NE146 Posted July 5, 2001 Share Posted July 5, 2001 All this talk about the ending to Dark Chambers had me remembering my age old question. Is there an ending to 2600 Crystal Castles? And does anyone know how many different "castle" stages there are? I know the arcade game definitely has an ending. However, I would play the 2600 version constantly and would occasionally get far enough into the game to see some new castle maze layouts that i'd never seen before. But I was never quite good enough to see if there was an ending. But then again, that was ages ago... Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted July 5, 2001 Share Posted July 5, 2001 NE I can't remember sepcifically as I Crystal Castles used to be a Zone game for me. But as I recall they get to a point where they either repeat all over...or start randomizing. But there isn't an ending per se. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted July 5, 2001 Share Posted July 5, 2001 Crystal Castles is my all time favorite 2600 game (I even like it over the arcade version). I can remember getting to about level 15 or so and I don't recall the mazes repeating. I think it just randomizes them with different enemies. I'm getting a prototype that supposedly has the levels in a different order, maybe that will shead some light on this. The arcade game had a wacky ending where it said "We Give Up! Your Too Good At This Game" or something like that then the screen would slowly fill up with items from the game which would drop form the sky. Definetly one of the oddest ending I've ever seen. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted July 5, 2001 Share Posted July 5, 2001 HA! I'm not a good enough Crystal Castles player to have beaten either version! But I agree that the 2600 port is really good! It's one of the few 2600 games I still enjoy. Playing the game on Dreamcast's Atari Anniversary Edition GDROM, I'm really taken with it all over again. Good game, very enjoyable! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mountain King Posted July 5, 2001 Share Posted July 5, 2001 I really liked that game too. I wasn't great at it, but I wasn't terrible. What was cool was the variety of castles and monsters you would get to a point where you would see a castle you haven't done before which I thought was cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hepcat Posted March 5, 2003 Share Posted March 5, 2003 I was randomly looking through some of the older topics here and stumbled across this one. Crystal Castles has always been one of my favorite 2600 games, (definitely in the top 5) and I think I can shed some light on this topic. The game doesn’t seem to have an ending. The speed of the monsters seems to max out on level 16, which BTW, also has the game’s most bizarre board. (It’s either the second or third board on level 16, I can’t remember which.) Three ghosts and three skeletons appear, and it’s actually quite difficult to clear this board because they all move very quickly and unpredictably and you can’t count on the gem eaters, trees, etc to help you clear out the gems before the swarm appears. If you do make it past level 16, the levels repeat. So, board 1 of level 17 (board 65 overall) is the same as the first board with its three crystal balls, except they’re MUCH faster. This also makes board 66 (a tree board) extremely difficult. The next major hurdle is getting past level 22 (same as level 6) with its two consecutive, insanely difficult tree boards. I have made it past these a few times, but usually with only a couple of lives left. I think that level 25 is the farthest I’ve ever made it with no end in sight. My high score on the game is about 670,000 which I got both in high school and a few years ago when I started collecting 2600 games. This was the highest score I’d ever heard of, but I recently saw on Twin Galaxies that the official high score for Atari 2600CC is over 800,000. I’d love to hear from whoever got THAT score, and ask them what level they made it to and how they handled those blasted level 22 tree boards! --Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hepcat Posted March 5, 2003 Share Posted March 5, 2003 A couple more points: As far as the number of different boards there are, I think it's 12. The last new one appears (I think) on the last board of level 8. After that the boards keep repeating with the monsters appearing in different combinations on each. Another reason why the game gets so difficult is the reduction in bonus points after clearing level 16. The bonus for getting the last gem increases by 100 each board, so by the time you reach level 16 it's over 7,000 points and you're getting a free man every two boards. Beginning on level 17, the bonus drops back to 1000 points and monsters continue moving at warp speed. I think that's one of the reasons I like this game so much; no matter how far you get a new challenge keeps presenting itself. Hmm...I think I'm gonna take a break from Mame and dig this cart out tonight. --Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godzilla Posted March 5, 2003 Share Posted March 5, 2003 good god, 65+ boards into the game! I've never been even close to that far. I'd love to see screen shots of all the dfifferent castles the 2600 version has.... The 2600 version is also my favorite version of crystal castles. blew me away when it came out, so much better than I thoughtit would be (and I read recently (i think from those vaxs,) that the coder and the arcade division were complete unhappy with it, and the coder was unhappy because he felt atari released it before he had a chance to finish it... i can only imagine how it could have been any better?