Dragon's Cache - Atari 7800

The Story

And so the day came when the Dragon of Embers, born of fire and stone, faced against the Dragon of Storms, scion of the wind and seas. Both had discovered the same cache of unclaimed treasure, its origins forgotten to time. Monarchs among their kind, with greed to match their power, the conflict would promise to be an epic one...both had mastered their elements, but they also knew that for all their might, their practice in the Game of Crystals would determine the victor.

For when dragons battle over a hoard, these fearsome beasts will not rely on strength, but rather on skill and subtlety to claim as much of the wealth as they can. These inscrutable wyrms align gemstones according to mystic laws, hoping to cause immense cascades of energy and harnessing the power contained within. In this contest the quick and clever can trap the rash and arrogant, and dragons possess every one these qualities!

In Dragon’s Cache you must match gems in lines of three or more as they fall in order to score and try to keep ahead of the tide of innumerable rubies, sapphires, diamonds, and quartzes! A puzzle game rewarding speed and strategy, Dragon’s Cache offers a variety of modes of play - race the clock or a friend for points, or try to reach a high score.

Go into battle mode to unleash the energy contained within the rows and columns of jewels against your friends and rivals!

How to Play

In Dragon’s Cache you must match three or more gemstones in rows, columns, or diagonal lines as they fall from the top of the board. Unmatched gems will stay on the board until they are matched. The game will end when enough unmatched gems accumulate to reach past the top of the board, or, if you’re in racing mode, you reduce your predefined score to zero. The consequences of matching the gems depends on the play mode selected.

In normal play, matched gems are collected, incrementing your score. Once collected, any gems remaining on the board might fall, filling in any gaps created. If these gems also make matches, you collect those gems as well, with higher scoring value. With skill or luck, you can create cascades of gems leading to massive amounts of points!

Gameplay Video

Screenshots

Game Options

• Play alone or head-to-head against a friend!
• Toggle Music on or off
• Select how many gem types to play with: 4, 5, or 6 types
• Select from three Game Modes (Score, Race, and Battle/Training)

Game Modes

• In Score Mode, the objective is to get as many points as possible. Collecting enough gems results in an increase of level, and an increase of game speed.
• In Race Mode, the player chooses a score, and collecting gems will subtract from this amount. Try to get to zero points as quickly as possible!
• In Battle Mode, any matched gems will energize, staying on the board but adding to a power meter. You can activate any energized gems on your board by pressing both joystick buttons at once. Activating energized gems will result in your opponent’s gems dropping faster for a turn. The first player to have their board overflow with unmatched gems will lose the match.

Get a Dragon's Cache Box!

If you'd like a boxed copy of Dragon's Cache, please select "Box Upgrade: Yes" at the top of the page before adding Dragon's Cache to your cart. Our boxes are professionally printed and include a box insert to hold your Dragon's Cache cartridge in place. We want you to play our games, so we have not sealed or shrinkwrapped the boxes in any way, allowing you easy access to the game cartridge and manual.

These boxes are the same size as boxes Atari produced for their games "back in the day". They look great sitting on a shelf with your other boxed homebrew games, or alongside games from the classic Atari 2600 library. We only have a limited number of boxes for each game, and there is no guarantee they will become available again once our supplies are exhausted.

AtariVox Support

If you have an AtariVox or SaveKey plugged into joystick port 2, high scores are automatically saved. Three different high scores are saved, based on whether the player chose to play with 4, 5, or 6 types of gems. Without an AtariVox or SaveKey, high scores are reset when the game is powered off.

Additional Information

Dragon's Cache includes game cartridge, full-color 16-page manual, and professionally printed box.