One of the great things about old arcade game is their use of classical music. When I started listening to it as a kid I recognized so many theme songs. And by the way this game is beautiful even to this day. The 3d isometric view is so original.
I loved this game! When I was a kid Chuck E Cheese walked over to me and took over. He rolled the ball around and skipped me forward several levels. I said “ Thanks Chuck E! He held up his hands then skipped me forward a bunch more levels. He high fived me then went on his merry way. I died shortly after that, but I’ll never forget it. Thanks Chuck E!
This was the arcade of my dreams all throughout my childhood. Played it once in a K-Mart at age 6, always wished I could go and play it again. I'll probably have to get one of those Atari cabinets one of these days...
one of my favorite musical bands is called the Crystal Castles, I had always thought that they named themselves after She-ra's fortress of solitude, but maybe it was after this game
@@bonsai2004official i met them and saw them for the first ? time after hearing them online? at a cmj? music festival , i might have seen them in concert in philly later
I loved stumbling across this game in the mid 80s. There's just something really fun about it. I would not be against seeing a modern version of some sort.
There was actually two versions of Crystal Castles for the C64. One by ThunderVision in 1985, and one strictly for the European market by US Gold in 1986
Used to have one in my medical school common room . Loved it & we shoved many an old 10p (10 pence) coin . We didn't get that far in the game as it got pretty edgy , pretty quickly . This game HAS to be played in it's original context i.e with a trackball - necessary for control from finesse and delicacy to running like fuck from mad trees & bees. A real gem . Great orignal music + Pyotr , imaginative sprites , great use of isometric projection , smooth as a jazz lick , challenging and I could go on. Overarching that is the most crucial factor - gameplay - which is superlative . I had a girlfriend who dumped me in early 1987 . One of her main gripes was " You care more about bloody Bentley Bear than you do me" . Had to own that one !
I remember playing this when I had to stand on my tippy toes to reach the controls. It seemed really difficult compared to other games in the arcade at the time.
Bentley bear was in Atari karts? I had no idea otherwise I would've mentioned it. They tried to put Bentley in the Atari ST educational line but it never took off.
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries Yeah, he's the only recognizable character too. But I think Bentley was really before his time, ten years later everyone loved animal mascots in gaming.
Another informative and enjoyable historical review. I had this game as a kid on the Atari 2600. It may not have been the best port, but as a kid I enjoyed playing countless hours of this game.
Thank you very much, those are all good ideas. To be honest, one of the games on your list is probably going to be my next video so you must have ESP :-)
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries If you do Space Fury, then you must do Zektor as well! A couple game I'd love to see you do are Dragon Spirit and Black Tiger.
C.C. was an advance in video games that many did not even see happening. I LOVED it and donated a lot of quarters to keep pushing the envelope. I'd play it today if it existed in the arcades.
All the atari 8 bit games suffered from the limits of player missile graphics. They allowed for cool smooth sprites that could be drawn over the top of the play area, but you could only have 4. And if you wanted colour you had to combine a few of them. You can see this on the 2600 version too where the enemies flash. This is because they take turns at being drawn. I loved my 8 bit atari though. Love your videos!
Amazing research Pat, as always. You jokingly say 'the stuff that nightmares are made of' in regards of the bad guys in this game. And honestly, I started playing Crystal Castles on the Atari ST at the age of 6, I think, and it did gave me stress :-) Each time Berthilda was near, I got a bit scared. Now, 35 years later I still absolutely love this game and I do think the Atari ST version is just top notch. I did try the arcade version 10 years ago using MAME, but I still prefered the ST. Old habits never die, I guess :-) anyway, another great documentary on your fantastic channel! Take care.
That's very nice of you to say and thanks for sharing your story. It's amazing how You can enjoy certain conversions more than the actual arcade game itself. For me it was buggy boy on the Commodore 64 and marble madness on the Amiga. I always preferred those versions over the arcade original. Glad you like my channel, take care
Good grief! I truly NEVER expected my 1980s Page 3 girl favourite, Sam Fox, to make an appearance in one of your videos Patman?!! The memories that reference just reignited is worth the Patreon sponsorship alone!!! Now, if you'll excuse me I'm off to find my 1989 scrapbook, the one with the pages which somehow ended up all stuck to.... erm I've said too much 🤣
LOL! I was on the fence about putting that Samantha Fox joke in there, But when would the next time be that I would get to talk about her lovely assets? :-)
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries Exactly! You just know every single one of your British fans (of a certain age lol) suddenly rose to attention, and became swollen with pride at the mention of a Page 3 legend!!
