Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (also erroneously called Indiana Jones 4) is a graphical adventure game, originally released in 1992 and published by LucasArts. It was the seventh game to use the SCUMM adventure game engine. Based on writings by Plato, the game's plot is an original story.

A four issue Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis comic series was produced in conjunction with Dark Horse Comics and published the year before the game's own release in 1991. Despite being the same basic plot, there were some differences in the story.

The game was also included as an extra on the Wii version of Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings in 2009, and later that year on July 8, re-released for the PC through Steam.

Introduction
Indy was asked by Marcus Brody and Klaus Kernerto find a particular strange idol from Barnett College's museum. Due to a stairway being closed for repairs, Indiana Jones had to swing through a roof window using his Bullwhip to search the junk and fakes of the museum's attic. As he looked at a a rather peculiar looking statue, he accidentally fell through a trap door that someone had left unlocked.

Recovering from his fall, Indy found himself in another part of the attic which housed textiles from the Shawmut Collection, and beadwork from the Phoenix Collection amongst other things. As he picked up a rope to climb through another open trap door, a large totem pole fell on him knocking him through it, into the college's library.

Searching the library, Indy came across some unfamiliar books on statues. Thinking they may aid in his search, he removed them from the bookshelf. Unfortunately, the shelf was unsecured and it fell over onto Indy and knocked him through the thin floor into the store room below.

In the store room, Indy found four cat figurines. As he examined them, one turned out to be a real cat, which hissed loudly, startling Indy and sending him reeling backward. Indy lost his balance and slipped down the coal chute into the boiler room.

Indy searched the boiler room, and found a Horned Statue in one of the lockers. This was the statue he had been looking for!

When Indy returns, inside the statue they find a small metal bead and Smith, to their surprise, steals the statue. Indy gives him a fight, but "Smith" escapes, without his coat. After searching his coat, it is revealed his real name is Klaus Kerner and he is an agent of the Third Reich and his next target is Sophia Hapgood.

Sophia Hapgood, an ex-colleague of Indy, now presents herself in New York as a psychic, giving seminars about Atlantis and communicating with the Atlantean god-king Nur-Ab-Sal. Kerner was after her necklace, which she and Indy found in Iceland during the Atlantean Expeditionin Iceland, which helped her communicate with Nur-ab-sal. A race between Jones and the Nazis to find the mythical lost continent of Atlantis begins, which may contain technology vital to the future of the world, since Kerner discovered that the metal bead found in the statue was Orichalcum, the legendary metal that would give extreme power to machines and create bombs. Kerner finds this out after bringing the bead and statue to his mad scientist boss, Hans Ubermann.

On some point, the team must find Hermocrates, the lost dialogue of Plato discussing Atlantis further than his previous works (Timaeus and Critias). Indy and Sophia return to Iceland where Dr.Bjorn Heimdall directs them to two other scholars. In Tikal, Guatemala they meet Dr.Charles Sternhart who translated Plato's 'Hermocrates' into English. Inside the temple Sternhart takes care of Indy's discovery of a tomb and a stone disk, which Sternhart recognises as a 'Worldstone'. He grabs it and flees by a secret passage,but Indy chases him and knocks him unconcious.Then he takes his Worldstone. Felipe Costa from Azores, on the other hand, tells the couple, after a bit of persuasion via an eel figurine artifact found back from Iceland, that a copy of the Lost Dialogue should be in one of the book collections at Barnett College.

The document speaks that in order to gain access to Atlantis, three stone disks, the Sunstone, the Moonstone, and the Worldstone, are needed. According to Sophia, one of two old associates had a Sunstone: either Alain Trottier from Monte Carlo or Omar Al Jabbar from Algiers.

It is at this point that the player has to choose between either the Team Path, in which Indy continues on with Sophia and the game consists mostly of puzzles involving tag teaming with her, the Fists Path, in which Indy goes alone and the game involves lighter puzzles and more fighting, or the Wits Path, in which Indy goes alone and there are harder puzzles and less fighting.

The Wits Path
Indy goes to Monte Carlo and meets Trottier, acquiring his business card. He then travels to Algiers where he shows Trottier's business card to Omar Al-Jabbar's assistant, but Indy still cannot see Al-Jabbar. After giving the assistant a red fez, Indy is able to track the assistant to Al-Jabbar's house. Locking Al-Jabbar in his own closet, Indy steals a map, several statues and a camel so he can venture to the dig site. After bribing patrols with the statues and asking nomads for accurate directions, Indy finds the dig site and an idol like the one from the opening sequence. He finds a note in a truck saying the Nazis are going after Trottier in Monte Carlo. Indy then repairs the truck and drives to Algiers. From there, he flies to Monte Carlo.

