Arcade Game: Crystal Castles (1983 Atari) [Re-Uploaded]

A Maze game where Bentley Bear, collects gemstones as he moves around 16 different playfields, including a castle, fortress, palace, and even a dungeon. Scary creatures, such as nasty trees, gem eaters, a swarm of bees, and Berthilda the witch, chase Bentley Bear as he explores tunnels, elevators that take him from one plateau to another, and sometimes a secret ramp. This game has 10 levels with sub levels known as playfiends totaling 37 levels. Along with Cloak & Dagger, Crystal Castles was one of the first arcade games to have an actual ending without being restarted from 1st level over and over or levels keep continuing indefinitely. Instead, when you get to the last level and completed, the game is over.
The Controls feel a bit sloppy here. Controlling a character with a trackball does not feel right. Joystick would have been better. Playing with a mouse is even worse.
Note: Previously Uploaded. Re-Uploaded for Better Quality. No Cheats used. Only save states were used.

[@moviemetalhead]

This was such a fun game. Alot of people don't seem to remember this title whenever I mention it.. Guess I'm just getting old.. heh

[@dadleyblane5]

I do!! I spent a buncha quarters on this game! Loved it! Such a classic!

[@karlsebastiansollenhag8802]

I do and I’m 35 now. It’s a bit like inferno. But I was very little when I played this and it wasn’t new.

[@samihra8654]

I do!

[@gamerzero7735]

I'm 41, and I'm an old fool for old school.

[@BL3SSAV3LLI]

I remember my grandfather having this game in his candy shop back then

[@Balmung115]

Interesting music trivia: this game heavily features Classical music! 1:52 - The March from The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky (if you miss the last gem, it plays the same thing, but in minor) 2:29 - The Celeste solo from Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker (but much faster) 3:52 - Scherzo from Symphony No. 3 in Eb, Beethoven 8:13 - Scherzo from Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Tchaikovsky 39:56 - Finale of 1812, Tchaikovsky 40:10 - Another section of the above Beethoven Scherzo 23:16 - sounds like Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, Franz Liszt, but I can't pin what it actually is.

[@RobHealy1]

2:29 sounds like Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G min, Op. 23. The ascending bit right in the middle

[@br3dcrumbs]

23:16 might be Can-Can EDIT: Yeah, I'm kinda stupid ngl, does not sound like Can-Can after re-listening to it

[@rayboucher3690]

1:52 is interesting because upon listening to the "March" melody from 'The Nutcracker' I feel like I heard it somewhere before... it was in this game. Good to know that after revisiting this game on the Atari Classics.

[@desnout]

who put classic music in my witchhouse game

[@xandermijares342]

23:16 is a section of Rondo E Capriccio by Beethoven

[@efrem1]

1983, a great year for video games. The arcade next to Straw Hat Pizza at Fashion Valley in San Diego was my haunt in those days. Miss it much.

[@Crazcompart]

I loved this game! In an era of repetitiously (and sometimes, ridiculously) staged arcade games, this was one of the few that actually had an end! The Nasty Trees were the worst enemies because at the higher stages, they mirrored your speed and movement...

[@chasey4069]

Is this how the Duo Crystal Castles got their sounds?

[@stevemack9208]

Air war

[@cptwentworth]

Used to play this at the old tiny corner market a few blocks from my house. Anytime I could scrounge up some quarters, this was my go-to game.

[@MikeGubisch]

This brought back memories I didn’t know I had

[@mresturk9336]

Same here. I stumbled upon an original cabinet at a retro arcade this June. Vague memories suddenly came back of me playing the C64 port a lot as a young child. Pretty sure it was the Thundervision version though can't be sure since it was about 35 years ago :P

[@Glokas7]

This was a sight to behold. You read the boards perfectly every time. Congrats on this run!!! For anyone that doesn’t know, this is the games normal speed!

[@IneedmoresubsOnline]

The gems sounds are just so satisfying

[@toddfrank5159]

my son laughs at games i used to play. i loved the music and noises of this....burned up a lot of quarters on this

[@EmTheKittyKat]

My hair stylist that I've known for forever, has arcade machines in her shop and I remember her having this machine until it broke. And just recently I found out the name of it and now I'm so happy to see it again. This game was so hard with the rollball haha

[@Valitzu777]

Oh man.. the amount of money I've lost to this damn game in the 80's while waiting for my school bus :)... I sucked bad compared to your amazing skills.... Probably reached level 5 and thats about it... I love how you toy with the a.i.... loved this video, brought back great (albeit frustating) memories... thank you for posting

[@pallasathena17]

What did it used to say when you lost? It was something like "Oh no, Bentley Bear" wasn't it?

[@jc3drums916]

I believe he made himself invincible. I used to use the hidden teleports to skip to level 7 (assuming I could successfully do the one on level 3), but even with those, I almost never beat the Cross Maze on level 8.