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries There was an even sillier (likely homebrew) C64 game "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" that was a joystick wiggler (like Decathlon) with a primitive cartoon graphics. Like any sex related games, in Germany it was outlawed ("indiziert", i.e. not to be shown or given to people
Any chance you've got a video about Bosconian coming down the pipeline soon-ish? I've searched your channel to no avail. I used to own the world record for that game on Twin Galaxies until about 11-12 years ago, been meaning to score the Bosconian cocktail cabinet again one of these days. HIGHLY underrated game for the time! Also, LOVED this entry, took me back. Dang, the 80's were a magical time. Cheers, and thanks as always for the great content!
Pat, we must've been on the same wavelength when I requested Crystal Castles a few weeks ago! Thank you very much. I was always fascinated by the isometric elevators when I was a kid. It sent my imagination soaring.
To be honest the game was always in the back of my mind as far as covering but was just trying to find something interesting to talk about. Speaking of the isometric elevators you can clearly see the influence of MC Escher in the design of the game.
I never made the MC Escher connection before now but, yes, it is rather obvious now that it's been pointed out to me. Were you using a trackball during the arcade version's video capture process? Also, I'm glad to see that comments on your channel have been turned back on. God bless, my friend.
I recently went to an old school arcade by were I live and couldn’t stop playing this game I’m not old enough to have nostalgia with the game but old enough to appreciate it was fun af and will definitely go back just to play Crystal castle
Like Marble Madness and Centipede, this game took getting used to due to the trackball. I still remember the first time I saw this in the 80s arcades as a kid. Cool concept. Tough game.
I started playing marble madness on the Commodore 64 and Amiga using a joystick before ever seeing an actual arcade game. Years later when I finally saw one I could not use the trackball to save my life LOL
The 2600 version was very good (imo) considering the system. Was usually available for a couple bucks after the crash. Flickering was noticeable but not as distracting on those old crts.
This was the only version of Crystal Castles I played back in the day. It struck me as one of the 2600's most visually impressive titles, but seeing the footage of the arcade original, I see how this would be a big let-down for fans of the cabinet.
Just like this wonderful Crystal Castles game your documentary series lured me in with fancy graphics and music and quickly got hardcore. Thanks for explaining what the letters on the first level were about; that kinda bothered me for decades. Looking forward to your Chase HQ doc if you get around to doing one.
I found a Crystal Castles arcade cabinet in NC a few years ago and fell in love with it. The trackball control is so smooth. Pretty sure I played it at least once way back in the day too somewhere...
you know, thinking about stuff like the artwork on the arcade cabinets got me thinking about game manuals, another aspect of gaming lost in the advancement of technology with physical copies seeming to be on their way out too. I honestly miss that stuff, the things they had to do to give their games strong presentations back before the internet became big. we certainly don't need these things now but I can't help but worry if as we make everything digital, we run the risk of things just vanishing into the mists of time over the lack of any physical representations of it.
One thing that I've discovered when I started the channel about a year and 1/2 agoWere all various arcade manuals and flyers. A lot of that stuff contains information that wasn't available anywhere else. Not to mention the extra artwork included. You are right though, there is not that much emphasis on it nowadays
Before there was Banjo & Kazooie with their great battles against Gruntilda Winkybunion, there was Bentley Bear and his confrontation with Berthilda The Witch in The Crystal Castles! I notice a couple similarities between Bentley, and Banjo. Both are bears, both fight witches, and both appeared in racing games (Banjo with Diddy-Kong Racing, Bentley with Atari Karts).
@PatmanQC Acutally, on the PS1, Crystal Castles is included in the Atari's Greatest Hits Volume 2 game and can be played with the Nyko classic trackball controller. Arcade perfect with an excellent trackball! On an additional note; Millipede, and Marble Madness are also on this disc, and the latter game will even support TWO trackball controllers for the two player Marble Madness experience.
"Samantha Fox Strip Poker", that was a real game? Great video of the very fun "Crystal Castles". Now are you going to do a video about "Xevious"? A lot of interesting facts about that one, including the fact it was set on the Nazca Plains of Peru (did someone at Namco read "Chariots of the Gods?).
I always LOVE to find a nice bowling alley with some arcade games!! :D My local bowling alley just happens to have some!! (multi-cade Namco w/Pacman and others), etc. :) BTW: Me and my fam have the Atari 2600 Crystal Castles, and we even have a trackball controller to play the game arcade authentic!! :D
Not sure if you have a PS4 or Xbox One but the Atari Collections have some ports of the actual arcade versions of the games, including Crystal Castles, which is excellent. I mostly got it just for that and it's quite fun!
It's interesting that the walking trees can be temporarily disabled by jumping over them. This was before Super Mario Bros. popularized jumping on enemies as a method of defeating them.
one of my favorite arcade games, my son and I love it! One of the best games that comes w/ the Atgames Legends Ultimate Arcade! Can't believe I played the Atari 2600 version back in the day, tried that again for old times sake and ugh!
