[ATMachine]

I thought this might be an interesting thread - I just finished a playthrough of Infernal Machine and am sort of in an Indy Jones mood. (Which reminds me, I just scanned some concept art from the IM strategy guide and I really should put it up on my site.)

Note to the mods: if you feel there's too much comic book here and not enough game, feel free to move this into Chit Chat.

It's common knowledge that Fate of Atlantis was developed concurrently with a comic book of the same name, with (VERY roughly) the same plot. But since the comic seems to be something of a rarity these days, I pulled out my copy and decided to note some of the differences between game and comic.

I'd post scans to illustrate my points, but I only have the TPB and none of the individual issues, and I don't want to break its spine by scanning the pages. You'll have to imagine what I say.

In the TPB's cover pages, the story is credited to "Hal Barwood and Noah Falstein, Lucasfilm Games." However, there seem to have been numerous alterations to the story, apparently performed by aging hippies who grew up reading Archie Comics.

Lots of the dialogue has a very 1960's flavor. (Sophia's remark when Indy approaches her in disguise, calling him a "masher," comes to mind, as do several instances where Indy uses faux swear words like "Omigosh!" and "Sh-sheep dip!" It's ridiculous. The movie Indiana Jones wasn't afraid to curse when he was frustrated.)

Ubermann is not a thin, balding scientist with white hair. Instead, he is a short, pudgy fellow with brown hair with a white streak in it (think Clayton Forrester), a black Hitler mustache, and a monocle! (This look was retained in the ultra-rare and very lame FoA Action Game.)

Kerner's altered appearance is more pleasing. His sandy blond hair is flecked with gray, and he has a similarly gray mustache. More often than not, he is shown wearing a black SS uniform.

Sophia isn't too different at first glance, but a closer examination reveals that, although she has auburn hair and blue eyes in the game, her hair is cherry-colored and her eyes green in the comic. Interestingly, Sophia's look in the comic, plus a hairstyle change, was the basis for her appearance in Infernal Machine. (Note: The description of her comic-book features only applies to the first 3 of the 4 comics. In the fourth, a new colorist came on board, who was inaccurate about a lot of previously established details, in particular making Sophia a blonde.)

Two locations show up in the comic that were planned and cut from the game: Leningrad and Cadiz, Spain. In the comic, Marcus Brody visits Cadiz and is given one of the locking stones by an elderly scholar who bears a striking resemblance to a brown-skinned Colonel Sanders. Later, Indy and Sophia go to Leningrad looking for a copy of the Hermocrates, one of two known to exist. However, Kerner steals the Lost Dialogue before they can take it, requiring them to return to Barnett College and obtain the other copy.

The story starts off like the movies, with Indy the midst of peril. He's about to be put to death by an ancient Central American tribe for stealing their relics... and then he wakes up in his bed. It was all a dream. What a cop-out!

The comic's writers apparently felt the game plotline didn't have enough comic relief. So they created the character of Jerry, a typical "dumb jock" student/football player at Barnett College. His attempts to ingratiate himself with Indy, so he can pass the Archaeology class, are painfully unfunny.

Kerner's introduction is much more impressive in the comic. He enters Indy's classroom when Dr. Jones is challenging his students to identify from a set of arrowheads which are real and which are fakes. Kerner correctly identifies them all, showing a knowledge of archaeology he doesn't possess in the game.

It is Jerry, not Indy, who rips off Kerner's coat.

For most of the comic Sophia is referred to as "Sophie," despite being named as "Sophia" in her first appearance.

When Indy first goes to meet Sophia, he finds her not in a theater giving a lecture, but talking to a close group of interested wealthy patrons in her apartment. He manages to disperse them by claiming to be a member of the "New York Commission on Fraud and Confidence Games."

Some goons show up at Sophia's apartment and make off with most of her artifacts, leaving only the infamous necklace. Indy is shot in the ensuing fight, and ends up briefly bedridden in a hospital! Soon after, Sophia narrowly foils an assasination attempt on Indy by a German agent during his convalescence.

Dr. Heimdall is named "Thorskald," and Indy never meets him while he's alive and not frozen solid. In the comic, his death-by-freezing was due to a geyser in an underground cavern.

The variety of Atlantean relics found in the game--fish heads, eel figurines, and the like--are reduced in the comic to innumerable copies of the horned statue which Kerner stole.

In the Azores, Indy and Sophia don't visit Costa, but employ an old beggar to lead them to a treasure trove of Atlantean artifacts, including a locking stone.

Sternhart's trinket shop is in the streets of a city. The coffin in the pyramid isn't particularly well hidden. As in the game, he swipes a locking stone.

When the stone is removed, Indy and Sophia fall into a pit trap...filled with the bones of the alligators who once ate tomb robbers. Looks like somebody forgot to feed the pets.

Meanwhile, Marcus travels to Spain to meet Dr. Hector Uribe and his daughter. Earlier Kerner stole a bunch of artifacts from Uribe and gave him a minor bullet wound, so all the daughter has to offer Marcus is a locking stone.

Professor Vladimir Radichenko, a curator of manuscripts, is the person from whom Indy very nearly gets the Dialogue in Russia.

Alain Trottier is here named as "C. Trottier," and is shot dead by Nazi goons before Indy ever meets him!

