Gordian Tomb

Published on Golden Disk 64 09/90

Gordian Tomb is a flick-screen action adventure game inspired by Utopia Software's Montezuma's Revenge (1984). You are an explorer/archaeologist who is looking for a legendary treasure chamber inside a massive pyramid.

The titular Gordian Tomb probably refers to the burial ground that was found in the ruins of Gordium, the capital city of ancient Phrygia (located in today's Turkey). The tomb is a so-called tumulus, a large mound made out of earth and stone that's built on top of a grave. From outside it looks very much like a pyramid, though it is round in shape, like a cone. It is also known as the Tomb of Midas, even though the person buried in there is assumed to be Midas' father, Gordias, who founded Gordium. Midas is best known for the myth connected to him that anything he touched turned into gold.

While the game is still loading, this screen appears and some ominous music starts playing. You might recognize Markus Schneider's name from previous games I looked at where he composed the music. This was a rare case where he was responsible for the game's code.
Michael Detert created the outstanding graphics while his brother, Thomas Detert, blew everything out of the water by composing a single piece of music that goes on for 32 minutes. I think this must be a record for commercial games released on the C64. The only other lengthy game tunes I can remember are Wally Beben's Tetris soundtrack (26 minutes) and Rob Hubbard's psychedelic Knucklebusters tune (17 minutes).

Before we dive into the actual game, I need to mention that I have a large amount of nostalgia for this title. Gordian Tomb has probably stayed in my mind more than any other game that ever appeared on a German diskmag. I vividly remember the day in early summer 1990 when I started playing the game. School was out, and instead of staying outside the whole day, I shut out the sun in my room and fired up Gordian Tomb. It didn't take long for the ancient pyramid setting, the beautifully pixelled graphics, and the awesome soundtrack to completely captivate me.

It still looks very pretty, doesn't it?

After loading has finished, the game's "attract mode" comes up, showing several of the pyramid's locations. It also previews all the items you have to pick up in the game in order to finish it. Gordian Tomb is an action adventure taking place in a set of 51 rooms that can be explored in a semi-linear fashion. Some rooms can only be accessed if you have the right items in you possession, so there is a preset path through the game.

Let's press fire and get this doubtlessly very accurate depiction of archaeology started!

Our nameless hatted hero nonchalantly enters the scene, blinking wildly with excitement. Actually, that's just his initial invulnerability, even though this is the game's safest room with no hazards in sight.

You may have noticed the army of men pictured below the inventory. Gordian Tomb is generous enough to provide you with eight lives. However, if you now expect the game to be a breeze to play through, then you forget that this is still a C64 title.

As soon as I start moving, the invulnerability wears off. There is only one way to continue, and that's into the pyramid/mound. I tried going to the left, but the guy just walked into an invisible wall. I hope for his sake that he did enough research to know for certain which tomb to enter. I mean, there is another one not too far in the background. You wouldn't want to end up in a burial chamber that's just full of broken pots and nothing much else.

SPRITE OVERLAYING The guy's sprite consists of two sprites that are placed on top of each other. One is set to multicolor, and the other acts as the black outline in single color (and thus in higher resolution). This is a common trick used to give a sprite more definition. Sometimes the single color sprite is put on top in order to hide the blockiness of the multicolor sprite. In Gordian Tomb's case, the black single color is put behind. This lends the explorer's silhouette more detail and volume. Additionally, it makes him stand out better against lighter backgrounds. I already looked at a game whose protagonist consisted of two overlaid sprites, Maze-Man, but that one didn't make much use of the technique's benefits at all.

The entrance to the tomb is guarded by two giant spiders that tirelessly patrol back and forth. There's also a spike trap and a dark chasm that require being leaped over. The jumping is thankfully mapped to the joystick button, and the fearless archaeologist can still be controlled while he's in the air. This is very much necessary, as the game demands a heavy dose of precise jumping.

I probably made this sequence look easier than it is. I distinctly remember losing all my lives the first time I tried getting past this screen. I mostly had trouble with the timing, as the spiders cover different distances, and thus their movement patterns don't sync up. Some of Gordian Tomb's hardest parts are timing-related.

