The video game adaptation of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was first released as a coin-operated arcade machine by Atari in 1985 before it was ported for a home release across subsequent years including a scaled back version for the NES.
The storyline of the game followed the climax of the film in a multi-level game which loops the rescue of Mayapore's children and the mine car chase until Indiana Jones finally confronts Mola Ram.
Plot summary[]
Inside the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones uses his whip to fend off attacks from Thuggee guards, cobras and bats and climbed around the ledges of the caves to free the enslaved children. After liberating all the children, he boarded a mine car, and raced through the caves, avoiding broken tracks and pursuing Thuggees. Finally reaching the altar area of the temple, he avoided lava and guards and retrieved one of the Sankara Stones. After repeating the entire process three times to free all the children and collect all the Sankara Stones, Jones escaped from the Temple on a bridge, where he had a final showdown with Mola Ram, who had previously harassed Jones in his quest by throwing flaming hearts at him.
Screenshot of First Level
Gameplay[]
The game uses an eight-directional joystick with a single button (for the whip). The game has three different difficulty levels, which are selected in an introductory screen. It was one of the first arcade games to use digitized speech clips on the Atari.
Game structure:
- Rescue children on ladder/ledge scrolling map
- Mine Car Chase
- Grab Sankara Stone in temple
- Repeat 3 times, and on fourth loop, replace Sankara Stone level with Bridge Escape level (in Medium and Hard modes)
Move onto more difficult level and continue.
Appearances[]
Characters[]
- Indiana Jones
- Mola Ram
- Willie Scott
- Short Round
- Zalim Singh (As "Prince of Pankot")
- Thuggee guards
- Enslaved children