Museum of the Game ®

International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®

Crystal Castles

Description

Bentley Bear gathers gems found along the paths of many three-quarters-view castles. Wear the magic hat to kill the witch, Berthilda, and eliminate the gem eaters while they are eating. Secret warps take you to higher levels.

Crystal Castles was produced by Atari in 1983.

Atari released 139 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1972. Atari was based in United States.

Other machines made by Atari during the time period Crystal Castles was produced include: Fast Freddie, Gravitar, Dig Dug, Black Widow, Akka Arrh, Alpha 1, Arabian, Cloak & Dagger, Cloud 9, and Firebeast aka Dragon Master

Specs

Name	Crystal Castles
Developer	Atari (United States)
Year	1983
Type	Videogame
KLOV/MOG #	7456
Class	Wide Release
Genre	Platform
Monitor	Orientation: Horizontal 19-inch Electrohome G07
Conversion Class	unique
Game Specific	Crystal Castles Pinout
# Simultaneous Players	1
# Maximum Players	2
Game Play	Alternating
Control Panel Layout	Single Player Ambidextrous
Controls	Backlit Trackball: Optical Buttons: 1 - Jump
Sound	Unamplified Stereo (requires two-channel amp)
Cabinet Styles	Upright/Standard Cabaret/Mini Cocktail
Control Panel	Crystal Castles Control Panel Image
Side Art	Crystal Castles Side Art Image

Game Introduction

One of the few games out there that actually ends. Also the fact that the game has no attract sound is made up by the fact that the game has one of the best looking cabinets ever produced. The machine also sports a red lighted trackball that blinks.

On this game, the player controls Bentley Bear, the teddy bear who must go to each of the Crystal Castles and harvest the magic gems while avoiding evil creatures that lurk about.

Game Play

Use the trackball to move Bentley Bear around the paths of the various "castles" and pick up gems. A level is completed when all the gems are picked up either by you or the gem eaters. If you get the last gem, you will receive extra bonus points.

Kill the gem eaters only when you can see them swallowing a gem. Jumping over the trees will shrink and disable them temporarily. Wearing Berthilda's hat temporarily grants you invincibility and allows you to kill the witch if you can catch her. Other creatures such as the balls, skeletons, and ghosts must be avoided. The pot of honey can be eaten for extra points, but watch out for the swarm of bees.

Crystal Castles KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 3.71 (14 votes)

Fun Factor: 3.59

Overall Like	4.23
Fun (Social)	2.92
Fun (Solo)	3.69
Collector Desire	3.43

Technical Rating: 4.05

Gameplay	4.08
Graphics	4.08
Originality	4.15
Sound/Music	3.69

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Cheats, Tricks, Bugs, and Easter Eggs

You can warp from level one to level five by moving Bentley around to a specific spot at about the center of the back of the castle and pressing Jump. This trick also works on later levels in different locations.

Images

Trivia

One unique feature of this game is that the initials entered after obtaining a high score are used as part of one of the levels of the next game played. See the initials FXL in the top screenshot. These letters change based the ones entered from the last high score.

Miscellaneous

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Crystal Castles Census

There are 15,264 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,669 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 166,973 machines (7,000 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 362 known instances of this machine owned by Crystal Castles collectors who are active members. Of these, 310 of them are original dedicated machines. 12 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet. 40 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 18 active VAPS members with a Crystal Castles machines for sale. There are 5 active VAPS members with a Crystal Castles circuit boards for sale.

Wanted - Very Popular - There are 41 active VAPS members currently looking for Crystal Castles. There is one active VAPS member looking for a Crystal Castles circuit board set.

This game ranks a 73 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 62 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Technical

The game uses a 6502 microprocessor and two Atari Pokey sound chips.

Manuals

2-board PCB version Schematic - Crystal Castles Manual — **2-board PCB version Schematic**
(2 pages, 1.9 MB File)

Crystal Castles Pinouts Corrected - Crystal Castles Manual — **Crystal Castles Pinouts Corrected**
(1 page, 203 kB File)

Operator's Manual - Crystal Castles Manual — **Operator's Manual**
(47 pages, 2.8 MB File)

Operator's Manual with illustrated parts lists - Crystal Castles Manual — **Operator's Manual with illustrated parts lists**
(85 pages, 8 MB File)

Foto-Finder® (Books)

The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 152; Color photo Price guide: No
Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 152; Color photo

Additional References (logged in members often see more)

3D Model (External): Upright (7dd06a1da48a9bfba63a9d7f761c674d)

eBay Listings

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TOP WATCHED LISTINGS FOR: Crystal Castles