Once again, buds from 'round the world (including Australia) came to Madison, WI to engage in epic gaming for four days straight. There was board gaming, wargaming, video gaming, rpgs, tron disc-throwing, delicious food-eating and possibly some spontaneous firebreathing. What follows are some pictures that were captured of the mercurial event.
When I was a wee tot I spent many an hour playing games like Combat and ET on the old Atari 2600. One game that I incessently played but had me completely baffled as to what it was about was Swordquest (Earthworld). I played it over and over just because the cartridge cover art was so awesome, hoping that my eight year old brain would figure out what the heck I'm supposed to do in that crazy game. I didn't have the original box or instruction manual, because I think we got the game from some neighbor kid who my brother traded it for Haunted House (which is fine, because Haunted House seriously sucked).
Swordquest's gameplay was pretty much incomprehensible, where you'd run around and drop crossbows in rooms for no reason, and suddenly you'd have to frogger-style your way up the screen on pink boats. It made no sense, until now. Below is a video explaining what the whole SwordQuest epic was about, and now 25 years later I finally understand why that game would spit numbers and hypnotic patterns at me for seemingly no reason.
Its a true legend and incredible story for video game history. Behold, the true purpose of... SWORDQUEST!
