I used to be a gamer back when arcade machines were the thing. I remember playing Gauntlet at a pier in Brighton in 1987 for some 10 hours straight on one coin. Only to claim the third place in the high score list. That same year I held the European record in Crystal Castles. Atari’s 1983 arcade game. Bentley bear running around in a castle collecting gems and avoiding enemies. One of the first arcade games with a real ending. The first level was built around the three initials of the person with the high score. All the games in Oslo had “ISY” displaying on the screen (from my pseudonym when writing the Mega Role-Playing book, Isy Allon).
I had to create a small tribute to that legendary game in funkey.
The game
- Five castles of blocks, seen from the corner. Every path lined with gems.
- Take them all before the gem eaters do.
- Trees walk. A crystal ball rolls. Bees swarm. The witch comes in the third wave.
Spacejumps them. The hat keeps the bear safe for eight seconds.- And there is a warp. Of course there is.
A tribute
A copy of the arcade game would need Atari’s own program. So everything here is new: the castles, the bear, the music.
Brick walls, tiled floors, a starry sky. A frame takes half a millisecond. glass shows the pixels.
Summary
Built with Claude on funkey during a bus trip to work this morning. Public Domain, like everything I make.
Link to this post: https://isene.org/2026/09/Gems.html