You call this Archeology? Lets Play: Tombs & Treasure

Welcome back everyone. For this Let’s Play I’ve decided to Let Us play Tombs & Treasures, a tremendously obscure, and monolithically excellent Point and Click adventure game with light (incredibly light) RPG elements released by Infocom. Moreover, it was designed by everybody’s favorite Shmup developer, Compile and Falcom.

But first a little bit of background information:
Tombs & Treasure is (in Japan at least) a sequel to a far older PC-88/98 text adventure, Asteka. Asteka was a graphical text-based adventure game with an Aztec motif. It was never released outside Japan. This is all the information that I can glean from the Internet.

Tombs & Treasure is also an adventure game with an Aztec (or rather, Mayan) motif. The NES version (which I shall play imminently) is the only game in the series to be released on this side of the pond, and has more in common with, say, Shadowgate than Zork. I shall naturally go into further detail as I play the game.

Other then a few remakes of Tombs & Treasure in Japan, this is all there is to the series.

For more information on the Asteka series, consult your local library. Or, more likely, consult Hardcore Gaming 101, since your local library probably won’t have a single word in it about the Asteka games, and it’s where I learned that there’s a series at all.

As the game opens, we are treated to a series of still photo’s while exposition happens, telling us of the games plot.

In short:
Anthropologist Prof. Imes sets out with 7 men to explore the various nearby ruins looking for the legendary Sun Key. Within a couple of weeks, all of them end up either dead or missing, and only their guide, Jose, returns. A few days later, some of the Professors notes and artifacts are found in a sacrificial well.
YOU (well, me) and The Professors Daughter go to Mexico to solve the mystery of his disappearance.

Maybe we’ll find that Sun Key, and maybe, just maybe, battle an extra-dimensional horror from beyond the depths of time.

As is my want, the Male Protagonist is “The Dude”, and the Female Protagonist is “Notta”, since she is not a dude. I did this before seeing the intro and was thus under the impression that she was The Dude’s sister, not his girlfriend.

Let’s Treasure Us some Tombs, Yah?


Chapter One: The Missing Professor!

Since our adventure is one of the Point and Click variety, and it’s on the NES, that means that we have a bunch of helpful Icons in lieu of typing in endless requests like some sort of cave-man. This is really handy. Most of their uses are pretty obvious, and just about each verb you could think of is employed. In brief:

Fight, Change, Go, Look, Take, Put, Use, Move, Push, Pull, Smash, Join, Wash and Wait.

Some seem to be redundant, but we’ll be using each of these individually. Yes, even Wash.


We begin our investigation in Professor Imes’ lab, and find his Secretary, Anne, and a table full of The Professors personal effects. When we LOOK at the Desk, the secretary speaks to us:

She basically restates what the opening crawl told us: Imes went missing, all his stuff was found in the Well of Sacrifice. She also suggests we talk to Jose for more information, and he should be along shortly.


The recovered items consist of a Lighter, a Sword with a few notches in the hilt, The Professors Notebook and a silver Key. The Note Book is in tatters, but partially readable.

Oh Science, always tampering with forces man wasn’t meant to know of. At least we have an idea of what happened to the Professors expedition. Also, we learn of two things which set The Dude’s heart a flutter: Mountains of treasure and monsters to kill. We’re also told the name of Tentacula, which seems to be important.


Having gathered all the information we can from simply looking at the desk, we decide to take the next step and Take everything on the Desk. The Book is welded there or something, because we can’t take it.



As you can see, the Inventory Screen now includes a Sword, Silver Key, Lighter and a Bandage. You start with the Bandage, so that’s why you didn’t see me pick it up.



As we Go to leave, we see the oft mentioned Jose. Despite what Anne said, Jose has little useful to say. He’s sorry that Notta’s father is missing, and likely dead. He does confirm that the Sun Necklace was found in the Warriors Temple. This is useful information since it seems like those demons The Professor released, besides killing everybody, replaced everything the archeologists took, and undid all of the digging that had happened.

What a bunch of jerks.