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Atari Posted March 5, 2003 Share Posted March 5, 2003 There is no ending, as far as I know. Isn't there some blurb on the box about it being endless or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted March 5, 2003 Share Posted March 5, 2003 I hate reading stuff I wrote 2 years ago. Do you know how many brains cells ago that was?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bivotar Posted March 5, 2003 Share Posted March 5, 2003 Do most of you Crystal Castle fans play the 2600 version with the Trakball Controller or joystick? It's fun playing it with the trakball, even if it isn't proportional speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted March 6, 2003 Author Share Posted March 6, 2003 hepcat thanks for the info as that's the most comprehensive answer yet! And Godzilla that's something I would love to see too. A pictoral of ALL the castles in 2600 Crystal Castles w/ enemies. I remember getting pretty far in the game and being surprised with a castle layout I hadn't seen before. Which was a great feeling for this type of game Maybe someone could hack CC with an "infinite lives" cheat or something so taking screenshots of all the castles would be easy to do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyle Posted March 6, 2003 Share Posted March 6, 2003 The back of my crystal castles box says. 12 challenging castles! And UNLIMITED number of game levels. Hope that helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Atari Posted March 6, 2003 Share Posted March 6, 2003 That's what I was thinking of, the unlimited game levels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted August 26, 2005 Share Posted August 26, 2005 So wait how many different levels does CC actually have?! I got through about 9 or 10 and they started repeating on me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.J. Franzman Posted August 27, 2005 Share Posted August 27, 2005 The back of my crystal castles box says. 12 challenging castles! And UNLIMITED number of game levels. 241462[/snapback] how many different levels does CC actually have?! 919240[/snapback] Yuppicide, you might want to try reading 4-year-old threads before replying to them... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuppicide Posted August 27, 2005 Share Posted August 27, 2005 I read that already. Someone said they were more somewhere. I'm saying I didn't see that many and they started repeating and someone else said they they got through 10 or 11 and there were no repeats. The back of my crystal castles box says. 12 challenging castles! And UNLIMITED number of game levels. 241462[/snapback] how many different levels does CC actually have?! 919240[/snapback] Yuppicide, you might want to try reading 4-year-old threads before replying to them... 919535[/snapback] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IHATETHEBEARS Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 I was randomly looking through some of the older topics here and stumbled across this one. Crystal Castles has always been one of my favorite 2600 games, (definitely in the top 5) and I think I can shed some light on this topic. The game doesn’t seem to have an ending. The speed of the monsters seems to max out on level 16, which BTW, also has the game’s most bizarre board. (It’s either the second or third board on level 16, I can’t remember which.) Three ghosts and three skeletons appear, and it’s actually quite difficult to clear this board because they all move very quickly and unpredictably and you can’t count on the gem eaters, trees, etc to help you clear out the gems before the swarm appears. If you do make it past level 16, the levels repeat. So, board 1 of level 17 (board 65 overall) is the same as the first board with its three crystal balls, except they’re MUCH faster. This also makes board 66 (a tree board) extremely difficult. The next major hurdle is getting past level 22 (same as level 6) with its two consecutive, insanely difficult tree boards. I have made it past these a few times, but usually with only a couple of lives left. I think that level 25 is the farthest I’ve ever made it with no end in sight. My high score on the game is about 670,000 which I got both in high school and a few years ago when I started collecting 2600 games. This was the highest score I’d ever heard of, but I recently saw on Twin Galaxies that the official high score for Atari 2600CC is over 800,000. I’d love to hear from whoever got THAT score, and ask them what level they made it to and how they handled those blasted level 22 tree boards! --Jason I realize this is a very old thread. But I just stumbled upon it. Anyway, I'm not sure this is correct. I was very good at this game back in the day. And I'll admit I haven't tried it recently. But as I recall, if you turned the power off and on real fast (frying the game) you could play it at an insanely fast level. As I got better and better at the game, I actually got to the point where I made it to that insanely fast level without frying it. And if memory serves, that happened at level 21 - which is the same as level 1 - only much faster. So I think there are actually 20 levels and 80 boards overall. But I admit, I could be wrong. Perhaps I'll fire it up again and see if I haven't lost my touch after 20 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tremoloman2006 Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 Here's the ending to Crystal Castles from the coin-op: http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/arcade/c/crycas.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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