Invaders of the Mummy's Tomb

This made me remember my first videogame! Although I'm not sure if I had a Merlin before or after this but this is my first videogame with a definite "story".

Invaders of the Mummy's Tomb

It was a small handheld game that was maybe as big as a dollar bill folded in half. The big selling point of it was that it was 100% battery free. It was solar powered! I even remember one fragment of the tv ad for it showed kids using it by the light of one candle which was ridiculous because parents would never let their kids have fire because fire leads to cooking and cooking leads to dirty dishes.

I LOVED this game. LOVED IT. I got so good at it that I could max out it's score and cause it to roll over. And since it was so small and never needed batteries I took it with me EVERYWHERE. In fact, I still have it in my garage someplace. I put an autobots sticker on it and over the years the logo on the outside has become worn and the inner top casing is loose, not because of old age but because I had to open it up once to repair a broken wire to the solar panel. I ended up putting some folded pieces of paper behind it for pressure to make sure the connection was good and taped it back into place.

I can still hear the beeps and bloops and buzzes from the game. The funny thing was that when you took it out of the light it didn't last long and the sound effects would become low pitched and drawn out as it ran out of power.

The way the game worked was that you were an explorer/archaeologist who was trying to get into a pyramid to get the mummy's treasure. It was a purely LCD affair but with a little bit of a child's imagination it was a grand adventure for me back then.

You started out outside on the left of the screen. The only controls were left and right. Snakes and scorpions would come down from the top of the screen and you had to time it so your guy would meet them at the right spot (there were three "rows" for snakes to crawl down) and would automatically kill them with a knife. After about 900 points which was about 90 snakes, the door to the pyramid would open and you could dash inside.

Once you were inside there were spiders and (this is where it gets fuzzy in my memory) a mummy running around. Maybe it was just one spider. I think it was. A mummy would attack you much like spiders did only you couldn't kill him, just avoid him. So timing your moves to avoid him you had to go across the inner chamber of the pyramid and stop next to treasure chest. You'd hit right I think over and over again there collecting treasure as a deadly spider dangled above your head. Sometimes it would stay up for a while then fall on you or sometimes it would hover just above your head. You had to be brave and grab as much loot as you could before you were bit.

You could of course back off, keep avoiding the mummy and then go back for more loot but if the spider bit you or the mummy nabbed you you'd be tossed outside to fight the snakes again. I think you had three lives total.

The thing I remember most was that the game was relentless...it never let up or paused or gave you a moment to rest. It was non-stop so often I'd be close to reaching a new record and I'd have to hit the bathroom or something and had to give up trying only to start over again.

I think the total points you could get before rolling over was 999,999,999 or maybe it was 999,999. I can't quite remember.

There are some better pix and screenshots here.