Konamitober- The A-mazing Tutankham!

Hey Arcaders!

Konami’s next title would flip the maze game on it’s head! We’re talking about the awesome exploration game, Tutankham!

Taking on the role of an explorer exploring 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.

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I have so many memories of this game in the arcade! And the cabinet is such a looker!

Let’s look at some gameplay- and how deceptively hard, yet really fun it is!

Before we get to the ports- Let’s look at the Atari 2600 commercial from Parker Brothers!

Here come the ports- it was released on all major systems at the time.

I have so many fond memories of playing Tutankham on my Atari 800 as a young adult.

This game proved so popular on the Atari 8 bit computer, there were a few homebrew ports- King Tut’s Tomb, Lord of the Orb, Dungeonlords, and Zone X. check these out!