Sophia and Indy go on horseback through the Algerian desert, pursued by Nazis (sort of a meshing of the Team and Fists paths here.) Sophia introduces Indy to a local Bedouin tribe who save them from the Nazi thugs. One, Habib Ouarzaza, guides the pair to the German dig site.

Habib distracts the German soldiers while Indy makes off with Ubermann's strong box. Inside the box is an amber fish on a string.

Omar al-Jabbar and his lackeys have been hired by the Nazis to do their digging near Algiers. (Recall that in the game Omar hated the Nazis and was afraid of them.) Omar is a portly man with a mustache and purple robes, much like in the game. He is electrocuted by Ubermann when he tries to double-cross the Nazis.

Indy and Sophia fly by balloon to Crete. On the way from the dig site, Kerner pursues the balloon in a Jeep and ends up driving off a cliff. He survives, though.

The locking stones do not need to be aligned correctly to open doors; Indy just places them on the spindle and inserts a bead of orichalcum.

Sternhart is still alive when they enter the Labyrinth, but is shot by the Nazis. Before he dies, tells Jones to take the locking stone that he stole earlier. Indy yells "For Sternhart!" when he knocks out the submarine captain.

The Map Room in the Labyrinth shows up, and doesn't perform any function other than providing a map of Atlantis (no mechanical doors here).

As in the Fists Path, Indy dives to Atlantis, but Kerner's submarine doesn't show up until after he's safely in the Atlantean airlock and out of the diving suit.

Indy steals a German soldier's uniform, temporarily, as a disguise, before rescuing Sophia from the Germans.

Some of the comic art, especially once the story gets to Atlantis, is very close to the game backgrounds. (Especially notable in this regard are the lava pump and the exterior of the God Machine.)

When Nur-Ab-Sal possesses Sophia, he goes on a long rant about the history of Atlantis. He says that great horned aliens came down to Earth and blessed Atlantis with technology before leaving again. When the deadly volcano erupted, the Atlanteans built the God Machine to become like the powerful horned beings. Once Nur-Ab-Sal began his systematic slaughter of the Atlantean people by putting them in the machine, the remaining Atlanteans rose up in revolt. In the end, everyone was killed, but Nur-Ab-Sal secreted his spirit in the necklace. Now he desires to go into the machine himself, in hopes of restoring his old glory.

A fierce statue, like the one in the Atlantean jail in the game, guards the doorway to the God Machine. It crushes several Nazis in its grip before falling over.

As in the game, Kerner dies in the God Machine.

Ubermann steals Sophia's necklace and wears it as he uses the God Machine, but it doesn't help him and he perishes too.

Indy and Sophia use an Atlantean digging machine with an enclosed cockpit to escape and get back to sea level.

In the end, Sophia writes a paper on Atlantis and gets a tenured professorship at Barnett College. She still has occasional psychic premonitions, even after the loss of the necklace. (This idea of a continued psychic link on Sophia's part also showed up in Infernal Machine.)

[After a brisk nap]

The Fate of Atlantis comic was serialized as a backup story in The Phantom magazine in Norway (and presumably Denmark, Sweden, and Finland). I remember it had art by Dan Barry (illustrator on Flash Gordon, brother of Sy Barry), probably one of the last stories he did before his death.

I think I only read the last issue, at least it's the only one that left any impression on me. I thought Nu-Ab-Sal's possession of Sophia was more interesting in the comic, and the mutations of the Nazis in the God Machine were pretty disturbing (though I think I prefer the game version of the scene). Indy looks nothing at all like Harrison Ford, but not entirely unlike the youthful version of the character in the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

I'd like to see more adventure games adapted to other media.

[Kurufinwe]

Great work, ATMachine! I'm not sure I had even heard about the existence of the comic, but the comparison is definitely interesting. (and while the comic sound rather lame, the circumstances of Heimdall's death definitely make more sense than in the game...)

Originally Posted by After a brisk nap

I'd like to see more adventure games adapted to other media.

Well, Paradise did that, though I believe the graphic novels were only released in France and Belgium. I should probably do a comparison with the game when they finally get around to releasing the last two tomes.

[eriq]

Originally Posted by ATMachine

I thought this might be an interesting thread - I just finished a playthrough of Infernal Machine and am sort of in an Indy Jones mood. (Which reminds me, I just scanned some concept art from the IM strategy guide and I really should put it up on my site.)

How did you like the game? I only got to a point and quite playing.. though I remember it being quite fun..

Originally Posted by ATMachine

I'd post scans to illustrate my points, but I only have the TPB and none of the individual issues, and I don't want to break its spine by scanning the pages. You'll have to imagine what I say.

I have the individual issues. I'll have to dig them out of the collection and post them later this weekend. I never read them, however.

[ATMachine]

eriq, check your PMs for my thoughts on the IM game. This thread's about FoA, so I'll stay on topic here. It'd be very cool if you could post a few scans

I forgot to note earlier that the "amber fish on a string" in the comic actually isn't a fish--it's shaped like an arrow.

The funny thing about Cadiz and Leningrad is that they nearly made it into the game; the FoA text files record them as being locations on the map screen, and Cadiz even had a map hotspot drawn for it.