Atlantis was the codename and eventually commercial title for this very unique CD-i game first announced by the President of Philips Media Games, Dave McElhatten in Issue 16 of the UK based CDi Magazine in February 1996. The Atlantis project was described as a realtime 3D engine, it was the byproduct of some powerful debugging software developed by Philips Redhill. After a year of refinement prior to the announcement, this unforeseen use for the CD-i architecture was exploited with the release of Ram Raid, a working on-line game demonstrating the engine in action. Ram Raid was bundled with the second CD-online disc attached as a covermount to the UK based CDi Magazine Issue 17 in April 1996. It wasn't until the following year that the full commercial game "Atlantis - The Last Resort" was released, it sadly lacked any of the on-line functionality that the initial demo Ram Raid had hinted at.
Take a close look at the European Front Cover for Atlantis with particular attention to the belt buckle of the hero and you'll notice it is in fact Pac-man about to chump on a yellow pill. The artwork for this cover was made by Johnny Wood who also worked upon the conversions for Arcade Classics and Pac-Panic, it seems this small addition to the heros belt is a tribute to Pac-man and an extension of the artists love for the game!
It is sometime in the near future, and instead of going on a traditional holiday people now go on virtual holidays. Rather like in the film Total Recall, people plug themselves into computers and their brains are fed impulses which make them believe they are in a holiday resort.
One such virtual resort, based around the mythological Atlantis theme with a Paradise Beach and underwater aquascape, recently mutated when the controlling computer became infected with a virus. All the creatures in the resort have now become ferocious killers and the resort is unsafe for visiting.
The player is a convicted killer in one of the worlds toughest prisons. The state-funded virtual holiday company realises that the only way to clean up the virtual resort is to send in the toughest thug they can find who must fight their way to the reactor core of the resort and shut it down. Nobody in their right mind would do such a suicide mission or be tough enough for the job, nobody except a convicted killer from the worlds toughest prison! The deal made with the player is thus that if they can shut down the reactor then they can have their freedom.
2. The Resort
The resort is divided into the five zones linked by Cyber-Chutes which are energy transfer conduits. The zones are as follows:
The resort is divided into the five zones linked by Cyber-Chutes which are energy transfer conduits. The zones are as follows:
Paradise Island:
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3. Disc Overview
On pressing play on a CD-i player the title uses the Philips driver patch package to load appropriate modules depending, on the player, before starting the application. Because of this the title takes a moment to visibly start.
First the Philips bumper will play.
The next sequence is the place-holder loading screen.
The main menu is a place holder and provides four options:NEW GAME, to start a new game. When selecting this option you'll have to choose one of these 3 difficulty levels:
On selecting KEY, the player shows a ring of letters from the alphabet. Moving the controller left and right spins the ring of letters. Pressing button #1 will select the letter being pointed to by the animated arrow. Button #2 will backspace through entered letters. Selecting OK after choosing a number of letters will allow the player to start the game at a given zone/map, with given ammunition and health.
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This is the beach area where tourists used to lay by the sea sipping cocktails and soaking up the virtual rays. It is now infected by killer crabs, prehistoric winged drones, skeletons, sand worms, mutant sky surfers, and proximity mines. The weapons available to the player are a handgun, a chaingun, and a missile launcher. There are four parts to paradise island that need to be completed before continuing to the next zone.
Caverns:
Caverns:
This zone contains gloomy caverns situated beneath the sands of Paradise Beach. Half submerged in water, the player must fight through these gloomy tunnels carved out of the sand by the sand worms. Creatures that the player will encounter include water bats, stalabats hiding in stalactites, ceiling creepers, wading skeletons, floating stingers, and mechanoid waders. The weapons available to the player are a plasma gun, a scatter gun, and a torpedo launcher. There are four parts to the caverns that need to be completed before continuing to the next zone.
Aquascape:
Aquascape:
This underwater zone is where tourists used to swim among the fish in the ruins of Atlantis. The player must move through this enemy fighting through schools of piranha, sea-stabber sea-horses, man-o-war jelly fish, and mecha sharks, whilst avoiding mines. The player has limited oxygen tanks so they must pick up oxygen canisters they find lying around on the sea bed when needed (or they can stand on a bubble stream to slowly fill their tanks). Weapons that the player has are a sonic blaster, torpedoes, and depth-charge mines.
