In Class excercise - Playing Atari Games 2-25-11

Play one of the classic vintage arcade games (but NOT a facebook game!) online via a browser - e.g. asteroids, battlezone, centipede etc

And answer the following questions (CUT & PASTE THE QUESTIONS INTO A PERSONAL BLOG ENTRY AND PROVIDE ANSWERS WITHIN SAME BLOG ENTRY)

Include a graphic image of the game you played in your blog entry.


Student Name: Jimmy La


Today’s Date Feb 25, 2011


Game Title Examined Crystal Castles


Year of Publication (if known - check thedoteaters.com for details) 1983


Game Publisher Atari


Game Developer (if different from Publisher) Atari


1 - What is the game genre (e.g. shoot-em-up, racing, sports, puzzle, MMORPG, ‘sandbox’, music sequence following game (e.g. DDR, guitar hero) Collect the jewels


2 -What is the type of game ‘world’ or environment (e.g. flat environment, puzzle/maze space, 3D world?)

The world is an isometric maze with geometric structures.


3 - What is the perspective taken by player (e.g first person, third person perspective, top down, isometric) in relation to main player controlled character.

3/4 Orthographic view (isometric)

4 - What is the actual gameplay – what does the player have to do?

The player has to help a bear navigate through a maze collecting gems while avoiding bad guys (similar to Pac Man)

5 - Is the gameplay intuitive? (i.e. is it easy to understand what to do without instructions?) describe.

Yes because you navigate the bear with the mouse. However, without instructions, I would not know that the bear can destroy bad guys/stun them by jumping over them, etc.

6 - Is the gameplay patterned (game does the same thing over & over) or is it random (happens differently every time?)

The bad guys move at random.

7 - What does the type of graphic approach used as well as the audio tell you about the limits of the technology at the time the game was published?

Because it was isometric and had a lot of color, you can tell that this Atari game came later then games like Asteroid or Pong. The graphics are similar to very early version of Donkey Kong.

8 - Describe your views about the game from the point of view of


1. ease of play
The game is quite easy to play compared to other older Atari games. Other Atari games required you to press multiple buttons which made the controls a bit difficult. This game only used a mouse and the space bar.


2. enjoyability
Due to the ease of use, I actually found this game more enjoyable then older Atari games because I intuitively knew what I had to do to go to the next level w/o having to read instructions.

c) level of engagement/immersion
There is a good amount of level of engagement because it is fun to try and collect all the jewels while avoiding the bad guys. Also, progressing to new levels also gave you a sense of accomplishment.

9 - Had you played this game prior to this time? If so, when?

Nope first time playing.

10 - what does playing the game remind you of in terms of other games/media?

This game reminds me of Pac Man. the only difference is that they beefed up the graphics by making it isometric which gives the illusion of having 3D structures as background. However, because of the isometric view, I think its harder to navigate the bear then it is to navigate Pac Man which had a flat 2D view.