rubies, and is valued at up to $50,000.

So, the total price of all the prizes is a full $150,000! Don't forget that it was 1982-1983, and even if the prizes themselves no longer appreciated, we can calculate the value of the dollar at that time, which is a lot of money! Can you imagine playing video games now sitting at home to get that?

We may sometimes envy the "pros" who can support themselves by playing games. But this! This is the largest treasure hunt I've heard since the Middle Ages! It's a real adventure!

However, all this has not come to fruition so far, but has become the tears of the times......

Soon after, "World of Fire" was released, and the basic decryption concept is the same as that of "Earth World", except that this time the arrangement of the rooms is based on the graphics of the Kabbalah Tree of Life.

The game seems a little simpler than the earthworld, and since there are more than 50 players who have the answer, Atari has a play-off - write what you love about the game. Do you know what I'm going to write? I'll write "two hundred and five" followed by two zeros.

Anyway, they got the winner Michael Rideout out of fifty hot-blooded teenagers, and the Holy Grail found its owner.

The third game, Waterworld, culminated in the game, but the infamous Atari Shock in 1983 had an impact on the game, so the game was released in limited quantities, making it an extremely rare limited edition game.

The concept is similar, this time it is based on the "Seven Realms of the World", and it is decrypted in seven rooms. However, the final of "Water World" was not able to take place, and Atari was bought due to financial setbacks, and the "Sword Hunt" event came to an end.

The fourth game, "Air World", really became air, as its name suggests, and although rumors have leaked that some of the game's prototypes have been leaked, this game has never been released.

THIS IS THE END, AND THAT'S OFTEN THE BADEND IN THE REAL WORLD.

This tournament would have been one of the most influential and legendary events in the history of gaming. Ancient myths and legends, the four elements of the universe, puzzles in secret rooms, comic books, game descriptions, and real prizes, no, should I say "treasures". All this combined, it will undoubtedly be immortal, but it, just like that, fades away in the wind......

The legend was discontinued, but an even bigger mystery was left behind, which was where the treasure went. Where did the remaining three treasures end up?

Some well-informed sources have revealed that Jack Tramiel, who bought Atari, got his hands on them and painted a vivid picture of seeing the "sword" in the living room of his home, except that there were no photographs or any other credible evidence to prove the rumors.

But if, only if, the sword was really there, then he must have both the crown and the philosopher's stone.

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Vincent narrated this in conjunction with the ever-changing big screen, and finally the screen was frozen again on the four-panel animated poster, which now understood to everyone present that it was supposed to be the poster of the four Sword Quest games.

Vincent cleared his throat and spoke again: "Those treasures belong to the players, and every player who inserts the game card into Atari has a chance to win them, it's a dream." He shrugged helplessly: "It's a pity that this dream has been thrown into the toilet." ”

The cat master sighed deeply: "Hey! So what do you want to do now? ”

"What do you want?" Wang Xu and Li Yadi looked back at the cat master with wide eyes, and said in unison: "He said it so clearly, you still don't understand?!" ”

"Thirty years later!"

"This game has to go on!"

"You can't live without air among the four elements!"

"The balance of the universe must be restored!"

"The sword must find its true ruler!"

The two of them said a word, I said a word, and the cooperation was seamless, and finally they roared together: "The stability of the otaku kingdom depends on this sword to maintain!" ”