SwordQuest - Fireworld

Atari 2600
Released 1982

The SwordQuest series was a rather novel attempt to break the fourth wall in gaming back in the early 80's. The plan was to release four games, each with a mini-comic included. The entire point of the game was to crack a code that involved the aforementioned mini-comic. You run around a map, and on each screen, you can play a different type of minigame. If you win the game, you supposedly get a piece of the code that points you to specific pages, panels, words and letters within the comic. If you actually decipher the code, you write to Atari, and are registered into a competition to win some game-related jewels (Fireworld's reward was a golden jewel-encrusted chalice if I recall). The fouth and final game in the series would bring back the previous game's winners and have some medallion and sword up as a reward, but regrettably the contest was canceled after the first few games sucked miserably. Legend has it that the final reward is still out there, locked up in a safe somewhere in some former Atari exec's office.

It's essentially pointless to even try to play the game today, but I did anyway, due to my journalistic integrity.
It's bad.
The majority of the games seem to be some sort of "catch the falling crap" variation, and there's also a few "shoot crap" levels. The bizarre thing is, when I actually managed to win one of these minigames, the only thing I got was a small flashing block on the screen. Code my ass.

I suppose this game could be compared to Wario Ware titles today, in that they seem to be a random mash-up of strange half-games. However, Wario Ware at least gives you some idea about what it is you're supposed to do, and whether or not you've done it correctly. I'm still not even sure what causes me to lose most of the games in SQ:FW.
This game is definitely not fun.