Classic Game Room HD - RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK Atari review

[clownprince88]

One of the first truly effective adventure games .

Judged in light of the fact this was on the 2600, it was impressive and pretty damn complex.

I like the fact that they didn't go the side scrolling action route.

You had to be in certain places, at a particular time with the proper item in order to reveal what had to be done next.

Sure, it's cumbersome in hindsight but for me it was engrossing and groundbreaking at the time.

[dogeymon83]

The problem is the 2600 just kind of sucks. All it can really do is pacman.....actually it couldn't even do that.

[endersftd]

This is what you get when it's designed by the same guy who did E.T.

[vascoernesto78]

well, i could have used this info many years ago when i was like seven or something...

[OmarSuperMario1000]

this the only game i like for indiana jones!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[thethirteenthdragon]

i played this and won it on my own but i have also been diagnosed as legally insane so maybe there is a connection oh well it was a good game at the time

[uzi9millimetuh]

I beat this when I was 10.

[Gilbs2211]

1999 was a good year....

[shipthis2004]

dude piseed he couldnt beat it, dumb ass

[gillianorley]

It really was entirely a puzzle game. I have a nostalgic connection with this game which ruins my objectivity. My cousin received Raiders as a Christmas gift and we, along with his and my brothers and sisters, spent hours playing it until we solved it in a day. So I recall it as being great fun, but that is probably more due to the fun of playing the game with my cousins and siblings in a house full of people at Christmas.

I can see how, in less "festive" circumstances, this game would suck.

[WooTheStar]

3:25 is he being molested

[lestef23]

Use the grenade on the rock at the beginning :)

[CoolVids19]

my first movie was spider man 2

[SteveSinclair21]

What the hell is that black thing doing to Indiana at 3:26 O_o

[basketballjocks]

@SteveSinclair21 oh thats george lucas and stephen spielberg raping him

[sarnow76]

@SteveSinclair21 He's supposed to be a theif and he's robbing Indy!

[SteveSinclair21]

@sarnow76 I've never seen a thief do that before O_o

[jci10]

Wow. You completely bird-assed this review. This was an awesome game to play back in the 1980s. Many rooms, many strategies and several easter eggs.

[Groome007]

This game was definitely a weird one. You were meant to solve the mystery .. but graphics and such on the Atari were so lacking that it wasn't exactly intuitive. My friend showed me how to beat it ... Not that hard really ... Most difficult part was parachuting through that hole under the branch ... If you were a kid when this came out it was still cool so all the haters can die in a snake pit. :)

[DarkLordNick999]

I remember playing this at a friend's house. Toht is a fucker! He steals your weapons as he rapes you! I assume it's Toht coz he's in black.

[boagsale]

I was like ten or something when I got this game and of course had no idea of what to do, so my mum got me to write a letter to the developers who sent back a detailed walkthrough with screenshots and a thanks for buying the game.

[ctaurus211]

What the hell are you talking about? jeez do people really waste their life reviewing atari games on youtube? am i missing something? go get laid for f-sake. I had this game when i was a kid... i figured it out and moved on. Atari games are like life... they get harder and faster until you die. This Youtube business is really getting out of hand.

[andreasensio]

I'AM PLAY PITFALL ON GBA

[Gigastorm24]

My friend had it and we use to beat it all the time!!! Played it all the time back in the day too !!!

[KayloMaster]

i have it on an emulator and i cant get past the dam start. i know u need to plug controller 2 in but i have no idea what to do. help?

[Chuckjagermeister]

Has anyone actually even completed this game? This game was harder than a Norwegian girl's nipples on her wedding night.

[TheAtariJunkie]

Hell, my first movie I saw in theaters was Terminator 2, and that's not a bad first movie to remember either :)

[Lineriderrocks123]

The Angry Video Game Nerd can help you!

[00LAVALAMP]

@Lineriderrocks123 i dont think that they would get along cause cgr was first to review classic games and i thing avgn was next

[rocknrollmustlive]

@00LAVALAMP That is partially true, and partially isn't, as James did text based reviews during the late 80's if I recall correctly, and I don't remember if Mark did text reviews before the game room. However, as far as video reviews goes on the game room predated Jame's first nerd reviews by about 5 years. Ah well, it's all innocent fun...theoretically.

I think they would get along reasonably well but would have immensely differing opinions (such as their thoughts about the top gun game).

[GrimmShadowsII]

This is one of if not THE first example of a half assed game made simply to make money off of a sucessful movie.

The only game I know of that truely breaks that mode is the Woverine Origins game, great game lousy movie, atleast from what I've heard and the little I've seen never saw the whole movie.

[i8246i]

@GrimmShadowsII

Half-assed?

