The Sound Chip in Crystal Caves: A Nostalgic Revisit

As I sit here playing the re-imagined version of Crystal Caves, I'm struck by the sound chip that powers its music. It's a five-channel sound system, with sawtooth, triangle, pulse waveforms, and square wave mixture, noise channel. This is quite different from what was on offer at the time, when PC gamers were stuck with PC speaker sound effects and the limited capabilities of AdLib or Sound Blaster. The NES A203, which dated back to the early days of 8-bit gaming, offered something much more advanced - 60 levels of output, and a range of waveforms that would have been unimaginable on the PC.

The music in Crystal Caves is fine, I suppose. It's just that it doesn't quite feel like it fits with the game itself. The composer has done a good job of creating something that sounds nostalgic, but not necessarily authentic to the original. If they had opted for FM synth music, which was contemporary to 1991 PC shareware games and would have given them nine channels of frequency modulation synthesis, I think that would have been a much better fit. The AdLib or Sound Blaster cards were popular among PC gamers at the time, and their OPL2 or 3 sound capabilities would have allowed for some amazing music.

The closest argument I could think of would be something like the Creative Music System or the Game Blaster cards. These were a thing back then, although they weren't very popular. They wouldn't have offered the same level of quality as the NES A203, but they would have been possible to get somewhat similar music on DOS. Even so, it's hard to imagine how they could have replicated the exact sound of sawtooth-y, triangle, pulse-y stuff with basslines and all that.

I know this is a nitpick, but I just can't help feeling that if they had used something like AdLib or FM synth, the music would have felt more at home in the game. It's not about complaining or suggesting that the composer did anything wrong - it's just that there are some things that don't quite add up when you're trying to recreate a nostalgic experience. And even so, I'm just glad that they kept the PC speaker sounds and made them sound as good as possible.

It's interesting to note that the developer has taken care to preserve the PC speaker sounds, which were an integral part of many classic games. The music is not reverberating like it would on a real speaker, but rather played back through recordings. This attention to detail is something that shows the developer understands what made these old games special.

As I continue playing Crystal Caves, I'm struck by how much the game feels like my childhood. The sound effects are still echoing in my brain, and I find myself nodding along as I play. It's amazing how something like this can evoke such strong memories and emotions. Achievements have also been added to the game - achievements that celebrate the most nostalgic aspects of it.

The modern world is full of surprises, but one thing remains certain: the power of nostalgia. For those who grew up playing games on PC, there's a special place in their hearts for classic titles like Crystal Caves. It's wonderful to see something like this still remembered and celebrated today.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Mm, fresh Apogee logo animation,and Emberheart Games.Yeah, this is gonna be interesting.So greetings and welcome to an LGR thingabout Crystal Caves HD.Yeah, this is a thing.You know, of all of the surprises of 2020,this has gotta be one of the most pleasantand one of the most unexpected.But well, Idon't know about that,there's a lot of unexpectedthings this year,but this is one of themore pleasantly unexpected,let's just put it that way.Crystal Caves, man,this game in particular,it's so special to me, it wasmy very first computer game,really my first game,I think I ever playedas a very young youngin.And it was certainly the first gamethat I owned a physical copy of.So it's very, very special to me.And so to see it get anHD treatment of sortsis just fantastic.So, yeah let's just dive into it.So it's very, very familiar in termsof the way it looks and feels,but it's got a lot of modern updates,which are absolutely fascinating.We're gonna go blough, bleh-na-nehI'm gonna go over most of them.And yes, if you can't tellthis is not a scripted videoor a full review necessarily.I just, I had to share this.I'm excited about