Just bought an arcade1up with this and 3 other trackball games on it for a little over $100. Never heard about it (born 1984) but it looks great! I can't wait to build the cabinet and play.
Another great video, but you've really got to watch your audio levels in future! Sometimes you voice was very loud, sometimes it was quiet, and when you were playing various tunes I couldn't hear a thing, even with my volume turned right up. I had never heard of Arcade1up before, so thanks for informing me about that! :-)
Sorry about that, to be honest I did have some technical difficulties this week but it's all sorted out now. Thanks for being patient and glad you enjoyed the video.
Another interesting thing about this game was that the track ball mounting and board layout was mostly diagonal, (Atari called it trimetric) like how the joystick was in Qbert. The trackball was also lighted in red.
One of my favorite games as a kid, lol... on the version that comes with Atari Vault on steam I was 4th on the leaderboard for a while, have since been knocked down quite a bit though
If you knew the hardware limitations, the VCS2600 version of "Crystal Castles" was not bad at all! I played this for hours. Music and sound was perfect. Beside sprites, the hardware could do only 40 pixels per row and 1 colour per row, and without CPU tricks one picture half always mirrored or repeated the 2nd. When keeping CPU cycles for the gameplay itself, it would have been extremely difficult to draw more complex level designs (although not impossible - see level 1 of "Congo Bongo").
I've just started playing this on the atari flashback classics its on PSVita and Nintendo Switch it is addicting along with black widow millipede red baron and super break out
Crystal Castles is also available as a true arcade port and Atari 2600 on Atari: 80 Classic Games In One for Windows, and as "Atari Anthology" for PS2 and Xbox (but is essentially the same release).
PatmanQC - History of arcade game documentaries well, they’re both bears who collect shiny objects in a 3D environment, and they both have a witch whose name ends in “ilda” for an arch-enemy...
Imagine if they stuck with an ET theme and he went around forest scenes, Elliot's homes or his neighborhood construction site collecting Reese's pieces? That might've saved Atari instead of that awful boondoggle that filled a dump for nearly forty years!
That ET game wasn't too bad either. As a kid I played it for many hours, although graphics wasn't nice (you could run through the building props etc.) and WTF was ET green instead of brown...
That's because it was an unofficial conversion. I don't cover homebrew or unlicensed knockoffs in my videos. I agree though, it is an excellent conversion
Like I said in my previous videos, some games you just shouldn't even attempt to convert. To be honest it wasn't bad but it sure wasn't crystal castles.
This is a game Mark Bussler of the 'Classic Game Room' channel (now the '80s Comics' channel) hated, & he loves every single video game ever made. I myself like it
Oddly enough, this one was never that prominent in the arcades near me. The few that had it only had it for a very short time so I didn't get to play it that much. I made up for that by playing a ton of it on the C64, though!
The only reason I remember this game is because of an early 1990s internet review, where someone captioned one of the arcade flyer artworks with "Stop trying to touch my ass, you stupid bear!"
SO MANY HOURS. I was also going to complain, but I decided I will allow you to leverage "hidden" in "hidden warp zone" so that you can exclude Defender: Stargate and Tempest having high level warps 2 years earlier. Hmm. I guess I did complain, sort of.
I didn't have any arcades near my house, so I didn't get to go to them that often. I only ever saw Crystal Castles in the arcade once. I'm pretty sure it had a defective trackball since I had to spin it like crazy to get any movement out of Bentley. If I just rolled it gently, he barely twitched. I also had a chance to try the Arcade1Up machine a few month ago. At least I think it was by Arcade1Up. I only tried Centipede because I didn't like the feel of the trackball. Maybe that's how the original arcade machine was, but it felt really sluggish to me. You know how when a mouse's speed is set too low, you move the mouse to the side and the pointer only travels half the distance you expected, then you have to lift the mouse up, return it to its original position and move it again to get the pointer to where you want? That's what the trackball on on the machine I tried felt like. I was expecting 1:1 movement like with a mouse, but it felt like the speed was set a notch too low. Maybe that can be changed in the settings? I don't know, I just know I kept dying because I'd roll the ball and my shooter didn't move as far as I expected.
Thanks for the reply, yes it certainly sounds like your trackball was defective. As far as the arcade1up Product,Sometimes you have to calibrate the trackball once you get assembled. This greatly enhances the speed and precision.
The only Arcade1Up machines I've seen in person have been demo units in stores and I don't think the employees know much about setting them up beyond following the assembly instructions. My local Costco had one that had Tempest, Asteroids and a some others that use a spinner. Unfortunately this spinner didn't spin. It was very stiff. It was like turning one of the shutoff valves under your sink.