[@AustriaHungary1940s]

I had this on a collection of atari games on the Nintendo DS, i was hooked. I even remember some of the shortcuts to skip levels lol.

[@gluttalcatch]

I used to love this game back in College (mid 80's). I only got to level 10 a few times but never got past it. Couldn't' understand why my son liked watching Twitch until I realized I just spent 40+ minutes looking at this.

[@hogne]

Holy diver! You are amazingly good at this game! It's almost like there's no sprite collision detection, that's how good you are. Kudos!

[@michaelbauers8800]

You are probably the best player I have ever seen at this game. Watched people play it way back in the day

[@entertainingsportshighligh7525]

I remember this game being in the 25 Cent ARCADES when I was a little kid at age 12 back in 1983, and I never figured out how to get good at it. Lol.

[@aimforinfinity7616]

I remember playing this on the computer. Those damn bees always got me!!

[@pauljackson5903]

Right away in the video, Level 1 Doomsdome, Bentley Bear veers perilously close to the dancing skeleton, and does so again and again, confident of the skeleton's slow movements. So, I knew Bentley had to be representing a highly experienced player.

[@benkizer9509]

Got this on my Switch via the Atari collection. Really fun and addictive game.

[@diegoknyte]

Thanks for the flashbacks. Took forever for me to get to, and beat, level 10. Done like a boss!

[@druggy12345]

WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW... I remember playing this.. as a 4 YEAR OLD.. good times.. wow.

[@TheMisterMix]

Tree Wave made me laugh really hard for some reason. "Here we have the board, its been carefully designed with challenging gameplay in min- oh you've beaten it?"

[@strongbadable]

Wow your the only one i seen beat this game, good job !! I remember playing this game at the arcade back in the day. I never did get to the end. My favorite arcade games were Asteroids, Journey the arcade game, Domino man, and Ms. pac man. XD

[@alexanderteuman7273]

Legendär, Atari's Track-Ball-Automaten. Ich war mal Samstag Abend mit Freundin in der Spielothek und Sie erzählte mir später, zeitweise standen bis zu 6 Leute haben mir beim spielen zugesehen.

[@Long-HairedLuigi]

I remember finally getting to the point of reaching THE very last castle, which was simply titled "The End". When I finally completed it, the screen blanked out for a few seconds, then played this kooky tune as words say, "I give up. You win. You must be super good," (that last part must be random or something) showing your score, then the screen started randomly filling up with large different coloured blocks. Weird, this vid's sending music sounded different and there were no blocks (shrug???). Oh well, coin games were always getting updated/changed, so I guess I'm not too surprised... :/ Then the game reset to its arcade display demo waiting for a coin again. ;) Depending on your high score, your signed initials could also appear in some of the castles' block structures. ;)

[@Coyotek4]

I remember that version (with the freak-out at the end).

[@hogne]

The screen fills up with randomly colored blocks when you gain a certain time bonus. I don't remember right now which one. And I also think you have to get the highscore as well. It was only on the first screen that the level took shape after the highscorer's initials.

[@marklinstom5145]

I have the Dreamcast version of this game and the analog controller actually works pretty good with it.

[@karlsebastiansollenhag8802]

I liked this one and Inferno. In Sweden you could find older machines for a long time. Many kids liked new games, but I liked the older ones. Sometimes you found these machines in forgotten places from the 80s. Beach places or camping places that people stopped going to in the 90s. I’m born 82.

[@cameronbrule7912]

I love the 1812 Overture at the end, lol. Great video.

[@wmoore2011]

thanks for uploading with this had been around in 1983 when I was playing this game never made it pas level 5 LOL got tons of quarters too LOL it was fun!!

[@samihra8654]

Ich hab damals, da war ich so 16 oder so, jede Mark da rein gesteckt. Das war das erste und einzige Spiel was ich tatsächlich an einem "Automaten" durchgespielt habe. Trackballfun at its Best! Ich liebe dieses Spiel!

[@Kernowparadise]

I remembered this game from Game Room on Xbox 360, being born in 1999 I never really would of been able to experience this game in its prime but I'm happy to have experienced it regardless.

[@ianthehedgehog9327]

I love how the game went "I give up" when you completed the final level on each world XD It legit said that on screen!

[@MaxiBodyalive]

CONGRATULATIONS...great gamer for super hard levels!!!

