Aquaventure

Name:	Aquaventure
Company:	Atari
Model #:	Unknown
Programmer:	Gary Shannon (Programmer) & Tod Frye (Kernel)
Year:	1983
Released?	No
Notes:	Never mentioned on any internal Atari documents

Aquaventure is a bit of a mystery in the prototype world.  It was never mentioned in any Atari press releases or memos, nor does it show up on any internal part lists.  Aquaventure first surfaced at a video game collector gathering in the late 90's where the owner said he had found it in a flea market down in Florida.  For many years it was not known the programmer was until Gary Shannon (of Miss Piggy's Wedding and Mind Race fame) was found to be responsible for most of the game and Tod Frye may been responsible for the kernel.

The game concept is simple; you must dive to the bottom of an undersea cavern, retrieve a fabulous treasure (which just happens to look like a small house of some sort), return to the first screen and touch the mermaid before your air supply runs out.  Along the way you must avoid fish, sea horses, and other underwater creatures attempting to block your path.  You must also avoid touching the jagged walls as they will kill your diver if you're not careful.

In order to make your journey a bit easier, you can use your spear gun which he can use to temporarily kill one of the creatures (these are worth 500 points each).  However, each enemy you kill is soon replaced by a faster and more erratic moving version, so you need to carefully carve a path to the bottom only destroying the creatures that get in your way.  Killing too many enemies on the way down will result in a tough trip coming back up.

Each time you successfully return to the mermaid the depth of the cavern will increase by one screen (up to a maximum of five) and new enemies will appear in the new sections but all these enemies act the same.  Eventually the cavern will return to only being ttwo screens, but the enemies will start to move faster and seem to follow the diver more closer.  This cycle keeps repeating as the game gets faster and faster.  Interestingly new enemies will continue to appear long after the game has become almost too fast to play without using emulator save states. 

The graphics for Aquaventure are fairly well done.  They're bright and colorful, and there are several different types of enemies to add bit of variety to the game.   The water in the cavern will also change color the deeper you go, giving the player a sense of diving deeper and deeper under the water.  At the top of the screen there is a cute turtle, which shows how much air you have left.  If the turtle reaches the Air sign at the far end of the screen before you complete the level you lose a life.

Aquaventure's main problem lies in its repetitive gameplay.  Each new level looks the same as the previous one, only with slightly different colors, faster fish, faster gameplay, and less time (air) to accomplish your goal.  But even with these new twists, there just isn't enough to keep the average person interested for very long.  After you've played the game once you've seen pretty much all it has to offer, there needs to be another gameplay element to keep the game fresh.

So why wasn't Aquaventure released?  No one seems to know.  Programmer Gary Shannon said it was complete and ready to be released:

“I do remember quite clearly completing the coding and testing of the game, and moving on to a new project (Mind Race).  The last official word was that it was going to be released. I was paid a "completion bonus" against future royalties."

Aquaventure could have been caught up in the 'game freeze' that new Atari CEO Jim Morgan imposed in September 1983.  Jim froze all game development and releases until he could review them and decide which were strong enough for release.  Perhaps Aquaventure didn't make the cut?  We may never know.

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