it.I've got an early release code herethat Apogee was very kind to send overand I've been testingit out for a little bit.And it's awesome.And there are some changes for surethat are a little interesting.You got game tips, you got music,you got rumble, play time.You can configure the controlswhen you can always do that.Achievements, Steam Workshop support.You can make your own daggummaps, there's leaderboards.There's a fourth episode!Oh my word, this is crazy to me.Anyway, I don't know how manypeople are really gonna beas excited about this assomeone who literally grew upand cut all of their gamingteeth on such a thing.But anyway, I'm psyched.Okay, so let me just start out.We're gonna start with the first episode,which was originally theshareware episode back in 1991.Trouble with Twibbles,delightful Star Trek reference,as is most of this game.And yes, you can select a difficulty now,which is another intriguingchange, normal is just normal.That's how it was back in the day,which is pretty dang tough.Easy makes it a little easier in terms of,I think you get more health,more shots, things like that.And hard of course just makes it harderif for some reason youwant to do that. No.So we're gonna do normal.Yeah, look at this.Ship's Log-Stardate 2121.04,Personal Entry-Record On.See it's the samestory, the same things,it's just slightly updated a little bit.And so, yeah,this is an intriguing idea foran HD remake/remaster to mebecause it's not so muchthat it's completely redoingeverything with like,hand drawn high resolution 4K artwork.You can tell it's still very pixelated,but that's the idea.It's pretty much the same game,just with kind of a VGA Overhaul.It reminds me a lot ofwhat Sierra was doingin the early 90swhen they updated theiradventure game engine.And they were taking gameslike Leisure Suit Larryand such, and taking it fromEGA, moving it on to VGA.And changing just alittle bit here and therein terms of smoothing out,some controls and bits of gameplayand music and sound were tweaked.That's pretty much what this is,but otherwise it's the exact same game.It feels the same.It plays largely the same.And, other than a few minor tweakslike this danger sign for instance,it's got straight text.It's not all wonky looking like it wasin the original Crystal Caves.Everything is pretty much spot on.Oh yeah, and Mylo down there,he actually -- look at that.You got a little animation,an idle animation.He just sort of looks directly at you,which I find disconcerting.Look at that face.But anyway, yeah, he moveshis arms when he jumps,little things, but otherwiseit plays just the same.Let's just go into the first level,what I consider to be the first level,you can play this in allkinds of different ways.But yeah, as you cantell, I mean, it is just,yeah, if you're familiarwith the original Crystal Caves anyway,it's exactly the same.You've got the same likelittle running animation there.It's pretty much just pixel perfectand updated with more colors.That's about it, which is fine by me, man.I wouldn't want too muchchanged about this game anyway,but, again I find thisa fascinating choice.What? It shot me it's -- okay.Wow, that was just horrible luck.It shot me as soon as Ijumped up in front of the gun.Actually no, I guessthat's just how it works.Now that I think about it but anyway.So yeah, anotherfascinating thing is the waythat this actually started,from what I can tell it's,the developer, aah.The developer at Emberheart Gamesmade kind of like, a fanmade mockup, of sortsof the idea of what a CrystalCaves update would look likewith better graphics, butkeeping to the same aspect ratioand all that.And just tweeted it outand George Broussardand some of the folksat Apogee and whatnot,they saw it and they were like, okay,that's pretty darn impressive.Apparently they just reachedout to him and was like,hey, do you wanna partnerand make like an actual,an official Crystal Caves remake.I gotta pay attentionto what I'm doing here.Okay, so anyways, from my understanding,that's just kinda how it happened.It's just like a fanmade like piece of art,just like pixel art thatturned into an actual product,which is so cool.And then it's just evolved intoa thing from there and yeah,so, this sucks, I should havekilled the snake over there.You see what happens when you're talkingand recording gameplay at the same time,whatever.All right.And so yeah, here we are.Game that plays exactlythe