Jose mentions that if you’re going to the Temple, you’ll need to visit the High Priests Tomb to find the Mosaic Tile to unlock a Treasure Room. Also, he suggests visiting the Nunnery to get the Ixmol Jewel.

The Jewel is for getting a password to save your game, so it’s not exactly pivotal, but we’ll pick it up anyway, there may be some other use for it. You never know.

And so, with Jose in tow (which is odd, since I don’t really recall inviting him) you set off to thwart those demons before they do something particularly bad. You know, besides cause more then half a dozen murders and reverse thousands of dollars worth of archaeological work.



Going from Ruin to Ruin is done via a top-down view point. All the Ruins are open for exploration right from the beginning of the game. However, most of them are guarded by demons which would kill our party quite dead should they attack.

Lacking any better ideas, the group heads to The Nunnery, since it is right outside the starting point.




The Nunnery contains three Statues, depicting a little girl, a old man and a soldier. The Soldier looks like it used to carry something in its hands, and the Girl currently does hold something. Specifically that Ixmol Jewel that Jose mentioned.

We Pick the Jewel up and the light inside it goes out.

It doesn’t look like there’s anything else to do in the Nunnery at the moment, so we leave.



Exploring around a little, we discover the ruins of El Coracol. This ruin consists of nothing more then a pedestal and a small window. The Pedestal looks to be able to fit the Ixmol jewel quite nicely, since that’s how games like this work; we PUT the Jewel on it…



And promptly summon our first monster: Snake Master. The Dude is currently Level 1, and Looking at the demon informs us that “He’s too tough to Beat”. Luckily, like all the demons, you can simply run away from him and he won’t follow you. Since Snake Master is way, way, WAY too tough to fight at this point, The Dude beats a hasty retreat.

This is as good a place as any to mention the games combat. It’s exceedingly simply, since it consists entirely of USE-ing the Sword and selecting FIGHT until either the monster, or you, dies. This actually works to the games advantage, though, as the ONLY way to gain experience or upgrade your sword is by solving the games puzzles. So when you find a monster you can’t beat, that means you missed something important. Also, Demons only appear when you’re doing something right. We’ll make a note that Snake Master appeared when we put the Jewel on the Pedestal, and come back when it looks like we might be able to fight him proper.



Exploring the region a little farther, we discover the Tomb of the High Priest.

It’s surprisingly desolate. I thought those demons were putting things back? The Dude takes a LOOK around, and is promptly set upon by Skorper.


I’m… honestly unsure of what, exactly Skorper is supposed to be, but by LOOKing at it The Dude seems somewhat confident of being able to beat it to death.

Good enough for me.

Another cluster of blows finally defeats the insect-esque creature. Way to go, The Dude, Momma didn’t raise no wuss!

Examining the Wall indicates that it’s anything but ordinary. The Dude isn’t strong enough to move it, but Jose is.

Based on how delighted he was to be able to move that wall, I think Jose was starting to get an inferiority complex.


In the newly opened passage we find a coffin, adorned with odd hieroglyphics and a Mosaic Tile. It’s been mentioned that Mosaic is a key to a treasure trove in El Castillo Pyramid, so let’s grab that sumvabitch.


…Which also causes the coffin to open. That’s… weird. The coffin is occupied by a skeleton wearing a mask with one eye. Our group clearly isn’t averse to any grave robbing and takes the Mask as well.



Well, it’s not like Bonesy there is going to miss it.

Looking in the Coffin a bit further we decide to desecrate the dead a little further and move the skull. Naturally this reveals a Keyhole. Well, we’ve got a Key, but it doesn’t seem to fit. We’ll come back later.

Definitely Maya- the big pyramid looks exactly like Kukulcán's temple at Chichén Itzá, and the Nunnery is a real building at CI, too.

Fun Fact: Everything in this game is based on real locations.

Despite being based on the Mayan civilization, it's still called Azteca in Japan.

Kurt Kalata actually wrote an article on HG101 on this game and its sequel. Apparently the original text adventure was a Falcom game?

