Tutankham
Tutankham is a 1982 arcade action-adventure game developed and released by Konami, and released by Stern in North America. Named after the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, the game combines maze, shoot 'em up, puzzle-solving and adventure game elements. It debuted at the European ATE and IMA amusement shows in January 1982, before releasing worldwide in Summer 1982. The game was a critical and commercial success, and was ported to various home systems by Parker Brothers.
Armed with a laser weapon that only fires horizontally, the player loots the maze-like Egyptian tomb of Tutankhamun while finding keys to locked chambers and fighting off creatures. Tutankham is one of six games in a group photograph published in the January 1983 issue LIFE along with the record holder for each. The Tutankham champion in the photo is Mark Robichek of Mountain View, California.
Taking on the role of an explorer grave robbing the maze-like tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, the player is chased by asps, vultures, parrots, bats, dragons, and curses, all of which kill the explorer on contact. The explorer wields a laser weapon that only fires left and right—there is no vertical offense—as well as a single screen-clearing 'flash bomb' per level or life. Warp zones teleport the player to another location in the level, which enemies cannot use.
To progress, the player collects keys to open locked doors throughout each level and well as optional treasures for bonus points. The player can only carry one key at a time, so the game requires backtracking through an area in order to acquire a second key. When a timer reaches zero the explorer can no longer shoot. Passing through the large exit door ends the level, and any remaining time is converted to bonus points.
Extra life is given at 30,000, and none more thereafter. The hero dies upon touching any enemy or spark. Play continues to the last hero dead, which ends the game.
Tutankham was ported to home systems by Parker Brothers, who advertised the game extensively in North America, where it released in June 1983. It was ported to the Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Intellivision, VIC-20, PV-1000, and PC-6001. Versions for the Odyssey², TI-99/4A, and Atari 8-bit family were in development by Parker Brothers in 1983, but not published.
Two tabletop versions of Tutankham were released: an LCD game in Japan and Europe from Bandai resembling an cocktail arcade cabinet, and a larger VFD game from Bandai in Japan and Konami in North America.
How to play:
Click on the joystick icon in the Tutankham online emulator to see how to control the Tutankham game
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