Crystal Castles (1983)

Crystal Castles is one of the few games I remember playing on my dad's Commodore 64 but now that I've played the game in its proper arcade form, I have to wonder what the hell I was thinking playing it on a joystick. The Atari developed game casts the player as a bear collecting gems and honey throughout oddly designed geometric levels filled with enemies like trees, skeletons and giant snake/cactus-y things. Unlike other games of its ilk, the goal wasn't so much to kill the enemies but to snatch up jewels before they do. The more you collect, the higher the score.

The original arcade cabinet uses a trackball for player input which allows for both reckless and precision moves. Monsters spawn slowly during the opening moments of a level, so spinning the trackball wildly to collect lots of gems proved to be a decent strategy for me. When its down to the wire, however, a trackball allows for slow, methodical and planned movements.

Not a bad game, really. To me, Crystal Castles is memorable for its unique visual design rather than gameplay.