Indy arrives in Monte Carlo and tries to warn Trottier about the Nazis, but is too late and Trottier is kidnapped. Indy follows the Nazis' car and crashes into it, scaring them off and saving Trottier. Trottier explains he knows the entrance to the lost city is in Thera and that he threw the Sunstone out of the car to protect it. After searching the streets, Indy manages to find it.

Indy arrives in Thera and heads for the mountains. He finds a cave, and inside he uses the Sunstone to acquire a stone carving. Inside an entrenching tool, Indy finds a note from Sophia saying that she's been kidnapped and taken on board a Nazi U-Boat heading to Crete. After trading the stone carving for a basket, picking up a net, and using an invoice to obtain a balloon, and hot air from the mountains, Indy creates a makeshift hot air balloon, and flies it onto the Nazis' U-Boat, knocking out one of the ship's lieutenants and disguising himself with his uniform. Here, he manages to steal the Nazis' Moonstone and create a fire in the aft torpedo room. Using the fire as a distraction, Indy fires himself out of a forward torpedo tube and, once on shore, uses the Sun and Moon stones to open the Labyrinth.

Inside, Indy finds a deceased Doctor Sternhart and takes his staff and note. He finds a map room which leads to an old subway, which he powers up with orichalcum. The train takes him all the way to Atlantis.

The Fists Path
Indy travels to Monte Carlo and meets Trottier, obtaining his business card. He then travels to Algiers, and saves Omar Al-Jabbar from a Nazi soldier. With the map and the camel Indy gets from Omar, he reaches an archaeological dig, where he finds the Sunstone. Stealing a hot air balloon from a Nazi guard, Indy flies to Crete.

In Crete, Indy follows a diagram and uncovers a Moonstone. He uses both the Sun and Moonstones to open a labyrinth. Inside, Indy finds a deceased Sternhart and takes his staff and note. He uses his brute strength and his trusty whip to get past several traps and Nazi guards, and finds Sophia in a hole, from which he frees her. They find a map room which leads them out. They then travel to Thera.

There, Indy and Sophia hire a boat and Indy dives down, looking for an entrance to Atlantis. However, the boat was a set up, and a Nazi U-Boat arrives, after which Kerner kidnaps Sophia and leaves Indy to die underwater with only 3 minutes of air. Indy manages to find the entrance to Atlantis just in time.

The Team Path
Indy and Sophia go to Monte Carlo and trick Trottier out of the Sunstone, before heading to Algiers, where they confront Omar Al-Jabbar, a shopkeeper. Omar reveals that there is a dig by the Germans somewhere in the desert. Indy steals a touring balloon but the balloon is shot down by one of the Nazis who is guarding the dig. At the dig site they discover a mural that gives Indy directions for Crete, the Palace of Knossos as an Atlantean colony.

At the ruins of Knossos, using the hints from Hermocrates, Indy and Sophia dig out a hidden Moonstone. Working with both disks they open an entrance to the Labyrinth. There they find the body of Doctor Sternhart, who starved while unable to get out from a certain chamber. Indy and Sophia take a staff and a note from him. After a lot of searching they reach a map room containing a detailed model of Atlantis.

Meanwhile, a Nazi submarine surfaces off the island and the Nazis enter the labyrinth. They kidnap Sophia but Indy manages to get on the submarine and impersonate a crew member. He quietly frees Sophia and gets the stolen disks back. Then he steers the ship towards an underwater entrance and dock, which is none other than the entrance to Atlantis itself.

Sophia is again kidnapped when they arrive to Atlantis. Atlantis is found in the Aegean sea, and as expected, it is depicted in ruins but in a strange alien-like manner.

Atlantis
After a lot of exploring and puzzle solving to rescue Sophia from a prison and enter Atlantis' second ring, Indy finds out that Nur-Ab-Sal guided Sophia to Atlantis through the medallion, in order to reclaim his old kingdom. His ghost possesses Sophia completely. Indy takes the opportunity to snatch the necklace and hurl it into a pool of lava in Nur-Ab-Sal's throne room.

Indy and Sophia continue on to the heart of the city, a massive chamber full of lava with passageways leading up and down. The two manage to navigate the chamber to the city's centre. In the Colossus - a huge machine in the centre of the capital, which gave the Atlanteans god-like powers, they are ambushed by Ubermann and Kerner. Kerner decides he is the most worthy one around to transform into a god. Based on Plato's tenfold error, Ubermann feeds the machine with 1 bead instead of 10, which turns Kerner into a grotesque horned dwarf, who falls into the lava below. The Nazis then force Indy to stand in the machine to be the target of the next experiment.

