Crystal Mania 4: Space Pirates From The Planet Of The Pygmie People

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Crystal Mania 4 (v2.2)
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Release type: Shareware
Release date: 1993
Levels: 12
Author: James W. Morris
Website: JamesWMorris.com
Registration bonus: Free games, bug fixes, etc.
Registration price: $5
Related games: Crystal Mania 5


Not to be mistaken for M & R Inc's Crystal Quest.

Crystal Mania 4 is a supremely confident and joyous game, that sometimes forgets to check whether the player is along for the ride. As the fourth game in what seems to be a rather plot-heavy series, we enter a story in progress, with established characters following the progress of unseen events. In this chapter the premise involves a dinosaur trapped aboard a space galleon, slinging diamonds over the heads of knee-high pirates.

This game revels in its drollery, in a way that maybe illustrates the conflict in its design. Its charming sprites and goofy, referential humor keep the tone warm and familiar, yet just as Mystery Science Theater 3000 can alienate a new viewer with its "Hi-Keeba!" and its Eisenhower-era hand lotion marketing references, for all of Crystal Mania's charisma it can be hard from moment to moment to understand just what is happening, where the player is going, where the player is now, what the controls are or do, or -- in regard to any of this -- why.

Case in point: the character's main attack is high, and almost exclusively the enemies strike low. Thus for the first several minutes, the player's every volley sails over the enemies' heads. On a design level this decision could have been a problem, except that at the first convenient intersection the game more or less hands the player a (comical) low attack, in apparent recognition of the uselessness of the main weapon. In retrospect, is that ineffectiveness part of the game's humor -- that its primary weapon serves to highlight the stature of its antagonists? Maybe. If so, what a weird joke.

This bafflement extends to the game's geography -- which is curious, as the levels are actually designed pretty well, making good use of the available map space. For all its asides and secret areas (and there are many), Crystal Mania has a good sense of pacing and forward momentum. If you keep going forward you'll be solid -- yet due to the unvarying scenery, made up of just a few tile patterns, it can be hard to find your way around.

To break up that sameness, each level draws on Game-Maker's physical properties to introduce one or more new gimmicks, which are paced out and compounded into memorable setpieces. Those setpieces form landmarks, which serve to periodically orient the player. So if you're confused where you are or where you're going, just keep heading toward the next interesting thing. It will bring you forward.

Sometimes snakes would burst out of the floor and try to bite you. There was nothing you could do about it except try to avoid them. Watch out for the tiny pirate below!

Except maybe not, as in the best 8-bit tradition often those same setpieces require a degree of foreknowledge unavailable to the player the first, second, or third time through the level. Although trial-and-error is a part of any game design, in the most rewarding design the error is left within the boundaries of the user's own control, meaning the understanding alloted by prior events. As with so many parts of the game, if you're already along for the ride, then whee! It's a fun ride. If you're just showing up, you probably will slam into a wall and return to Go.

Yet charm and vision do go far, and those are the main currency on offer here. Morris brings such care and character to the sprite designs -- more so than in most Game-Maker projects -- and to the game's overall scenario. For all of the technical annoyances, the world of Crystal Mania just feels like a fun place to be. And for all of the random sound and music cues and arbitrary splash screens, Morris maintains a coherent cleanliness to the game's presentation. As confusing the actual play can be, from moment to moment the game has a clear identity and sense of purpose, an enthusiasm that creates its own sense of drive.

The variety of moves -- the extensive use of the duck-and-scuttle technique, the boomerang, the remote control, the high and low attacks -- and the ample setpieces, with their exploration of the engine's features, give the game a refreshing breadth of vocabulary, which give the world a sense of dynamism and intrigue.

Throughout the game you would encounter prisoners who were willing to sell you new weapons. Even though you were supposed to be a hero, you never made any attempts to liberate these unjustly detained arms runners.

A key example is the story and narrative progression, which to a large extent is progressed through Zelda-style cave-rooms, where as the screen scrolls various characters spout expository dialogue and offer the chance to buy new inventory items, which help the player to progress. This story technique -- using the map's scrolling as a way to procedurally expose the linear narrative -- also comes into play in the intro to 4 to Save Toon Land, but in a different form. As applied here, to dialog, it's pretty much a unique application in the Game-Maker library. More than unique, it's effective -- particularly combined with the side rooms where the dialog takes place, giving a sense of fairly organic story development at the same time as the power-ups develop the play narrative.