Trackballs need to be repeatedly taken apart for cleaning. Else all that hand cheese will clog up the rotating cylinders the ball is resting on, and so make the mechanism get stuck (which strongly changes with environmental temperature and moisture).
One of the great things about old arcade game is their use of classical music. When I started listening to it as a kid I recognized so many theme songs. And by the way this game is beautiful even to this day. The 3d isometric view is so original.
The game definitely has a timeless feel to it
I loved this game! When I was a kid Chuck E Cheese walked over to me and took over. He rolled the ball around and skipped me forward several levels. I said “ Thanks Chuck E! He held up his hands then skipped me forward a bunch more levels. He high fived me then went on his merry way. I died shortly after that, but I’ll never forget it. Thanks Chuck E!
i would've been all: oh thanks a lot for making the game tougher 🤣
This was the arcade of my dreams all throughout my childhood. Played it once in a K-Mart at age 6, always wished I could go and play it again. I'll probably have to get one of those Atari cabinets one of these days...
It's really cool you go to Walmart and actually buy an arcade cabinet :-)
one of my favorite musical bands is called the Crystal Castles, I had always thought that they named themselves after She-ra's fortress of solitude, but maybe it was after this game
Yes, I'm sure it was after this game
Ha ha, ya think?! I was an Atari Teenage Riot fan myself
they said they named themselves after She-ra's fortress of solitude on their MTV interview i think
@@bonsai2004official i met them and saw them for the first ? time after hearing them online? at a cmj? music festival , i might have seen them in concert in philly later
They seem to have a lot in common with R Kelly 🤔
I loved stumbling across this game in the mid 80s. There's just something really fun about it. I would not be against seeing a modern version of some sort.
I always enjoyed a growing up
There was actually two versions of Crystal Castles for the C64. One by ThunderVision in 1985, and one strictly for the European market by US Gold in 1986
Used to have one in my medical school common room . Loved it & we shoved many an old 10p (10 pence) coin . We didn't get that far in the game as it got pretty edgy , pretty quickly . This game HAS to be played in it's original context i.e with a trackball - necessary for control from finesse and delicacy to running like fuck from mad trees & bees. A real gem . Great orignal music + Pyotr , imaginative sprites , great use of isometric projection , smooth as a jazz lick , challenging and I could go on. Overarching that is the most crucial factor - gameplay - which is superlative . I had a girlfriend who dumped me in early 1987 . One of her main gripes was " You care more about bloody Bentley Bear than you do me" . Had to own that one !
I remember playing this when I had to stand on my tippy toes to reach the controls. It seemed really difficult compared to other games in the arcade at the time.
Shame Atari never really capatalized on their mascots, the only other game I've ever seen Bentley Bear in is Atari Karts on the Jaguar.
Bentley bear was in Atari karts? I had no idea otherwise I would've mentioned it. They tried to put Bentley in the Atari ST educational line but it never took off.
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries Yeah, he's the only recognizable character too. But I think Bentley was really before his time, ten years later everyone loved animal mascots in gaming.
@@Larry But Atari Karts had Skully! And Pulpito! And... OK.
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries Reminds me of the Sticky Bear games from the 80's.
Another informative and enjoyable historical review. I had this game as a kid on the Atari 2600. It may not have been the best port, but as a kid I enjoyed playing countless hours of this game.
Thank you very much, glad you enjoyed the video. I played this a few times on the Atari as a kid but always preferred the Commodore 64 version
I love ALL your History Of documentaries! Would love to see you do Moon Patrol, Space Fury, Joust, Zaxxon, Tutankham, and Sinistar.
Thank you very much, those are all good ideas. To be honest, one of the games on your list is probably going to be my next video so you must have ESP :-)
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries If you do Space Fury, then you must do Zektor as well!
A couple game I'd love to see you do are Dragon Spirit and Black Tiger.
C.C. was an advance in video games that many did not even see happening. I LOVED it and donated a lot of quarters to keep pushing the envelope. I'd play it today if it existed in the arcades.
The graphics have a timeless feel to it that is for sure. It's definitely a classic
All the atari 8 bit games suffered from the limits of player missile graphics.
They allowed for cool smooth sprites that could be drawn over the top of the play area, but you could only have 4. And if you wanted colour you had to combine a few of them.
You can see this on the 2600 version too where the enemies flash. This is because they take turns at being drawn.
I loved my 8 bit atari though.
Love your videos!
Yes, I would rather have a little bit of Flickr then only have four sprites on screen LOL thanks for the nice words, glad you enjoy my content
If you think the Atari 8-bit has only 4 sprites, check out the Polish game Albert.