Industrial Zone:
Industrial Zone:
This area is the construction area for the virtual resort. It is here that the mechanised creatures were originally made and maintained. Now it is full of two varieties of hunter-killer creatures, missile-firing construction droids, patrolling plasmas, lightening arcs, and fierce security TV drones. The player has a weave-gun, missiles, and a flame thrower. Teleports allow the player to jump around the area. There are four parts to the industrial area although only the first is available in this release.
Reactor Core:
Reactor Core:
This area is at the heart of the virtual world and is the final part of the game. The player must move through the area using teleports, fighting past three overlords who will each leave the player a key to allow further access towards the reactor core. The player must also avoid lighting arcs as the virtual world breaks down. The player has the same weapons as in the Industrial Zone. There is one part to the Reactor Core.
3. Disc Overview
On pressing play on a CD-i player the title uses the Philips driver patch package to load appropriate modules depending, on the player, before starting the application. Because of this the title takes a moment to visibly start.
First the Philips bumper will play.
The next sequence is the place-holder loading screen.
The main menu is a place holder and provides four options:NEW GAME, to start a new game. When selecting this option you'll have to choose one of these 3 difficulty levels:
- EASY, to play an easy game
- TRICKY, to play a tricky game
- HARD, to play a hard game
- OPTIONS, to allow the player to set the sound. When selecting this option the player can choose the following options:
- MUSIC ON/LOW/OFF, to set the music sound
- SFX ON/LOW/OFF, to set the sound effects
- EXIT, to return to main menu
- KEY, to allow the player to enter a warp key (code given after any level)
- EXIT, to quit the game
On selecting KEY, the player shows a ring of letters from the alphabet. Moving the controller left and right spins the ring of letters. Pressing button #1 will select the letter being pointed to by the animated arrow. Button #2 will backspace through entered letters. Selecting OK after choosing a number of letters will allow the player to start the game at a given zone/map, with given ammunition and health.
4. Playing a Level
The player must move around the level tring to find the exit. There may be secret areas that the player can access by pressing button #2 when next to a secret wall. Doors may need coloured keys which are found lying around in the maze. The black spinning boxes contain ammo to recharge your weapon system. The weapon charge can be used for all weapons although different weapons use up ammunition at different rates. Health packs are available to restore the players health up to 100%. Eating dead crabs in the beach level gives an additional health bonus. After finishing a level the program will show a code. This code will give you access to this level when inserting this code in the 'key' part of the main menu. This code depends on your 'health' and 'ammo'.
The player must move around the level tring to find the exit. There may be secret areas that the player can access by pressing button #2 when next to a secret wall. Doors may need coloured keys which are found lying around in the maze. The black spinning boxes contain ammo to recharge your weapon system. The weapon charge can be used for all weapons although different weapons use up ammunition at different rates. Health packs are available to restore the players health up to 100%. Eating dead crabs in the beach level gives an additional health bonus. After finishing a level the program will show a code. This code will give you access to this level when inserting this code in the 'key' part of the main menu. This code depends on your 'health' and 'ammo'.
5. Playing a Cyber-Chute
Cyber-Chutes link the different zones and get progressively harder as you move towards the Reactor Core. Each Cyber-Chute provides a way for the player to get a health bonus. The objective of the Cyber-Chute is to get to the end without touching the sides. Every time you touch a side your health bonus decreases from a maximum of 100%. The final health bonus is shown after completing a Cyber-Chute.
Cyber-Chutes link the different zones and get progressively harder as you move towards the Reactor Core. Each Cyber-Chute provides a way for the player to get a health bonus. The objective of the Cyber-Chute is to get to the end without touching the sides. Every time you touch a side your health bonus decreases from a maximum of 100%. The final health bonus is shown after completing a Cyber-Chute.
6. Control
In one-player mode button #1 is used to fire the weapon, and button #2 is used to toggle the weapons and the map or crab. The sideways movement of crabing is achieved by holding down button #2 and moving the controller from side to side. If button #2 is not held down then sideways movement of the controller rotates the player and up/down movement of the controller moves the player forward or backward. Diagonal movement of the controller moves forward/backward and turns at the same time.
