The Crystal Castles glitch

[JimmydelaKopin]

All right, my peeps, I need a little help.

 

There's a friendly lurker (handle's "nimbus") 'round these parts who wants to know about the 2600 Crystal Castles glitch. Says that he's never seen it but always wanted to see what the heck I'm talking about (as I mentioned it in a thread on glitches).

 

I haven't gotten the chance to play the game again in years. Mom stored the games somewhere only she knows in the house, and, besides, she owns the 2600 and has it hooked up to her TV (which, when she's home is either watching court shows or L&O reruns--not that I fault her her taste in TV shows).

Anyway, I'm hoping that the 2600 Crystal Castles cartridge isn't a unique item.

 

See...

...on certain waves, some gems touch the walls in the pseudo-3D perspective. Those gems are usually "double gems": touch the one touching the wall, and the score counter tallies points like a leaderboard at a telethon. But, touch the gem above the one touching the wall, and both gems disappear.

Also, the waves tally a set number of gems that need to be retrieved--and, on some waves, the "double gems" are the only way to reach that tally. If they're removed (usually one per level, sometimes two on certain waves), then you can't progress in the game. You literally have to start over.

 

I know that this glitch isn't in the Atari Anniversary Collection emulator for the PS2.

But I'm wondering if anyone else who played the 2600 version of Crystal Castles has experienced this glitch.

Please tell me I'm not the only one with such a game!

 

Thanks in advance!

[Tempest]

It's possible there's a glitch like that in the 2600 version, but I've never run into it. The early 8-bit prototype has a problem like that though.

 

Tempest

[+FujiSkunk]

This same glitch has been talked about in the forum before.

 

Not everyone has seen this. I know I haven't, and I've played Crystal Castles extensively, using several different cartridges on several different systems.

 

The consensus in the last thread was that this is probably not a bug in the game, but instead a quirk that can appear if something about the cartridge and/or the console isn't quite right. In other words, it is similar to what can happen when you intentionally "fry" the console.

 

I've sometimes noticed mysteriously appearing or disappearing graphics in certain games, even without "frying." Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle and Midnight Magic come to mind. So, this explanation is certainly plausible.

[+Omegamatrix]

This same glitch has been talked about in the forum before.

 

Not everyone has seen this. I know I haven't, and I've played Crystal Castles extensively, using several different cartridges on several different systems.

 

The consensus in the last thread was that this is probably not a bug in the game, but instead a quirk that can appear if something about the cartridge and/or the console isn't quite right. In other words, it is similar to what can happen when you intentionally "fry" the console.

 

I've sometimes noticed mysteriously appearing or disappearing graphics in certain games, even without "frying." Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle and Midnight Magic come to mind. So, this explanation is certainly plausible.

That could very well be a plausible explaination. Like the starfield in Cosmic Ark too.

[JimmydelaKopin]

So it is a defect in the cartridge, practically making it unique!

 

That's all I need. Sheesh!

 

I know it wasn't the console. The cartridge's glitch showed up whether we played it on the 2600 or the 7800 we got later.

 

Soooo.....any ideas on how much this thing is worth, just for the glitched chip alone?

[+Omegamatrix]

It could also be an unique glitch to an earlier version. Sometimes a corrected or "fixed" version was put out later. If you can ever retrieve the cart post some pictures of the screen doing the glitches. Also a few good pictures of the cart. Important things on the cart would be the copyright date, as well as a date stamp on the end label (if there is one). Date stamps are small impressions made on the end label of a few digits.

 

 

It could be a lot of things:

- Your cart was glitched

- your cart was fine but the version of the rom was glitched

- your cart was fine and the rom was fine but acted funny on some consoles

- your consoles are glitched

 

 

Crystal Castles uses Atari's Superchip giving it extra ram. Maybe your consoles were having trouble with it, but I have never really heard of any doing so before.