Amazing research Pat, as always. You jokingly say 'the stuff that nightmares are made of' in regards of the bad guys in this game. And honestly, I started playing Crystal Castles on the Atari ST at the age of 6, I think, and it did gave me stress :-) Each time Berthilda was near, I got a bit scared. Now, 35 years later I still absolutely love this game and I do think the Atari ST version is just top notch. I did try the arcade version 10 years ago using MAME, but I still prefered the ST. Old habits never die, I guess :-) anyway, another great documentary on your fantastic channel!
Take care.
That's very nice of you to say and thanks for sharing your story. It's amazing how You can enjoy certain conversions more than the actual arcade game itself. For me it was buggy boy on the Commodore 64 and marble madness on the Amiga. I always preferred those versions over the arcade original. Glad you like my channel, take care
great videos thanks for all the time you put into them
Another great video. This game has been one of my favorites since it came out.
Thank you very much, one of my favorites to
I have a giant Bentley Bear tattoo on my right arm. Love this game..
LOL, that's awesome
Great overview, thanks for sharing 👍
Fond memories of the 2600 version, even if it wasn't that great 😀
I’ve never played this game but I did enjoy the video very much. I’ve yet to watch one from this guy that I didn’t enjoy. Excellent content.
Thank you very much. That's very nice of you to say. I appreciate : it :-)
Good grief!
I truly NEVER expected my 1980s Page 3 girl favourite, Sam Fox, to make an appearance in one of your videos Patman?!!
The memories that reference just reignited is worth the Patreon sponsorship alone!!!
Now, if you'll excuse me I'm off to find my 1989 scrapbook, the one with the pages which somehow ended up all stuck to.... erm I've said too much 🤣
LOL!
I was on the fence about putting that Samantha Fox joke in there, But when would the next time be that I would get to talk about her lovely assets? :-)
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries
Exactly! You just know every single one of your British fans (of a certain age lol) suddenly rose to attention, and became swollen with pride at the mention of a Page 3 legend!!
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries There was an even sillier (likely homebrew) C64 game "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" that was a joystick wiggler (like Decathlon) with a primitive cartoon graphics. Like any sex related games, in Germany it was outlawed ("indiziert", i.e. not to be shown or given to people
I just thought I'd stop to take a moment and tell you that I love your videos.
Awesome, glad you enjoyed the content so much. Thank you for the kind words
Any chance you've got a video about Bosconian coming down the pipeline soon-ish? I've searched your channel to no avail. I used to own the world record for that game on Twin Galaxies until about 11-12 years ago, been meaning to score the Bosconian cocktail cabinet again one of these days. HIGHLY underrated game for the time! Also, LOVED this entry, took me back. Dang, the 80's were a magical time. Cheers, and thanks as always for the great content!
Loved playing this one on Arcade's Greatest Hits: Atari Volume 2 on the PS1 when I was younger. Really unique little game
I should've mentioned that it was part of the collection on PS one
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries Atari Anthology on the PS2 as well
Pat, we must've been on the same wavelength when I requested Crystal Castles a few weeks ago! Thank you very much. I was always fascinated by the isometric elevators when I was a kid. It sent my imagination soaring.
To be honest the game was always in the back of my mind as far as covering but was just trying to find something interesting to talk about. Speaking of the isometric elevators you can clearly see the influence of MC Escher in the design of the game.
I never made the MC Escher connection before now but, yes, it is rather obvious now that it's been pointed out to me. Were you using a trackball during the arcade version's video capture process?
Also, I'm glad to see that comments on your channel have been turned back on. God bless, my friend.
Thanks. Always looking forward too your videos. :-)
Thank you so much, glad you enjoy my content
I recently went to an old school arcade by were I live and couldn’t stop playing this game I’m not old enough to have nostalgia with the game but old enough to appreciate it was fun af and will definitely go back just to play Crystal castle
My fav game along with Gauntlet, great video thanks!
Thank you for watching, and thanks for the nice words. Please subscribe if you haven't already's
Like Marble Madness and Centipede, this game took getting used to due to the trackball. I still remember the first time I saw this in the 80s arcades as a kid. Cool concept. Tough game.
I started playing marble madness on the Commodore 64 and Amiga using a joystick before ever seeing an actual arcade game. Years later when I finally saw one I could not use the trackball to save my life LOL
Yeah, a trackball I tend to avoid for arcade games. Centipede it's okay with.
I had this on an Atari 800 in the 80s. My parents and their neighbours, both in their fifties, couldn't get enough of it.
