Quick, name the first video game to have warp zones that allow players to skip entire levels. If you answered Super Mario Bros., sit back down. If you said Crystal Castles, then congratulations, you got the last gem!
Crystal Castles began as an idea, not about collecting gems, but about destroying asteroids. With a possible name of Toporoids, the game would challenge players to navigate through 3-D structures, picking off rows of asteroids along the way. Eventually robots and spaceships gave way to a gem-collecting bear, and the 3-D structures became castles. Originally the bear was to be named Braveheart, but after some concern expressed by Native American groups, his name became Bentley (interestingly enough, the Care Bears would introduce a Care Bear Cousin named Brave Heart Lion not too long after Crystal Castles was created; one might wonder if any concern was expressed there). Once completed, Crystal Castles was released to arcades in 1983, becoming one of the more successful games of the year.
In addition to being the first video game with level-skipping warp zones, arcade Crystal Castles was also among the first arcade games to have a definite ending, and not just a kill screen. After ten levels of castles, the game awards players with a bonus based on how long the game took and how many lives were left. This gave players an extra incentive to get better, but it also prevented the best players from tieing up machines for hours on end. Not long after Crystal Castle's release, game-ending finish lines were standard on just about every arcade game.
Atari planned several home conversions shortly after the arcade game's release, but sadly the home video game crash was in progress, and just about every Crystal Castles project was cancelled. One version that did survive long enough to be released was the Atari 2600 port, now considered one of the best arcade conversions for the console. Atari eventually released an 8-bit home computer version as well, as part of their revamped catalog for the Atari XE Game System. Perhaps some day the original will see a modern remake?