Montezuma's Revenge
1984 · Platform · Atari 8-bit / Multiple
Overview
Montezuma's Revenge (1984) is Robert Jaeger's platform game in which Panama Joe searches a 99-room Aztec pyramid for treasure. Decades later it became a famous hard case for AI research.
Deep Dive
Panama Joe explores the underground pyramid of Montezuma II, 99 rooms across nine floors, to reach the Treasure Chamber. He collects jewels and keys, uses torches and swords, and has to get past enemies, lasers, conveyor belts and fire pits. The lowest floors are dark unless he has found a torch. The game has nine difficulty levels, and only from level 3 is the whole pyramid open.
Developer Story
Robert Jaeger was 16 when he built the prototype on an Atari 800 and showed it at the 1983 Consumer Electronics Show. Parker Brothers squeezed it from 48 KB into a 16 KB cartridge, replacing an unfinished boss sequence with a final treasure room. It was released in 1984 for the Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit, ColecoVision, Commodore 64 and other systems.
Did You Know?
- General game-playing AI algorithms failed at it in 2013; OpenAI made progress in 2018, and Uber's Go-Explore later handled it.
- It had sold more than 600,000 copies by 1997.
Sources & further reading
- Montezuma's Revenge (video game) — Wikipedia