Speaking of time, there is a clock at the top of the screen that's constantly ticking down. You must finish the game within 32 minutes, or you'll automatically get a Game Over, regardless of your remaining lives. 32 minutes also happens to be the duration of the in-game tune. This means, when the music stops, you die as if you were participating in a madman's version of musical chairs. There is no given reason why there is a hard time limit. I supposed it's a curse that was laid upon the explorer right before he approached the mound. At least that'd explain why he can still die even if he stays outside the tomb for the entire duration.

Below the clock is a text box that sometimes contains information or hints related to the current room. SILENCE ... is the standard phrase that's displayed in most locations.

The next room is noticeably less lethal. It still features a spider, but this specimen is not quite as giant, and it is polite enough to move out of the player's way periodically. Don't be deceived by the cute green bird flying up and down, though. Touching it means instant death. The feathered menace is the only enemy type that patrols across several rooms. The game keeps track of its position, even if it's not on screen, which means you'll eventually see it return to this location.

This room also represents the first fork in the player's path. I can either move further to the right or climb the ladder to get into the chamber directly above.

Quit harshing on my mellow, game!

The upper room contains an important item, the pickaxe. However, if I try to take it with me, I get a somewhat perplexing LATER DUDE! in response. This is one of the game's weaker parts: Initially, Gordian Tomb expects the player to pick up items in a certain order, and it doesn't provide any explanations as to why the explorer doesn't just take items as he comes across them. There actually is a reason, but it only becomes apparent later on.

Even though the ladder extends to the ceiling, there is no other way out of this room than back down. Sooner or later I'll have to return here and get the pickaxe, once the game deems me worthy to carry such a hallowed instrument.

After walking a couple of screens to the right, I come eye to eye with the hypnotic gaze of a poisonous snake. It doesn't attack, though. It just sits there, bobbing its head angrily at me. Oh look, there's that bird again, and it's heading right my w - HEY!

I sacrificed one of my explorer dudes to show off the very marioesque death animation. The protagonist hurls himself off the screen, distress written plainly on his face, and in his final death throes, he seemingly acknowledges that he's not just traveling on a two-dimensional plane.

Losing a life resets the archaeologist to the spot where he initially entered the room. Luckily, a new life also grants invulnerability (as long as the player doesn't move), which was very useful in my situation, as otherwise, I'd have experienced another head-on collision with the bird right away.

The following room comes with its own heat source. Even though the flames are lapping violently against the pit that contains them, they apparently do so in complete SILENCE. Naturally, the fire is deadly to the slightest touch. Thus, if I dare to put my feet too close to the edge here, I can wave my explorer dude goodbye. With a bit of practice, timing the jump correctly isn't too hard, though.

Here's the second reason why I wasted a life earlier: If I reach this room before the time limit goes below 31 minutes, I can collect an extra life in the shape of a shiny golden coin. I've always loved the animation of that metal disc. Again, very marioesque. I'll keep on using that term until Blogger's spell checker accepts it as a valid English word.

I had to replay the game up to this point, as I had previously dawdled too much to get here in time for the coin to still be present. There are more coins to be found in the game, but I don't know when and where they spawn. I'm usually not fast enough to see a lot of them

The text box also drops its first room-specific hint here, and it's not especially subtle about it. I'm not complaining, though, as there is absolutely no visual clue otherwise that this location needs a ladder.

The path continues further to the right, and a new obstacle presents itself: Moving platforms are usually the bane of my existence, and that holds true for Gordian Tomb as well. This first appearance isn't overly taxing on the player's reflexes and timing, but some of the later rooms with mobile floors will suck up explorer lives like a black hole.

If up until now you didn't think there was anything particularly freaky going on in this tomb, you may want to revise your opinion once you get to this chamber. I have my doubts that huge, jumping skulls with flashing eye sockets are part of your usual tomb inventory.

This is the rightmost room of the game, thus I couldn't continue any further and had to take the ladder instead. The bird also saw fit to join the bouncing party halfway through and almost flew in my face, which is something it likes to do on a frequent basis.

This is one of the few rooms where the pyramid's outer walls can be seen. I always find it neat when a game hints at the existence of an outside world beyond the immediate playfield, which lends it a more cohesive sense of place.

On the other hand, I don't like how many of the ladders in Gordian Tomb look like they provide exits both at the top and at the bottom when they actually don't. This one, for example, only leads down but not up.