EDIT: Crap, you already mentioned that at the beginning, that's what I get for looking at the pictures first, and skimming the intro. Well, I look forward to seeing someone play through this.

I had thought I included a link to that article in the first post. JOKES ON ME!

It's there now though.

I have never gotten around to playing this game. And you have made me want to.

Curse you, Let's Plays!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, the El Caracol is very similar to its real-life counterpart, which is much wider. If any stargazing takes place in it, it'll clinch the relationship.

Also, Chichen-Itzá means "pit of snakes" in the Mayan tongue. There's already a Snake Master here, but will it have any further significance in the puzzles/plot? If a Chac Mool or the Thousand Warriors show up, I'll squee like a fangirl.

Nice to see my vague memories of this game being validated finally. I know I beat it, but I can't remeber anything past a certain point in the game. I'm almost positive there was a (partial) walkthrough published in an issue of Nintendo power at some point, but I don't have any of my old back issues anymore.

Let's hope OP doesn't accidentally break the game like I did the first time. Somehow I just couldn't get to Level 20...

It's entirely possible I might!

This is the first time I've played the game in about a decade, and have been doing the write-ups as I play, so I'm literally flying by the seat of my pants with this.

When I say something like "I bet that might come in handy later", it's because I genuinely don't know!

Incidentally, monsters appear when you do anything, not when you do something right. See, I learned something!

Chapter 2: The Hidden Treasure of the Mummy Cave!

When we last left our adventuring… adventurers, we learned that Notta Imes’s father is missing and presumed mutilated thanks to his accidental summoning of a para-dimensional demonic army. After meeting with the Professors former guard, Jose, we set forth, robbed several graves and got a mosaic tile that acts as a key to unlock a vast treasure trove. Plus we killed a supposedly chitinous, bug… thing?



Wandering about a bit, trying to find the El Castillo Pyramid, we come across a heap of pillars. They are fairly nice pillars through, I wonder what they LOOK like…


Oh… that’s… nice?

El Slug it should be noted, looks “Too Tough to Beat”. He also looks nothing at all like a slug. Both of these are good reasons to leave and not come back. Or at least not come back until I am capable of dispatching him.



Hey, I found it. Awesome.

The Dude is also quick to point out that this is the home of Kukulan. This is likely a mistranslation, since it should be Kukulcán. Still… the game is at least somewhat educational. We'll forgive them for a spelling error.


As often happens whenever I try to go anywhere or do anything, as soon as I look at the wall a two headed bird (cleverly named Two-Beak) appears and tries to kill me dead. The Dude thinks “I can win, somehow”. With boundless optimism like that, how can I lose?

That’s a good sign.


That too, is a good sign.


Luckily I had a clever strategy in place of selecting “Fight” until he died. No bird could hope to outsmart one such as I.


There’s a hole in the floor about 1’’ by 2’’ wide and deep. I have nothing that fits that description so we advance into that door, being mindful not to get any emu-meat on our shoes.

It looked a lot more narrow in here then it did outside the door. I guess the Castillo Pyramid is like a reverse TARDIS? There’s nothing interesting in here except for a hole, either.




Luckily, Notta is full of handy advice. Let’s cram that hole full of whatever will fit inside it.


Oh… now the room gets significantly more spacious and full of items. Though based on previous descriptions I’m a little let down. I mean, sure all this multi-colored crap is nice, but we were promised treasure. Not broken pots and pocket mirrors. Friggin’ Jose, misleading me like that. Not that it really matters, since you can’t take anything with any actual monetary value (such as a pile of gold which is almost entirely off-screen).

Well, let’s get looting. We take:
A Silver Globe (About 4’’ in diameter, called The Globe of Light, which belongs in Coracol)
A Gold Mirror (which is filthy and needs to be cleaned)
A Gold Stand (which holds something about 4’’ across)
A Shallow Bowl (which has a pin in the middle of it)


Not a bad haul, financially speaking. But, of course, these are probably going to end up being the solutions to puzzles somewhere down the line, so we can’t pawn them off.

