The Power Key

Okay, here's a question for all the archaeologists and historians out there - does The Power Key, the mysterious artifact "that can control the Earth's pulse" from the old text adventure Indiana Jones and the Revenge of the Ancients have any basis in actual myths? Like from Maya, Aztec, Mazatec or any other ancient Mexican people's mythologies?

Well, I've found out that the Ancients of the title were the original people of Earth, who due to their unwillingness to submit to the gods were wiped out, possibly in the Great Flood.

Perhaps Lucas could use that storyline in the next Indiana Jones movie if it ever happens. I've never heard of that game "Indiana Jones and the Revenge of the Ancients" but it sure sounds interesting.

Is the book kind of like the Prince of Persia "It's Your Call" books?

This was an actual, proper computer adventure game a la Fate of Atlantis - before that genre got decent graphics and point-n-click gameplay, they were all text and imagination based. Revenge of the Ancients was the first Indiana Jones adventure game, and arguably the first original Indy story in gaming (The Lost Kingdom was the actual first, but that wasn't even really a story).

There's a remake in progress here, and I'm helping write the story, dialogue, puzzles etc.

As there's not much info on the original Olmec culture or the game's Mazatecs, I was mostly going to go with a combination of Mayan/Aztec legends (which the game did anyway) and have The Power Key be the key to controlling the Earth's elements. It was used by the gods to destroy the Ancients, the original people of the Earth, and was the cause of the Great Flood mentioned in so many creation tales - including the Bible.

The Nazis in the new game are not just after the devastating power of this Key, but they also wish to resurrect the Ancients - who they believe to be the original Aryan Master Race they themselves originated from.

The Tingler said:

This was an actual, proper computer adventure game a la Fate of Atlantis - before that genre got decent graphics and point-n-click gameplay, they were all text and imagination based. Revenge of the Ancients was the first Indiana Jones adventure game, and arguably the first original Indy story in gaming (The Lost Kingdom was the actual first, but that wasn't even really a story).

There's a remake in progress here, and I'm helping write the story, dialogue, puzzles etc.

As there's not much info on the original Olmec culture or the game's Mazatecs, I was mostly going to go with a combination of Mayan/Aztec legends (which the game did anyway) and have The Power Key be the key to controlling the Earth's elements. It was used by the gods to destroy the Ancients, the original people of the Earth, and was the cause of the Great Flood mentioned in so many creation tales - including the Bible.

The Nazis in the new game are not just after the devastating power of this Key, but they also wish to resurrect the Ancients - who they believe to be the original Aryan Master Race they themselves originated from.

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Okay, now that sounds like a great immersive experience. I'm going to go look up some information on the original game "Revenge of the Ancients". So was there ever a comic book adaption of Indiana Jones and the Revenge of the Ancients? I'm surprised that Lucas has not made more out of that because that's a great story line. To be quite frank, after reading your above post it seems as if Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull might have been an outgrowth of that Revenge of the Ancients because the film had a bit of a Mayan thing going with those ancient people chasing Indiana and company out of the Temple.

The Tingler said:

There's a remake in progress here, and I'm helping write the story, dialogue, puzzles etc.

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So how is the remake progressing? Do you have an idea on when it may be completed?

RedeemedChild said:

Okay, now that sounds like a great immersive experience. I'm going to go look up some information on the original game "Revenge of the Ancients". So was there ever a comic book adaption of Indiana Jones and the Revenge of the Ancients?

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The original game wasn't anywhere near as detailed as that with the story - it alluded to a lot of things rather than said them, and mentioned a lot of things that would've been really cool to get into, such as the Earth Goddess Coatlique:



Who wore a skirt of snakes, a necklace of human hearts, and had clawed hands and feet. The massive human sacrifices the Aztecs are infamous for were done to satisfy her. She is mentioned in the game, but it doesn't get into details.

In fact it's a very brief game really. If we stuck to making an exact duplicate of the game it wouldn't last very long. I'm hoping we can expand it somewhat, most significantly with the story.

As for the comic, there was a Marvel comic called Revenge of the Ancients that may be in one of the Omnibuses, but I think it has little or nothing to do with the game.

So how is the remake progressing? Do you have an idea on when it may be completed?

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Actually really well. No idea when it will be out (should be this year barring catastrophe), but I suspect far more quickly than a lot of the more ambitious Indy fangames out there, like the amazing-looking Fountain of Youth.

How can so little be known about the Mazatecs when they still exist? There's next to nothing about them on Wikipedia and half of it is lacking citations. I assumed for the longest time that they were a hokey fictional combination of "Maya" and "Aztec".
And, just throwing this out there, my interpretation of the Key "controlling the Earth's pulse" was that it caused earthquakes, and that that's what Plebinheim was trying to do to all those cities at the end.

Johnny Jones said:

How can so little be known about the Mazatecs when they still exist? There's next to nothing about them on Wikipedia and half of it is lacking citations. I assumed for the longest time that they were a hokey fictional combination of "Maya" and "Aztec".
And, just throwing this out there, my interpretation of the Key "controlling the Earth's pulse" was that it caused earthquakes, and that that's what Plebinheim was trying to do to all those cities at the end.

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Yes, to both, that's a good idea.