One screen to the left, two pits wait to be jumped over while a spider moves back and forth between them. One weird thing about pits is that they all act the same collision-wise, regardless if they're filled with raging hellfire or just with darkness. This means the explorer already dies when he gets too close to a pit's edge, without him having to actually fall into it. This makes jumping over chasms a bit finicky and a frequent cause of annoying deaths.

The reward for my jumping skills is a ladder that can be picked up. Though I can't imagine that a piece this short can be of any real use.

Are there stacks of coins in the background? If so, why doesn't the explorer show any interest in them? He already passed by a couple of coin piles in the previous screen. Maybe that's chump change compared to what awaits in the tomb's treasure chamber.

May I also call the size of that skeleton to your attention? Compared to the player sprite this must have been quite the giant. Either that, or our explorer is on the small side. Considering how frequently I've come across stuff that seemed oversized, I'm starting to think that the amateur archaeologist is a little kid who wandered into the tomb out of curiosity. That'd also explain why he started this tomb raiding romp totally unprepared.

Now that I have the ladder, I can retrace my steps back to the room that hinted at the necessity of such an item.

Whoa. As soon as I enter the room in question, the ladder is already in place and becomes considerably longer than it looks in the inventory. Maybe it's one of those extendable models.

Again, it's not evident which way the ladder leads until I get on it and try both directions. Turns out it only connects to the room below.

Despite his terminal fear of dark chasms, the explorer dude doesn't mind jumping off a ladder and falling down several times his height. It's also easier for me to get off ladders this way than at ground level because I usually climb down a bit too far and accidentally end up in the room below.

A stack of boulders prevents me from getting past this room. The game wants me to USE A TOOL! and, you've probably guessed it already, it's referring to the pickaxe which it didn't want me to pick up earlier. Aha, you might proclaim at this point, Gordian Tomb is one of those games where the protagonist doesn't pick up items until he sees a concrete use for them. Except, that's not the case here because if I now return to the room with the pickaxe I can still not take it with me.

Instead, I have to go back to the room with the two snakes and take a detour to get another item first:

Feast your eyes on the Holy Sack of Holding! For all I know, it's just a regular burlap sack, but it allows the explorer to carry more than one item at a time. That's why he refused to pick up anything until now. Well, except for the ladder, which is actually required to get to the sack.

I started another game and tried to pick up the sack first, but I needed the ladder to get to the room below this one. Let's just ignore that the missing piece in the ladder shouldn't prevent me from climbing down.

Allow me to put on my game design spectacles for a moment and propose a better solution how to handle the initial inventory restriction: Before the explorer finds the sack, he can only pick up one item at a time. This could be easily communicated by only displaying one inventory slot. If the explorer comes across another item, he takes it and drops the one he's carrying instead. Once the explorer finds the sack, all eight inventory slots open up, and items can be picked up without constraint.

Wait, that coin wasn't there when I passed through this room previously. It must've spawned in the meantime. Since eight lives are the game's upper limit and there is no score, I'm only picking it up for compulsory reasons.

If you are wondering about the meaning of the sign in the background, SACKGASSE! is German for dead end. It literally means "sack alley", which plays on the fact that at the end of this path an actual sack can be found. Well done, whoever came up with this pun.

With my inventory capacity greatly expanded, I can go back to fetch the pickaxe and then return to the room with the boulders that have so far impeded my progress.

The numbers 1 to 8 on the keyboard correspond to the inventory slots. In order to make the pickaxe my active item, I need to press '1', and it is automatically used on the boulders. I don't even need to stand next to them, they just vanish on their own when I present my fearsome tool.

The room in the back contains a lamp that's being guarded by three skulls. I suppose the lamp wasn't part of the original tomb but belonged to a previous explorer who met his untimely end in here. Well, it's mine now!

Further down the repaired ladder and to the left I come across more unfortunate souls who had to stay within these walls permanently. I'm not certain why people were chained up in this burial ground. Maybe they were the architects of the tomb, and their inherent knowledge of the place made their being alive a perceived security risk.

Oh, hey! Here's another coin in case you're running low on lives. Since the coins' appearances are timed, I get the feeling that the players who need them the most won't reach them in time.