While that’s everything we can ste- reclaim from the pyramid, I don’t think we’re done here. For example, that stone box, I bet there’s something nice inside that.


All right, it contains three tablets which have pictures The Dude cannot see.

All this wasted effort makes me want to hit something. Luckily, I have a SMASH command, and there’s a bunch of old pots in here. I think I’ll just smash this one here in back!



Oh… well… good? The smashed pot contains a ring that fits nicely on Nottas finger. Jose explains that it’s the Ring of Itza, which has the power to defeat evil in grand, unspecific ways. He also points out that he has no idea how it works, but to be careful not to lose it.

This is most likely foreshadowing.


Incidentally, if you try to break anything else in this room, it’s either indestructible or the game chastises you for trying to ruin a priceless artifact. I don’t see anything else worthwhile in here, though, so let us leave.



Jeez, bit greedy there, aren’t you Notta?


Just to shut her up, we sift through the gold pile there in the corner, and find a curiously out of place jewel. Fulfilling his newly found duty as Mr. Exposition, Jose explains that it’s a Legendary Jewel that The Professor was searching for. Notta chimes in that it’s supposed to go in that One-Eyed mask we picked up earlier, and it would make secrets visible, and it powers up the Sword.

Well, gee, I wonder what I’m supposed to do with all this great stuff?

First, we JOIN the Red Jewel with the One-eye Mask, and now, USE-ing the Mask lets us look at those pictures I dug up a few screen shots ago.


Men digging up a Censer at Dusk

A jaguar turning to stone when a trumpet is played at noon

Men turning tiny when drinking a potion at night

I can see why you’d need a magic jewel crammed into an equally magic mask to make sense of those pictures. Odds are that this will all have SOME significance at some point in the future.



That done, we jam that jewel into a notch on the Sword, thereby making it stronger, and the Jewel “even redder then before”, we also take one more look around in case there was anything we missed. One more pot contains a metal rod with iron filings stuck to it.


Why yes, Notta, I think it might be.

This is everything, so we can finally leave the Pyramid. That Globe was described as belonging in Coracol, so we might as well try there next. Maybe this Globe won’t result in me summoning a deadly snake monster to kill me?


Or maybe not. Well, let’s see if we can kill it this time?

Hell Yeah.

Take that, you snaky son-of-a-jerk!


The Dude seems completely dumbfound that he can put the globe on the pedestal. Not really a whole lot else to do here at the moment.

Looking out the window gives us a good view of the Court of Columns. That could possibly be a hint of where to go next.

LOOKing around also tells me that “It is said that Beautiful Sound will awaken the Globe”. This is the first I’ve heard of this, so I don’t know who said it.


I’m also given this bit of advice. That’s nice... I don't have to worry about the floor.

Tentacula? No doubt Dracula with tentacles. This is going to be the best final boss ever.

This game reminds me of Sweet Home. Is anyone planning to Let's Play that?

I believe some one is actually, if you check the master list forum. I think I had this game at one time... Bought it for 50 cents after the SNES came out and everyone was unloading their nes materials... I don't think I even got past the first few screens. Thanks for the LP OP, Now I won't have to ever go back to it

Just doing my part to ensure that nobody has to play video games but me.

As I recall from an ancient copy of "Game Players Guide to Nintendo Games: Volume 3", you are not too far off.


...I should try to see if I still have that book.

On our Previous Episode, our intrepid heroes found the El Castillo Pyramid and discovered a heap of treasure inside. While most of it was general Puzzle-Game type crap, they did find a magic jewel which strengthened The Dudes sword, and El Coracol’s Silver Globe. Lacking any other leads, our group heads to the Court of Columns.

Chapter 3: The Endless Wandering and the Living Undead

You know, as much as I love this game, moving from one ruin to another is a pain in the arse. The map is massive, and mostly full of featureless plains and woods, and the ruins themselves aren’t always obvious.

Case in point, I just stumbled across the Well of Paradise here trying to find the Courtyard again. Well, we’re here anyway, might as well see if there’s anything we can do here.



