In Search of the Golden Skull

ATARI 2600 CARTRIDGE [UNFINISHED, #4627]

Produced by Videosoft for Mattel Electronics

Program: Lawson

CATALOG DESCRIPTION (January 1983, Consumer Electronics Show)

You're engaged in a worldwide search for a priceless artifact - a solid gold, prehistoric human skull. Use the treasure map to determine the Golden Skull's location, then begin your perilous search. Along the way you'll encounter air battles, steaming swamps and the pyramid maze.

How far will your obsession take you! (One player.)

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY

In Search of the Golden Skull was, like Atari Treasure of Tarmin, an oddity - an Atari 2600 game purchased from an outside vendor other than APh Technology Consulting. Why Mattel contracted with Videosoft late in 1982 to produce this game is unclear.

Although a playable demo was complete, In Search of the Golden Skull was cancelled prior to the January 1984 Consumer Electronics Show and not displayed as part of the upcoming Mattel Electronics product line. It probably was cancelled because it would have been expensive to produce, requiring 16K ROM and 2K RAM in the cartridge, and there was no Intellivision version to share the advertising costs.

FUN FACT: In Search of the Golden Skull received its first public showing at the Las Vegas Classic Gaming Expo in August 1999. Atari fans were able to play the cartridge in the Intellivision Productions booth.