The Atari video game, not the band. I know, I know, I could just watch someone play Cr.Ca. on YouTube, why am I freakin' out? Incidentally, why didn't Atari include Marble Madness on their li'l B.S. CD-Rom? I guess they're not up to adapting all those games like Paperboy, Championship Sprint, Marble Madness... all those games that have that cool font. Indiana Jones and the Road-Runner as well... and RoadBlasters. Damn you, Windows Vista! They won't let me use my old MAME thingie. I've either gotta upgrade or go back to my Windows XP machine. Anyway, it'll all have to wait as I try to get my masters degree.
But back to the subject at hand. Like Ed Crane says in "The Man Who Wasn't There" when he's on Death Row and talking about a rat in a maze. The shape the rat makes as it wanders through the maze, well... that's the shape of your life! What's my life-shape say about me? I'm damn close on this one. I got as far as Berthilda's... Dungeon? Berthilda's Dungeon again. Decided to stop going for the magic hat on the Impossible Staircase for a while. Can't seem to jump forward that well anymore. I actually won the game with a straight mouse; now all I got is this stupid trackball thing. How are you supposed to win a game with a trackball? It's impossible. What else? So it's just down to nine levels now. I've got the "Extra lives every 70,000 Points" level down pretty well. Those gem-eaters just move too damn fast. I gotta learn to take 'em out at Level 8. Cross Maze: I seem to have lost my mojo, but am slowly getting it back. Hidden Ramp: got that down pretty well. Make sure the trees get stuck on the switchback ramp and you're okay. Berthilda's Fortress at Level 8... God, I love that thing. Get the tree onto the platform and you're sorta on easy street. I actually took out the gem-eaters once; don't know how. Dumb luck, I guess. Impossible Staircase: it's pretty easy once you get everything in place. I think I better go for the honey first from now on. Nasty Tree: God, I hate that one. I tried letting the gem-eaters get all the gems on the big open prairie that the tree always catches me on. One of these days I'm going to have to learn to position myself right underneath the magic hat so I can just catch it right away and go from there. Hidden Spiral: God I hate that one. Better just go for the hat right away, get the honey, then contend with the ghost.... or maybe contend with the ghost while I got the hat? Too many choices. As for the end, well... as long as I can stun the tree long enough to get to that northwest quadrant and get the honey... something like that. Anyway, better get back to my damn thesis.
Oh, I almost forgot. I read a YouTube post from a Seinfeld wannabe talking about crystal castles, saying "There's no crystals! There's no castles!" First of all, there's SOME castles. Take Berthilda's castle, for example... isn't that what Level 1, Round 4 is called? Can't risk looking right now. There's definitely some tower-type formations. And you're supposed to collect gems, a TYPE of crystal. Okay, not geodes or amethyst, true, but still. And yes, the trees and gem-eaters have no relation to anything. Everything needs a mythology and a backstory these days. Sheesh. Did you know that they were originally going to call Pac-Man Puck Man? They didn't do it ultimately because......................................
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