Well before tomb raiding became the sexy pastime of buxom, British bombshell, the 1980s was awash with treasure-hunting, dungeon-exploring dudes in search of lost relics and forgotten stockpiles of gold… you know- to donate to a museum.

It was also the era of Montezuma’s Revenge, an action adventure game created for the Atari 800 computer by a 16-year-old programmer named Robert Jaeger. The game was a massive success, and would go on to be ported to several other platforms (including the SEGA Master System, which was my first experience with it). It would also be credited as a key influence on other games that followed it.

Now 40 years later, the team at Handcrafted Mystical Games (HMG) has decided that their maiden development effort should be an updated 40th Anniversary Edition of Montezuma’s Revenge, remade and reimagined to take advantageous modern PCs and consoles. Retro gaming purists out there can also take heart that original creator of Montezuma’s Revenge, Robert Jaeger is on board with the project and working on an updated “Director’s Cut” mode of the new game.

Here’s the official breakdown of Montezuma’s Revenge 40th Anniversary Edition from HMG:

Montezuma’s Revenge is a 1984 platform game for Atari 8-bit family, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Apple II, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, IBM PC (as a self-booting disk), and ZX Spectrum (as Panama Joe). It was designed and programmed by Robert Jaeger and published by Parker Brothers.

In Montezuma’s Revenge, players may follow Pedro the explorer or his younger sister Rosita on an expedition for glory into the deadly depths of Montezuma’s tomb. Overcome devious traps, face down monstrous foes, and find a path through the ruins to untold riches – and then see if you can do it again.

Montezuma’s Revenge was ahead of its time in 1983 in how it approached replay value and challenge, distinguishing itself with multiple difficulty settings that altered the tomb’s layout, closing paths, changing enemy placement, and floors shrouded in darkness.

Fans of the 1983 original will have something to look forward to as well with the inclusion of a previously unreleased complete Director’s Cut of the original Montezuma’s Revenge with this new edition.

Montezuma’s Revenge 40th Anniversary Edition is currently in development is expected to release in late 2023… and I got through this whole piece without a single poop joke!

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