There's quite a lot of game in here, lots of puzzles to solve, a complex control scheme that requires 2 controllers....and this is for the 2600! A system that was too graphically poor to do a decent Pac-Man port!

Seriously, PAC MAN was too much for it!

And if you went into Wolverine Origins and came out thinking it was a lousy movie....

I don't think you should be gaming.

[jobocan]

@i8246i

Pac-Man wasn't too much for it, as proven by Ms Pac-Man and Pac-Man Jr.

The problem with the Pac-Man port is that Atari released a prototype of the game, rather than waiting for it to be finished.

[SucksTheJoke]

i prefer the cgr theme in this one, it should be played more in intros

[johnwx777]

Never understood how to play it properly as a kid.But the cover for this game was always kickass.

[tigger313tig]

I have that game for my nintendo looks way better

[YoYoKirby1]

I hated this game as a kid.....

[vittau]

"It'd be easier to find the real Lost Ark!" - The AVGN

[FaithNoMore1977]

Actually the first movie i remember was E.T. and i cried...lol

[bazfanv2]

I went to watch Empire strikes back straight after skool with my mates and i didnt tell my parents. I got the bollocking of a lifetime when i got home. Sometimes you have to take a bollocking to watch a movie you were desperate to see.

[maxxdblade]

whats that black guy doing to indy by hugging him? OMG!!!

[destination2013]

When I first played this game as a 12 year old, I remember having the same thoughts about it as you. But then, being a member of the Atari Club, I got a map and an explanation of everything in the game, and that made all the difference in the world. I suddenly understood and enjoyed the game, and it did feel like being Indiana Jones, in the movie, at that point.

[ledawg1138]

One of the greatest movies ever equals, one of the most confusing games ever.

[Abyss2002]

I remember going to Empire Strikes Back. 29 years ago.

[x20djw]

Some people say that ET the game was the worst movie game of all time

I beg to differ this game is

[storrs19]

We're probably about the same age. I'm 38 and remember seeing ROTLA in the theater in 1982 and ESB in 1981. Of course there was ET as well. Doesn't seem like it was almost 30 years ago now. Thanks so much for sharing these reviews of classic gaming with us. I still play a lot of these on the emulators I have.

[eastweymouthchris]

I think beating this game without help is still one of my most impressive gaming accomplishments.

[LTDANMAN44]

I still curse this god damn impossible game

[gamesDAMNED]

This game was so very difficult for us kids because we had no idea what we were doing. The instruction manual basically threw us out the door with nothing more than, "It's an adventure game! Have fun!" Heh heh...I think Atari wanted the sense of discovery to be part of the game experience.

I had to rely on hints to get through the game. I had no clue how to work the map room or anything beyond that. It was such a rush to play through it all. Good game, better than ET, weaker than Yars Revenge

[NightSprinter]

@gamesDAMNED Yeah, the games NEEDED people to read the instructions before playing. Combine that with a generation who wanted to plug it in, turn it on, and start immediately.. y'know how that goes.

[JohnnyDrama34]

Man, I could never figure out how to play this game when I was 8. I watched this video to finally get the answer to the mystery of the raiders of the lost ark game for atari. thanks for helping clear things up for me.

[stylin291]

I was around 8 when my cousins and I played this puppy for hours at a time. No internet walkthroughs, and no instruction manual, due to the fact we got it 2nd hand.

We played for a LONG time, but eventually figured it all out. I guess we were abstract thinkers? This game was ground breaking for it's time. I wasn't an intense action game, but you felt like you were on a quest nonetheless.

[krgallion]

This was one of my favorite 2600 games as a young kid. Took me a while to get it but once i did, it was pretty easy to beat in a short time. I probably beat this thing at least 20 or 30 times. Didn't realize i had good abstract reasoning as a 10 year old either.

[Grimpy88]

Anyone that says this game is good has obviously got very clouded judgement due to nostalgia :P

[rocksoliddude1]

pretty cool for an a-2600 game

[ghostfacedragon]

my first movies were return of the jedi and temple of doom.....sigh

[quentil]

I actually got to the point where I could beat this game pretty easily as a kid. That is, after it took like a week to figure out a way yo blow up the first cave doorway thing.

[kurisux]

2:40

Ok, for the record:

NO ONE likes Swordquest.

That is all. Thank you.

as always awesome review.

[moschops12]

I played this for years but never finished it. Very, very frustrating game.

[FLENNN1]

UH-I LIKE THE ABSTRACT LOGIC THING @

[Stevanhale]

I heard a rumor back in the 80's that if you beat the game within a certian amount of time, the ending showed the platform going all the way to the top, and the name of the game creator would appear. I also heard if you shoot one of the very bottom invaders last on Space Invaders, it would explode in a rainbow. Just rumors, or true?

