This is the story of five valuable items: The Talisman, The Chalice, The Crown, The Philosopher's Stone and The Sword. Each jewel encrusted object was made of gold and could only be earned by going on a quest to be the best. And they all really existed.

In 1982, Atari kicked off the video game contest to end all contests, and it has never been topped. To promote a quartet of sequels to Adventure, the publisher created a contest for each game.

The prize for the Earthworld contest was The Talisman, an 18k gold amulet studded with a dozen diamonds and the birthstones of the twelve Zodiac signs and then topped with a small sword made of white gold.

The prize for the Fireworld contest was The Chalice, a cup of platinum and gold, adorned with rubies, sapphires, diamonds, pearls, citrines and green jade.

The prize for the Waterworld contest was a gold Crown encrusted with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, green tourmalines and aquamarines.

The prize for the Airword contest was The Philosopher's Stone, a piece of white jade in an 18K gold box studded with emeralds, rubies, diamonds and citrines.

Each of the prized were worth $25,000 and the winners of each were to compete for the grand prize, a jewel-encrusted sword worth $50,000.

Atari HQ has a fascinating write up about this bit of amazing game lore, which includes an interview with the winner of The Chalice and the details about what happened to the prizes that were never awarded.

Man, they sure as heck don't make game prizes like that anymore.

Swordquest Interview with Michael Rideout [Atari HQ, thanks Joel]

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