Jones manages to convince Ubermann not to use him as the experiment, lest Ubermann and the Nazis become targets of a godly Indiana Jones' wrath. Rather, he appeals to Ubermann's anger and lust for power to let him be transformed by the machine instead. He feeds the machine 100 beads and the machine turns him into a being of pure energy, who then explodes, activating the volcano that has been asleep for millennia. As the city is crumbling, Indy and Sophia make their way to the submarine and take it to the surface. The city collapses deeper under the water, while Indy and Sophia watch the sun set on the smoke.

Alternate endings
If Jones does not convince Ubermann to use the device, Jones himself undergoes the transformation and explodes; trapping the Nazis (and Sophia as a result) in the ruins.

If Indy leaves the ghost of Nur-Ab-Sal in Sophia, or if Indy doesn't rescue Sophia from the Nazis and instead continues into the inner ring, then instead of Ubermann experiencing the final transformation, Sophia/Nur-Ab-Sal does. Ubermann is knocked into the lava pit by the exploding energy of Sophia. Indy escapes on his own and is left wondering why Sophia didn't listen to him.

Characters

 * Indiana Jones
 * Marcus Brody
 * Sophia Hapgood
 * Colonel Klaus Kerner
 * Doctor Hans Ubermann
 * Charles Sternhart
 * Omar Al-Jabbar
 * Alain Trottier
 * Nur-Ab-Sal
 * Fritz
 * Biff
 * Felipe Costa

Artifacts

 * Horned Statue
 * Sophia's necklace
 * Hermocrates
 * Orichalcum
 * Egyptian Statue of Horus
 * Christopher Columbus' Chest
 * Stone Carving of Shiva
 * Masai Warrior Statue
 * Funeral Urn
 * Medieval Gargoyle
 * Peculiar Statue
 * Textiles from the Shawmut Collection
 * Potlatch Indian Totem Pole
 * Beadwork from the Phoenix Collection
 * Crate of Unidentified Potsherds
 * Arrowhead from the Shawmut Collection
 * Siamese Cat Idol
 * Fertility Idol of Bast
 * Ancient Mesopotamian Cat God Figurine
 * Tutenkhamen's Cat

Technical details
More innovative than the earlier Indiana Jones adventure game, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Fate of Atlantis featured a nod to originality by including three differing paths to the completion of the game and many alternative ways to solve puzzles. The player who finishes all of the puzzles in all three paths and all of the alternative solutions, receives a full IQ (Indy Quotient) score. At one point in the game, during a dialogue sequence, the player chooses between three paths: The Wits path concentrates on puzzles, the Fists path is more dependent on fist fights (the game includes a rudimentary engine for such fights), and the Team path combines both elements and features Sophia Hapgood as a sidekick.

It is also significant for breaking with the LucasArts adventure game tradition of not allowing the player to die (though it was also possible to die at some points in Last Crusade and Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders). After the player's death, a short "what happened next" plot summary and a score appear. To the player's advantage, the game conveniently alerts the player of impending danger so that he or she can play more cautiously.

The project was led by Hal Barwood; Barwood wrote the story and designed the game together with Noah Falstein. The music was composed by Michael Land, Clint Bajakian, and Peter McConnell, based heavily upon the works of John Williams.

The game was re-released on CD-ROM with a full voiceover soundtrack in 1993.

Trivia

 * Game resource editing programs like ScummRev have revealed that there is an unused ('secret') room in the game code that didn't make it to the final version. This room is Sophia's bedroom, and lies next to her ransacked office. The programmers must have originally planned some more action in Sophia's apartment, but then thought that the presence of such a room and an additional sequence would not be vital to the gameplay. In the final version, all that takes place in Sophia's apartment is an extended dialogue in her office.


 * In the 'secret' bedroom, some objects can be identified with ScummRev; this indicates that the programmers intended some puzzle to be solved by the player, apart from the office dialogue. In that bedroom, perhaps Sophia made her introduction as a playable character, so that the player had to guide her to, for example, find the orichalcum bead. One of the useable objects is labeled as Chuck the Plant, which is an inside joke at LucasArts and a nod to several previous LucasArts games.


 * The adventure game was released simultaneously with Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis: The Action Game, a remake loosely following the same storyline, and belonging to the arcade-adventure genre. The Action Game never enjoyed great popularity.


 * There were unsubstantiated rumours that the Fate of Atlantis franchise (known as Indiana Jones 4) was the official precursor to a fourth movie.


 * LucasArts had planned on developing this game for the Sega CD, but canceled the game after its Sega CD edition of "The Secret of Monkey Island" failed to be much of a commercial success.

Sequels
There were plans for a sequel to be developed by LucasArts called Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix but it was discontinued in 1995 without being released. A comic of the same name was published by Dark Horse in 1994 based on the plot of the game. Since the games discontinuation, a few fan groups started developing fan-games, but as of 2005, none of them had finished.

LucasArts later released three 3D action titles using the Indiana Jones license: Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, and Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings.