- Crystal Castles
- Crystal Quest featuring Bentley Bear
For many years, Crystal Castles lacked a proper sequel. Bentley Bear had appeared in a series of educational games for the Atari ST between 1987 and 1988: Bentley Bear’s Alphabet Tutor, Bentley Bear’s Equation Builder, Bentley Bear’s General Store, Bentley Bear’s Magical Anagrams, Bentley Bear’s Magical Math 1, Bentley Bear’s Magical Math 2, Bentley Bear’s Magical Math 3, Bentley Bear’s Memory Master, Bentley Bear’s Memory Master II, Bentley Bear’s Spelling Bee, and Bentley Bear’s Typing Tutor. These were all outsourced to the company AVNI and published by Atari. Then, in 1995, Bentley Bear (as well as a stage based on Crystal Castles) appeared in the racing game Atari Karts, which was Atari’s attempt at making their own Super Mario Kart-type of kart racing game for the Atari Jaguar. But aside from the arcade game appearing on compilations after that, Bentley Bear almost disappeared completely, despite a very brief cameo in the 2012 Disney film Wreck-It Ralph.
Bently in Wreck-It Ralph
Then, in 2014, everything changed. A new Crystal Castles game was coming, this time for the Atari 7800, albeit an unofficial one. This was from noted Atari homebrew programmer Bob “PacManPlus” DeCrescenzo, who had previously ported the classic arcade games Super Pac-Man, Moon Cresta, Frenzy and Space Invaders, among others, to the 7800. Titled Crystal Quest featuring Bentley Bear, it was a platformer instead of a maze game, something the 7800 was lacking. Bob elaborated on the origins of Crystal Quest when I had a chance to speak to him in early 2025:
“I wanted to make a Pitfall III-like game for the 7800, and around that time a thread was started by (Atari Age forum member) VicViper asking if the 7800 could do a Wonder Boy port. Someone else in that thread (SpiffyOne) suggested using Bentley Bear for that, and I jumped on it. Not telling anyone that I had started creating that game, I put a ‘mockup’ screen shot (which was actually a real screen shot from the game) in the thread. People really liked it, so I finished it. The hardest part of that was creating the levels, but overall it was a very fun project. Pac-Man-Red did some amazing work on the graphics and Synthpopalooza is a genius with a Pokey (sound chip).”
Playing much like the original Wonder Boy by Westone, Crystal Quest takes Bentley on a journey through five stages to recover the Five Crystals of Life from Berthilda. She’s brought along her minions, both old and new, to stop Bentley from foiling her plan. The quest will take Bentley through many different stages, from forests to deserts to caves, and eventually to Berthilda’s Castle – over forty stages total. On top of that, there are hidden stages to that can be found.
Bentley is no longer a one-hit wonder, though, like he was in Crystal Castles. He now has a life bar. The Magic Hat can still be found, and much like in Crystal Castles, it will make Bentley invincible for a short amount of time. Bentley also now has some offensive weaponry in the form of throwable jewels, which can be found scattered throughout the stages. First is the White Jewel, which will take out most enemies with one shot. The Red Jewel is stronger, and can destroy some of the tougher enemies with one shot. The Green Jewel, the rarest of the three, deals eight times the amount of damage as the White Jewel.
All of the classic enemies from Crystal Castles return, but unlike before, all of them can now be destroyed (even the Bee Swarm). They’ve learned new tricks, too, except for the Trees, which just blindly walk forward and can be stopped by any obstacle, and the Bee Swarm, which attacks from above, as before. The Skeletons will charge at Bentley, leaping obstacles to get to him. The Gem Eaters are even worse. There are no gems to slow them down, so they aggressively charge Bentley to eat the jewels he’s carrying (which will kill him). The Ghosts move in a sine-wave pattern (much like the Medusa Heads in Castlevania), and can track Bentley. Luckily, they’re on the slow side. The Crystal Balls take multiple hits to destroy, and track Bentley as well. Unlike the Ghosts, though, they will turn around and pursue Bentley if they miss him.
Berthilda has brought some new recruits along as well. Among them are Zombies, Coyotes, Floating Heads, Knights and Mini Berthildas. Each of them has their own strengths and weaknesses. Not only can the Zombies change direction when bumping into an obstacle, but they can only be killed hitting them in the head. It takes four hits with a White Jewel (or two hits with a Red Jewel) to knock them off. The Coyotes are fast and will jump to avoid the jewels Bentley throws at them. They also have the ability to jump to higher ground. The Floating Heads can be killed with one jewel, but are very fast and unpredictable. The Knights that guard Berthilda’s Castle are slow, but take several hits to destroy. The Mini Berthildas also take multiple hits to destroy, and even worse, take on the abilities of some of the other flying and floating creatures. Luckily, they’re rarely encountered.
Berthilda herself is now a boss. You’ll encounter her five times during the game, at the end of each stage guarding one of the Five Crystals of Life. Defeat her, and you’ll get one of the crystals she was guarding. As one might expect, every time you encounter her she gets more difficult to defeat. She’s also the hardest creature in the game, with thirty-two hit points.
As one might expect, there are also environmental hazards to deal with. All of these will deal Bentley some serious damage. There are Fire and Rocks (shades of Wonder Boy), but there are also Spikes and Berthilda’s Cauldron to avoid as well. The Honey Pots return as well, but these should not be avoided. Picking them up will net you fifty points and add some more energy to Bentley’s life bar.
The original Crystal Castles did have music, but for the most part, the sounds of Bentley picking up the gems were what you heard throughout the game. Crystal Quest, on the other hand, has music that plays throughout the game, courtesy of the Pokey sound chip. The composer, Synthpopalooza, used public-domain music throughout the game. Snippets of some of the compositions used had been previously used in Crystal Castles, such as “The Nutcracker Suite” and “Mephisto Waltz.” Synthpopalooza used many other compositions to score Crystal Quest with, among them “Waltz of the Flowers,” “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies,” “The 1812 Overture,” and on the title screen, “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic.”
Crystal Quest definitely filled a gap in the 7800’s library, and gave us a long-overdue return to the world of Crystal Castles, but without Atari’s official approval, it was only a fangame. That all changed in early 2024. Atari had been working with Bob to bring some of his games to the Atari VCS console store, at least the ones they had the publishing rights to. In March of 2024, Crystal Quest was released for the VCS. Now, with Atari’s blessing, Crystal Quest was no longer a fangame, but the official sequel to Crystal Castles. This was further driven home by the release of the Atari 7800+ console in the winter of 2024. Not only was Crystal Quest (now with a minor name change to Bentley Bear’s Crystal Quest) announced to be part of the first official wave of games released, but it was also going to be the pack-in game for the 7800+. Bob elaborated on Crystal Quest coming to the VCS and 7800+ when asked about how this deal came about.
“Initially, David Paige contacted me when he was working with Atari about bringing some games over to the VCS. Albert Yarusso (of Atari Age) went a step farther when he was on board with Atari to bring me up whenever they wanted someone to work on something new for them. Regarding the pack-in, I had no idea that was going to be the pack-in until it came out. I was flabbergasted, in the best way possible!”
Bentley Bear did turn up again before Crystal Quest was made the official sequel to Crystal Castles. In 2018, he appeared as the star of a (as yet, uncompleted) Atari Lynx fangame titled Bentley Bear’s Honey Hunt, and in 2022, as a character in the game Atari Mania (NSW/VCS/Steam).
Other Cameos