[lst1195]

Yeah, this game was a bear. It took forever to beat. I seem to remember parachuting into a cave under a branch on the mesa to get the ark? and that was after months of figuring out what mesa by putting the staff together & a spinning light around the maproom told you which mesa to go to with the grappling hook. It WAS hard.

[junipree]

the only game that took me 20yrs+ to beat

[RetardRage99]

my dad's been trying to beat river raid for almost 30 years. when i told him the land is procedurally generated and is therefore infinite he almost cried lol

[SilentXero]

@junipree Me too!! I finally figured out that you need to fall off the cliff and parachute through the side of the cliff. This was before YouTube.

[SilentXero]

@junipree Me too!! I finally figured out that you need to fall off the cliff and parachute through the side of the cliff. This was before YouTube.

[working40]

This game was bad bad bad. I got it as a kid and was so confused. Your were supposed to figure things out that were impossible to figure out. The graphics didn't make it any easier - you couldn't tell what anything was, much less ponder about what it might do. I had to write away for the solution from the company - apparently A LOT of people had the same problem I had with this game. Once again - bad, bad, bad.

[TheCastellan]

I never could figure out what that black thing was that was chasing me and killing me. :P

[1968DodgePolara]

The was the thief he stole your stuff you allready had so you had to start all over agin to get what he took back that game pissed me off back then LOL

[winwolf06]

Thank God for gamefaqs!

[CanisCanimEdit001]

there is a new indiana jones video game where u can actually swing with his whip tree to tree and kill enemies... it's awesome! it came 2009

[jensbuhler]

Wow, something that advanced came out in 2009? No sh*t ;).

[Tryzon]

Ah! At 3:24 Toht starts trying to do naughty things to Indiana!

My eyeballs need a good disinfecting now.

[Tryzon]

I actually think that Raiders is the weakest Jones film. I seem to be the only person with that viewpoint. It's still a mighty fine movie, but the sequels were both better. Obviously the newest one doesn't count, for reasons that will be blatant to anyone who's seen it.

[AlienComppany]

I think that the second one isn't as good as the others. Maybe it's because it doesn't have nazis.

[Tryzon]

A valid point, plus ShortRound seems designed to annoy the audience.

[TheCastellan]

Yesh....the second one sucked. and that blond was annoying, too.

Skulls was awesome, though! :D

[Tryzon]

Not sure I'd agree with Skulls being "awesome", myself.

[Luigi84289]

I agree, 1 and 3 are good the others are not so good.

[Tryzon]

Er, actually I think that 2 & 3 are the best ones.

[Oche76]

2:20 presents and christmas boots LOL

[ZoneDaiatlas]

This is one of the greatest and hardest Atari games ever released for the 2600. I remember my friends, my father and I would spend countless hours each day trying to beat this game...

[JMB1053]

this game sucks

[guguineo]

When I was 8 years old I got this cartridge in Caracas. The Game Feature a series of items, hidden passages, markets, merchants, tse tse flyes, spiders, snakes, thieves, relics, guns, whips, hooks, transporters, parachutes, maps and many more, BUT YOU HAD TO READ AND UNDERSTAND THE MANUAL BEFORE YOU PLAYED. Once you know the gameplay you could spend hours playing it before beating, I spent almost a full year to complete it 'cause I had to translate and understand the manual before playing it.

[guguineo]

You could find the Arc in various ways but if the elevator sequence that appears when you complete the game Its actually the score metter. SO YOU DON'T REALLY WIN THE GAME IF YOU CAN'T FULLY REACH THE ARC WITH THE ELEVATOR THIS GAMES WAS WAY AHEAD OF ADVENTURE GAMMING GENRE BY ITS TIME, I rated 5 Stars and if you liked it also for the atari 2600 you should play Haunted House, Adventure and Superman they were all adventure games.... but more easy

[harleykman]

This is a shitty review. You should take the time to read the instruction manual, otherwise your opinion ain't worth crap.

Here's my review:

I played this as a 9-yr-old, and it is THE BEST ADVENTURE game made by Atari. You collect staff pieces, which you expose to the sun, and it shows a map where the Ark is located (just like the movie). Then you slip on a parachute, jump off the cliff and into a hidden cave, where you dig-up the ark.

Lots of fun and a challenge to solve the puzzle.

[harleykman]

P.S. I left a few steps out, but then again it has been 25 years since I beat it. This was a game that me and my classmate Matt worked-on together - every day we'd compare notes to see who solved what puzzle, and eventually after two weeks, we had found the Ark!

Great memories.

[thedarkallies]

My dad worked on this game in the early 80`s and it was pretty awesome for the time. You just don`t know how to play it.