Crystal Mania is a strange beast; frustrating to play, yet charming enough to demand respect and attention. When you boot it up you really do want to press through, for all of the minor annoyances that you might encounter -- if only to see what might be lurking around the next corner, whether a new gimmick, a new joke, or just something memorably odd.

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Crystal Mania series

Story[edit]

You could scoot under spikes in the game. You could, and you would. Repeatedly. There are a lot of scooty spikes throughout the levels. The yellow tube was a warp beam that would move you around the ship... slowly.

When we last left Bub he was being Knighted by Princess Marie Alicia Zebdar. With the Royal Crystal Sword she dubbed him Sir Bub. The ceremony was held in the Sacred Hall before the Great Crystal.

As the Sword fell upon Bub's shoulder the crystal awoke for the first time in ten thousand years, "The princess Dubs thee Sir Bub." It said in a gentle voice that filled the minds of all at the palace for the knighting "I am honored you have woken" The Princess said kneeling. Looking around, Bub noticed he was the only one standing so he kneeled too.

"Rise Bub" the crystal said.

"I knew that was gonna happen" Bub thought to himself.

"Bub the princess has chosen you to protect our world" The crystal began.

"I know," Bub said "pretty cool huh?"

Bub.png

"Um, yes quite Cool" said the crystal. "But Coolness is quite beside point, I must judge weather or not you are worthy."

"Bummer" Bub said.

Outside the room marked Q there is a handy floating platform, as well as a hidden fortune in cubic doubloons. What does the Q stand for? It was meant to indicate "quarters" on the ship. But I don't think that was ever remotely clear.

"Yes, um, quite bummerific, but again Bub it is beside the point. You have taken 10 fractured lands and healed them back into the planet they once were, you have vanquished 3 evils, and have shown the utmost respect and care for our world. Thus there can be no doubt in my mind that you are worthy, I confirm this Knighthood and grant the power of channeling" The Crystal announced.

"excellent" Bub said.

The room filled with light shed from the crystal, nearly blinding everyone. The light focused on Bub and he was filled by it, then he passed out.

"All Hail Sir Bub Starr! Knight of Zebdar!" the crowd roared.

Bub made history that day. He was the first knight on Zebdar in 10,000 years.

Now it's been 3 months and relatively quiet all over.

Until This Morning. As dawn broke the air was filled with a giant explosion as a wall of the crystal Palace was torn off by Laser fire. Thousands of tiny green aliens dressed like pirates beamed down from a massive Galleon made of steel overhead. In seconds the castle treasury was completely looted and the creatures were beaming up. Bub awoke to find the princess blasting the ship with all the power of the Great crystal.

"Whats Going on???" Bub yelled over the sounds of lasers.

"Space Pirates!" she yelled. "Looks like Pygmie people"

"Pygmie people?" Bub asked "I thought they were friendly"

"Me too" the princess said. "But now they they're darn inhospitable, and they've got some force field that not even the crystal can penetrate"

"I can get into the beam and go aboard they're ship" Bub suggested.

"Are you nuts!" Marie Alicia screamed "There's six GaZillion of them!"

"I gotta try" Bub explained

"heelllllooooo anyone home up there, it's suicide! you can't channel if your not in contact with zebdar! Don't let being a knight go to your head! We can send up a few crafts after them." The Princess pleaded.

"Don't worry, Princess, nothing goes to MY head" Bub assured her.

"You can say that again" she answered. "Besides if the omnipotent great crystal can't get through their force field a Zebdar passenger space liner sure couldn't"

Then Cedrick the Sage ran in. "Bub you must beam aboard the ship!" he said

When you died in the game you turned into a skeleton and then crumbled to dust. And then a flower would grow out of the pile of dust that you became. This is probably the best part of the game, and fortunately it happens a lot.

"see" Bub said to the Princess

"I have seen a great evil that may come from this! You must stop their Captain at all costs. I have left my body and astrally traveled aboard the ship to get this." He handed Bub a printed out book. "It's a copy of the captain's log, it may be helpful, I've decoded it and put it in English for you"

"Thanks Cedrick" Bub said. He glanced through the book noticing plans to build a galactic imploder that would make captain Jean Luc Pygmie the greatest force in the universe. Having read the info he put the book aside, and he looked at the princess. She had an expression he'd never seen before, it was like terror and sadness, like she'd lost a best friend.