The next item to pick up is an abandoned miner's helmet. While it still works as protective gear, its built-in headlight has run out of juice. Which is good, otherwise my extensive journey to get the lamp would've been rendered pointless.

A brief sequence of nerve-wracking platforming later, I find myself in complete DARKNESS ..., which can only mean it's time to activate my lamp.

The room below looks like a proper treasure chamber, with gold and jewels in the background, but our explorer has only eyes for the big shiny key hovering above the rock to the right.

Now that I've collected everything I need from the basement, I have to make my way back once more to the room with the two snakes...

... and lose a life to a sudden bird appearance. I wasn't kidding about that parrot's tendency to fly right into my face.

Luckily, on my way further up the pyramid, I happen to come across another coin. It's not that losing a single life is much of an issue in Gordian Tomb, but I know that the most difficult room of the game is yet to come, and I'd like to optimize my chances.

A couple of rooms later there is a cross for me to pick up. Its purpose has always puzzled me. First of all, in order to get to the treasure chamber, I have to go through here, which means there is no way I could accidentally miss the cross. Secondly, it's actually quite hard to jump over the item and not pick it up. So, what's the point of putting it here? I can only guess that it was meant for a puzzle that ultimately didn't make it into the game due to time constraints.

Edit: It has come to my attention that the cross actually has a function: While selected, it makes the player invulnerable to any birds. This makes some of the following rooms significantly easier. Since I didn't know of this feature until now, you'll have to put up with me complaining about the birds for the rest of this article.

Thanks for that piece of information, game, but I'm kind of busy right now dodging a hostile bird while stuck on a ladder. Seeing that message made me ponder what could potentially be less wise: Having your girlfriend's name tattooed on your body, or including her name in a piece of commercially released software. I mean, if the girl of your affection should unexpectedly change, you can still try to fix the tattoo. However, with a C64 game from 1990, long before patches were a common thing, you are kind of stuck with whatever you wrote back then.

... a bathroom? ... oiling?

The room at the top of the ladder provides a more substantial message, even though it's still wrapped in a riddle. A very simple riddle, admittedly.

It'd have been nice if the door were actually visible here, but the creators could only afford to hint at its existence in a message, I suppose.

Is this constant rockfall part of an intentional trap mechanism, or is it a sign that the burial mound is on the verge of collapsing? Either way, that doesn't look safe at all, even with a mining helmet equipped!

When I got to this room for the first time, I hesitated for a moment, even though I knew what the game expected me to do. That tiny helmet sure as hell did not raise much confidence in me that it'd provide enough protection against this onslaught of boulders. But the explorer made it through the rock avalanche completely unfazed.

The reward for my daredevilry is a jewel the size of a beach ball. But that's not enough for our protagonist. No, he does not get easily distracted by priceless gemstones. That bauble is just a means to get to the tomb's ultimate treasure chamber. Also, XAMPLE R COOL, apparently. X-Ample Architectures created numerous games that got published on CP Verlag's diskmags. We'll be seeing more of their titles in future articles.

Okay, here it is, the (in my opinion) hardest room in the game. It contains the last item I've got to pick up, the crowbar. This was usually the spot where I lost all remaining lives and then shut off the game. To give you an idea why this room has been such a source of grief for me, I made a visual list of its obstacles:

As you can see, there is a lot going on, and getting through is mainly a timing thing. I usually failed because I tried getting to the crowbar in a series of continuous jumps to the left. The timing was almost never right for the second pillar to be in the ground when I had to jump over there before the spider would get me. It only took me several years to figure out that I could actually stay on the platform with the spider and just keep hopping over it, like this:

And that's how you fetch the crowbar. It's advisable to wait for the bird to get off the screen before starting this sequence of jumps, or you are likely to get pecked to death.

With the crowbar in my bag, I have everything I need to reach the legendary treasure chamber. Conveniently, it is not too far off from where I am, so there isn't a lot of backtracking required.

If I had gotten here earlier, right after picking up the cross, there would've been a coin in this room. I think that's the last one you can get, though it's still possible that I missed some of the tomb's numismatic spawn points. This late in the game it doesn't matter anyway. It is trivial to contemplate mere coins when the ultimate fortune is so close!

