Crystal Castles (video game)

''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). As he was developing the graphics for it involving the unique backgrounds, the game began to develop 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). Provided by Wikipedia