The Dark Crystal

Hi-Res Adventure #6: The Dark Crystal is a graphic adventure game based on Jim Henson's 1982 fantasy film, The Dark Crystal. The game was designed by Roberta Williams and was the first Hi-Res Adventure directly released under the SierraVenture label in 1983. Versions were published for the Apple II and Atari 8-bit family. An alternate version of the game intended for younger players called Gelfling Adventure was released in 1984. Development It took Roberta Williams a little over a month to develop the design for the game, which was then turned over to programmers and artists. Reception Softline in 1983 wrote that "In a way, it's better than the movie", stating The Dark Crystal "thin story that failed to serve the movie well is comparatively top-drawer material in the game" and calling the graphics "delightful". The game received a Certificate of Merit in the category of "1984 Best Computer Adventure" at the 5th annual Arkie Awards. In a 1983 review of the Atari 8-bit version for Hi-Res magazine, Mark S. Murley found the game too clearly linear and disliked having to swap between three disks. He wrote: