Crystal Computing

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Crystal Computing were one of the smaller software companies which produced games for home computers in the early 1980's. Formed by Chris Clark and Graham Stafford who were both students in Manchester.

Crystal split after an evening of argument known later as 'the night of the long knives' with the main programmers leaving Crystal to set up another company (Chandrex Ltd) which traded under the name Design Design Software.

[edit] Notable Releases

  • Merchant of Venus - 1982. (A trading game for the ZX81)
  • Zeus Assembler - 1983. The fastest Z80 assembler, over 60 times faster than the nearest competitor. Later distributed by Sinclair.
  • Halls of the Things - 1983. Awarded game of the year by Sinclair User.
  • Rommel's Revenge - 1983.
  • The Dungeon Master (computer game) - 1983.
  • It's the Wooluf! - 1984. (Not written in-house)
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchas! - 1984. Reviewed in Crash issue 1 - 69.5%. Version of the arcade game Defender.
  • Bug Blaster - 1984. (Not written in-house) Reviewed in Crash issue 3 - 68%
  • Cyber Zone - 1984. (Not written in-house) Reviewed in Crash issue 3 - 85%