[Linda8bit]

I do completely agree with the review: it's the only 2600 game we have no-one in our family could ever play. For that, it's been a true mystery ;-)

Once I got older I tried the manual again (I'm Dutch I think the manual was English) but still no clue on how to play it, with all confidence and two joysticks at hand.

Later I checked walk throughs on the Internet and I've officially declared the game unplayable: how could I have ever have thought of these steps? I'll happily play Frogger... ;-)

[AlucardsQuest]

The Angry Video Game Nerd got pretty far, you might even check his review out to figure out what to do.

[Yelnuts71]

LOL you uploaded this video on my B-Day

[yoshi88mario]

da du du da da dada de de du du de du du de de

[beansman124]

dude i love your vids.keep'em comin!

[CarlstonSolar]

Btw you get the gold.... buy the bottom package (gift) it's a parachute, you get it so you can go down and land. When you can't leave the first 3 screens how can you review the game?

[CarlstonSolar]

I loved this game, but then again once you figure out how the grappling hook/parachute work. And how to stand dead center in the map room to use the staff...it really wasn't to bad. But as a kid just reading the manual was confusing.

[JustyHakubi]

I really had to disagree on your take of the game. For its day the RotLA game was pretty innovative. And remember we are dealing with the Stella here. Had they tried to make a game based on the movie the game would have raped your memory. You usually have some really innovative takes on games. You shouldn't spend your review just pissing and moaning about what the game isn't in your opinion. Just show us the game.

[KAISERKRAUT]

I completely agree.....I think the reason he was unable to give a review,is he didnt know what he was doing or what to do,he did not list one playmechanic or objective of the game.

Heyclassic game review, just because you have the cartridge doesnt mean you review it.

If you dont understand a game,dont review it.

[emilgull]

I agree... This game rocked back in its time! My mother language is spanish, and playing this game was one of my main motivations to learn english. The only complaint I have against this game is the ending... it looks just like the opening sequence! Darn! The first time I finished it, I didn't even realized it was the end... And this feeling of unfulfillment remained until the mid 90s, when I could do some research on the Internet. =P But anyway, ROTLA is one of my favorites!

[CoryFrizzell18]

i cant watch this video

SOMEONE TALK TO ME 5D

[mattnintendonerd]

ill talk to you how are u doing

[BruDiggity]

???

[redshiftexperiment]

i remember this. this looks also a lot like the ET game which was based on that movie. that game sucked too I thought.

[GangrelLondon]

As I stated in the Yars revenge review, the map of the mesa's Indy has (I think it's a booklet) is a Yar and Zorlon cannon. Have a peek.

[DunfoVisos]

the green forest think with the guy walking was a level from the baddest game on earth et

[CAGEDTF2]

This game is confusing don't forget this game was made be for the internet

when I play this game with the internet it still is confusing

[morgangamer22]

COOL

[boomstick545]

that game is hard, I hate having to use two controllers XO

[akumaky]

shh

[sagrav03]

I had this game, but I can't played

[NightSprinter]

The game is really odd in how it plays. You select your tool/weapon with the left player joystick, and move/shoot with the right player joystick.

[averagemale]

Dude, its a 2600 game... an imagination is required...

[TenguGuy]

True dat.

[olafpieters]

You're just not an adventurer. VCS ROTLA borrows LOTS of elements from the movie: whip, gun, marketplace, baskets, old man, spiders, Map Room, Well of Souls, Headpiece staff of Ra, Toth stealing your artifacts, digging with a shovel for the ark and finding it, snakes, etc. Though graphically abstract, you must be blind not to see this. This is not a review. You're just walking around without knowing what to do (did you read the manual?). Go play Pitfall or Jungle Hunt and leave this one alone.

[mGoLos]

These reviews are just great. Thanks.

[v2791]

mean... u must need a lot of imagination see any thing on this game

[stringanime]

Take Grenade, blow up the grey wall, escape through the prison, acquire the Grappling hook and gemstone. Swing through the cliffs use the stone at dawn, acquire shovel, travel to where the Arc was revealed, dig and Boom you got it. Oh yeah watch out for thieves!

[InecomCompany]

Damn, I couldn't get past step 1.... CGRHD

[stringanime]

I had older siblings 4. I couldn't figure that out on my own.

[NightSprinter]

@InecomCompany Tell me about it. This and ET were games you HAD to read the instructions of to beat it. Only thing is, unlike ET once you know what to do you can't beat it in under 3 minutes.

[lintonthepenguin]

@InecomCompany This is the only time I have known Classic Game Room to reply to a comment.

[MistwalkerZ]

@InecomCompany What?! You REALLY answer?! xD

[sinistermoon]

Jager FTW!