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. Crystal Castles is one of the more impressive arcade to home conversions out there. No only was Bill able to keep most of the arcades graphics, but all the gameplay is intact as well. 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.Īt the start of a maze, gems are worth 1 point. Bringing any 3-D style game to a home computer was though challenge, but luckily programmer Bill Janhke proved to be up to the challenge. If Bentley is touched and loses a life, he “cries out” in a distinctive manner with the use of a cartoonish speech balloon. Some types of enemies will track Bentley’s movements in certain ways, while others move at random. Atari 2600’s Crystal Castles game descriptionĮnemies 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. If Bentley collects the hat, he will temporarily be invincible to the castles inhabitants. Wandering throughout the castles are a wide variety of dangerous creatures, which Bentley should avoid.įrom time to time, a magic hat will appear. When Bentley collects all of the gems on the current castle, he will move on to the next, more difficult castle. In Fighting Ice Hockey, it’s a six-on-six. To get out, Bentley will need to collect all of the gems located throughout the castle while avoiding enemies. In Crystal Castles, put your trackball to the test as you help Bentley Bear escape the Crystal Castles. The game is played with an isometric view of the multi platformed castle. This week’s Arcade Gems are Crystal Castles (1983) and Fighting Ice Hockey (1984).

Crystal castles game bear