[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Crystal Quest for Game Boy
April 21st, 2014 by Benj Edwards
Game Boy: The Final Frontier
Fans of early Mac games will no doubt remember Crystal Quest, which (I believe) was the first Mac game to use color graphics just after the Mac II came out in 1987.
Crystal Quest on the Mac played like a space-based Robotron: 2084 controlled with the mouse, albeit with a loose trackball feel because your ship kept moving in the direction you nudged the mouse until you corrected its course. So I’m not sure how it played in this obscure Game Boy port from 1991. Perhaps I’ll fire up an emulator right now and find out.
Discussion Topic of the Week: Can you think of any other game that started on the Macintosh then received a port to a Nintendo console?
April 22nd, 2014 at 1:37 pm
Shufflepuck Cafe began on the Mac and then was ported to the NES and many other systems.
April 22nd, 2014 at 4:14 pm
Timely article Benj as yesterday was the 25th anniversary (!) of the Game Boy’s release in Japan. North America will have to wait until the end of July to celebrate.
April 22nd, 2014 at 4:46 pm
Deja Vu, Shadowgate
April 23rd, 2014 at 6:55 am
Shadowgate was the first one that popped into my mind too. As a kid I remember thinking that the interface to shadowgate was weird, years later when I learned it was port and originally designed to be used with a mouse, it made a lot more sense. Still a fun game even with a NES controller though.
April 23rd, 2014 at 11:13 am
I loved Shadowgate and Deja Vu!
Not on the NES, but Dark Castle received some truly awful ports to the Sega Genesis and CD-I.
July 22nd, 2014 at 12:21 am
Benj, you piqued my curiosity about Crystal Quest. So when I spotted a Gameboy copy for sale for cheap at my local retro game store, I picked it up.
I am not disappointed, to say the least. I can’t say I’ve ever played the original Macintosh version, but this one is very addicting and more than generous with the free lives it gives out. Thanks for the suggestion!
July 22nd, 2014 at 9:15 am
Glad I could help, Alexander!