same as it always did.Everything's in the same spot,all the enemies and pickups,health points, it's all the same.Yeah, if you're playinga normal mode anyway.So like I said, there are tweaks,the different difficultiesare definitely oneof the larger tweaks.If you play on the differentdifficulties anyway.If you're just playing a normal here,it's the same darn gamewith like some very otherminor things going onin the background.That aren't necessarily gonnabe obvious unless you really,really intimately are familiar with this.So yeah, there's actually,I don't know necessarilyknow if I can show it,but there's a really cool,like a bug report documentthat I've been privy too,I suppose, just playingin the early copy of thisand seeing all thedifferent little tiny tweaksthat are being made under the hood.Some I've contributed too,and some other testershave contributed too,and just let the developers,the developer was aware ofand they're making little differences too.Just they're making surethat like certain aspectsof the game work correctly that might not,and you know, little changes, like see,the edge of the screenjust turned green there.Now that's something thatyou would normally seewith the overscan area on an actual,original DOS computerplaying this on a CRT.The outside of edge ofthe game would changewhenever you know thegems, letting you know,or the crystals letting youknow that the level is done.On things like DOSBox unless there was,specific versions of DOSBoxthat show the overscan area.You don't see that while emulatingthe original Crystal Caves.In fact, I think the CrystalCaves that's on Steam,doesn't show that if I recall.'Cause that's just using DOSBoxand just kind of aquickly slapped together,a little package.I might be wrong there, but anyway,there is a version of theoriginal Crystal Caves on Steam.Amusingly, another thing I just noticedwhile I was installing thisthe other day was like,the original CrystalCaves on Steam is like,oh, 800 something megabytes.As a download.And this is far, far less.I don't know exactlywhat's going on there.I know that it includes emulatorsand sound like MacOS files andstuff and like a manual PDF.But I don't know becauseonce it's actually installed,it's 15 megabytes,which is still way larger thanthe original Crystal Cave,which could fit the wholething on a single floppy disk.Anyway, I just think it's amazingthat the download forCrystal Caves, non-HDis so much larger than thedownload for HD, but anyway.So yeah, but this isjust Crystal Caves, man,I just wanted to show it.I had to show it.This is awesome.I will definitely be showingit again in the future.It's not out yet for one thing.So, it's supposed to be out mid-October.I think they're shooting for the 15that this point I'm recordingthis on October 7th.So anyway, I don't exactlyplan on doing like a fullon review of just this,but I do plan to cover,straight up, OG Crystal Caves.Because like I said before,the game is just so dang special to me.And I've got a pretty good collectionof Crystal Cave releases that I'd liketo show and talk about andjust -- my experiences and such.Another thing I'd like to mention though,in terms of -- dang it -- in termsof changes is the music.So, I'm not exactly,I don't hate it, okay.It's just very, NES style GameBoy 8-bit.It's weird to me.So here's the thing.This is a 1991 PC DOS shareware game,or you know, at least it was.And it never had music.It was a PC speaker onlysound type of thing.So that's what you had.Just square waves and the PCspeaker is a single channel.That's what you're hearingfor the sound effects here.The jumping and all the little thingies.Single channel square waves,little internal speaker on your PC,two levels of volumeoutput and that's about it.Beeps and bloops. But there's music,and this implies some sortof a sound chip, right?And specifically somethinglike the NES A203which was five channels of sound.60 levels of output, youknow, sawtooth, triangle,pulse waveforms andall that kind of stuff.Very different than pretty much anythingthat was on the PC at the time.Which is cool, like I knowthey're going for this sort of,like, oh, what if this gotan 8-bit kind of remake?Maybe it would be something like this.It's just for me as like a PC geek,it feels weird and slightly out of place.Again, the music, thecompositions themselves are fine.I like it.It just doesn't really feel like it fitsthis particular game, to me