Some good reviews that sum the game up nicely, so I'll keep this short. There's a lot more shooting going on here than I had anticipated, but that's a good thing. Yes, there's adventure seeking, treasure hunting and platforming fun to be had here - but at its core - I'd say this is a shooter first and foremost. And one that's best played with an NES style gamepad, since its buttons are close together.
Love the graphics. Love the sounds. Love the music. Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest is just what the 7800 needed!
Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest (You Supply POKEY) - Atari 7800
Price:
$55.00
IMPORTANT!
This version of Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest requires that you send us a POKEY chip or Ballblazer cartridge before we ship your order!
Please read all the details below.
This version of Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest requires that you send us a POKEY chip or Ballblazer cartridge before we ship your order!
Please read all the details below.
BERTHILDA'S BACK!
Bentley Bear defeated Berthilda within her Crystal Castle realm, but she vowed to get her revenge on Bentley. After nearly 30 years of planning and scheming, Berthilda was able to steal the five 'Crystals Of Life' that kept the balance of good and evil in check. Now it is up to Bentley to retrieve those jewels and restore the balance of power to the world.
Berthilda has hidden all five Crystals in separate parts of the world and guards them fiercely. As Bentley, you will run into many of your old foes from the Castle days... as well as some new ones. Navigate unforgiving terrain from at least five different environments in your relentless Quest to find the Crystals and defeat Berthilda once and for all.
Gameplay
Your goal in Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest is to retrieve all five Crystals that Berthilda has stolen while avoiding all of the enemies, hazards, and pitfalls that await you in your quest. You begin the game with three turns, and you can earn more along the way. You also have an energy meter, which depletes as you work your way through each level. You lose a life if an enemy touches you, you fall in a well (or off the screen), or if your energy level runs out before you reach the end of a level.
These are the enemies you will encounter in your quest to retrieve your precious jewels. Some of them you will remember from your first encounter, and some are new disciples of Berthilda. These include the Nasty Trees, Skeletons, Gem Eaters, Bee Swarm, Zombie, Coyote, Ghost, Floating Head, and more! Eventually you will have to combat Berthilda herself!
Along the way, you will find objects that will cause harm to Bentley and should avoid them as they reduce Bentley’s energy level by a significant amount, including fire, rocks, Berthilda's Cauldron, and spikes. Fortunately, you'll also encounter many helpful items on your quest, such as white, red, and green jewels, honey pots, and magic hats (which give you temporary invincibility!)
Features
- Large 144K game!
- On-board Atari POKEY chip for sound effects and music
- Explore over 40 worlds!
- Continue option... but use it wisely!
- Compatible with ProLines or original CX-40 joysticks
- Hidden surprises!
POKEY Audio
Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest uses an on-board Atari POKEY chip for sound effects and music. Unfortunately, the POKEY is a custom chip produced by Atari. This means that the only POKEY chips in existence are those that were manufactured for Atari 8-bit computers (400/800, 800XL, 130XE, etc.), the Atari 5200, certain Atari arcade games, and the two Atari 7800 games Ballblazer and Commando. There are very few sources of new, unused POKEY chips. Many are removed from Ballblazer carts, as they are relatively common. These chips have not been produced in 30 years!
This means that we do not have many POKEY chips. If you want a copy of Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest, you'll need to either send us a POKEY chip or send us a Ballblazer cartridge and we will remove the POKEY chip. The price of the game is discounted to reflect that you'll be sending us a POKEY.
You may be thinking, "But the price is still $55!" Copies of the game with a POKEY chip (when we have them) are $70. The boards for Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest (and Super Circus AtariAge) are larger and more complex than those typically used for 7800 games. They require more parts and they take longer to solder. If you send us a Ballblazer cartridge, we have to desolder the POKEY chip, and there's always the possibility that the POKEY will not work after it's been removed (although we try to be very careful when removing it!). With Ballblazer carts, we can reuse Atari's circuit board, but that still requires desoldering parts and soldering on new parts. Overall it's a more involved, expensive, and time consuming process than it is for non-POKEY games.
If you have a source of POKEY chips or Ballblazer carts, please contact us if you'd like to sell or trade them to us.
How to Get Your Copy of Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest
To get your copy of Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest, do the following:
- Add the game to your shopping cart (along with anything else you want to purchase) and checkout normally.
