Crystal Castles is an arcade computer game released by Atari, Inc in 1983. The player controls a cartoon bear named “ Bentley Bear ”, who must collect gems scattered across the locks drawn in a trimetric projection , avoiding enemies who seek to catch him and capture the stones.
| Crystal castles | |
|---|---|
| Developer | Atari, inc |
| Publisher | Atari, inc |
| Date of issue | Arcade Machine 1983 |
| Genre | Action |
| Creators | |
| Supervisor | Scott Fuller |
| Game designer | Sam Lee (hardware) |
| Programmer | Franz X. Lanzinger |
| Technical details | |
| Platforms | Arcade , others |
| Game modes | single-user and two players |
| Control | button, trackball |
| Display | raster , 256 × 232, horizontal, 32 colors in the palette |
| CPU | M6502 (@ 1.25 MHz) |
| Sound | POKEY x 2 (@ 1.25 MHz) |
Crystal Castles is known for being one of the first arcade games to go through. Most of the games of that time continued indefinitely, ending with the so-called "killer screen" , or began anew from the first level [1] . Also in this game there were transition zones , allowing you to go to the next levels.
Content
- 1 Gameplay
- 2 Ports
- 3 notes
- 4 References
Gameplay
Crystal Castles has nine levels, each with 4 castles, and a tenth level with one castle, clearing which completes the game. Each of the 37 castles drawn in a trimetric projection consists of a maze of corridors filled with precious stones and bonus objects, as well as stairs, elevators and tunnels, which the player can use as a short way. The three-letter initials of the player with the highest achievement determine the structure of the first castle. When all the diamonds in the castle are collected, the player moves on to the next. The player can skip some castles, gain extra lives and points by using secret transition zones that are activated by Bentley Bear’s jump in a certain place.
To control the character’s movements, a trackball and a jump button are used. Gems are collected by passing them, bonus points are awarded for collecting the last stone. In the game there are various enemies who are trying to stop the character and / or collect stones on their own. Touching the enemy leads to the loss of life. If enemies collect stones, this reduces the number of points a player can get at this level. If the last stone is taken by the enemy, the player loses the bonus that he could get for him.
Collisions with enemies can be avoided by using the maze and objects in it, or by jumping over the enemies with the jump button, which in some cases also deafens them. Some enemies follow the player’s movements in a certain way, while others move randomly. If the character touches the enemy, he “screams” using a word cloud. If he has 3 lives or more, he says “Bye!” (“Bye!”), If 2 lives - “OH NO!”; if one - “OUCH!”; finally, the loss of the last life (ending the game) leads to the appearance of the replica “# ?!” imitating a curse.
Ports
Crystal Castles has been ported to various home computers and game consoles:
- Apple II .
- Atari 2600 .
- Atari 8-bit .
- Atari ST .
- Commodore 64 .
- BBC / Acorn Electron .
- ZX Spectrum .
- Amstrad CPC .
- PC , PlayStation and Dreamcast - as part of the Atari Anniversary .
- Windows , Xbox , and PlayStation 2 - as part of Atari: 80 Classic Games in One! (2003) and Atari Anthology (2004).
- Xbox 360 and Windows as part of the Game Room (2010).
Notes
- ↑ Atari Video Games . Date of treatment June 27, 2010. Archived January 27, 2013.