Crystal Castles (Atari 2600) - online game | RetroGames.cz
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Crystal Castles - Atari 2600

Atari 2600 joystick:

Atari 2600 joystick


Joystick control:

 

Player 1: Player 2:
joystick ↑↓←→ TGFH
trigger Spacebar A
turbo Del .
RESET F12 F12
SELECT F11 F11
Pause Alt+P Alt+P
black-white / color mode:  F2
paddle / joystick mode: Alt+L

Emulation speed:

If the game emulation is slow, try to speed it up by reloading this pa­ge without ads or choose a­no­ther emulator from this table.


Other platforms:

Unfortunately, this game is cur­rent­ly available only in this ver­si­on. Be patient :-)



Game info:
Crystal Castles - box cover
box cover
Game title: Crystal Castles
Console: Atari 2600
Author (released): Atari, Inc. (1983)
Genre: Action Mode: Single-player
Design: Scott Fuller, Franz X. Lanzinger, Sam Lee
Music:
Game manual: manual.pdf

File size:

365 kB
Download: not available (stream only)

Game size:

16 kB
Recommended emulator: Stella

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

   Crystal Castles is an arcade game released by Atari, Inc. in 1983. The player controls a cartoon bear by the name of Bentley Bear, who has to collect gems located throughout trimetric-projected rendered castles while avoiding enemies out to get him as well as the gems.
   Crystal Castles is notable for being one of the first arcade action games with an actual ending, whereas most games of the time either continued indefinitely, ended in what was termed a 'kill screen' or simply just restarted from the first level, and to contain advance warp zones.
   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, 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 simply 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. With two exceptions, if touched by the enemies he will lose one of his lives. 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, he 'cries out' in a distinctive manner with the use of a cartoonish word balloons. If 3 or more 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, 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.
   Other villains present in the game include: 'Nasty Trees' which become more ornery as levels progress, a ghost that will usually appear in the Hidden Spiral levels, dancing skeletons, 'Gem Eaters' who Bentley Bear can defeat if he catches them while eating a gem, and also the devilish 'Crystal Balls' creatures that in later levels tend to follow Bentley Bear persistently 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. 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.

More details about this game can be found on Wikipedia.org.

For fans and collectors:
Find this game on video server YouTube.com or Vimeo.com.
Buy original game or Atari 2600 console on Amazon.com or eBay.com.

Find digital download of this game on GOG or Steam.

 
Videogame Console:

This ver­sion of Crystal Castles was de­sig­ned for A­ta­ri 2600, which was com­mer­ci­al­ly ve­ry suc­ces­s­ful vi­deo ga­me con­so­le of se­cond ge­ne­ra­tion pro­du­ced by A­ta­ri from 1977 to 1992. It was the first con­so­le that used re­mo­vab­le me­mory mo­du­les with ga­mes. At the time of its grea­test fa­me, mo­re than 30 mil­li­on units of this con­so­le were sold for about $ 200 a pie­ce. To da­te, the ga­me li­bra­ry for this con­so­le con­tains near­ly 1,000 o­ri­gi­nal ga­mes. Mo­re in­for­ma­ti­on about the Atari 2600 can be found here.


Recommended Game Controllers:

You can control this game easily by using the keyboard of your PC (see the table next to the game). However, for maximum gaming enjoyment, we strongly recommend using a USB joystick that you simply plug into the USB port of your computer. If you do not have a joystick, buy a suitable USB controller on Amazon or AliExpress or in some of your favorite online stores.

 
Available online emulators:

5 different online emulators are available for Crystal Castles. These emulators differ not only in the technology they use to emulate old games, but also in support of various game controllers, multiplayer mode, mobile phone touchscreen, emulation speed, absence or presence of embedded ads and in many other parameters. For maximum gaming enjoyment, it's important to choose the right emulator, because on each PC and in different Internet browsers, the individual emulators behave differently. The basic features of each emulator available for this game Crystal Castles are summarized in the following table:
 

Emulator Technology Multiplayer USB gamepad Touchscreen Without ads
Javatari 5.0 JavaScript YES YES YES YES
Javatari 0.91 JavaScript YES YES NO YES
NeptunJS JavaScript YES YES NO NO
EmulatorJS JavaScript YES YES YES YES
JStella Java applet YES NO NO YES


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