Challenge of the Ancient Empires!
Educational adventure through ancient caverns and puzzles.
The Learning Company published Challenge of the Ancient Empires! in 1990 for MS-DOS and Macintosh. This educational adventure game targets children ten and older, building history, logic, and problem-solving skills. Players explore cavern chambers, dodge enemies and obstacles, gather artifact fragments, and complete tiling puzzles to move forward.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- The Learning Company
- Released
- 1990
- Genre
- Educational/Adventure
- Modes
- Single-player
- Platforms
- MS-DOS, Macintosh
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
The objective is to collect hidden treasures from caverns in four regions: Greece and Rome, Egypt, India and China, and the Near East. Each region has four chambers with decorations and artifacts matching its theme; for example, the Egyptian cavern contains hieroglyphs, mummies, and artifacts like the sphinx or Rosetta Stone. Each region features a distinct puzzle style: the Near East uses switches to move blocking panels, Egypt uses triangular reflectors to direct a light beam, Greece and Rome involve Greek-letter-coded gates opened by entering the correct combination, and India and China requires manipulating conveyor belts. After collecting six pieces of an artifact, the player solves a tiling puzzle to reveal the artifact's picture, then finds the exit and solves a logic puzzle to advance. The four main caverns can be played in any order. Completing all four chambers in each cavern unlocks the Ancient World cavern, which has four chambers combining all previous puzzle styles and is more difficult.
Development
Originally titled Challenge of the Ancient Empires!, it was released as part of The Learning Company's Super Solvers series, which blends educational and entertainment qualities. The following year the name was shortened to Ancient Empires when it was removed from the Super Solvers series and paired with Operation Neptune. The background music consists of arrangements by composers including Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Erik Satie, and Verdi, with specific pieces assigned to different screens and regions.
Reception
Critics and players alike found plenty to like in Challenge of the Ancient Empires! Computer Gaming World awarded it three out of five stars, highlighting strong graphics and audio. On MobyGames, users gave it an average 3.7 out of 5, praising its blend of adventure and puzzle gameplay for all ages. Abandonia rated it 4.0 out of 5, citing appealing visuals, music, sound, and easy controls. A Viewpoints review also gave it 4.0 out of 5, noting its successful mix of entertainment and educational value.
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