Fathom[a] is a 1983 Action-adventure game published by Imagic and designed by Rob Fulop. It was the last game Rob Fulop would design for Imagic,[1] and one of the last games Imagic would publish before the its closure. Fathom was initially released for the Atari 2600 in August 1983.[2] It would later be ported to the Intellivision, Colecovision, and TI 99/4A.[5] The player controls both a dolphin and a seagull in order to collect the missing pieces of a broken trident and save a mermaid trapped at the bottom of the ocean.
Your goal in the game is to free the mermaid Neptina, daughter of Neptune, who has been trapped at the bottom of the sea by the Titans. You play as the shapeshifter Proteus and must recovered the shattered pieces of Neptune's trident to break Neptina's cage.[6]
The player starts the game in the form of a dolphin and can swim freely between several different ocean screens. The player has a limited amount of time to collect all three shards of the broken trident and return them to the mermaid's cage at the bottom of the map. As a dolphin, the player must collect all the seahorses that appear on a certain screen, while avoiding octopi and seaweed beds. Once all seahorses are collected, they can collect a starfish which will give them one piece of the trident. Collecting enough seahorses will also cause a bird icon to appear at the bottom of the screen. Returning to the top of the screen with this icon will allow the player to start controlling a seagull above the water.[7]
As a seagull, the player must fly around a different set of screens above the water while avoiding black birds and volcanic eruptions. Collect enough pink clouds and more starfish will appear which grant the player one more trident piece each. Collect all three trident pieces and enough clouds to make a fish symbol appear at the bottom of the screen, and the player can transform back into a dolphin and swim down to Neptina's cage to complete a loop.[8] Every time one game loop is completed, the number of screens on the game's map increases and the player must travel farther to complete their objectives. Once the player completes seven loops the game is over and a secret ending is revealed.[9]
Development
Fathom was designed by Rob Fulop for Imagic. According to Fulop, early development on the game began when game artist Michael Becker rendered a picture of a dolphin jumping out of the water. The game concept and gameplay were then designed around the image.[1]
Later, Fulop would become frustrated with the way control of the dolphin would transition to the seagull. Fulop had wanted to create a more dramatic transition between the two gameplay states but doing so would have cut part of the dolphin jumping animation Becker had designed. This alternation was shot down by fellow game designer Dennis Koble and Imagic CEO Bill Grubb, and Fulop claims this incident caused him to sour on the game following its release.[1]
The game contains an easter egg. Under the right conditions, the initials of the three developers for the game (Rob Fulop, Michael Becker, and Wilfredo Aguilar) can replace the rocks spewing from the game's erupting volcano. This is despite the fact that the developers' full names were printed within the game's packaging. According to Fulop, the easter egg was included because players responded well to easter eggs in other games and the 8 KB ROM used by the game had enough space for secrets.[1][10]
Fathom is frequently praised for its graphics and animation. Jim Clark of Videogaming & Computergaming Illustrated would call the game's graphics "wildly impressive, even beautiful", and E.C. Meade would describe the animations as "simply outstanding".[6] Mike Wilson of The Logical Gamer would also praise the games graphics but describe them as comparable to previous good-looking games on the system.[8]
When it comes to the gameplay, critics are more mixed. Computer Entertainer would give the game a perfect score in both gameplay and graphics, describing the game as feeling like a great adventure and commending the way the game expands with each loop.[9] However, The Logical Gamer's Mike Wilson would describe the gameplay as boring once mastered and advised people to stay away from the game.[8]Electronic Fun with Computers & Games would describe the game as "monotonous" and "tremendously dull".[14] The gameplay is frequently compared to other Atari 2600 games such as Adventure, Dolphin, and Journey Escape.[6][8]
Retrospectively, IGN would applaud Fulop's work on the game and declare it to be "perhaps his greatest achievement on the 2600". IGN would also heap praise on the game's graphics, describing them as beautiful and elegant. They would place Fathom near the top of their top 5 Imagic games for the Atari 2600.[5]
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