anyway, yeah.It'd be different if it werelike FM synth kind of stuff,which would have beencontemporary to, you know,1991 PC shareware games.We've got something like, the AdLibor the Sound Blasterany of the compatiblesthat a YM3812, YMF262 inthe Sound Blaster 16,which would do FM synth.And that'd give you,you know, nine channels,frequency modulation synthesis.I love that card.It was very much used alongsidePC speaker sound effectsin Apogee games, Word Rescue,Math Rescue, Dark Ages,and probably some othersI'm not thinking of.Where you'd have PC speaker sound effectsand AdLib/Sound Blaster,OPL2 or 3 FM synth music alongside it.That to me would work.You can have the exact same tunesjust done in FM synth styleor even like MIDI, man just straight up,MIDI would be fine too.But now you've got this NES style thingwith the sawtooth, triangle, pulse,square wave mixture.Noise channel.It's interesting.Now about the closestargument I could think of,would be maybe,something like the Creative Music Systemor the Game Blaster cards.Those were a thing back then.Now they weren't very popular,but they were a thing.It would have been possibleto get somewhat similar musicto this on DOS.But even then that was 12channels of square wave soundin stereo with four noise channels.And you're not gonna get this kindof sawtooth-y, triangle, pulse-ything with the basslinesand stuff that you're getting here.It's a nitpick.I know, I know it's a nitpickand again, nothing against the composer,the fact that they included music,they didn't have toinclude music and they did.That's awesome.Resources went to that.I just kinda wish it were AdLib,or, something else.That's just me though,and maybe a few of you.Otherwise, you know, whatever, it's cool.It adds something to the gamethat wasn't there before.And there's a lot oflittle additions like that.I could also say that, ah,Steam Workshop supportwasn't around back then,so it shouldn't have that either.And it's just a weird, re-imagining,that's just an intriguingmix of old and new.So hey, music is part of it.I accept that.And I am done talking about music now.Although I am gonna turnit off just for a moment,just to let you know, kindof how different it sounds,or more familiar perhapsto those of you that are,old school Crystal Caves players.Hear how silent it is.And all you hear is just a PC speaker.Which of course is not thePC speaker in this case.That's another thing Iwant to commend them on.Is *not* updating the soundeffects, you don't have to.These are embedded in my psyche, my brain,the deepest parts of my being,these particular bleeps andbloops and crunchy noises.Listen to that.That's the sounds of --they're in my dreams, my childhood.Oh, crap, too close to him.Come on, go back tosleep you rolling thingy.So yeah, I'm glad that theykept the PC speaker soundsand they're just like,yeah, there's like recordings that play.But they're pretty cool.The fact that they sound as they should,for the most part.You're not getting like the reverberationof an actual little speaker.Hey, I got an arachnophobia achievement.That's weird, achievements in Crystal Caves.What is this modern world?That's neat though.I am just so happy thatsomething like this is oneof the most niche DOS games in my mind.I just don't see a lot --Like I know a lot of peopleplayed it or whatever.You got memories of it,but it's not exactly oneof those Apogee platformersthat gets any kind of...\"mainstream\" attention, for lackof a better way to say it.The people that like it really like it,and that's exactly who this is made for.So, yeah, this is just so cool.I really like the way it looks,it's got kind of a mutedcolor palette, but again,it reminds me of the VGA remakes and stuffthat you would have seen back in the dayof the 256 color things,.Okay, obviously it gives it alittle bit of a different feelbecause it is a completelydifferent palette,but it looks good, man.This is so cool.And I haven't actuallyplayed the new episode yet.I'm really intrigued to check that out.Because yeah, new CrystalCaves episode in 2020,like in all the 2020 bingo cardswho would have ever guessed,a brand new officiallysanctioned Crystal Cavesfrom Apogee no less?And yes, this is an Apogee release.This is not through y'know,the 3D Realms folks.Apogee and 3D Realmskind of went their own waysin some intriguing ways, some years back.So this Apogee is stillTexas-based as far as I know,and 3D Realms is in