LucasArts‘ classic point-and-click adventure, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, was released for the FM Towns by Victor Musical Industries in 1993, and although it was a Japan-only release it does include the English language version, which makes it perfectly playable to Westerners.

You of course play as Indy, who – alongside his female friend Sophia Hapgood – is trying to stop the Nazis from harnessing the secret power of the hidden city of Atlantis on the eve of the Second World War.

Using a mouse and keyboard, the aim is to point-and-click your way through various puzzles in order to travel around the world and unravel the mystery of Atlantis. Left-clicking on a location will make Indy walk there, and left-clicking on a object will make Indy look at and describe it. Doing things is based on a Verb Chart, which is broken down into nine actions located in the bottom left of the screen. To the right of the Verb Chart are ten spaces where items are shown when in Indy’s possession (ie. it’s an inventory). Above the Verb Chart and inventory is a text description of objects the mouse is hovering over, and of actions being performed. Everything in the bottom third of the screen forms the basis of the SCUMM user interface, pioneered by LucasArts (aka Lucasfilm Games) in the late 80s and early 90s, and used in classic adventures like Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken, The Secret of Monkey Island, LeChuck’s Revenge, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road, and The Dig.

When the game begins to open up, Indy can choose where to travel to next, which you decide by clicking on locations on a classic Indiana Jones-style map and watching a line draw your movement from place to place.

Parts of the game change every time you play, so some note-taking and experimentation is required, but that’s okay because that’s what point-and-click adventures are all about.

Fate of Atlantis also features fist-fighting action sequences that you can sometimes avoid by taking a slightly different path through the game. In fact, the game has three different paths that you can follow after you find The Lost Dialogue of Plato. There’s the ‘team’ path, where you work with Sophia to solve puzzles; the ‘wits’ path, where Indy adventures on his own, and the ‘action’ path, where Indy’s fists are the preferred way of solving problems. Since these paths have their own unique locations and puzzles this gives the game some significant re-playability.

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a lengthy, complex and demanding game, but it’s also beautifully presented, with superb backdrops, brilliant animation, full voice acting and very nice close-ups and cut-aways (which add real detail to the story). The game is also exceptionally well-written and very funny in places.

Overall, this is a great port of an iconic point-and-click adventure from LucasArts. Maybe even better than the MS-DOS original. It’s still well worth playing today, although if it’s your first point-and-click adventure experience you might want to have a walkthrough on hand to help if you get stuck.

More: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis on Wikipedia
Steam: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis on Steam
GOG.com: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis on GOG.com