Mountain King is a game that was released by CBS Electronics in 1983. The basic goal is to descend into a diamond mine, retrieve a crown and bring it back out again. Obviously, it isn't quite so simple and there are certain challenges that must be overcome. First, you have to collect 1,000 points worth of diamonds. You then must find the flame spirit. The flame spirit is necessary to gain entry to the temple the crown is in which also must be found. Assuming you accomplish all of this, you must make it back out of the mine before time runs out. Be careful as there is a spider guarding the depths of the mine and bats bats will try to steal the crown from you. Once you complete your task, you begin again but with less time.
This game got pretty good reviews when it was released. However, I don't think it has held up as well as some other classic games. The graphics are pretty weak for this type of game regardless of what version you are playing. Sound and music are put to pretty good use though you may found the music repetitive as it consists of two musical pieces by Edvard Grieg, including 'Hall of the Mountain King' from which the name of the game is derived.
This game was released for a variety of systems, including the VIC-20, Commodore 64, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit computers, and ColecoVision. Graphically, the 8-bit computer versions are not as much of an upgrade as you would expect over the Atari 2600 version. This game has not been re-released as far as I know so you will have to track down an original or use emulation to play it. It isn't the best game but it is a fairly unique little platform game that's probably worth adding to your collection for whichever of the above systems is your favorite if you can find it cheap (which you probably can).
Screen shots above are from the Commodore 64 version of the game.
