Chapter 27: Back Gamin’ Again

The stands erupt with cheering, and fireworks launch over the stadium. The white robots pick you and Melvin up and carry you triumphantly around the bases. When you get to home plate, there stands Charlie, with a tear in his eye. He speaks into a microphone, and his words echo throughout the stadium. “I declare… this Player… to be the official winner… of the Atari Baseball Challenge!” The stands again erupt into cheering, and Pete presents the ring to you on a velvet pillow. You take it and hold it up, and its gold seems to glow as you hold it in your hand.

“YAHOO!” shouts Melvin, zipping in a spiral all around you, Pete, home plate, and the ring. “Let’s take it to the Queen!”

You start to walk out of the stadium, but then stop and look back at Charlie, or rather Pete, and Melvin says, “Well, aren’t you coming?” He scrambles out of his umpire gear, and runs over to you. “Yes,” he says, “I… need to make things right. Come on, we can take my golf cart!” You climb into the golf cart, wave goodbye to all the fans, as Pete Rose drives you out of the majestic stadium.

Melvin looks at the stadium, and asks Pete, “Will it turn back to a cornfield now that the game is over?”

“I hope not,” says Pete, glancing back at it. “I hope it can stay there a long, long time.”

You ride through town, and everyone waves excitedly to see you. It seems word has spread about the game. You pass out of the edge of town to the gray, rocky area where the ruined castle lies. The cart bumps and tips over the rubble strewn field. Pete grimaces. “I haven’t been here in ages. I… had no idea it would be this bad.”

You get out of the cart, and show Pete the hole in the wall that you and Melvin created on that first day, and you all climb inside. As before, the Queen sits on her throne amidst the gray gloom in a computing trance.

Knowing that words alone are unlikely to wake her, you slip the ring onto her finger. Immediately there is a pulse of color, and you get another glimpse of a beautifully appointed rainbow colored throne room, which immediately snaps back to gray. The Queen’s eyes snap open, and glowing numbers appear in the air reading “2/26.” You see electric energy start to pulse around the ring on her ebony finger, which then floats off her hand, and up into its alcove. She looks at you, blinking, and with great effort, says, “You… have found it… the second… treasure. So… many… memories…” you see all kinds of images flashing by her eyes. Again, with effort, she says, “I need… your help… to reconnect… let us play… a very… old… game…”

Suddenly, her eyes cast out a blue and green holographic gameboard into the space before the throne. You immediately recognize it as backgammon, though the checkers are square instead of round. Pete stands to the side, head bowed reverently. Melvin whispers, “I hope you know how to play backgammon.” You look at the glowing ring up in the alcove, then at the floating backgammon table, and make your first move.

Put the Backgammon cartridge into your Atari 2600. Use game select 3, and set the difficulty switches to a. Play until you are able to win. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.