Denmark.So yeah, separate kind of things,but they're still kinda connected.And obviously you got some overlapin terms of the IPs andhistory and that's a whole thing,but yeah, from Apogee,new Crystal Caves, like what in the world?uh, neat.Speaking of which, oh yeah,and you can save your game.We'll go out and do that.Yeah, let's just go back to the main menu.I'd just check out one of the new levels.The Final Frontier, again,keeping with the goodold Star Trek referencesthat are all the way through here.Oh, he's got the upgraded ship now.After living it high on the hog,these past few decades from thefortune he made on his chainof burger joints.He finally got his burger joints.Mylo booked an extended galactic vacationon board the stellar cruise ship VeeGerthat promised an excitingtrip to the far flung reachesof the known galaxy plusa visit to the fabledand mysterious badlands trianglewhere many ships havebeen reported \"missing\".Ooh, it just keeps the story going.Look at that big old shipMylo's got now, I'm so happy for him.Apparently, it's like way later though.Is he gonna be an old man now?No, but you know, okay,let's just go ahead and get into it.All sorts of story, man.The Crystal Cave Mylo isgonna have to be updatedon all the Crystal Caves wikisas if there are in-depthCrystal Caves wikis,these should be anyway.So yeah, Mylo does lookthe same, but look at this.Whoa it's neat.There's new tiles.There's a new enemy.Ah, this is so exciting.Look at this!As a kid, this would have been like,oh, who am I kidding whatever.As now, this is the coolest.New Crystal Caves.Oh crap.Here we go.Ahp, ahp!Yeah. Okay.So this would be a thingto get back up there.Oh, I'm out of bulletsbecause this is a new level.I might've screwed this up already.I'm gonna say I did.Just jump in this.That's that.Okay.Oh, man.Bout the only thing thatwould make this better.Seriously the only thing is if this had,a proper DOS port. Now, that'sasking a little much.I know what I know it is.But if Retro City Rampage 486 exists.Then, so can Crystal Cage HD.Crystal *Caves* HD.Had I say cage? I don't know what I said.I don't know, maybe someday.It's made in the Unity engine.Eh, probably not veryfeasible but whatever.Oh, there's a little, Ididn't screw up at all.Well.Uh,Why did I do that?Okay, I don't know if this level,I haven't actually played this one before.Let's get back to the level.Let's see, what was the onethat I played the other day?I think it was this one over here.Yeah.With the birds that...That take egg dumps.So there's this weirdlittle like, a wormy--Oh crap, I almost did the air thing.Little brown, like wormy creaturesthat are in the game now.I don't know if they'rein this level or not.I don't remember them being here.But yeah, I think that's like the,I think the only new enemy type,but, still you've got allthese different tile sets,different backgrounds and stuff.It adds a whole new feel tothe game that wasn't therein episodes two and three of Crystal Caveswhich, dang it.To be honest, I was neverparticularly fond of,I stuck to episode one,that was pretty much it.The other two were cool,but it was really just more of the same,over and over and overextremely brutal and such.So I liked the fact that thisadds a couple of new things,a new twist here and therein terms of a little bitof new gameplay,a new enemy type.I appreciate it.Again, they didn't have to do this.They could have juststraight up done new graphicsand called it a day, but they didn't.And I suck at this new level.I suck at all the levels, to be honest,I just I'm okay at theother ones and episode one,because I played themreligiously and endlesslywhen I was a kind.That's all that is.Oh, let's try it.There's gotta be a level here that's cool.New dudes.There they are.See the little wormy dudes with the noses.They have noses.Just popping out of walls and stuff.As if this game wasn't challenging enough.Whoops. Nope.Not even sure if theycan be killed necessarilywithout like a power,power, power up, power.Whoops.I'm out of ammo!Now here's a question, right?Is Secret Agent HD on the table too?Ooh, I know that's gonna be a thingsome folks are gonna want now.Because in case you're not aware,that was pretty much justanother Crystal Caves,with a whole differentscan and everything,but they played pretty much identically.So it'd be really cool to get to see that,get the same treatment as well.And if not, then you knowwhat? Back to