Crystal Caves from Apogee

[7800Lover]

Who here remembers the side-scrolling platformer, Crystal Caves? This was a computer game from around 1991 produced by ID but published by Apogee. It's quite similar to Commander Keen.

 

You played this guy named Milo Steamwitz who went through levels collecting gems and firing a gun at enemies. The levels could be taken in any order. It was part of a trilogy. The first episode was called "Trouble with Twibbles" (a parody of the Star Trek ep "Trouble with Tribbles") - you could get that as shareware. The other two episodes required you to pony up money.

 

I used to play this in school. On Fridays in my computer classes, we were allowed to play various shareware games and this was one of them. It could get hairy in some places, especially when you had to change the gravity controls.

[rockman_x_2002]

I do recall this game, actually, and if I'm not mistaken it pays homage to a number of games from the time period and before. If memory serves me correctly, I believe there's even a level in the first episode that give a wink and a nod Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA) and its opening into World 1-1.

 

Edit: Just downloaded the old game and fired it up in DosBox. Indeed, I found the level that mimics parts of Super Mario Bros. 2's World 1-1. On the first episode, when you enter the main from the main screen, take the elevator on the right all the way to the bottom, then walk all the way to the left. You should see another elevator and five doors: three doors on the left, and two on the right. Take the bottom door on the right and it'll take you to the level in question.

Edited January 16, 2012 by rockman_x_2002

[Atariman]

I definitely remember this game. A friend of mine and I used to play it quite a bit! It has been a number of years, so I don't remember it nearly as well as you, but I do remember liking it. Oddly enough, I can still recall some of the bleeps and bloops it made through the PC speaker, though. I may have to bust it out in dosbox as well...

[vintagegamecrazy]

I found a CD rom version of this game a few months ago. It's hard to get it to run properly but is a blast to play. Funny someone else mentions this game as I've been thinking about it a lot lately.

[FalcoPhoenix808]

Yeah I played the shareware version a long time ago. I downloaded a lot of those old Apogee (and Epic games too) on BBS's back in the day. Games like Commander Keen, Crystal Caves, Jill of the Jungle, Major Stryker, the side scrolling Duke Nukem games, were all staples of my early computer gaming days.