[@chaitai2533]

Impossible staircase is really interesting design, never saw auxiliary perspective like this, with the descending and "foreshortened" front cube

[@ClassicTVMan1981X]

Hall of Fame Trivia: the names the initials reveal are: Top 3 spots (3, 2, 1): FXL = Franz Lanzinger (designer of this title) 19. EDG = Eric Ginner 22. BBM = Brian McGhee (former Atari employee) 23. MEC = Mark Cerny (co-designed Marble Madness with Bob Flanagan; was just 19 years old when Crystal Castles was released) The same holds true for some of the maze layouts: Hidden Spiral: we see a connection of initials: DES = Desiree McCrorey SSM = Sam Mehta (won a Mr. Do! high score contest) BBM = Brian McGhee (again) CPU trivia: this game uses the same MOS 6502 as Atari's 8-bit computer line and the 5200 console.

[@vegaslover5930]

So many years ago.........I was hooked on this game.

[@xeokym223]

I played this in the arcades so much. The unfortunate thing is that unless you buy an actual arcade machine, you will never get the full experience of this game using the trackball controller. It made the game controls very precise and unique. I have it on Arcade's Classics collection but using a D-pad just isn't the same.

[@oldmanbob1236]

for 300 dollars you can get the game with the trackpad

[@asteriskcolon]

You can probably use a trackball with a MISTER. Sega Sports pad or an Atari trackball, etc

[@MAGNUM2F]

The best game ever made. i only ever finished it one time, The last stage was a bugger.

[@georgeshelton6281]

It's good to have everything back the way it was. It's just like Heaven to me where; nothing ever changes, nothing even new happens!

[@lilslump1121]

I’ve been looking for this game for a long time

[@JoeDan54]

I just beat this I took me twelve years of attempting... IT'S FINALLY OVER (beat w/ mouse btw)

[@chronosanaki5174]

Have you ever played with a trackball? It's a hundred times worse than with a mouse!

[@JoeDan54]

@@chronosanaki5174 My mouse was wireless so I had to deal with input delay lol

[@theredspyder2112]

I haven't seen some of these levels since the days I worked at Chuck E Cheeses! LOL, thanks for this!

[@IneedmoresubsOnline]

You worked there? GIVE ME YOUR TOKENS AND TICKETS RIGHT NOW

[@aaronsmith6632]

Wow, I've never seen this. Pretty impressive 3d graphics for a a retro arcade game.

[@paulbruneau7379]

They aren’t 3d but the game is great

[@toniscales3796]

Oh God yes. Wasted so much money on this as a kid. Thank you.

[@donjaun540]

I remember this game. Looks easy but get caught up real quick. It's best enjoyed on arcade machine.

[@JamesSpeiser]

THOSE FUCKING BEES!!!! ARHGGHGH

[@Jeff-xy7fv]

I've never had a chance to play this game. I'm only familiar with it from seeing it featured on the TV show "Starcade" in 1983-84.

[@MW_1535]

This is one of the craziest things I've seen. We got an mame cabinet at work and I casually play this game on there. My high score is 108k (no skips). This level of play is pure insanity. Thanks for sharing (in 2015)! EDIT: The hat doesn't bounce in our version.

[@hogne]

It does after level 4, and on level 9 it turns into a mad marble after a while if you don't take it.

[@RockFan89]

oh wow, I had forgotten about this one.

[@BL3SSAV3LLI]

Awwww man 1 of my favorites games

[@Rgoid]

"I give up you win you must be a video whiz"

[@jeremytecson9325]

Thanks 😊

[@mattcaine9938]

Hidden Spiral gives me fits. This guy takes it to Level 10 and loses one guy and wins. Hats off.

[@andrewmckee6580]

Just spent 5 hours playing this in my garage. Im selling it tomorrow so had to get a last session in. Sadly 9-3 was my best tonight. Only had 1 perfect run of level 8 (no deaths), i play vastly different than you i never get to endless bees, I always finish the level before.

[@benyabkn]

The sound at 5:22 I can recognize it from some flash games: Go go plant (when you die) and I think from Castle cat, both games from Mausland.

[@Grommet_]

this game=childhood

[@elcaminodelperfume]

my favourite game ever!!!! i love the sound ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! thx!!!

[@DaryckReese300]

The Sound That The Swarm of Bees Make, Tends To Gives Me The Creeps.

[@eliteraider6187]

It actually has an end and it is cursed. The audio got so high pitched. Eventually it only made noises what sounded like footsteps. Then no noise at all. I hid behind the lift in Berthildas castle that’s where I tested it. I had fun with it.

[@luishirschlieb6083]

Man, that crazy windstorm is totally aggro. O.o

[@OldTimeyDragon]

Can't say I've played or have seen this game before, but I am highly impressed with the pseudo-3D graphics.

[@pallasathena17]

And how little memory it required!

[@roundninja]

This was a pretty fun game.

[@fernandodiaz2367]

Love this game!

[@Trancelistic]

He sure walks fast:P

[@angrypenguin956]

I spent a fortune in coins on this game but I enjoyed immensely. I remember beating it on once.

[@francescoesposito9765]

Questo è stato il mio primo gioco che ho provato in sala....si diventa vecchi😄😄😄

[@JustSoLeopard]

Those friggin bees always killed me.

[@Near_Void]

I vaguely remember this game, yet i was born in the 90s

[@razorhigh2242]

so thats the game that started songs like celestica and a violation arrest to ethan,,,, i love it

[@Icy_Feather]

Apparently Bentley Bear was in Wreck-It-Ralph. He can be seen in the penthouse party with the other NiceLanders during the Fix-It-Felix Anniversary Celebration.

[@adamwebb8114]

Easy to remember an arcade classic that uses the roller ball as a controller lol centipede and millipede also but not many others

[@livinglifeinthepassinglane]

this is so impressive

[@Akira625]

You're pretty good at this!

[@TeamSilvertail]

I feel like I remember seeing this game...

[@AcidLightning]

Anyone know the name of the song that plays when he wins the game? Also, the one that plays just after that?

[@jamesm6638]

this is like watching my childhood...

[@gochem3013]

Oh. That game. That you play as Winnie the Pooh.

[@blind_t2]

OK, so, I know there were some tracks from popular classical pieces here, does anyone know them? I know when you pass the stage, there are parts of the mouse king that play, and warping is the sugarplum fairy, but the ones I want to know are from when the game starts, game over, score displayed after the game over screen, extra lives, and the 2 cutscenes every 3-4 levels.

[@twil978]

Dumped a lot of quarters into this game at the ole Showbiz Pizza

[@MatthewReiser123]

Guru-level planning at 19:27

[@LuisHernandez-vc8yc]

Hold 2 to accelerate, Press +-Control Pad (left or right) or Wii Nuhuck to steer. Wait for the swarm sound then hold A to fire

[@IneedmoresubsOnline]

Luis Hernandez What a cheat code

[@jeffw1267]

I used to find that stupid-ass wandering skeleton annoying, but now I find it charming.

[@goldiefenc]

Gameplay starts at 1:37

[@andresbonilla5334]

The bee swarm used to scare me when I was a kid because of the sound.

[@Long-HairedLuigi]

It's still fun to play - only thing is, it was originally designed to be played with a (lit and sometimes flashing) trackball, so playing it with anything else just doesn't feel the same. Nobody seems to make trackballs these days. Or do they? The closest thing is playing it on the iPhone's "Atari's Greatest Hits" app, so you can use your fingertip to literally "squiggle" your way through the game, lol! ;D

[@screwthenet]

Wow I never heard of this game before. like a cool take on pac man. NOICE! O>o And with an end theme in the beginning like the theme from the Nutcracker.

[@Poxell91]

"WE'RE PLAYING FUCKING GUBBLE!!"

[@GretgorPooper]

The tornado is ear grating!

[@gerymanuelmandahdina3715]

Hearing Crystal castles's Celestica while playing this game.

[@LoyaFrostwind]

I remember the music and blips/bleeps.

[@DJJavierVaz]

This game was fun

[@isabellam1936]

Now I know where the band Crystal Castles got their name! 🖤🎀

[@hogne]

Actually, they got it from the cartoon She-Ra.

[@MadameSomnambule]

You're dang good at this game. :D

[@Poco48]

...Yeah. MAME has ways of "helping" you look good. I'd like to see this score,one quarter,on an actual machine...

[@MadameSomnambule]

Poco Blair Yeah. That would be even more impressive.

[@Poco48]

Still,tho,they are def. pretty good(I was cranky last night,lol),and it is a GREAT game! Good Job,levels I've certainly never seen!

[@alessandrothando5396]

Nunca vi esse game mais gostei anos 80 me recoda o atari 2600 e mais alguma coisa até achei que éra um classico do atari 2600 ❤❤❤❤

[@cauadesouzanascimento2007]

Esse é jogo é uma espécie de jogo de plataforma 3d dos anos 80. É muito sofisticado para o o Atari 2600.

[@amtrakyesdorano146vgcpjohn5]

1983 was the year I was born

[@AdamSpade]

Marble madness meets Pacman? Looks fun.

[@jairoenriquemendietacastil9565]

History.

[@danielwilliamson6180]

I remember this game. It's a shame it has been updated and rebooted.

[@afloyd4976]

Crystal Castles has a lot of secret level warps. Players today don't know about them.

[@theultimategamer213]

this is definitely a soulslike

[@AngryCalvin]

Playing in 2020, the mechanics and controls feel a little weird for this game but remind me of other isometric titles that came after. Congo Bongo comes to mind. Man I miss the days of playing the more advanced arcade games at Chuck E Cheese as a child in the early 80s. I always thought Pac-Man and Q-Bert when playing this. I played some PC rip off of this years ago. Don't remember the name.

[@AngryCalvin]

Actually not a PC rip-off now that I think about it. Atari 2600 version I have on a CD-ROM and Atari Flashback.