This is the entrance to the treasure chamber. In order to get inside, I need to have the diamond, the cross, and the crowbar in my inventory. Otherwise, the explorer just walks into a wall. Unfortunately, there is no visual depiction of how those items are applied, so I've taken the liberty to put into words what the game omits to show. If you want to jump directly to the game's grand finale, just skip the following box of text.

s I approached the massive door barring my way, I noticed it was adorned with ornamental carvings. In the flickering light, numerous lines seemed to swirl together, pointing to a large recess in the door's center. The hollow shape looked immediately familiar. Throwing caution to the wind, I pulled out the large jewel from my bag and, without hesitation, inserted it into the cavity. The stone fit perfectly, and I immediately regretted my foolish impatience when an ancient, unseen mechanism awakened with a loud groan that echoed through the halls, most likely alerting anything still alive in this tomb to my presence. The heavy stone door shuddered for a moment and very slowly started to swing open, shedding millennia-old dust from its rough surface. In my mind I could already see the piles of gold waiting for me, but then an ear-piercing metallic squeal yanked me back to reality. Suddenly, the tomb was silent again, and to my dismay, the door had stopped moving. I had come this far, I would not let a broken opening mechanism stop me. So I grabbed the crowbar and forcefully wedged it between the stone door and its rough frame. There was a gap just wide enough for the iron's curved end to find some hold. I grabbed the crowbar with both hands, took a deep breath and started putting my entire weight against it. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but then I heard the sound of stone scraping on stone, and I felt myself moving forward ever so slightly as my lever pushed the door open. The gap was now large enough for my hand to fit in. In fact, a second later I found my estimation to be surprisingly accurate, as a bony hand emerged from the narrow opening and took hold of my left arm. Even through the fabric of my shirt, the hand's grasp felt both freezing cold and scorching hot. I frantically tried to pull back my arm and hardly noticed that something strange was happening to my left sleeve. It felt much heavier than just a moment before, and the strain I put on it caused it not to rip but to stretch. Before I realized what was happening, I pulled myself free and tumbled backward onto the floor. I was lucky the ground wasn't slippery, or I would've skidded right over the edge and down a seemingly bottomless drop. Golden flakes filled the air in front of me, glittering magically in the tomb's dim wall lights. These flakes were what remained of my shirt's left sleeve, which apparently had turned into pure gold. Through the gleaming dust, I saw the impossibly thin hand grab the crowbar which was still stuck in the door. The iron rod's silvery sheen gave way to a warm glint. The now golden crowbar bent under the force of the hand and then fell uselessly to the ground. The hand disappeared, and for a moment all was still. I had barely scrambled back to my feet when the stone door violently swung open. It crashed against the wall with such force that it immediately cracked in half and collapsed into a heap of rubble. From inside the door frame, a crowned figure emerged. It was the shape of a tall man, emaciated down to the bones which were visibly moving underneath his mummified, leathery skin. What remained of his burial clothing hung down in tattered rags from his freakishly lanky frame. His haggard face was barely more than a skull with a thin layer of cracked skin stretched over it. Even though his eyes had rotted away ages ago, I could feel the empty sockets staring at me with inhuman rage. He lifted his right hand, index finger pointing accusingly at me, and his jaw opened to a soundless scream. King Midas was not happy. Whether he was angry at my trespassing or just my being alive, I could not tell, and he didn't leave me time to ponder the matter. With a shambling gait, he limped towards me, hand still outstretched. I knew I could not let him touch my skin, so I went for my bag and frantically reached for something appropriate to defend myself. I took hold of an object that felt like it had a hilt and pulled it out. It was the wooden cross I had picked up earlier, and I was holding it upside-down, like the world's most impractical sword. Midas was almost upon me, and I had no way of backing off any further, as the floor ended right behind me. All I could do was lift up the cross and hold its elongated end awkwardly in his direction. My laughable attempt at defending myself apparently angered the ancient king even further, and he spontaneously decided to close the remaining distance between us by leaping at me. His lack of depth perception probably saved my life then and there, as he came just short of reaching me and landed flat on the ground instead. His hand touched the rocky surface which immediately started transforming. I jumped to the side and hastily moved away from the mummified king, keeping an eye on the gold spreading like a circular wave around him. Seconds later, Midas was already back on his feet, standing in the center of a shimmering circle as if a spotlight was shining on him. He spun around to face me, and the shift in weight caused cracks to form in the rock around him, right where the gilded circle ended. Without thinking, I hurled the cross at King Midas. It feebly bounced off the undead monarch's chest, but he managed to grab it before it fell to the ground. Confused about my fruitless action, Midas glared at the cross and watched it turn from wood into gold. The additional weight was enough for more cracks to appear. They connected with each other, and before Midas realized what was going on, the Golden Disk he was standing on started to slide and then toppled backward, throwing the cursed king into the dark chasm looming behind him. There was no scream, only the sound of rocks clattering down a deep cleft. I waited until the last reverberation had faded, and then I turned around to enter the treasure chamber. I was at the end of my journey, and it was time to reap its reward.

