''Crystal Quest'' is an

action game An action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction time. The genre includes a large variety of sub-genres, such as fighting games, beat 'em ups, shooter games, rhythm games and ...

written by

Patrick Buckland Patrick Buckland is a British video game programmer, designer and chief executive officer of Stainless Games, which he co-founded with Neil Barnden in 1994. Career Buckland is a video games pioneer, having been in the industry since 1982. Cr ...

for the

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

and published by Casady & Greene in 1987. It was ported to the

Apple IIGS The Apple IIGS (styled as II) is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Inc., Apple Computer beginning in September 1986. It is the fifth and most powerful model of the Apple II family. The "GS" in the name stands for "Graphics and Sound" ...

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

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

Game Boy The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

, 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 **Palm oil * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music ...

. It was the first game to support the color displays of the

Macintosh II The Macintosh II is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from March 1987 to January 1990. Based on the Motorola 68020 32-bit CPU, it is the first Macintosh supporting color graphics. When introduced, a basic ...

. The game was based on the original

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. ...

game ''Crystal Raider'', one of the supporters of which had been Michael Greene, founder of Greene, Inc. (later to merge with CasadyWare to become Casady & Greene). A sequel, similar to the original game, '' Crystal Crazy'', was released in 1993. On February 7, 2006 ''Crystal Quest'' was released on

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

via

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (or XBLA) was a video game Digital distribution in video games, digital distribution service that was available for the Xbox (console), Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles. It focused on smaller downloadable games from both major publisher ...

and in 2008 for iPhone and iPod touch.Crystal Quest game available for iPhone, iPod touch
from MacTech Magazine Game Mechanics LLC licensed ''Crystal Quest'' and launched a Kickstarter to raise money to create a new version in February 2015. Although the Kickstarter was unsuccessful, ''Crystal Quest'' was released on

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

on November 23, 2016.

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, mon ...

, 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 ''Macworld'' is a digital magazine and website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG. History ''Macworld'' was founded by David Bunnell and Cheryl Woodard (publishers) and Andrew Fl ...

'' 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 Amiga games Apple IIGS games Casady & Greene games Classic Mac OS games Game Boy games IOS games Palm OS games Stainless Games games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Windows games Xbox 360 games Xbox 360 Live Arcade games {{Mac-software-stub