"Don't go, you don't have to." She pleaded "I do" he said

"I'll be back before you all even miss me. Later" he said

Then he ran to the treasury and channeled a beam of energy into the transporter. With that he was pulled up into the cargo hold of the Gore Falcon.

The princess watched from her window as the ship kicked into warp speed and vanished.

So now here we are at the game, have fun!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Instructions[edit]

The game took place entirely in and around a space galleon en route to an alien planet loaded up with ill-gotten booty. This is one of the levels where you ran around on the exterior of the ship fighting pirates, lizards, and metal space birds.

To set up sound and video cards. Exit to DOS and type "config" make sure you config at least once before playing

Controls[edit]

Hi, thanks for playing Crystal Mania 4.

  • To move Bub right or left use those arrow keys on your numeric keypad.
  • Up jumps and down ducks.
  • 1 and 3 on the pad crawl
  • and 7 and 9 jump left and right. Keep Numlock on.
  • Space shoots your crystal
  • B shoots boomerang 1.
  • Q shoots boomerang 2.
  • S rolls skate bombs.
  • And R uses the remote controls.
  • To get an item press G while over it.
  • To drop an item in your inventory press D and choose the item.

Joystick users[edit]

left and right move Bub in those directions. Up Jumps move up and left or right to jump at angles. Use down to duck or down and left or right to crawl. Fire shoots crystals, refer to keyboard controls for other weapons.

Hints[edit]

HINT: You only need to get 5 items with the 'G' button.

  • Boomerangs one and two
  • The twin key
  • The Remote Control.
  • And Skate Bombs.

All other items you get just by touching.

HINT: Force fields are deadly. Never ever touch one. Deactivate them first with the remote control.

HINT: There are only three remote control recharges in the game, and three times you need to use it. So make sure you take good aim at the force fields before you attempt to deactivate them.

HINT: Save often so you won't have to go over the same place twice if you die.

NOTE: Press F1 for instructions during the game.

Credits[edit]

This is a doorway that leads into the space galleon's interior. There sure are a lot of backgrounds competing for your attention.

Crystal Mania 4: Space Pirates from the planet of the Pygmie People v.2.2

This Game was made by James Morris with Game-Maker.

Copyright 1993 all rights reserved

Any resemblance to any persons living or dead is not only coincidental but cause for a good plastic surgeon.

  • Bub
  • the planet Zebdar
  • sentries
  • dragones
  • bouncers
  • princess Marie Alicia Zebdar
  • Garshnip
  • Alexbaria
  • Beta
  • Ragnorock
  • Fargnip
  • Alexandria
  • Alpha
  • Appocalypse
  • and the great crystal

are property of Hamster Publications and HamsterWare. They don't exist but still beware.

Look for the upcoming Crystal Mania 5: Pygmie People of Lushceria, and Super Hamster

This is the beginning of the final boss fight. I didn't know how to make enemies that were more than 2 tiles high, so the final boss was named, "Jean-Luc Pygmie" See, it's a Star Trek joke. And also a joke at the expense of pygmies. I should be ashamed of myself.

You can help to make these future epics from Hamsterware better.

Yes, you can.

How, you ask?

It's easy, send me money! For 5 dollars, less than the price of a cup of coffee, you get the love and adoration of everyone here at Hamsterware. You get stuff on a regular basis like games, bug fixes, etc. for free! and you get that warm squishy feeling from knowing you sent little old me some money.

What happens if you don't register, well the big bad registry police will come into your house while you sleep and steal your pants! It's true! You'll also get put in the book of people we don't like and we will be sure to scowl at you if we see you on the street.

So if you want to be a pantless freak who gets stared at that's entirely up to you, you can avoid that cruel fate by sending money to me!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, if you don't think this game is worth the plastic it's cased in then don't play it and you don't have to pay and you may keep your pants. What will I use your hard earned cash for. Well for one thing I'll be sure to dance naked in it. Also though I will be using most of it for YOU! Yesiree I'll be putting toward registering and buying things to improve on graphics and sound and whatever else you could want. For example I missed the scanner fairy last time she came around so I suppose I have to buy one, with your money I can digitize graphics for upcoming Hamsterware games. Now don't you feel all gooey in the middle knowing that by helping me you help thousands of little animated figures not yet created. You can be their sponsor parent and get free case histories and photos and letters. So send your money now...

