Crystal Castles (video game)

Crystal Castles
North American arcade flyer
Developer(s)	Atari, Inc.
Publisher(s)	Atari, Inc.
Programmer(s)	Franz Lanzinger
Artist(s)	Barbara Singh Susan McBride
Platform(s)	Arcade, Acorn Electron,[citation needed] Amstrad CPC,[1] Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari 2600, Atari ST, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum[1]
Release	Arcade NA: July 8, 1983 Atari 2600 March 1984
Genre(s)	Maze[2]
Mode(s)	1-2 players alternating turns

Crystal Castles is an arcade video game released by Atari, Inc. in 1983. The player controls Bentley Bear who has to collect gems located throughout trimetric-projected rendered castles while avoiding enemies, some of whom are after the gems as well.

The game was made by Franz Lanzinger and was the first game he ever developed. He joined Atari in 1983 and was initially tasked with making a game like Asteroids (1979). While he was developing the graphics for it involving the unique backgrounds, the game began to evolve into what became Crystal Castles. It is a maze video game with warp zones to higher levels and an ending, which were not typical in arcade games in 1983.

Following the game's release in arcades, it was released for the Atari 2600 home console and various home-computer lines. Critics often complimented the game for its unique graphics. Bentley Bear appeared in educational home computer programs from Atari as well as Atari Karts (1995) for the Jaguar. Lanzinger left Atari after developing the game and, after attempting to get the rights to the character, he developed a similarly styled game with Gubble (1997).