Tropedia

  • All unique and most-recently-edited pages, images and templates from Original Tropes and The True Tropes wikis have been copied to this wiki. The two source wikis have been redirected to this wiki. Please see the FAQ on the merge for more.

READ MORE

Tropedia
Farm-Fresh balanceYMMVTransmit blueRadarWikEd fancyquotesQuotes • (Emoticon happyFunnyHeartHeartwarmingSilk award star gold 3Awesome) • RefridgeratorFridgeGroupCharactersScript editFanfic RecsSkull0Nightmare FuelRsz 1rsz 2rsz 1shout-out iconShout OutMagnifierPlotGota iconoTear JerkerBug-silkHeadscratchersHelpTriviaWMGFilmRoll-smallRecapRainbowHo YayPhoto linkImage LinksNyan-Cat-OriginalMemesHaiku-wide-iconHaikuLaconicLibrary science symbol SourceSetting

There was once a time when Macs were pretty well regarded for their games, and Crystal Quest was their Tetris — engrossing, addictive, and impossible to beat.

You used the mouse to control a little spaceship that looked like a hockey puck, collecting all the crystals in each screen-sized level. Once you had all the crystals, a gate at the bottom of the screen would open up, permitting you to escape into... a slightly harder version of the level you just played, with more types of enemies, more land mines, and more crystals you have to pick up. This masochistic treadmill of impending doom was memorable enough to its players that they eventually ported it to the Xbox Live arcade, with (optionally) modernized art.

Also of note are its slick graphics (for the time; it was the first color game on the Mac) and the bizarre, often hilarious sounds made from distorted voice recordings and cheesy synthesizers. Most infamously, the level completion fanfare was a recording of a woman making a suggestive gasping sound, something that apparently had to be censored for the Xbox port.

Tropes used in Crystal Quest include: