Crystal Castles - Videogame by Atari

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Crystal Castles

Name: Crystal Castles
Developer: Atari

Year: 1983
Type: Videogame

Class: Wide Release
Genre: Platform
Monitor:

Orientation: Horizontal
Type: Raster: Standard Resolution
CRT: Color
19-inch Electrohome G07

Conversion Class: unique
Game Specific: Crystal Castles Pinout

Number of Simultaneous Players: 1
Maximum number of Players: 2
Gameplay: 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

Click here to contribute another image.

Crystal Castles Control Panel ImageCrystal Castles Side Art Image

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 136 different machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1972.

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

Crystal Castles - KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 3.61 (13 votes)

Personal Impressions Score: 3.48

     Overall 'Like': 4.17
     Fun (Social): 2.75
     Fun (Solo): 3.58
     Collector Desire: 3.31

Technical Impressions Score: 3.97

     Gameplay: 4.00
     Graphics: 4.00
     Originality: 4.08
     Sound/Music: 3.58

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.

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Cabinet Style Weights and Measures

Type
Upright/Standard
Cabaret/Mini
Cocktail

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.

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.

Miscellaneous

Play a free version of Crystal Castles at the official Atari site: http://www.atari.com/arcade/crystalcastles.

Crystal Castles is available on the iPad and iPhone via Atari's Greatest Hits application.

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Crystal Castles Census

There are 12,082 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,583 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 162,623 machines (6,829 unique titles).

Very Common - There are approximately 363 known instances of this machine presumably owned by our current and past members. More are likely owned by non-members. 145 of these machines are owned by our active Crystal Castles collectors. And of these, 118 are original dedicated machines, 7 are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet, and 20 are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 6 active VAPS members with Crystal Castles machines for sale. There are 4 active VAPS members with extra Crystal Castles circuit boards for sale.

Wanted - Popular - There are 19 active VAPS members currently looking for Crystal Castles. There is one active VAPS member looking for a Crystal Castles circuit board set.

At any given time, our active members are listing on VAPS on average of 4,400 games they are looking for, and 3,600 games for sale.

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 wanted, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

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

Technical

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

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.

Manuals

2-board PCB version Schematic 2 Pages, 1.9 MB File.
Crystal Castles Pinouts Corrected 1 Pages, 203 kB File.
Operator's Manual 47 Pages, 2.8 MB File.
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;
Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games, Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256): Page: 152; Color photo; Price guide:

Additional References
(logged in members often see more)

The Arcade Flyer Archive (TAFA): Crystal Castles Flyer #241
The Arcade Flyer Archive (TAFA): Crystal Castles Flyer #2990
The Arcade Flyer Archive (TAFA): Crystal Castles Flyer #4379

eBay Listings

Click to search eBay for Crystal Castles Videogame machines and related items.

Click to search eBay for Atari for machines and parts.

Check out the IAM/KLOV report of the hottest coin-op machine auctions, powered by Ace.com.

*TODAY'S PICKS FOR:
Crystal Castles

	1. Crystal Castles Arcade Marquee – 26″ x 8″ Auction ends in: 3 weeks, 5 days
	FixedPrice	$14.75
	2. Atari Crystal Castles Video Arcade Game Operators Instruction Manual +Schematics Auction ends in: 3 weeks, 2 days
	FixedPrice	$15.95
	3. Atari Crystal Castles Arcade Game Control Panel Auction ends in: 2 weeks, 5 hours
	FixedPrice	$300.00
	4. ATARI Crystal Castles RED ILLUMINATED TRACKBALL AND MARQUEE n more Auction ends in: 2 weeks, 3 days
	FixedPrice	$500.00
	5. Atari Crystal Castles to JAMMA Adapter Auction ends in: 1 day, 7 hours
	FixedPrice	$69.99
	6. Damaged original Crystal castles Atari arcade Video game manual Auction ends in: 1 day, 21 hours
	FixedPrice	$9.89
	7. Crystal Castles Speaker Grill Glass Replacement Auction ends in: 3 weeks, 3 days
	FixedPrice	$25.00
	8. Flyer Atari CRYSTAL CASTLES Arcade Video Game advertisement original see pic Auction ends in: 4 weeks, 1 day
	FixedPrice	$14.98
	9. 1983 CRYSTAL CASTLES Original ATARI Arcade Game Manual + Schematics VINTAGE Auction ends in: 3 weeks, 6 days
	FixedPrice	$22.00
	10. Atari CRYSTAL CASTLES Arcade Video Game Manual - good used original Auction ends in: 3 weeks, 2 days
	FixedPrice	$8.99
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