Treasure Hunt in the Pirate Sea

LEGO Pirates Treasure Hunt
Developer(s)	Mondo
Publisher(s)	The LEGO Group
Engine	$HTML
Platform(s)	Web browser
Release	22 October 1996
Genre(s)	Strategy
Mode(s)	Single-player

Treasure Hunt in the Pirate Sea (also called LEGO Pirates Treasure Hunt) is a 1996 browser-based strategy game based on the LEGO Pirates product line. The player controls a LEGO minifigure exploring the titular Pirate Sea on a quest to find buried treasure. The game world contains obstacles and enemies for the player to navigate around and treasures for the player to collect for points.

Treasure Hunt was released in October 1996 and was the first LEGO web game published on LEGO.com, which had launched earlier that year. It was announced as part of a new plan for marketing LEGO to children on the internet. The game was considered a success and would be the first of numerous games released on the LEGO website over the following decades.

Gameplay

Screenshot of the game page

Treasure Hunt has the player take the role of a LEGO Pirates minifigure who has been appointed as the King's personal treasure hunter. The evil pirate Captain Redbeard (who the player's character resembles) hid all his treasure on a secret island in the Pirate Sea many years ago, and the player has been tasked with finding it. The player is given the option to talk to "the old treasure hunters in the king's city" before playing, or to start the game straight away.

The game's overview map

The game is tile-based and takes place on a 14×14 grid, which the player starts on the southern side of. Only a 3×3 area around the player can be seen at any time, though there is also an overview map of the entire world. Clicking on any of the adjacent tiles will move the player to that tile, if it is not blocked. The game world has three main types of features scattered across it: treasures for the player to collect, enemies for the player to avoid, and islands that the player has to navigate around. The player starts with twenty points, and each move to a different tile costs one point. Collecting treasure increases the player's points, while sailing into an enemy takes away points. There are also three special items on the map: a shovel, a message in a bottle, and a crown.

Release

Captain Redbeard

These days, if you want to attract the attention of children, advertising on TV and in magazines is no longer enough. That is why the first interactive LEGO game is being launched on the Internet, which is well on the way to becoming one of the most important media for contacting children in many countries all over the world.

"LEGO Pirates come to life on the Internet"

Treasure Hunt was made publicly available on the LEGO World Wide Web Site on 22 October 1996, and was announced in a press release on 24 October. The article called it the LEGO Group's first online "advertainment" game, claiming that advertising in magazines and on television was no longer enough to attract children's attention. The game was designed for children ages seven to twelve, with the stated goal of inspiring children to play more with real LEGO bricks. Due to limited internet speeds at the time, the game consisted of simple images that would not take long to download or require additional software. As it was available for free online, it was not considered part of the LEGO Group's plans for marketing software for children. Members of the LEGO Surfer Club received emails advertising the new game starting in November.

More than 50,000 people played Treasure Hunt during its first month online. The game was considered a success, and a second game, The Space Mystery, was launched in December. Treasure Hunt remained online through 1997, but was taken offline by early 1998. The game is partially archived at the Wayback Machine, but only for about five steps in any given direction, and thus it cannot be completed.

External links

• Treasure Hunt in the Pirate Sea on LEGO.com (via the Wayback Machine)