A separate and second prototype entry for what was intended to be the original AtariSoft release of Crystal Castles.
Thanks to Mat Allen, we learn of the Atarisoft release thanks to Mat who documented the conversion briefly in Digital Press. It seemed at first that the game got caught up in the games crash, U.S. Gold getting hold of the game in 1986, tidying it up and releasing it in limited form.
The original Atarisoft version was intended for Cart release, and Mat Allan recently found a prototype of it. This has been backed up, and we’ve added the download link to the cart image above. The game itself is not hugely different, but its not quite as fully polished as the U.S. Gold version.
We think that the Atarisoft version had got caught up in the collapse of the company in 1984. However, Phobos/Ready64 found a snippet in Video Game Update (August 1984 – see scans) which suggests that Jack Tramiel got Atarisoft to stop all C64 developments and focus just on Atari. It wasn’t the video game crash that caused the cancellation of titles. Thanks to Roberto Nicoletti and Phobos for the heads up.
Oddly, there was a practically complete version by Thundervision, which got leaked around the time, which may have also had an impact on the decision to release. There is a separate entry for this version of the game.
If you know anything more about this original Atarisoft version. Please do get in touch!
Contributions: Mat Allen, Phobos/Ready64, Roberto Nicoletti
Supporting content
Available downloads
- Game_Crystalcastles (zip)
Gallery
Update history
11/09/24 – Atarisoft closure update.
