The Expansive (and Often Bizarre) History of Indiana Jones Games - Part One

Jamie explores the history of the famed archeologist

- Jamie Davies

Recent years haven’t been kind to the legendary, whip-cracking, fedora-rocking archeologist known—by his friends—as Indy. Since his exploits uncovering the Crystal Skulls back in 2008, the world has had as much love for Indiana Jones as your average cat has for the bathtub. Fortunately for the no-nonsense early 20th-century treasure hunter, he’s being given another shot at regaining the public’s favor with a newly-announced videogame developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda.

With only a teaser trailer and a handful of tweets to work with, it’s far too early to tell whether the renowned Wolfenstein developer will be able to do Indy justice, but the announcement has got me thinking about the famed fictional archaeologist regardless. I think now is the perfect time to take a look back at all the other Indiana Jones games populating the decades-long history of gaming, and there is an awful lot to look at. Some of them you may have heard of or even played. Others, however, might be completely new to you; they certainly were for me. So without further ado, let’s grab our trowels, clean our dust brushes and dig through history for Indiana Jones games of years past. Are you ready? Let’s get this excavation started!

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982)

Atari 2600