By the way, I guess this stuff is copyrighted so don't even think about doing unthinkable things to it.

Background[edit]

Here is a really big chandelier. Our hero is being pursued toward it by the game's final boss. This was meant to be a lot more swashbuckling than it actually was.

Design quirks[edit]

If you look at the credits, you'll see that there's a shareware message in there. I think I just threw that in because it was in fashion at the time. I never really expected anyone to pay for it. No one did. So I wouldn't necessarily classify it as a shareware title. The legal stuff is nonsense too.
Also, you may notice that the music and sound effects are somewhat... incongruous with what's going on. I didn't have a sound card on my computer when I was working on this game, so I just downloaded files and assigned them kind of blindly. Same with the main menu images, just random downloads.
In Crystal Mania 4 I wanted to have a boss fight. But since you couldn't assign hit points to monsters, I ended up having lots of different forms for the final boss to transition through as you damage him. There were the usual color swaps, but also a few unique forms like a whirlwind and a bouncing ball. While it didn't quite work out as I'd hoped, I think having to swap the monster sprite made it a more interesting because I gave each form a different type of movement.
Once I started making levels that represented places rather than just "game boards", and included characters, I found myself (over)writing backstories to explain them. And, I was getting more into RPGs and graphic adventure games that focused more on storytelling.

Past events[edit]

There were three previous games on the C64, made with Brøderbund's Arcade Game Construction Kit. The first two were single screen platform / puzzle games, kind of like Bubble Bobble. I'm sure the dinosaury look of the main character, and the name Bub, were lifted directly. Bub had two forms: one that could jump, but not shoot, and one that could shoot, but not jump. You could only switch forms at certain tiles. Your goal in each level was to collect a crystal that was somewhere on-screen. Sometimes you needed to jump over gaps or obstacles to reach it. Sometimes you'd need to shoot bad guys or obstructions.
The second game added portals, like that portal game, Portal. Unlike Portal, it got really confusing. The third game was a little different. It was trying present an open-ended world like Metroid or Zillion by linking lots of single screen areas together. But, the arcade game engine didn't lend itself to this sort thing. In the end it didn't really work.

Future plans[edit]

Crystal Mania 5 was going to be the continuation of 4, but on a jungle planet. Turns out that Bub was in suspended animation for thousands of years. The descendants of the Pygmie People had formed a new civilization in the jungle. Their religion revolves around the crashed ship and an ancient evil sealed away inside it, which of course is Bub. The object of the game was to find stuff to build a space ship out of and get off the planet.
It started out in the crashed ship from Crystal Mania 4 with all your power ups lost, so you had to collect new stuff. It was kind of Gilligan's Island-ish in that all the power ups were going to be fashioned from coconut shells, bamboo, vines, and volcanic power crystals. I had planned to add a jet pack power up, and underwater levels. I only got as far as the first level which reused background blocks from the first game with new character blocks for Bub.
Crystal Mania 6 was going to pick up with Bub returning to his home world thousands of years in the future to find it had been completely conquered by the Pygmie People (in retaliation for stealing one of their ships). The game would have involved finding pieces of the great power crystal and reactivating it so that Bub could go back in time and change the future. The game was going to include flashback levels where you played as the Princess defending the castle during the Pygmie invasion. She was supposed to have different abilities and power ups than Bub, but I can't remember exactly what they were going to be.
- James W. Morris

Availability[edit]

During the early 1990s the game was available for download from various online bulletin boards.

Archive History[edit]

In early December, 2010, pictures from James Morris' Flickr channel began to turn up in Google Image Search results for "Recreational Software Designs"; a brief search turned up his website, and thereby his contact information. On December 7th a correspondence began; on December 11th Morris provided a link to Crystal Mania 4, with Super Hamster provided the following day.

Images and captions used in this article are duplicated from Morris' Flickr channel.

Links[edit]

Interviews / Articles[edit]

Social Media / Discussion[edit]

Misc Links[edit]

Downloads[edit]

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