And here it is, the legendary treasure chamber, filled with an impressive amount of gold and jewels. The room is not exactly bursting with riches, but our explorer does not care. As soon he enters the vault, he immediately fills his pockets with as much gold as he can carry. Which, apparently, amounts to a grand total of eight coins. He really should've brought a bigger bag with him. Considering that throughout the game these coins counted as extra lives, he may have attained a long and healthy life instead of material wealth. I kind of like that idea for an ending.

The celebratory dance you can see in the above animation is purely choreographed by me, as the explorer is still controllable while inside this room. The game ends as soon as I leave the treasure chamber on the right side. Since the timer has stopped, I can also just remain in this room and listen to the rest of the fantastic music.



CONCLUSION

Gordian Tomb is one of the hardest games for me to judge objectively, simply because I have so many nostalgic memories of playing it. It's a good thing I never claimed to write proper reviews here.

First of all, while the game is quite hard, it does actually get easier with practice. This may not sound like much of a revelation, but many C64 games are hard mainly because of unfair random factors that are outside of the player's control. In Gordian Tomb, once you know what to do and where to go, finishing it within the time limit is a realistic goal. The controls are fine, thanks to jumping being relegated to the joystick button.

Gordian Tomb's platforming is rather basic compared to its obvious inspiration, Montezuma's Revenge. Each screen has only one floor height which is the same for all rooms. There aren't any elevated platforms, and the only way to move vertically are ladders which are always placed in the middle. This isn't really a criticism, though. Just because it took some cues from another game doesn't mean it has to ape all of its features.

What I don't like is the lack of direction in the first part of the game where the player is not given a proper reason why they can't pick up more than one item and why the first item to take has to be the ladder. Furthermore, jumping over chasms is a bit fiddly, since the explorer already dies when his toes get too close to the edge. And let's not forget that stupid bird with its habit of entering the screen at the most inopportune moment. No matter how practiced I am at playing Gordian Tomb, I'm sure to lose at least two lives to that flying dinosaur.


I love the graphics. They are very colorful, to some extent informed by demoscene aesthetics. This isn't surprising since many members of X-Ample started their digital careers by creating demos. Some graphical elements are cleverly reused with different colors to add variety. Technically, there isn't anything especially fancy going on. There's no scrolling, and the sprites aren't especially large. Probably the most impressive thing is the fact that all of it fits into the C64's memory without any need for reloading.

Since I keep on comparing the game to Montezuma's Revenge, let me just show you some of the graphical elements the two games share and how similar they look:

Again, this is not a knock on Gordian Tomb, I just find it interesting to see where some ideas came from.

As an added bonus, I made screenshots of all the rooms and stitched them together to one large map. Seeing everything connected together reveals that the pyramid has sections which use different graphical elements. I never realized that while just playing the game, so that's a neat detail to see. Click on the image to open the map in full resolution:

I can't write a conclusion for Gordian Tomb without once more gushing about its music. The game tune lasts 32 minutes, and it's not just the same melody getting repeated over and over with slight variations. Thomas Detert went the full distance and composed an epic piece that moves seamlessly from one theme to the next without ever losing its overall cohesion. There is also a notable rise in tension the closer the tune gets to the end, just to remind the player that it's high time to finish the game. It's safe for me to say that this is one of my absolute favorite C64 soundtracks. If you want to take a listen, I made a YouTube video which also features footage of me playing through the game and getting killed by that freaking bird several times:

Is Gordian Tomb one of my favorite C64 games? Eh, probably not, but it is miles ahead of some of the trash I already had to look at on this blog, and it's certainly still very playable today.