the title here.And let's check out the level editor,because it feels like you could create,your own remake of Secret Agent in hereor, whatever else you canjust straight up make levels.Good old tile-based levels.So it's pretty fully featured,look you got a mouse in Crystal Caves.This is weird, but it's cool.So I don't have any saved maps in here.Yeah, inverse gravity, fallingrocks, low gravity mode.I can do different music canchange the background tiles.Just the tile set in general.Let's do something like this.Ooh, pipes and things.You can add some different terrain,like this background terrain,like the purple stiff,donk, donk, donk, donk.You can make tetris pieces.Anyway, I had titleslook at all the tiles.Oh, this is so cool.This is something Idreamed of doing as a kid.Oh my goodness.Do you know how many levels I createdfor Crystal Caves as a kid?That weren't actual real levels.Like I just drew them on paper.So many, so many levels.And I wished that I could create them.This and CommanderKeen and Jazz Jackrabbit.Like, I played them so much.And wished there was more right?Now I had the shareware versions of them.So I was always like,I need more.And here you go, you can create more.Absolute dream come true.Seriously? Seriously, seriously.All right, let's add a Mylo in here.He's over here.So we'll start up here.We can add, I've alwaysliked these ice blocks.'Cause you can shoot themand they're neat.Get to shoot them toget past the drug sign.Let's see, we'll put,I'll make this a simple exit over here.We'll add...a big old hammer right here.And we'll put it,well, that's gonna be kind of brutal.Put it right here.All right, let's getsome crystals in here.All right, we need a gun of course.A couple of those toshoot through everything.Put a power pellet down here.There's a little randomlygenerating thingies.We'll put some crystalsof different types.Look at this.I make my own Crystal Cave level guys.It's amazing.I don't know why I'm placingthem in like 'Columns' patterns,but here we are.Okay, that's those let'splace an enemy or two,let's place, a snakeand a little mine cartthat's stuck in there, that'd be stupid.Put a spider right here.And one of these little doohickies.And like a way to trap him in there like,let's try it out.I think I got a working level.Well, the hammer is gonnago all the way to the topof the screen and so is the spider.Let's fix that.That's the thing.Just to quickly getthat one in there we go.I got the power pellet.Got it, making levels and Crystal Caves,it's that easy.Man, I made that a littletricky thing down therewith the little thingy going by.What are those anyway?The little bouncing guy down thereas a kid I always imaginedit as like a weird little,like eyeballs or a bone or something.I don't know.Perfect health, $50,000.That's so neat.Like, dude, look at that.Oh, it goes on.You can make your own wholefull like set of episodes.We're gonna save this mapas \"I Made This.\"And we can publish it to Steam if we want.I don't know if I can do that right now'cause the game isn't quite out yet.But anyway, this is Crystal Caves.It's so cool.That's pretty much it.This exists.I don't know how much it's gonna cost yet.Don't even know for surewhen it's gonna be out.I think October 15th, butanyway, highly recommended.Look at this I'm number onein the leaderboard guys.No, I'm not.Looking at it, these arepeople trying it out.So, of course Bart has the top score.So DOSgamert, or DOS Gamer T anyway.Some YouTuber folks and some other peoplein the retro communityhave been testing this outalongside me, it's awesome.The fact that they have been doing that,actively seeking out feedback from fansor people that are familiar with itand just folks that are generally coolabout providing support and feedbackor whatever, just making this,as good as it can possibly be.And it's already improveda good little bit.Really, since I've been playing it for,off and on for a coupleof weeks or something.So, yeah.Seriously, the musicis about the only thing thatI am like conflicted on,but who cares?You can turn it off!If you really don't like it.Like I said, I like it.Just kinda wish it was AdLib, that's it.Everything else is pretty awesome.This is so neat.That's all I wanna say.Thanks to Emberheart Games, Apogee,everybody involved with this in the pastand making the original Crystal Caves.Frank Maddin and such. The factthat this exists, I'm happy.Thank you for watching.\n"