“We came here for a reason?” I wandered here by accident! I’m seriously beginning to wonder why we brought her along.

Though since we’re here anyway, let’s wash that filthy, filthy mirror of ours.



Inexplicably, washing the mirror causes a set of Pan Pipes to appear. I love Adventure Game Logic, don’t you?


Said pipes are dunn borked, though. Luckily, I remember this part from The Game Players Guide to Nintendo Games: Volume 3:

The Flute is stuck on Band-Aid Brand, because Band-Aid’s stuck on a Flute.

I guess aimless wandering paid off in the long run. I’m sorry I snapped at you Notta. Well, back to hunting down that Courtyard.


Hey, here it is. And we’re strong enough to fight us what may be a Gastropod!


Take that, Snails! That’ll teach you to have a sub-par name which may-or-may-not-be a terrible pun!

Looking around reveals nothing at all, however. But, we’ve got a working musical instrument, and, as “they” say that “Beautiful Sound will awaken the Globe”. Lets us head back to El Coracol, I guess.

After too much wandering, I find my way back.


Seriously, why do we need her along? It’s not like The Dude is the one who probably slaughtered her father. Save some spite for Tentacula.


As previously alluded to, each member of the party has some kind of unique skill. Jose can move large walls and boulders with his big muscles, Notta is an accomplished flutist (as shown here) and The Dude… doesn’t mind slaughtering demons and touching dead people? I’m guessing on that last bit. I think The Dude is to Tombs & Treasure as Dave was to Maniac Mansion.


Anyhow, playing the Flute causes the Silver Globe to shoot a beam of light out the window, most likely pointing where we need to go next, not unlike Raiders of the Lost Ark. Of course, I can’t look where the light is pointing from here since it is “bright like a Laser”. Luckily, I looked earlier, so I already know.

Back to the Court I guess!


This time one of the columns is shining like crazy. Looking at it reveals “ordinary ground, but…”


Ordinary Ground must be punished for its crimes. Let us give it Smashes! (Jose wasn’t actually required for this, I don’t think, but I switched to him anyway).


I could make a terrible joke here, but I choose to take the higher path and let you submit your own.

The Golden Globe, much like the Silver Globe, apparently responds to music. Let’s give those pipes a toot, again.

Oh Come on Notta, you could flute up the joint like nobodies business, 10 minutes ago. Looks like we might have to go back to Coracol.

Again.



On the way, however, I find the Temple of Warriors. Which, I seem to recall, being mentioned back in the good Doctors journal. Lets see if we can get us any treasures.



Oh, hello Necklace, I bet you’re important.


Aaaaah! Monster!

Not Invincible Monster!

Go, Dude, Fight with Violence! For Ever Lasting Peace!


Uhh… this thing is pretty tough.


I had 90 HP left. This was about the closest any fight has been since Skorper. But The Dude killed the crap out of that… already dead… thing.


God I love the text in this game. Really, I do. <3


Oh. Oh this is probably good. The Red Jewel made my sword way stronger, presumably the Blue one would work even better!


HOLY SWEET MAJIMBO! Apparently the statues around here don’t take kindly to having their eyes removed. One of the tablets from Castillo mentioned turning a jaguar back into a statue. I don’t know if Pipes are the same as a trumpet, or whether or not it’s noon… But whatever works.

Play that funky music, white-girl!


Crap. Lets run away quickly.

Meanwhile: Several minutes and no screen-shots later

I take the Silver Globe off the pedestal and put the Golden Globe on it.



It never ceases to amaze the dude how round objects can fit into round holes. That’s why we love him.



Playing the Flute causes the Globe to turn transparent and shoot a beam out again. It’s likely headed back to the Courtyard. But we’ll have to wait and see, until next time, braves readers.

Until, next time.

So, do you heal fully between fights? Seems like you must.

You fully heal as soon as a monster is not trying to claw your eye's out. As previously noted, the games RPG elements are really very light.

Also, I was sadly unable to find my copy of The Game Players Guide to Nintendo Games: Volume 3, as I would have tried to include scans, and then all the world would have seen how awesome that book was.

