''Crystal Quest'' is an action game written by Patrick Buckland for the

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

and published by

Casady & Greene Casady & Greene (sometimes abbreviated to C&G) was a software publisher and developer active from 1988 to 2003. The company primarily released software for Macintosh, but also released software for Windows and Newton. Casady & Greene was formed ...

in 1987. It was ported to the

Apple IIGS The Apple IIGS (styled as II), the fifth and most powerful of the Apple II family, is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Computer. While featuring the Macintosh look and feel, and resolution and color similar to the Amiga and Atari ST ...

in 1989 by Rebecca Heineman. Ports were also made to the Amiga,

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...

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, and

Palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ba ...

. It was the first game to support the color displays of the Macintosh II. The game was based on the original shareware game ''Crystal Raider'', one of the supporters of which had been Michael Greene, founder of Greene, Inc. (later to merge with CasadyWare to become

). A sequel, similar to the original game, '' Crystal Crazy'', was released in 1993. On February 7, 2006 ''Crystal Quest'' was released on

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via

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.Crystal Quest game available for iPhone, iPod touch
from MacTech Magazine Game Mechanics LLC licensed ''Crystal Quest'' and launched on Kickstarter to raise money to create a new version in February 2015. As of November 23, 2016, ''Crystal Quest'' is available for Steam.

Development

''Crystal Quest'' is easier to play in color mode on the Macintosh version as opposed to

monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochrom ...

, as more RAM is used, causing enemies to move slower. Improvements and features in ''Crystal Quest'' over its predecessor ''Crystal Raider'' include a two-player mode, support for color, improved sound, and a demo mode. A glitch in the demo mode for early copies of ''Crystal Quest'' caused system errors on one out of ten Mac IIs, and those affected could call Greene Inc. for a replacement copy of the game.

Reception

'' Macworld'' reviewed the Macintosh version of ''Crystal Quest'', praising its action gameplay and colorful graphics, stating that ''Crystal Quest'' is "Fast, challenging action ... You learn to play in minutes because the game is so intuitive ... ''Crystal Quest'' is especially fun to play on a color Mac II because the vivid color-cycle graphics rival those of the finest arcade games. ... ''Crystal Quest'' is the first Macintosh game I've found that truly compares in features and quality with a real arcade game." ''Macworld'' also praises the "clever" sound effects, stating that "some of the sounds are droll, and some are gross. Kids will love them." but criticizes one particular sound effect, saying that "The sound that accompanies the player's entrance into the gateway at the end of each wave, however, is a digitized pseudo-female-orgasmic gasp that several women I played it for found offensive."

References

External links

Stainless Games' page on ''Crystal Quest''
*
Game Mechanics LLC
on Facebook
Crystal Quest Classic Kickstarter Campaign 2015

''Crystal Quest'' Steam page
1987 video games Classic Mac OS games Apple IIGS games Amiga games Game Boy games IOS games Palm OS games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Windows games Xbox 360 games Xbox 360 Live Arcade games Stainless Games games {{Mac-software-stub