The level design is much, much simpler here, but it doesn't hurt the game at all. I didn't like the D-pad controls, but I imagine it would work well with the 2600 joystick, which is what I normally use. I don't normally like using the keyboard for games, but it really does work well for this title.
I don't have the physical cartridge for it (shocker), but I did have my old Windows Vista machine out, so I looked up an online JavaScript emulator and started playing with the keyboard. I thought I'd give it a second chance like I did with ET and Dragster. I saw that some people really liked this port. This morning, however, I was reading through my first ever topic on this site asking your top ten 2600 titles.
It's very impressive for the system, yes, but I never liked the controls or hit detection on the video waf- I mean, gems. For me, it has always been a "you get an A for effort" kind of game.
The 2600 port I played shortly after I first played the arcade game, also on Atari Anthology. Anyone else know the warp in level one that nets you 140,000 points? We went back, and YEAH! High score still standing! Sadly I didn't snap a pic of the score itself, but I did take a picture of my initials on the first level. This was on the cab I found while staying at a hotel. I love the arcade game so much, I went and got the high score. I think have one, but maybe I'm thinking of someone else. Nevertheless, if it was cheaper I would totally pick it up. I don't know if the machine was broken, but the minuscule trak ball was puny, imprecise, and honestly horrible. I played it on an Arcade 1up machine in a game store in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. If I could get any arcade cabinet, Crystal Castles would be it. After playing the cab, I grew to love the game. Not that the analog stick is any better for Crystal Castles. Until I found the cabinet in person, I didn't even know it was a trak ball game. Little did I know that the reason I didn't like it was because of the D-Pad! I'm not a fan of analog sticks with old games, so I almost never use them. I played this "weird 3D Pac-Man clone" with a D-Pad at the time, and I'm not sure if I knew I could jump until later! I thought it was just okay. Here was a game I had never heard of surrounded by true classics: Centipede, Asteroids, Pong, Super Breakout, Tempest, and more. I fist played the arcade version of Crystal Castles around 2013 on the XBOX collection Atari Anthology. Overall if you’re an Atari fan then it may be worth giving it a try but other than that its aged a bit too much, I do have to admit though it would probably make a great minigame in Spyro if they replaced Bentley with Moneybags (and obviously used better graphics).Today I was reacquainted with the Atari 2600 version of Crystal Castles using an online emulator. Whether a game like this has an ending or not doesn’t matter when you’re not an expert at it. It didn’t make it that much harder though since you can jump over most of them enemies and the tree things seemed to get temporarily stunned when you do, there was also a wizard hat that gave you very short invincibility although it still got crazily difficult at some point either way. Secondly for some reason you could only move levels through elevator looking things even if you were higher up or it looked jumpable. I managed to get quite far and after a while I noticed some odd things.įirst of all each gem seemed to be worth more than the last one slowly increasing in value so a stolen one is a huge chip off your potential score. Them being smily faces that can go through walls, tree monsters (whatever they’re called) that chase you, witches that follow a set path and even an enemy that picks up gem themselves. However as you might have guessed the gems weren’t so easy to collect without even factoring in the strange enemies. Getting into the game it kind of took a second to realise what the gems were meant to be although the bear, seemingly a teddy, was quite easy to control especially since it was just move and jump. Perfect score, lol joking it’s only the first level. I have to admit I was quite curious of what an ending to an old game like this would be like and I don’t really care about high scores but there’s no way I’d ever start at a later level. Like most super old games there isn’t much to talk about at the title, other than the logo there’s nothing there other than a level select and what was going to be the high score. The game is notable for being one of the first arcade action games with an ending. The player controls Bentley Bear collecting gems in trimetric ‘castles’ while avoiding the enemies. Crystal Castles is a 1983 maze game for the Atari 2600 develope and published by Atari.