Crystal Castles (video game)

Screenshot of the original arcade version

Crystal Castles has nine levels with four castles each, and a tenth level which features a single castle — the clearing of which ends the game. 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 three-letter initials of the player with the highest score are used to form the first level's castle structure. When all gems in a castle have been collected, a tune of the Nutcracker Suite is played, and the player moves on to the next castle. The player can also skip some castles and acquire additional lives and points by using secret warps activated by making Bentley Bear jump at special locations.

A trackball and jump button are used for controlling Bentley Bear's motions. Gems are collected by walking over them, and a bonus is given upon collection of the last gem. While collecting gems, there are a number of enemies that try to stop Bentley and/or collect the gems for themselves. Any gems collected by the enemies also result in a lower obtainable score for that screen. Likewise, if the last available gem is collected by the enemy, the player also loses the last gem bonus.

Enemies can be avoided by use of the maze and its constructs, or by making Bentley jump over opponents with the jump button, in some cases also allowing him to stun them. Some types of enemies will track Bentley's movements in certain ways, while others move at random. If Bentley is touched and loses a life, he "cries out" in a distinctive manner with the use of a cartoonish speech balloon. If at least 3 lives remain, he says "BYE!"; if 2 lives still remain, the quotation is "OH NO!"; if 1 life is left, it is "OUCH!"; and finally, for the last lost life (which ends the game), he says "#?!", so as to imitate an obscenity.

At the beginning of every maze, gems are worth 1 point each; this value increases by 1 for every gem Bentley picks up, to a maximum of 99. Each maze also randomly includes a hat or honey pot, which serve the dual purpose of awarding points and providing Bentley with the ability to defeat specific enemies. The hat is worth 500 points and will make Bentley invulnerable for a few seconds and allow him to eliminate Berthilda the witch (3,000), who appears in the last maze of each level. The honey pot is worth 1,000 points, and picking it up can delay the landing of a swarm of bees. If the game is beaten, 10,000 points times lives remaining (up to 6) is awarded, plus time bonus.

Other villains present in the game 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. The Nasty Trees and Crystal Balls can also pick up gems.

Crystal Castles contains two notable easter eggs. 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.[3] On level 5‒4, if the player kills Berthilda and goes to the corner of the area where she was and jumps, "FXL" will appear in the southeast corner of the screen. These are the initials for Franz X. Lanzinger, a designer of Crystal Castles.

Crystal Castles was the first game to use the Leta chip, a custom trackball controller chip designed by Scott Fuller.

Bentley Bear was originally named Braveheart Bear in the released prototypes, but Atari was forced to change the name when advocates for Native Americans complained.[4][5]

C64 version

Crystal 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. 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.[6] There are two versions for the C64: a prototype[7] by Atarisoft that wasn't released at the time but purchased by U.S. Gold and released in Europe in 1986; and one by Thundervision in the US in 1985.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Crystal Castles on their December 15, 1983 issue as being the fifth most-successful upright arcade unit of the year.[8]

Crystal Castles has been included in multiple anthologies, including Atari Anniversary Edition and Atari Vault.

Bentley Bear is a playable character in the game Atari Karts for the Atari Jaguar and makes a cameo appearance in the 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph.

Bentley and Crystal Castles are referenced by Lupe Fiasco in his song "Audubon Ballroom" on his 2012 album Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1.

• Crystal Castles at the Killer List of Videogames
• Crystal Castles at Arcade History
• Crystal Castles for the Atari 8-bit family at Atari Mania
• Crystal Castles at Lemon 64
• Crystal Castles at SpectrumComputing.co.uk
• The Making Of Crystal Castles speech by Franz Lanzinger