If two controllers are connected to a player then one player moves around the maze, toggles the map with action button #1 and opens doors or crabs with button #2, and the other player fires weapons with button #1 and toggles weapons with button #2. The player who shoots can move the line of fire by moving the controller left or right. The gun can be used but calibration is not supported.
The map screen shows the areas of the play arena that the user has visited. There are buttons to PLAY (return to the game), RESET (restart the level), QUIT (return to the main menu), and EJECT (allows the users to swap the game CD for an audio CD).
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8. Unlimited ammo, keys and lives:
In the game main page, with the cursor, go to the upper – left side of the screen and press 1, 2, 2, 1 buttons sequence.
Screen will change automaticly…
You just have to activate:
9. Reload guns and life:
(It will not work if you have already used the code above)
During the game, if you finish ammunitions, lives, or if you don’t find any key…
Go to the map screen, with the cursor, go to the upper – left side of the screen and press the buttons 1, 2, 1, 2 after each other:
Here is what will happen:
10. Bonus stage
Atlantis - The Last Resort official game guide for the Philips CD-i.
Produced by Philips Interactive Media and recompiled by The Black Moon Project.
All copyrights held by their respective owners.
In one-player mode button #1 is used to fire the weapon, and button #2 is used to toggle the weapons and the map or crab. The sideways movement of crabing is achieved by holding down button #2 and moving the controller from side to side. If button #2 is not held down then sideways movement of the controller rotates the player and up/down movement of the controller moves the player forward or backward. Diagonal movement of the controller moves forward/backward and turns at the same time.
If two controllers are connected to a player then one player moves around the maze, toggles the map with action button #1 and opens doors or crabs with button #2, and the other player fires weapons with button #1 and toggles weapons with button #2. The player who shoots can move the line of fire by moving the controller left or right. The gun can be used but calibration is not supported.
The map screen shows the areas of the play arena that the user has visited. There are buttons to PLAY (return to the game), RESET (restart the level), QUIT (return to the main menu), and EJECT (allows the users to swap the game CD for an audio CD).
7. Level Codes:
- 02-1 (Easy) BOIXUMK
- 02-1 (Hard) CKSTCBA
- 02-1 (Tricky) KONOOBO
- 03-1 (Easy) BXVNMBS
- 03-1 (Hard) CQIIXNC
- 03-1 (Tricky) KKPKCMH
- 04-1 (Easy) BWAGXDA
- 04-1 (Tricky) KWNDUVE
- 05-Bonus (Easy) BQLOABS
- 05-Bonus (Tricky) KUYTDBH
- 06-2 (Easy) BDCLGBA
- 06-2 (Tricky) KHMDRMC
- 07-2 (Easy) BHEDGDS
- 07-2 (Tricky) KLYVDBI
- 08-2 (Easy) BMCBUBG
- 09-2 (Easy) BRLAAJQ
- 10-Bonus (Easy) MTALIXE
- 11-3 (Easy) MBETZXS
- 12-3 (Easy) MWNOXHA
- 13-4 (Easy) MUPGAHA
- 14-4 (Easy) MDWORBI
- 15-4 (Easy) MLUIMAK
- 16-4 (Easy) MMWZIBO
- 17-Bonus (Easy) MZYLMBC
- 18-Bonus (Easy) QBMTXBU
8. Unlimited ammo, keys and lives:
In the game main page, with the cursor, go to the upper – left side of the screen and press 1, 2, 2, 1 buttons sequence.
Screen will change automaticly…
You just have to activate:
- Unlimited ammunitions.
- Unlimited keys.
- Unlimited lives.
- Choose levels.
9. Reload guns and life:
(It will not work if you have already used the code above)
During the game, if you finish ammunitions, lives, or if you don’t find any key…
Go to the map screen, with the cursor, go to the upper – left side of the screen and press the buttons 1, 2, 1, 2 after each other:
Here is what will happen:
- All keys will appear.
- Life will be at maximum.
- Your ammunitions will be at maximum.
10. Bonus stage
- Level 05 -> CHIDUNI
- Level 10 -> JFVTLDG
- Level 12 -> JDUFDBZ
- Level 17 -> YBNDIKG
Atlantis - The Last Resort official game guide for the Philips CD-i.
Produced by Philips Interactive Media and recompiled by The Black Moon Project.
All copyrights held by their respective owners.