- Treasure Quest
Infobox VG
title = Treasure Quest
developer =Sirius Entertainment Inc.
publisher =Sirius Publishing Inc.
designer =
engine =
released =April 10 ,1996
genre =Computer puzzle game
modes =
ratings =
platforms =Windows 95
media =
requirements =
input =Treasure Quest was a puzzle game created by Soggy in Seattle Productions and sold to Sirius Entertainment. It was released
April 10 ,1996 .In the CD-ROM scavenger hunt game "Treasure Quest", the player moves from room to room in the mansion of Professor Jonathon William Faulkner, who has bequeathed $1 million dollars to any student who can solve the puzzles he has laid out. To move from one room to the next, players must find a famous quote from visual clues, words and
anagram s, and then derive an ultimate solution to the game.Throughout the game, the player is guided by the professor's long-dead love, played by Terry Farrell, who was brought in to the project by
Star Trek /Star Wars authorDaryl F. Mallett , who worked at the company at the time.Much of the game's popularity stemmed from the developer's openness about, and players' willingness to share clues and room quotes, so long as the final solution was kept confidential.
The soundtrack featured 11 songs by
Jody Marie Gnant (daughter of Sirius Publishing's CEO,Richard A. Gnant [http://www.thecomputershow.com/computershow/reviews/treasurequest.htm] [http://www.multimedia.cx/mmentry-2003-02-16.html] ) some of which supposedly contained clues.The professor's lost love
A beautiful woman and a brilliant cryptographer, her work with the government and various unnamed agencies led her to a life of solitude. She risked her life to be with the professor, and ultimately lost it. She was found dead on the side of the road,
poison ed by a mysterious serum.Room quotes
*Den: Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?
*Bedroom: Beauty is truth, truth Beauty -- that is all ye Know on Earth and allye need to know.
*Library: Knowledge comes but wisdom lingers.
*Attic: I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor tohate them, but to understand them.
*Dining Room: A man gazing on the stars is proverbially at the mercy of thepuddles in the road.
*Kitchen: I demand that my books be judged with utmost severity, by knowledgeablepeople who know the rules of grammar and logic, and who will seek beneath thefootsteps of my commas, the lice of my thought in the head of my style.
*Cellar: If you built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that iswhere they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
*Game Room: One more such victory and we are lost.
*Garden: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.
*Living Room: Language is the mark, the sign, not of his fall, but of hisoriginal innocence. Through the Word we may regain the lost kingdom and recoverpowers we possessed in the far-distant past.Million dollar prize
In a unique marketing ploy,
Sirius Publishing , Inc. offered a $1,000,000 prize to the first eligible player who could solve the mystery of "Treasure Quest" and submit an explanation of the solution to the complete satisfaction of a panel of judges. The contest would end on 12/31/99 if no winner was determined.Ultimate solution
The ultimate solution, as given by the developer
Cerise Casper (nowCerise Vablais ) to Sirius Publishing, was "The Tree of Life", referring to both wisdom and the love of the professor's lost fiancee Rose. It references both theKabbalah and Proverbs 3:18, "She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her." The rooms and corridors in the game were connected together like those in the Kabbalah's diagram.Controversy
The "outcome" of this game is steeped in controversy.
A male player submitted the "Tree of Life" solution with the 10 room quotes on May 29, 1998. This male player was a schoolteacher and a student of esoteric teachings. He immediately recognized that the design of the 10-room mansion with the 22 connections between the rooms was the same identical design that he had seen in books on the Hebrew
Kabbalah with the 10 Sephira and 22 paths (also 22 letters of theHebrew alphabet ). It was afterwards admitted by the producer of the game that this quester was indeed the first to submit the correct solution; however, the player was disqualified on the technicality that he did not put the required registration number in the upper right hand corner of the submission (as required by the rules of the game). Fact|date=February 2007Shortly afterwards,
Sirius Publishing released a statement that the $1 million prize was won. They posted the solution to the game on their website. A person by the name of P. Dreizen of San Francisco, California, won the game and the cash prize in May 1998. It was speculated that the person "P. Dreizen" is actually ananagram of "End Prize." Many of the people that collaborated online wonder why the person never showed up to discussions or participated in thechat room s. They believed a game of such complexity couldn't be solved alone. [http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/treasure-quest/trivia]Others questioned the validity of the final solution, stating that the amount of typos, missing words and misquotes in the game made it impossible to beat. In July of
1999 , the case was settled for an undisclosed amount. Fact|date=February 2007Computer Requirements
Minimum: 486 DX, 33 MHz, 8 MB RAM, VESA or PCI local bus SVGA graphics card, 2X CD-ROM drive, mouse, SoundBlaster-compatible sound card, 10 MB hard disk space, Microsoft Windows 3.1 or 95.
External links
* [http://www.angus.demon.co.uk/tq/altq.htm A complete walkthrough of the game.]
Bibliography
*Dembo, Arinn. "Treasure Quest," in "Computer Gaming World" 146 (Sept 1996): 164-167.
*Giovetti, Al. [http://www.thecomputershow.com/computershow/reviews/treasurequest.htm Treasure Quest] at thecomputershow.com
*House, Michael L. [http://www.allgame.com/cg/agg.dll?p=agg&sql=1:6181 Treasure Quest] at allgame.com
*Melanson, Mike. [http://www.multimedia.cx/mmentry-2003-02-16.html 20. Treasure Quest] at "Multimedia Exploration Journal" (16 Feb 2003).
*Miller, Chuck. [http://www.cnet.com/gamecenter/reviews/treasure Treasure Quest] at cnet.com
*Panther, C. "Treasure Quest," in "Computer Gaming World" 144 (Jul 1996): .
*Phil, Thé. "Treasure Quest," in "Computer Games Strategy Plus" 70 (Sept 1996): 108.
*Poole, Stephen. [http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/treasurequest/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;review Treasure Quest] at GameSpot.com (14 Jun 1996).
*Sauer, John. "Treasure Quest," in "PC Games" (Jul 1996): 56.
*Slugansky, Randy. [http://www.justadventure.com/articles/Turkeys/Turkeys.shtm "The 10 Biggest Turkeys of All Time,"] at JustAdventure.com
*Verity, John W. [http://www.businessweek.com/1996/11/b3466105.htm "A $1 Million Chase by CD-ROM,"] in "Business Week" (11 Mar 1996).
*Vérroneau, Michael. [http://www.bbc.org/newsletter/aug96nl/treasure.html "Treasure Quest"] at "Big Blue & Cousins: The Newsletter of the Greater Victoria PC Users' Association - Web Edition" 13:7 (Aug 1996).
*Young, Rosemary. [http://www.quandaryland.com/jsp/dispArticle.jsp?index=135 Treasure Quest] at QuandaryLand.com (Jul 1996).
* [http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/treasure-quest Treasure Quest] at MobyGames.comAwards
1996 Invision Gold Award for Best Strategy/Puzzle Game Title, given by "New Media Magazine" [http://www.cdaccess.com/html/pc/newmedia.htm]
Tracking
UPC: 756521776725
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