This version of Crystal Castles was initially developed for the Atari 8-bit line in 1984. Development was shelved before the game's release, but eventually Atari Corp. dusted off and improved the code for an Atari XE Game System release. That release requires more memory than the similar hardware found in the Atari 5200, so hackers instead turned the original 1984 prototype into an Atari 5200 game. Consequently there are some noticeable differences between this version and the official Atari 8-bit release.