It was a lot of fun especially with the trackball
One of my all time favorites, I used to play this a lot at Land of Oz in Duck Creek Plaza :)
LOL, you and me both brother. I so love playing APB there as well :-)
One of my favorite arcade games, Crystal Castles. Didn't know the game concluded after 10 waves. 🐻
The 2600 version was very good (imo) considering the system. Was usually available for a couple bucks after the crash. Flickering was noticeable but not as distracting on those old crts.
It was okay but I just didn't resemble the arcade version in my opinion
This was the only version of Crystal Castles I played back in the day. It struck me as one of the 2600's most visually impressive titles, but seeing the footage of the arcade original, I see how this would be a big let-down for fans of the cabinet.
Just like this wonderful Crystal Castles game your documentary series lured me in with fancy graphics and music and quickly got hardcore. Thanks for explaining what the letters on the first level were about; that kinda bothered me for decades.
Looking forward to your Chase HQ doc if you get around to doing one.
Glad you enjoyed the crystal castles video. I did a Chase HQ video a while back so look in one of my earliest videos
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries Excellent, sorry I didn’t look harder. Will check it out.
@@ukmikey846 No problem, hope you enjoy it. It's one I may have to go back and redo because I have better audio equipment now
I found a Crystal Castles arcade cabinet in NC a few years ago and fell in love with it. The trackball control is so smooth. Pretty sure I played it at least once way back in the day too somewhere...
It is so good with the trackball. I love the game
Great Video!
Thank you
I played this game in an arcade for the first time ever today and enjoyed it so much.
It's a classic and it definitely holds up
you know, thinking about stuff like the artwork on the arcade cabinets got me thinking about game manuals, another aspect of gaming lost in the advancement of technology with physical copies seeming to be on their way out too.
I honestly miss that stuff, the things they had to do to give their games strong presentations back before the internet became big. we certainly don't need these things now but I can't help but worry if as we make everything digital, we run the risk of things just vanishing into the mists of time over the lack of any physical representations of it.
One thing that I've discovered when I started the channel about a year and 1/2 agoWere all various arcade manuals and flyers. A lot of that stuff contains information that wasn't available anywhere else. Not to mention the extra artwork included. You are right though, there is not that much emphasis on it nowadays
Before there was Banjo & Kazooie with their great battles against Gruntilda Winkybunion, there was Bentley Bear and his confrontation with Berthilda The Witch in The Crystal Castles!
I notice a couple similarities between Bentley, and Banjo. Both are bears, both fight witches, and both appeared in racing games (Banjo with Diddy-Kong Racing, Bentley with Atari Karts).
5:45 - "If you pick up Cheech Wizard.."
@PatmanQC Acutally, on the PS1, Crystal Castles is included in the Atari's Greatest Hits Volume 2 game and can be played with the Nyko classic trackball controller. Arcade perfect with an excellent trackball! On an additional note; Millipede, and Marble Madness are also on this disc, and the latter game will even support TWO trackball controllers for the two player Marble Madness experience.
I wasn't aware of the trackball, thank you
One of my most favorite arcade games!
Mind you, it's a classic
"Samantha Fox Strip Poker", that was a real game? Great video of the very fun "Crystal Castles". Now are you going to do a video about "Xevious"? A lot of interesting facts about that one, including the fact it was set on the Nazca Plains of Peru (did someone at Namco read "Chariots of the Gods?).
Yes Samantha Fox strip poker is a real game and any self-respecting 13-year-old boy had a copy of it for the Commodore 64 :-)
I always LOVE to find a nice bowling alley with some arcade games!! :D My local bowling alley just happens to have some!! (multi-cade Namco w/Pacman and others), etc. :) BTW: Me and my fam have the Atari 2600 Crystal Castles, and we even have a trackball controller to play the game arcade authentic!! :D
I love your videos
Thank you very much
The invincibility music is also from the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Thanks for the tip
as a kid we had this game on the C64. loved this game. kind of reminded me of marble madness and Q bert.
It does have that same viewpoint as marble madness
Hi Pat great video
Hey Ricky, thanks for the nice words. Glad you enjoyed it
Not sure if you have a PS4 or Xbox One but the Atari Collections have some ports of the actual arcade versions of the games, including Crystal Castles, which is excellent. I mostly got it just for that and it's quite fun!
It's a really good compilation thanks
It's interesting that the walking trees can be temporarily disabled by jumping over them. This was before Super Mario Bros. popularized jumping on enemies as a method of defeating them.
I've never heard of this one before. Interesting watch.
Thanks, I always enjoyed the arcade game from the first time I saw it as a kid
one of my favorite arcade games, my son and I love it! One of the best games that comes w/ the Atgames Legends Ultimate Arcade! Can't believe I played the Atari 2600 version back in the day, tried that again for old times sake and ugh!