- We'll send you an email with instructions on how to send us a POKEY or Ballblazer cartridge.
- Once we receive the chip or cartridge, we'll test it to make sure it's working.
- We'll then make your Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest game and ship it to you!
- If we do NOT receive your POKEY chip or Ballblazer cartridge within 30 days, we will cancel your order and refund your payment.
- If you order other items with Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest, everything will ship together!
If you have any questions about the above process, please contact us.
Additional Information
Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest includes a box, game cartridge, and a full-color, 8-page manual. Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest is available in NTSC and PAL television formats. Please choose above (if you don't make a selection, you will receive the NTSC version by default).
| Number of Players | 1 |
| Controller | Joystick Controller |
| Cartridge Size | 144K |
| Code and Design | Bob DeCrescenzo |
I received this "gem" (see what I did there) a few days before Christmas. and this present proved to be better than both frankincense and myrrh. (Gold is a tough gift to beat).
I'm not a huge platformer fan. Alex Kidd, Rayman, Bonk, Scrapyard Dog, Sonic, and even the seminal Super Mario Brothers all struggle to keep my attention. BUT, I am an Atari 7800 fan, and I can recognize that this game is probably the most polished, complete, largest, and overall highest quality title on the system.
Let's face it. when larger 7800 games near their end boss scenes, graphic quality takes a nosedive. Not the case here. Also, this game has a bevy of secret warps, levels, new monsters and a moderately confusing weapon upgrade system. The boss fights are interesting, the music is mainly catchy old nurse rhyme and public domain tunes, but they sound great, and the controls are interesting but fairly smooth. Most importantly for me: The game is challenging but not cheap.
I do feel like the game is somewhat derivative, but its a master piece platformer in it's own right. I think the idea was "Look what could have been done in 1986". Prettier than Scrapyard Dog, touting more firepower than Super Mario, oozing more charm than Alex Kidd. Bentley Bear, Atari's default hero-mascot, has found himself in a damn good game that I wish 1000's more could enjoy.
I'm not a huge platformer fan. Alex Kidd, Rayman, Bonk, Scrapyard Dog, Sonic, and even the seminal Super Mario Brothers all struggle to keep my attention. BUT, I am an Atari 7800 fan, and I can recognize that this game is probably the most polished, complete, largest, and overall highest quality title on the system.
Let's face it. when larger 7800 games near their end boss scenes, graphic quality takes a nosedive. Not the case here. Also, this game has a bevy of secret warps, levels, new monsters and a moderately confusing weapon upgrade system. The boss fights are interesting, the music is mainly catchy old nurse rhyme and public domain tunes, but they sound great, and the controls are interesting but fairly smooth. Most importantly for me: The game is challenging but not cheap.
I do feel like the game is somewhat derivative, but its a master piece platformer in it's own right. I think the idea was "Look what could have been done in 1986". Prettier than Scrapyard Dog, touting more firepower than Super Mario, oozing more charm than Alex Kidd. Bentley Bear, Atari's default hero-mascot, has found himself in a damn good game that I wish 1000's more could enjoy.
This is a fun game. The bear is shooting something! Hostile bushes and reanimated skeletons in the service of the nasty witch. How do you shoot the bush behind the rock? How do you get the crystals from the strange places? Great 16-bit level graphics. The best part of all is the hi fi music with a nostalga all its own.
It's one thing to lay claim of what a console is capable of or how good a game can be for the system. It is quite another to achieve what is one of the greatest games ever to be released on the system, for it to be an original, and to rival some of the best platformers of its contemporaries.
Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest is that game. For those who have never played or never even seen the game, the best reference point is to imagine a cross between Super Mario Bros. and Wonder Boy/Hudson Soft's Adventure Island.
Player gets to choose whether the wish to use a compatible 2600 VCS Controller for one button utilization (Jump managed by pressing up), or the standard two button functionality. One button serves as jump the other for Run and Shoot. Button mappings are swappable and all controller configuration option settings are managed by the difficulty switches in front of the console.
The game starts with Bentley leaving his cave venturing into the woods and onto afterward a plethora of other landscapes. Ice stage, water stages, underground, caverns, castles, and more are a part of the various traversed areas.
Beautifully parallax scrolling is seen often in the game. Bentley as well as all other characters in the game is well designed and defined. Obvious nods to the arcade game Crystal Castles is seen throughout. Most important controls are tight and accurate. Bentley move fluidly and jump management is easy to control. Shooting gems is also smooth and overall physics are handled beautifully.