Also, if the game says that you can win a fight, you CAN'T lose it. If you always fight, you win. You never die, the game only forces tenseness upon you by bringing your HP down to near death. Then you win.

Really? Well, I learned something new then.

I just thought I was getting lucky up until now.

Was this mentioned? That the fighting elements were added just for the NES version of the game? I read that over at Hardcore Gaming. Though they also seem to serve as a rough guide to where you should be going, if you're at a place where you can beat the monster you probably belong there at that point in the game?

OP have you found that to be the case?

This is how I know I'm doing it right.

On our previous chapter, our heroes managed to find the fabled Golden Globe and the Pipes needed to activate the El Coracol Temple’s pedestal. Or perhaps just activate the globes when they’re on the Pedestal, that part is a bit vague, to be honest. They also found the Sun Necklace, but were set upon by a Jaguar, who frightened them off.

Chapter Four:


Working on a faint hunch that maybe we don’t have to actually deal with the Jaguar to examine the ruins, we return to the Temple of Warriors. The Jaguar Statue which is also an actual Jaguar is missing.

This worries me more then having the live Jaguar hanging around.


There’s a hole in the wall, where the Jaguar statue once was, however, so lets take us a glance at that, why don’t we?

Ooh, a key, a small, rusty key, to be specific. Let’s us take it!



Nerts. We need something small, and capable of grasping objects that can rust, possibly with a magnetic field. But what?


In case it wasn’t obvious, we use the magnetic rod I picked up a few days ago. The Dude is really, really pleased with himself.


We also take the Sun Necklace, since Professor Imes mentioned it being a key to the suns location. And that is likely to be really useful information.


And looking at the Sun Necklace to get a screen shot of it causes that crazy jaguar to come back and scare the willies out of us. We retreat.

It should be noted that the Sun Necklace is filthy. I’m going to take it to the Well and clean it…


…Which worked spectacularly. You can’t really tell from a lone screenshot, but that circle on the top of the screen went nuts and was blinking like crazy as soon as I washed the necklace.

After being washed, the Sun Necklace will let me tell what time of the day it is by what color its glowing. Like a mood ring, except based on time instead of body heat. First order of business is to see if we can deal with that pesky jaguar.


Incidentally, The Dude can’t carry a tune in a bucket.


Notta, however, can. Now we’ve re-petrified the Jaguar, so we can gouge out its precious eye-mineral safely.



The Blue Jewel is now safely inside my sword and the Red one is removed. That’s a bit unexpected, really. I thought both were going in there. Well, I’m sure there’s a reason for it.

On a whim and a lark, we head back to the Tomb of the High Priest, to see if we can do anything with that keyhole behind the mummy’s skull.


Not completely surprisingly, the newly found Iron Key fits in the hole and causes the coffin to shift aside, revealing a stair case.

So we’ve uncovered a staircase leading down, under the body of an undisturbed mummy, in a crypt which may be at the center of a demonic invasion from Xiabala.

Let’s go down, why don’t we?



Wow… this is a fair bit more spacious then the rest of the ruins. We’ve just entered an underground maze, and the entrance sealed up behind us. This keeps getting better all the time.

Well, it looks like I can go in three directions, and I’ve honestly never gotten this far before. So I submit to ye, Talking Time: Which way does I go?



Actually… it doesn’t matter what you say, I need a compass to go anywhere. Luckily, I have a magnet, and I have something on which to put a magnet. We JOIN the Metal Rod to the Bowl and BAM cheap, ancient, Mayan navigation tool.



Also, using the Compass automatically leads you to the end of the maze. I… I was hoping for some audience participation for once. Darn.



What’s less of a “Darn” though is that jewel in the center of the room. It’s the Akbal Jewel, which has the power to rob demons of their power. That sounds promising.

Unfortunately, taking the Akbal Jewel causes the only exit to close. This isn’t very good news.

Will our heroes escape from the maze under the High-Priests Tomb? Will they ever find out what happened to Professor Imes? Will Notta stop emasculating The Dude?

Stay Tuned!