Trivia / Swordquest

• Colbert Bump: The Angry Video Game Nerd's review of the games brought knowledge of the series and the contest to modern viewers.
• Defictionalization: Sort of. It's an odd example of an early Alternate Reality Game.
• Feelies: The very in-depth instruction manuals, as well as the comic books, whose panels contained the clues.
• Permanent Placeholder: The "clues" in Fireworld were supposed to help the player win the associated real-life contest, but they were never coded, so it just displays numbers from 00 to 09.
• Saved from Development Hell: Airworld was never finished at the time of the contest, which was itself quietly cancelled due to The Great Video Game Crash of 1983. Then in 2022, almost 40 years later, the Swordquest rights found their ways into the hands of indie developer Digital Eclipse, who — as part of a Compilation Re-release titled Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration — additionally developed six lost games, one of which was Airworld, using retro Atari graphics/sound and with the original ideas by series creator Tod Frye.
• Similarly Named Works: No, the game Waterworld has nothing to do with the Kevin Costner movie.
• Vaporware: Airworld was never released, and it's unknown if any copies of it still exist to this day. A version of the game was eventually developed by Digital Eclipse as part of Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration.
• What Could Have Been: One of the most infamous examples in video game history. Had it not been for The Great Video Game Crash of 1983, Waterworld would've had another full length contest, Airworld would've been made and the winners of each would have come together and complete the quest.

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