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ColecoVision

Fathom

ColecoVision

ColecoVision

Neptina, Neptune's daughter, has been imprisoned at the bottom of the sea by Titans. Your goal is to rescue her by locating the scattered pieces of a magical trident! You will need to take the form of a dolphin and a bird in order to locate the pieces that are hidden in the ocean and clouds. When...

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Developer
Imagic

Released on
1983

Size
1 Player

Version
ColecoVision

Requirements
ColecoVision

Downloads
Action

ESRB Rating
Not Rated

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Description

Neptina, Neptune’s daughter, has been imprisoned at the bottom of the sea by Titans. Your goal is to rescue her by locating the scattered pieces of a magical trident! You will need to take the form of a dolphin and a bird in order to locate the pieces that are hidden in the ocean and clouds. When flying in the air, there are several screens that have clouds flying by. Touch all of the clouds, and the trident piece appears! Other birds which are flying around will cause you to lose energy if you touch them accidentally. Underwater, trident pieces can be found by touching the sea horses. Octopuses, sharks, and a deadly maze of seaweed will get in your way and cause you to lose energy if caught! When you have located all of the trident pieces, the cage holding Neptina can be unlocked, but if you run out of energy first the game will be over.

Fathom

Overview & History

Released by Imagic in 1983 for the ColecoVision, Fathom is an ambitious, dual-perspective action game designed by Katach. Breaking away from standard single-screen conventions, the narrative tasks you with freeing the Neptune goddess and the son of the Sun God from an evil spell cast by the evil Neptune. To accomplish this, your playable characters—a seagull and a dolphin—must alternate between two distinct realms: the chaotic skies above and the hazardous ocean depths below, ultimately racing against a relentless tide timer to piece together the fractured trident.

Gameplay Features & Mechanics

The core mechanic of Fathom revolves around seamless shifting between environments. In the upper sky level, you control a seagull navigating horizontal platforms, avoiding soaring predators, and collecting the glowing trident pieces scattered across cloud formations. Diving into the water transforms you into a dolphin, where you must swim through labyrinthine coral reefs, dodge stinging jellyfish, evasive sharks, and snapping octopuses. Every screen successfully cleared awards a crucial segment of the sacred weapon. However, caution is vital: touching any hostile sea creature or sky-born hazard instantly drains a life, and running out of time brings a swift game over. The game's unique vertical scrolling and distinct physics for flying versus swimming provide a genuinely novel challenge for early 1980s console gaming.