Crystal Quest
In a past life, I had the pleasure of talking with the original creator of Crystal Quest, Patrick Buckland, who described to me the essence of it’s gameplay experience in one word: therapeutic. When he conceived of his memorable classic, the majority of other arcade games in the mid to late 80’s, whether in arcades or on personal computers, was about destroying everything in sight. Patrick instead thought a game, in which the player would prefer avoiding enemies (aka Nasties) first before resorting to destroying them, would be more interesting. Plus, by adding crystals for points amongst the enemies in a full playing field, the player would then see several moves ahead and thus, giving a sense of ‘cleaning up a chalkboard.’ For me, it was food for thought and, while I may not totally agree with the therapeutic nature of the analogy, I do agree that you must check out one of the most beloved Mac games from back in the day. As a bonus, the classic version is included as well as the updated version based on the Xbox Live Arcade release. Check it out and see why it has stood the test of time. Price: $2.99.
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