ReceptionĪtari manufactured 5,380 Crystal Castles arcade cabinets. Gold and released in Europe in 1986 and one by Thundervision in the US in 1985.
There are two versions for the C64: a prototype by Atarisoft that wasn't released at the time but purchased by U.S. The Atari 8-bit version was nearly finished in 1984, but was not released until 1988 as a cartridge in the styling of Atari XEGS games.
PortsĬrystal Castles was ported to the Apple II, Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit family, Atari ST, Commodore 64, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC. DevelopmentĬrystal Castles was the first game with the Leta chip, a custom trackball controller chip designed by Scott Fuller.īentley Bear was named Braveheart Bear in the released prototypes, but Atari was decided to change the name when advocates for Native Americans complained. These are the initials of programmer Franz X. On level 5‒4, if the player kills Berthilda and goes to the corner of the area where she was and jumps, "FXL" appears in the southeast corner of the screen. Jumping 100 times or more in the southeast corner of level 1‒1 and clearing the maze of all gems will make ATARI appear on level 1‒2. The player can skip some castles and acquire additional lives and points by using secret warps activated by making Bentley Bear jump at special locations.Ĭrystal Castles contains two easter eggs. The Nasty Trees and Crystal Balls can also pick up gems. Other villains include Nasty Trees which become more aggressive as levels progress, a ghost that will usually appear in the Hidden Spiral levels, dancing skeletons, Gem Eaters whom Bentley Bear can defeat if he catches them while eating a gem, and Crystal Balls that appear in later levels and tend to follow Bentley Bear as he collects gems. Picking up the honey pot (1,000) can delay the landing of a swarm of bees. The hat also allows him to eliminate Berthilda the witch (3,000), who appears in the last maze of each level. The hat (500 points) makes Bentley briefly invulnerable. Each maze includes a hat or honey pot, which serve the dual purpose of awarding points and letting Bentley defeat specific enemies. This increases by 1 for every gem Bentley collects, up to a maximum of 99. If at least 3 lives remain, he says "BYE!" if 2 lives remain, the quotation is "OH NO!" if 1 is left, it is "OUCH!" and finally, for the last lost life (which ends the game), he says "#?!", so as to imitate an obscenity.Īt the start of a maze, gems are worth 1 point. If Bentley is touched and loses a life, he "cries out" via a cartoonish speech balloon. Some types of enemies will track Bentley's movements in certain ways, while others move at random. Likewise, if the last available gem is collected by the enemy, the player also loses the last gem bonus.Įnemies can be avoided by use of the maze and its constructs, or by Bentley leaping opponents via the jump button, in some cases also allowing him to stun them. Any gems collected by the enemies also result in a lower obtainable score for that screen. While collecting gems, there are a number of enemies that try to stop Bentley and/or collect the gems for themselves. Gems are collected by walking over them, and a bonus is given upon collection of the last gem. When all gems in a castle have been collected, a tune of the Nutcracker Suite is played, and the player moves to the next castle.Ī trackball and jump button control Bentley Bear.
The three-letter initials of the player with the highest score are used to form the first level's castle structure. Each of the 37 trimetric-projected castles consists of a maze of hallways filled with gems and bonus objects and also includes stairs, elevators and tunnels that the player can use as shortcuts.
The initials of the player with the highest score–FXL here–are built into the castle.Ĭrystal Castles has nine levels with four castles each, and a tenth level with a single castle-the clearing of which ends the game.
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