LOL, the 2600 version definitely does not hold up
Just bought an arcade1up with this and 3 other trackball games on it for a little over $100. Never heard about it (born 1984) but it looks great! I can't wait to build the cabinet and play.
That sounds fantastic
Another great video, but you've really got to watch your audio levels in future! Sometimes you voice was very loud, sometimes it was quiet, and when you were playing various tunes I couldn't hear a thing, even with my volume turned right up. I had never heard of Arcade1up before, so thanks for informing me about that! :-)
Sorry about that, to be honest I did have some technical difficulties this week but it's all sorted out now. Thanks for being patient and glad you enjoyed the video.
Mr. Patman... Where do you get your Bezel Artworks for MAME? (y'know, the drawings surronding the gameplay footage of the arcade version. 12:51)
Another interesting thing about this game was that the track ball mounting and board layout was mostly diagonal, (Atari called it trimetric) like how the joystick was in Qbert. The trackball was also lighted in red.
I knew about the trackball was a light up red. Did not know about the diagonal positioning. Thanks
One of my favorite games as a kid, lol... on the version that comes with Atari Vault on steam I was 4th on the leaderboard for a while, have since been knocked down quite a bit though
Excellent play my friend
There’s also a cauldron in this game as well. This is basically to practise bentleys jumping skills
My MAME cabinet contains a track-ball and is another way outside of the 1Up Arcade cabinet to experience this "gem" in it's original and perfect form.
That's awesome, since I use a trackball instead of a mouse I can play a pretty decent version of it but not quite as good as the arcade
If you knew the hardware limitations, the VCS2600 version of "Crystal Castles" was not bad at all! I played this for hours. Music and sound was perfect. Beside sprites, the hardware could do only 40 pixels per row and 1 colour per row, and without CPU tricks one picture half always mirrored or repeated the 2nd. When keeping CPU cycles for the gameplay itself, it would have been extremely difficult to draw more complex level designs (although not impossible - see level 1 of "Congo Bongo").
Do a video on Major Havoc, imo one of the most innovative games of the vector graphics period.
Man, that is a nice looking arcade. I only ever played the boring cocktail cabinet version when I was a kid.
It is a very nice arcade cabinet, I love the design
I suppose I'm not a huge Crystal Castles fan because I prefer the 2600 version over the original, and it's a pretty different game.
It's really quite a different game
I played this on my 7800 retro. I had no idea what was going on. This helps!!!
I'm glad I could help
It always looks funny the way he runs
I've just started playing this on the atari flashback classics its on PSVita and Nintendo Switch it is addicting along with black widow millipede red baron and super break out
That is an excellent collection
Crystal Castles is also available as a true arcade port and Atari 2600 on Atari: 80 Classic Games In One for Windows, and as "Atari Anthology" for PS2 and Xbox (but is essentially the same release).
I hope they do something with Crystal Castles again sometime soon
I headcanon that Bentley Bear is Banjo's ancestor and no one can convince me otherwise.
LOL
PatmanQC - History of arcade game documentaries well, they’re both bears who collect shiny objects in a 3D environment, and they both have a witch whose name ends in “ilda” for an arch-enemy...
Imagine if they stuck with an ET theme and he went around forest scenes, Elliot's homes or his neighborhood construction site collecting Reese's pieces? That might've saved Atari instead of that awful boondoggle that filled a dump for nearly forty years!
LOL, I could see that. Or at least give the programmer enough time to do a decent job on the game design
That ET game wasn't too bad either. As a kid I played it for many hours, although graphics wasn't nice (you could run through the building props etc.) and WTF was ET green instead of brown...
You missed the c64 version by thundervision easily the best home conversion
That's because it was an unofficial conversion. I don't cover homebrew or unlicensed knockoffs in my videos. I agree though, it is an excellent conversion
I had a blast pjaying this one. But the game was rare, not in all arcades. Thx
Thanks for watching
This game had a good feel to it, due to the trackball control. It's a good game.
It's very innovative and has a timeless feel to it
The game should've been called "The Land of Oz",
because of the characters, it's hard to look at this awesome game as original.
I agree, that would've been a good name
Angry bees = Jitterbug(s)?
True Oz fans will get it!
Def one of my all time fav cabinet arts! I rem how massively disappointed I was when I got it on the Atari 2600 lol
Like I said in my previous videos, some games you just shouldn't even attempt to convert. To be honest it wasn't bad but it sure wasn't crystal castles.
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries It was 1 of my 1st lessons in "ports" that I'll never forget lol
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries The 2600 version played great for that what it was, and music and sound was IMO perfect.
I thought this game is a prototype of Marble Madness...realtime 3D maze with trachball operation of Atari
It certainly plays very similar
So, SO many of my quarters went into this machine...
money well spent
I remember hoping to find a warp to the next level whenever I found a console
LOL, I did that as well
I first played Crystal Castles in Florida at the Atari 80 Classic Games in One disc that you play on the PC.