The game is truly something to relish in as there will be no flying through this game, no speed runs easily achieved as enemy pattern and placement is not always the same all the time. So while there may not necessarily be a fixed pattern regarding enemy encounter, what there is in place is different attack (and in some cases defense) patterns to be learned and mastered to best and easiest defeat enemies.
There are ample energy boost courtesy of honey pots, and different jewels that will determine hit strength and number of point damage. The manual goes into details, but there needs to be some thought at times regarding when and even if a certain jewel should be picked up and there is a chance Bentley could actually decrease his hit power depending on previous jewels acquired.
The music is quite excellent. What was originally intended to be the norm for many Atari 7800 games to include a sound chip within the cart, but was never really pursued besides two titles from the original line (Commando and Ballblazer), has been brought to fruition here with POKEY. What may be familiar and then again perhaps not so familiar tunes wonderfully composed and marvelously presented.
There are hidden warps, free lives, and even a secret level. While the game can be completed in about an hour, a substantially less than that utilizing the various warps, others may spend a considerable longer time, especially newcomers.
The game is indeed challenging at spots, but in no capacity unfair. It provides unlimited continues in addition to the aforementioned warps and free lives scattered in spots throughout the game. A true sense of accomplishment after each boss is defeated at the end of each level in part due to each subsequent encounter the Witch is more formidable than the last time. A total of 40 standard rounds plus an additional hidden level provide a total of 48 rounds to be uncovered and conquered.
What seemed like a dream years ago, has become a reality, having one of the finest games to really help demonstrate what the 7800 is capable of it is platforming gaming excellence. The challenge is inviting, and the game magnificently executed. This is not only the game to play, it is the game to own. Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest cannot be recommended enough, it's fantastic.
Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest is that game. For those who have never played or never even seen the game, the best reference point is to imagine a cross between Super Mario Bros. and Wonder Boy/Hudson Soft's Adventure Island.
Player gets to choose whether the wish to use a compatible 2600 VCS Controller for one button utilization (Jump managed by pressing up), or the standard two button functionality. One button serves as jump the other for Run and Shoot. Button mappings are swappable and all controller configuration option settings are managed by the difficulty switches in front of the console.
The game starts with Bentley leaving his cave venturing into the woods and onto afterward a plethora of other landscapes. Ice stage, water stages, underground, caverns, castles, and more are a part of the various traversed areas.
Beautifully parallax scrolling is seen often in the game. Bentley as well as all other characters in the game is well designed and defined. Obvious nods to the arcade game Crystal Castles is seen throughout. Most important controls are tight and accurate. Bentley move fluidly and jump management is easy to control. Shooting gems is also smooth and overall physics are handled beautifully.
The game is truly something to relish in as there will be no flying through this game, no speed runs easily achieved as enemy pattern and placement is not always the same all the time. So while there may not necessarily be a fixed pattern regarding enemy encounter, what there is in place is different attack (and in some cases defense) patterns to be learned and mastered to best and easiest defeat enemies.
There are ample energy boost courtesy of honey pots, and different jewels that will determine hit strength and number of point damage. The manual goes into details, but there needs to be some thought at times regarding when and even if a certain jewel should be picked up and there is a chance Bentley could actually decrease his hit power depending on previous jewels acquired.
The music is quite excellent. What was originally intended to be the norm for many Atari 7800 games to include a sound chip within the cart, but was never really pursued besides two titles from the original line (Commando and Ballblazer), has been brought to fruition here with POKEY. What may be familiar and then again perhaps not so familiar tunes wonderfully composed and marvelously presented.
There are hidden warps, free lives, and even a secret level. While the game can be completed in about an hour, a substantially less than that utilizing the various warps, others may spend a considerable longer time, especially newcomers.
The game is indeed challenging at spots, but in no capacity unfair. It provides unlimited continues in addition to the aforementioned warps and free lives scattered in spots throughout the game. A true sense of accomplishment after each boss is defeated at the end of each level in part due to each subsequent encounter the Witch is more formidable than the last time. A total of 40 standard rounds plus an additional hidden level provide a total of 48 rounds to be uncovered and conquered.
