The SwordQuest Challenge was a video game contest held by Atari between 1982 and 1984.  The contest was centered around a new video game series that Atari was releasing for their home video game console, the Atari VCS.

The origin of the SwordQuest series was conceived by the Easter egg that was hidden and found in Atari’s previous video game “Adventure”.   Adventure drew a lot of public attention when the hidden Easter egg was found and documented which led Atari to capitalize on the idea of hiding messages within an action-adventure game.  By creating an action-adventure series where players had to find both in game clues and clues contained within the physical material bundled with the game provided Atari with an outstanding marketing opportunity.