Very cool, it's definitely a classic in my book
I first saw this on an Apple iie in 1989. Didn't get a chance to play, but I might try to track it down nowadays.
I always enjoyed it but it's much better with the trackball
Understood. If get a chance to visit the local retro arcade, I'll see if they have one of these.
What a cool game!!! I miss Bentley Bear!!!!
wow, i forgot about this game.
A good number of Atari games, including this one is on Switch under Atari Flashback Classics
Thanks for the info
can you please make the history of "Psychic 5" arcade game from the 80's?
This is a game Mark Bussler of the 'Classic Game Room' channel (now the '80s Comics' channel) hated, & he loves every single video game ever made. I myself like it
I love this game, it just gets really hard really quick
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries I didn’t really see it honestly, except that one time in either 1988 or 89 at a hamburger stand
Listen to that first set of music...Smurf Very Crunch is fun to eat. Same song.
I remember when I watched this game on Starcade.
I used to love that game show
Oddly enough, this one was never that prominent in the arcades near me. The few that had it only had it for a very short time so I didn't get to play it that much. I made up for that by playing a ton of it on the C64, though!
We had it for quite a while around here in the Midwest
The only reason I remember this game is because of an early 1990s internet review, where someone captioned one of the arcade flyer artworks with "Stop trying to touch my ass, you stupid bear!"
Haven't seen "Reactor" I dropped many a quarters and always made it to the 7 control rods level.
Bentley Bear should *NEVER* be naked... I mean, even Winnie the Pooh had a shirt 😂
LOL, I agree :-)
SO MANY HOURS. I was also going to complain, but I decided I will allow you to leverage "hidden" in "hidden warp zone" so that you can exclude Defender: Stargate and Tempest having high level warps 2 years earlier. Hmm. I guess I did complain, sort of.
Thanks for the correction
I like the subliminal Pac-Man entry at 13:34. :-)
There's something comforting about your voice. Like hearing a story from your grandpa.
Is that supposed to be a compliment ? You could have just left it at sentence 1.
@@DrTWG Yes, it's a compliment.
I didn't have any arcades near my house, so I didn't get to go to them that often. I only ever saw Crystal Castles in the arcade once. I'm pretty sure it had a defective trackball since I had to spin it like crazy to get any movement out of Bentley. If I just rolled it gently, he barely twitched.
I also had a chance to try the Arcade1Up machine a few month ago. At least I think it was by Arcade1Up. I only tried Centipede because I didn't like the feel of the trackball. Maybe that's how the original arcade machine was, but it felt really sluggish to me. You know how when a mouse's speed is set too low, you move the mouse to the side and the pointer only travels half the distance you expected, then you have to lift the mouse up, return it to its original position and move it again to get the pointer to where you want? That's what the trackball on on the machine I tried felt like. I was expecting 1:1 movement like with a mouse, but it felt like the speed was set a notch too low. Maybe that can be changed in the settings? I don't know, I just know I kept dying because I'd roll the ball and my shooter didn't move as far as I expected.
Thanks for the reply, yes it certainly sounds like your trackball was defective. As far as the arcade1up Product,Sometimes you have to calibrate the trackball once you get assembled. This greatly enhances the speed and precision.
The only Arcade1Up machines I've seen in person have been demo units in stores and I don't think the employees know much about setting them up beyond following the assembly instructions. My local Costco had one that had Tempest, Asteroids and a some others that use a spinner. Unfortunately this spinner didn't spin. It was very stiff. It was like turning one of the shutoff valves under your sink.
Trackballs need to be repeatedly taken apart for cleaning. Else all that hand cheese will clog up the rotating cylinders the ball is resting on, and so make the mechanism get stuck (which strongly changes with environmental temperature and moisture).
@@cyberyogicowindler2448 Spinners don't fare too well either. I once played an Arkanoid machine where the "spinner" had kind of a ratchet feel to it.
I have a cabinet where Bentley is not wearing his hat on the side art. I was hoping to get more information on this if you have any
Every version I have seen he is wearing a hat
PatmanQC - History of arcade game documentaries my S/n is UR00007, there must have been a redesign very early on
ive played this and its pretty interesting and full of speedrunning possibilities. i imagine some tryhard comes to the cabinet with a giant robot
LOL
You have missed the "TRS-80 Coco" version of this game. Search with those words on CZcams.
the home computer gameplay works well if you have a roller ball controller for your computer
Yes it does, I use a trackball instead of a mouse in the game works great
In had the c64 version.
Super hard and often unfair,but so addictive!
It was extremely addictive
Please do Battlezone!