Crystal Caves episode 1

Title: Crystal Caves
Year released: 1991
Type: Side-scrolling platform game
Publisher: Apogee

Title screen

Story

Crystal Caves trilogy deals with desperate space trader Mylo in his mission to earn money. In this episode Mylo wants to get rich by buying himself Twibble farm, only problem is - he has no money. For that reason he ventures to mine in Altairian system to collect crystals, trade them for money and buy himself that farm. That pretty much covers the whole story.

Mylo

Gameplay

Game consists of main level through which you can enter other levels (16 in total). You cannot do much on the main level, but each level you enter is filled with crystals, creatures, ... Luckily for Mylo, his faithful rocket gun is with him and most of the creatures can be killed with it, only problem is - ammo is limited so Mylo has to collect it through levels.

You start each level with 3 points of health, and each strike from enemy or any other hazard, lowers it at least by one. When you run out of health, you simply start level from beginning or exit to main level. In order to finish level, Mylo has to collect all crystals and safely reach exit door.You can finish levels in any order. 

Saving is possible on main level only. Controls are simple: left, right, jump and fire.

Main level

Hazards

There are four types of hazards that Mylo can encounter:

1.  Creatures - some shoot at Mylo, others just try to run into him
2.  Environment - turrets, stalactites and burners that try to hit Mylo
3.  Green mushroom that instantly kills Mylo

Different hazards can be seen here ...

Each level has it's own air pump and shooting it instantly kills Mylo.

Powerups

In most levels powerups are placed to enable Mylo to get to certain part of map and/or to get there without getting hurt. All powerups have only temporary effect:

1. Reverse gravity powerup - reverses gravity (but only for Mylo)
2. Super gun powerup - Mylo can kill any enemy with his rocket gun
3. Red mushroom - makes Mylo invincible and he can kill any enemy simply by touching it
4. Stop sign - stops all enemies and Mylo can get past them without getting hurt

Other pickups

1. Crystals - In order to finish level, Mylo has to collect all crystals in level (50 points)
2. Shovel - worth 800 points
3. Blue Mushroom - worth 1000 points
4. Candle - worth 1000 points
5. Pickaxe - worth 5000 points 
6. Hidden crystals - Some platforms, like the green one on picture bellow can drop crystals if you hit them from below (just jump and hit them). You can try that with each segment of platform. They're worth 5000 points.
7. Fruit - Appear randomly, but only for short period. If you manage to pick it up, they're worth 5000 points each
8. Eggs - Some levels contain 5 eggs. If Mylo shoots them, letter will appear. If you collect all letters from eggs (they spell "BONUS"), you get 10000 points.
9. Chest key - Some levels contain chests like this: . Once you get the key, you can open them and get between 1000 and 5000 points for each chest.

Platform that may contain hidden crystals

Walkthrough

If you get stuck, I recorded my last playthrough by levels. I finished each level with all pickups and perfect health. Entire playlist can be found HERE. Since there are no level numbers or labels in game, I played levels ordered like this:

 Where to get it?

You can download this game from "My Abandonware" site located HERE.

What next?

I have few games that I'd love to play again (Commander Keen, Reunion, Secret Agent, ...), so I hope that I'll write another review by next weekend. If you have any games you'd like to recommend (if anybody reads this that is), please comment.