Treasure Mountain!

The incremental awards that aren’t actually rewards. The backgrounds that communicate “we is a backgwound, you are on mountain maybe!”. The repetitive slog towards the top, almost Sisyphean in its futility. The exploitation of a certain class of sentient being for entertainment purposes (elves, rise up and overcome). “Treasure Mountain!” predicted so many unfortunate trends that would become popularized in modern gaming. Playing it today, though, the primary thought running through my head isn’t one damning its “progressive” tendencies but a regressive, even nostalgic one—“Man, I really wish I was playing “Math Blaster” instead of this.” Sweet flips, though.

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