Challenge of the Ancient Empires!

Challenge of the Ancient Empires!
Box cover art
Developer(s)	The Learning Company[1]
Publisher(s)	The Learning Company[1]
Platform(s)	DOS, Macintosh
Release date(s)	1990[1]
Genre(s)	Educational/Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: E (Everyone)

Challenge of the Ancient Empires!, also known as "Super Solvers: Ancient Empires!"^[2] is an educational computer game created by The Learning Company in 1990 for both DOS and Macintosh PCs.^[3] It is designed to improve history, logic, and problem solving skills in children ages 7 to 10.^[4]

Challenge of the Ancient Empires! is an adventure game whose objective is to obtain the artifacts hidden in each of the 4 regions. To do this, the player must navigate through cavern chambers, dodging enemies and obstacles, recovering pieces of artifacts and put them together in a tiling puzzle in order to advance to the next level.

Gameplay

The objective of Challenge of the Ancient Empires! is to collect the hidden treasures from caverns in 4 different regions of the world: Greece and Rome, Egypt, India and China, and the Near East. Each of these caverns consists of four chambers. The decorations and artifacts in each of these chambers correlates to the region being explored.^[5] For example, the Egyptian cavern features decorations of heiroglyphs and mummies and will contain artifacts like the sphinx or the Rosetta Stone. Additionally, each cavern has a different style of puzzle.

Screenshot from Challenge of the Ancient Empires!.

For example, the Near East section implements switches that move panels blocking the way, while the Egyptian section consists mainly of triangular reflectors that the player must orient correctly to direct a light beam to trigger a switch. Upon successfully navigating a chamber's puzzle and collecting six pieces of the artifact, the player must then solve a puzzle by orienting and placing rectangular puzzle pieces in the proper configuration to reveal a picture of the artifact. Afterwards, he must find the exit door and solve a logic puzzle to advance to the next chamber.^[6] The four main caverns associated with the four regions of the world may be played in any order. Once the player completes all four chambers in each of the four caverns, a new cavern opens. This cavern is referred to as the "Ancient World" and is composed of four new chambers. Each chamber is in the style of one of the four cultures from the previous caverns. The Ancient World cavern is more difficult than the others and consists of a combination of all the puzzles in the main caverns.^[7]

The player has three items to help him navigate through each cavern's puzzles. The player is given a miner's hat, a pair of special shoes, called "turbo tennies", that allow the player to jump higher, and 4 force fields that will protect the player from all damage for a few seconds. The miner's hat shines a beam of light used to flip switches or temporarily stun any cave animals that can cause the player damage. The Egyptian cavern has several challenges that involve rotating prisms and mirrors to deflect the light beam to a specific sensor. The jumping boots, called "turbo tennies", allow the player to jump much higher than a normal. A force field will prevent all damage for a few seconds when used, but the player is only given four of them per level.^[5][6]

A display at the bottom of the screen show the player's current collected artifact pieces, chosen tool, current cavern and chamber, and remaining energy. The energy bar functions as life bar and has four segments. If the player comes into contact with a cave animal or a projectile, one segment is depleted. If all four segments are lost, the player must begin the chamber over again. Health can be restored either by picking up food in the caverns or by correctly solving a logic puzzle at the end of a chamber on the first attempt.^[6]

The game provides two distinct difficulty levels: Explorer and Expert. The chambers of the four main caverns are similar in puzzle style, but differ in layout, number and speed of the enemies, availability of health power-ups.^[7] Additionally, at the end of each chamber, the Expert difficulty contains more difficult logic puzzles and an entirely different set of artifacts, whose pieces are not necessarily oriented the correct way at the beginning of the tile puzzle.

Development

Super Solvers series

Challenge of the Ancient Empires! is a part of the Super Solvers series, a series of computer games released by The Learning Company that contain both educational and entertainment qualities. Challenge of the Ancient Empires! was one of the first programs of the series to be released. Other programs in this series include OutNumbered!, Spellbound!, and Gizmos and Gadgets! among others.^[8]

Music

In lieu of an original score, the background music consists of arrangements of pieces by a number of famous composers including Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Erik Satie.

• Map Screen: Satie's Gnossienne #1
• Greece and Rome: A theme from the fourth movement of Brahms' Symphony No. 1
• Egypt: Tchaikovsky's Slavonic March
• Near East: Satie's Gnossienne #3^[7]

Reception

Reception
Review scores
Publication	Score
Abandonia	4.0 out of 5[1]
MobyGames	3.7 out of 5[5]
Viewpoints	[7]
C:DOS	7.7 out of 10[9]
Awards Entity Award Home of the Underdogs Top Dog Award[4]

The Challenge of Ancient Empires! has received excellent reviews. Users at MobyGames gave the game an average rating of 3.7 out of 5, calling it a game that "combines adventure and puzzle and is suitable for kids and adults alike."^[10] At Abandonia, the game is given a rating of 4.0 out of 5 due to pleasing graphics, music and sound, and simple controls^[1] A review on Viewpoints gives the game a 4.0 out of 5 because the game was "designed for entertainment value with the educational value tacked on."^[7] The reviewer for C:Dos Abandonware highly recommended the game, giving it 3 out of 5 stars for the good animation, mood setting atmosphere, and for generally serving the purpose it was intended for.^[9]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Super Solvers - Challenge of the Ancient Empires!". Abandonia. http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/419/Super+Solvers+-+Challenge+of+the+Ancient+Empires!.html. Retrieved 2011-05-18. 
2. ^ "Challenge of the Ancient Empires". DOS Gamer. http://dosgamer.com/challenge-of-the-ancient-empires/. Retrieved 2011-05-18. 
3. ^ "Marilyn Churchill". Digit Press. http://www.digitpress.com/library/interviews/interview_marilyn_churchill.html. Retrieved 2011-05-18. 
4. ^ ^{a b} "Super Solvers: Ancient Empires". Home of the Underdogs. http://homeoftheunderdogs.net/game.php?id=1096. Retrieved 2011-05-19. 
5. ^ ^{a b c} "Super Solvers: Challenge of the Ancient Empires". MobyGames. http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/super-solvers-challenge-of-the-ancient-empires. Retrieved 2011-05-19. 
6. ^ ^{a b c} Eiser, Leslie (1991). "Challenge of the Ancient Empires.". Compute! (126): 44. http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue126/44_Challenge_of_the_Anc.php. Retrieved 2011-05-19. 
7. ^ ^{a b c d e} Kwing (2011-01-19). "PC - Super Solvers: Challenge of the Ancient Empires Reviews". Viewpoints. http://www.viewpoints.com/PC-Super-Solvers-Challenge-of-the-Ancient-Empires-review-7d6c11. Retrieved 2011-05-19. 
8. ^ Chris Martin and others. "Super Solvers series". MobyGames. http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/super-solvers-series. Retrieved 2011-03-28. 
9. ^ ^{a b} niklas. "Challenge of the Ancient Empires". C:DOS Abandonware. http://www.cdosabandonware.com/std_games_details.php?gameid=1772. Retrieved 2011-05-19. 
10. ^ NeonFire (2009-02-05). "Super Solvers: Challenge of the Ancient Empires". MobyGames. http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/super-solvers-challenge-of-the-ancient-empires/reviews/reviewerId,108325/. Retrieved 2011-05-19. 

External links

• The Challenge of the Ancient Empires! at MobyGames
• The Challenge of the Ancient Empires! at Abandonia
• The Challenge of the Ancient Empires! at Home of the Underdogs
• The Learning Company Official Website