Lost Treasure - The Electronic Deep Sea Diving Game

In Lost Treasure the players are treasure hunters looking for sunken treasure. The players move their boats around the board and use the "Electronic Dive Control Center" to determine where the treasure is relative to their boat. When they have located the treasure the Dive Control Center runs the dive, letting the player know how much air their divers have left and how much treasure they have found. When the player has reached the surface with the treasure they must get it back to shore and the bank before the other players intercept them and pirate it away.

By the early 1980s computer chips had become common enough that game manufacturers were including them in their game designs. Lost Treasure is an example of one of these games. The player moves their boat then enters their location into the Dive Control Center. The Dive Control Center then indicates if the treasure is to the east or to the west of the player's boat (or to the north or south). Eventually the players can determine where the treasure is located. The player then dives for the treasure by holding the dive button down. The longer they hold the button the more treasure they pick up but the more air their divers use. If they use up all of their air before they release the button then all of the treasure is lost.

While the Electronic Dive Control Center is an interesting gimmick it can't disguise the fact that the game is heavily reliant on luck. A player who happens to start near the treasure can get to it and clean it out before the other players can get near it. There is no real strategy or planning involved; the entire extent of planning consists of deciding to dive for silver or gold (or if you simply want to wait around and pirate it away from another player after they have gotten it). All players jointly cooperate in finding the treasure but are immediately at each other when it is found.

Lost Treasure is an interesting idea for a game, but in this case the execution of the idea does not live up to its promise.

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