What seemed like a dream years ago, has become a reality, having one of the finest games to really help demonstrate what the 7800 is capable of it is platforming gaming excellence. The challenge is inviting, and the game magnificently executed. This is not only the game to play, it is the game to own. Bentley Bear's Crystal Quest cannot be recommended enough, it's fantastic.
Bentley Bear is a breath of fresh air on the 7800. Instead of being an arcade port, it is an original platformer. Bentley in my opinion is comparable to Hudson's Adventure Island.
Gameplay: I love the game play of BBCQ. It is an awesome platformer! Levels are designed well to provide both fluidity through levels as well as difficulty. Some might find the game play difficult, but it is overly fair. There are no crazy blind jumps and level design gives you opportunities for power-ups to make it easier to get through the levels with enemies that require more than one hit. If platformers are not your thing this game is nice in that you have unlimited continues, but the more you use the less likely you are to get a point bonus at the end of the game. This makes BBCQ interesting in comparison to other platformers, in that you are not only trying to beat the game but it encourages you to push yourself for a higher score.
Sound: This is a POKEY game and the sound is great. There are a bunch of catchy tunes that I found myself humming to during the game and even after I was done playing for the day. The music certainly is fitting for the game.
Graphics: Level designs are great. Each of the worlds look and feel different. Colors are good. The music and level design go well together and make each world charming in its own way. Bentley and all the baddies look great. They were designed well and never once did I find myself disliking any of the designs.
Other Thoughts: About the only "complaint" I could have against the game is really more a complaint about the limitations of 7800 controllers. This game has a two button option (one to jump, one to shoot/run) and a single button option (button shoot/run, up on joystick jumps). I used the two buttoned Euro pad as I did not find the 7800 joysticks very easy to use. Even the Euro pads provided to be cramp inducing as the run and jump buttons are not as nicely placed as say an NES controller. I%u2019m not sure how much it would change the gameplay, but maybe the 7800 joystick limitations might not matter as much if Bentley was in a constant running state
Playing BBCQ is a blast. It even has many secrets to discover. This made me go back and want to discover everything after one play through. You should be able to complete the game in little over an hour, if you play well. We are lucky to now be able to play a game like this, and it is kind of sad that similar games were not made for the 7800 back in the day. It would have been games like this that could have saved the 7800. I believe this is a must have for the 7800 and hope that we possibly see a sequel in the future. (Also worth hunting down a Ballvlazer cart to harvest a POKEY chip.)
Gameplay: I love the game play of BBCQ. It is an awesome platformer! Levels are designed well to provide both fluidity through levels as well as difficulty. Some might find the game play difficult, but it is overly fair. There are no crazy blind jumps and level design gives you opportunities for power-ups to make it easier to get through the levels with enemies that require more than one hit. If platformers are not your thing this game is nice in that you have unlimited continues, but the more you use the less likely you are to get a point bonus at the end of the game. This makes BBCQ interesting in comparison to other platformers, in that you are not only trying to beat the game but it encourages you to push yourself for a higher score.
Sound: This is a POKEY game and the sound is great. There are a bunch of catchy tunes that I found myself humming to during the game and even after I was done playing for the day. The music certainly is fitting for the game.
Graphics: Level designs are great. Each of the worlds look and feel different. Colors are good. The music and level design go well together and make each world charming in its own way. Bentley and all the baddies look great. They were designed well and never once did I find myself disliking any of the designs.
Other Thoughts: About the only "complaint" I could have against the game is really more a complaint about the limitations of 7800 controllers. This game has a two button option (one to jump, one to shoot/run) and a single button option (button shoot/run, up on joystick jumps). I used the two buttoned Euro pad as I did not find the 7800 joysticks very easy to use. Even the Euro pads provided to be cramp inducing as the run and jump buttons are not as nicely placed as say an NES controller. I%u2019m not sure how much it would change the gameplay, but maybe the 7800 joystick limitations might not matter as much if Bentley was in a constant running state
Playing BBCQ is a blast. It even has many secrets to discover. This made me go back and want to discover everything after one play through. You should be able to complete the game in little over an hour, if you play well. We are lucky to now be able to play a game like this, and it is kind of sad that similar games were not made for the 7800 back in the day. It would have been games like this that could have saved the 7800. I believe this is a must have for the 7800 and hope that we possibly see a sequel in the future. (Also worth hunting down a Ballvlazer cart to harvest a POKEY chip.)
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