Update (05/15/2026)-
The developer has updated the Atari 2600 page for Tony Montezuma's Gold and it is SOOOO much better. I wanted to update anyone reading this after this article was posted.
The YouTube video was deleted due to the focus being on the poor designed itch.io page and what could be done to fix it. Having no longer been useful, I decided to remove the video entirely.
=== Original Article ===
Games based on real people are nothing new. Especially those in the exploration category. The real question with these games is just how close do they follow the real life person they are inspired by? Anyone remember Stanley: The Search for Dr. Livingston on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)? While VERY loosely connected, the historical connection is there. Well, the Atari 2600 can now join the ranks of exploration inspiration with Tony Montezuma’s Gold for the Atari 2600.
How Not To Promote A Game
Any and almost all entertainment based on real life people involves a fair bit of “cherry picking” aspects that work better than others. No one cares what brand toilet paper the inspiration used while at their day job for instance.
Tony Montezuma’s Gold is allegedly based on Tony Halik, which Indie Retro News mentions and goes into an abridged version of his historical significance. On the publishers itch.io page though, there is nothing mentioned on the Atari 2600 versions page. You will have to go over to the publishers profile then find the Amstrad CPC version for this key information.
Mised opportunity at educating fans that are just now discovering Tony Montezuma, such as myself. The information may, or may not, have been distributed in other versions of Tony Montezuma, making the lack of it on the Atari 2600 version even more obvious by elimination. Especially considering the Atari 2600 version is one of few featuring a cost to download ($10 as of this writing, less for certain other platforms if not free).
Get Your Fedora and Gun Holster
I am not writing this trying to crap on Tony Montezuma’s Gold for the Atari 2600. Just trying to help the publisher, and any others, that are reading this to better market their titles.
From the available media, there is a demo available as well, Tony Montezuma’s Gold looks like a more involved Pitfall adventure. Run and jump, collect gold, avoid creatures, climb ladders, etc on your quest.
I do want to point out that the main character sprite has some great idle animation, something not often featured in Atari 2600 games. It is not much but it is there and it is nice to see. Enemies also feature additional frames of animation giving them a bit more life than one might expect.
The music is 100% Atari 2600. You will either want to turn that off or not.
The biggest problem I see with Tony Montezuma’s Gold for the Atari 2600 is the way the publisher has marketed a $10 A2600 game. That is steep for many and the lack of information to hook the player on the story does not help.