This Indiana Jones adventure unexpectedly ended up as comic book. Iconic Fate of Atlantis could receive sequel
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a cult item for adventure fans. Some of you may not know that the game almost received a sequel. The project Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix eventually took a completely different form.
Indiana Jones is a character who has won the love of devoted fans through both films and video games. Among the latter, the leader is undoubtedly Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, the classic LucasArts adventure game from 1992. The next journey of Indy, Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix, could follow in its footsteps. Unfortunately, this project faced obstacles that ultimately prevented it from being released... at least not in the form of a video game. Let's find out what the untold story of arguably the most famous archaeologist in the world was supposed to look like.
Indiana Jones teaches, entertains, and foils the plans of the Nazis
The roots of the game Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix date back to the end of work on Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, when a group of developers began creating a new project. Young Indiana Jones at the World's Fair was intended to be an educational game, based on the television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. However, when its original was canceled (due to poor viewership), the devs abandoned this idea, starting from scratch.
This is how the idea of Fate of Atlantis was born, which was initially called Indiana Jones and the Key of Solomon. The action of this entry was planned to be set in 1947, that is, after the end of World War II, and its plot was supposed to focus on the philosopher's stone, which the Nazis would be looking for to... resurrect Hitler. Indy would quickly get involved in the case, following the trail of the magical rock through East Berlin (under Soviet control), Kyiv, Ireland, Tibet, and eastern Bolivia.
Although things were going well for the developers, after some time Joe Pinney, who was overseeing the project, decided to leave LucasArts for personal reasons. His place was taken by Aric Wilmunder, assisted by the artist Bill Stoneham.
New opening for the project
As Wilmunder argued years later in a long interview with Tech Talk, he didn't plan to start over, but to expand on what Pinney had started:
I wanted to take as much of the good from it and then move forward. (...) Joe had done a pretty solid job working on the story. He had created locations and characters and [he had] created the playing area where the character would be moving around in. But [...] there wasn't the depth and what makes areas interesting to visit.
The next step was to focus on comic book aesthetics and large characters, resembling those from Day of the Tentacle or Full Throttle in terms of size. Such a solution was meant to make the characters not only "more expressive," but also "easier to create and animate."
Another innovation that the developers under the direction of Wilmunder decided to introduce was the implementation of action scenes. Watching dynamic events from a first-person perspective, we would take part in a motorcycle chase through the streets of East Berlin or sit at the controls of a JU52 aircraft. The entire experience was to be presented in the form of quick-time events, reminiscent of those from the Dragon's Lair series. However, the official source of inspiration for them was the "action-packed sequences from the films" about Indiana Jones.
The elements of action and puzzles would sometimes intertwine with each other. This would happen, for instance, when Indy would have to face a "strong Nazi" in the cockpit of a small plane. Punching the enemy wouldn't be very effective - the solution would be to "take control and flip the plane upside down," so the protagonist would be on top of his opponent and could defeat him.
Finally, Wilmunder's team decided that the title Indiana Jones and the Key of Solomon no longer suited their game. Ultimately, it was decided to change its name to Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix.
Indy's problematic adventure
It might seem that at this stage the described title had a future ahead of it, but its developers had some issues along the way, which ultimately thwarted their efforts. The first thing they discussed was the subject matter, especially the issue of Adolf Hitler's return from the afterlife. Nonetheless, the devs planned to circumvent the restrictions present on the German market, simply by censoring this character.
The second problem is the shortage of manpower, which prevented the whole production from getting off the ground. Although an attempt was made to bypass this complication by assigning the project to the Canadian company Strategy First, the collaboration between LucasArts and this studio ultimately resulted in a complete failure. The reason was the fact that the second of the mentioned teams didn't have experience in developing adventure games, and moreover, it was too small for the needs of a project of this caliber. As Wilmunder recalled years later:
(...) we were working with these guys, went to Montreal on a number of occasions, but the only thing the team had ever built was an ice hockey game. Building an adventure game was beyond their skill set.
Eager to complete the project at all costs, the developers devised another workaround for the problems that were plaguing it. Creators at LucasArts came up with the idea of using video footage with live actors to replace time-consuming animations with so-called full-motion video. Several test scenes were recorded, and one of them features the artist and designer Collette Michaud and an unnamed actor, which can be watched below.
While the writers had ambitious plans, including hiring Harrison Ford to play Indy, they ultimately fell through due to their inexperience with FMV technology. It is also worth adding that the tech of those times was far from perfect.
As it turned out, full motion video was the last resort for the entire project. Deprived of it, the devs gradually abandoned the project in favor of others, until finally the plug was completely pulled. Although other titles about Indiana Jones appeared along the way, we had to wait until 1999 for his next big adventure and the game Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine.
From the game to comic book
Interestingly, Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix has finally seen the light of day, however not in the form that players might have expected. We are talking about a series of comics, published by Dark Horse.
Although the work on the comic books didn't go smoothly (the game devs regularly modified the script, which required introducing corrections in the comic adaptation), it was possible to finish it. Four issues of "Iron Phoenix" went on sale between December 1994 and March 1995.
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