Crystal Caves

Crystal Caves is a classic cave platformer in which the hero Mylo Steamwitz descends beneath the surface of alien planets to collect precious crystals to fund his own business. Each level has a clear goal: collect all the crystals and find the exit, with the path leading through moving platforms, laser traps, poisonous plants, and alien vermin. Mylo is no warrior — he only carries a simple weapon with limited ammo, so it often pays to go around enemies or use the environment against them instead. Between levels the player moves across a clear map with entrances to individual mines, which gives freedom in choosing the order and a pleasant sense of progress.

Technically the game runs on sixteen-color EGA graphics, which look sharp and contrasty today but were entirely standard at the time and, above all, ran smoothly even on very modest hardware. The screens don't scroll continuously but switch whole-screen by whole-screen, and the level design cleverly uses this so that each screen functions as a small standalone puzzle. The sound is limited to internal-speaker beeps and simple effects, so the atmosphere is carried mainly by the visual style of underground corridors, pipes, and machinery. This very austerity contributes to the game feeling focused and never wasting your time.

Crystal Caves belonged to Apogee's early wave of shareware titles that showed the PC could have its own platformer scene even without game-console hardware. The game was well received mainly thanks to its balanced difficulty and the careful design of individual screens, which rewards thoughtfulness more than fast reflexes. Its influence came especially from being part of the family of games that made Apogee a major publisher of action titles for DOS. Playing it today is a pleasantly old-fashioned yet honest experience: short, clear, and at times surprisingly demanding, especially if you want to collect absolutely everything.