Went to Blackpool a few times and played it in The Sandcastle. It was a bit shit compared to the TV show but it tried its best, even had a mini 'crystal dome' at the end to bugger about in.
The first time I heard of the Crystal Maze was in junior school, I'll never forget the description I was given 'These people in a maze collect crystals then have to put gold in to a letter box, It's really good' I was so confused. A week later I saw an episode while staying at my aunt's house and have loved Richard O'Brian ever since. I wanted to go on there so badly as a child but I'm glad I didn't, it would have shattered the illusion seeing it as a film set.
@@TerenceA72 The 90s version, the set was all interconnected as it looks on screen so the illusion would have just about held up, as long as you never looked up
What a great surprise to open TH-cam and find my favourite documentary maker with one of the most iconic shows ever! "START THE FANS, PLEASE!" CHEERS, KIM!
This, Knightmare and The Gamesmaster always takes me right back to sitting in front of the family 14” TV, eating a cheese and marmite sandwich and drinking squash before being sent off to Cub Scouts 😂
I was one of the first people to ever step foot into the Crystal Maze Experience in London on its opening day back in 2016. Still got my team picture, my ticket and crystal that I won. One of the best days of my life. ♥️
I remember the crystal maze machines in pubs in the 1990s. One thing to point out though Kim is that these machines were governed by the same laws that regulate fruit machines so they had to pay out at least 70-80% of their takings. So as their pay-tubes filled up with coins more gold tokens would be present in the crystal dome game making it possible to win. Also the slot where the cash came out had a bit of a ramp which some coins would get stuck until dislodged by a win. I once won and £9 pound came out.
I used to love this show as a kid - there is also a pretty fun (yet challenging) Crystal Maze mod for DOOM that's been out for quite a while now, you get to choose your challenges in a set number of games, with some added categories to fit with the game like survival and destroy all monsters in a maze - but the "more standard" CM type levels are in there too, with proper puzzles to solve and whatnot - it's definitely worth a play if you're a fan of CM and DOOM :)
I could totally imagine Richard O'Brien or Edd Tudor pole playing the doctor in Doctor Who. Even their costumes look like something the doctor would wear Infact Edd lood like a young peter capaldi
I loved Crystal Maze and Richard O’Brien so much as a kid. I wrote to him and actually got a letter back, along with a signed photo. What a legend. It was filmed in an airbase in North Weald, Essex. It was 15 minutes from me but never knew til I was older! Great video.
The first series was actually filmed at Shepperton Studios, but when it came to series 2 the production team felt the set needed to be bigger, so they moved production to Aces High Studios instead
Another A+ video Kim. Was such a big fan of The Crystal Maze. Always was one of my highlights of my TV watching week. Loved the show and loved Richard, he was so perfect for the show. Ed was too I thought when Richard left on one could ever fill his eccentric shoes. But damn he came close. And interesting you say Richard's style was very similar to a renegade Time Lord. as I always thought he would of made a great Doctor. If Doctor Who had not been cancelled in 1989 and continued into the 90s Richard O'Brien would of been a perfect candidate to of been The Doctor. With good writing and his eccentric Doctor I think he could of done in the 90s what Tom Baker did in the 70s and brought new heights to the show, what a shame we never did :(
The kid who sat next to me in middle school was on (I think) the first kids' special, it's weird seeing him again in the clips shown here. That escapade earned him at least two days worth of serious respect from the rest of us.
The original run of the crystal maze is so ingrained in the British consciousness of a certain age group that I'm kinda shocked it only ran for a few years with Richard O'Brian. Goes to show how much it was rerun on channel 4 in the 90s (then later on freeview channel challenge seemingly every day). I always loved how difficult it was to win in the dome and how naff the prizes were.
Another triumph. My first encounter with CM was during the school holidays. In Scotland they broadcast repeats around breakfast-time, and I watched it religiously with my grandmother, eating sugary cereal. It was one of these programmes where one never wanted an episode to end. My gran, in her 80s, took it as seriously as I did at 6. The amazingly dramatic theme tune set the tone of adventure. And it was followed by Gamesmaster repeats of the first series! Channel 4 was astonishingly creative, and you felt like a dangerous lad for watching that edgy stuff.
Richard O'brien made that show, and to top it off it was a really good show as well, dont get that very often in this day and age. Channel for was great back in the 90s we had Gamesmaster and all the late night "programs" they used to show from drop the dead donkey, roseanne to whos line is it anyway, loved friday night as a kid!
The Crystal Maze SWPs take me back, with some mixed memories. I had an insider's view of those games getting developed, and particularly the second and third games. The second was largely just a re-skinning of the first, as I think it was pushed out quite quickly to update the game when the tv show added the Ocean Zone. I think Barcrest figured they could use the Ocean Zone as an excuse to promote the game as brand new, when actually a lot of it was recycled. The third game I think had the luxury of more time devoted to it as the video developers dug their heels in and insisted they do something a bit more original. I have a vague memory that for a long time the managers couldn't decide whether they wanted to do a third CM game or not, but they didn't really have any other good ideas, so... The team aspect of the third game was partially inspired by the Speedball 2, which I recall had been recently released around the time. There was discussion about what to do in the third game to make it different. I recall one of the junior guys who worked on Barcrest's video team brought into the office the face graphics ripped from a copy of Speedball 2 for inspiration, and Barcrest's graphics guy changed them to make the faces in CM3. Some of the faces and names are based on staff who worked in the office who were mates of the graphics guy. (Rob, Lister, and Ian, I have hazy memories of. Rob I think was the guy who drew the cabinet artwork for all the Barcrest games, Lister I think was something to do with designing the physical cabinets, and Ian was a manager or something who occasionally supervised the video projects.) When CM3 first went into pubs Barcrest got a lot of complaints from landlords because customers were posting obscenities to the high score table. The video team were asked to compile a list of every vile and nasty word they could think of so they could add a swearing censor into the game. Unfortunately the lead developer on the CM series (who shall remain nameless) was very vocally and unashamedly right wing... in a way that would make Nigel Farage blush. He refused outright to put any racial slurs from the list into the filter, so the F word etc. was blocked, but the N word, P word, etc. etc. were allowed. (Maybe they got added in later, in yet another update... I can't recall.) I remember being really mad about that at the time, but the managers just wanted to keep their most senior programmer happy. Thanks for the video.
Great video. You are bang on about Richard O'Brien - he was just perfect for the show. Very happy memories of it. He would have made an excellent Dr Who.
We had a cyberdrome in Southampton and spent many an hour in there with mates. It really was pretty cool, there was a physical game involving swinging over a big gap and climbing a rope to get the crystal. Was always amusing to see some terminals stuck on an American megatrends bios screen, and a certain aztec tower with a ladder that had a distinct scent of piss about it - fond memories of this all regardless
Many thanks for this video Kim, I absolutely adore the Crystal Maze, I applied to be on the kids' specials, had all the books, did the Cyberdrome version in Blackpool, have done the London live experience (very much recommended if people haven't done it), just a shame the recent revival was killed off by doing crap celebrity specials rather than featuring the much more interesting members of the public. This video brought back a lot of memories so thanks again!
Awesome. Thanks for the upload. This video is a decent and definitely a must see. I am a true Essex boy, originally from Ingrave, Brentwood (not far from the airfield in North Weald where the Crystal Maze was filmed in), and is and was a regular visitor to Southend on and off for years, especially when I was at my last (5th of 5) school, Ramsden Hall (RHS) in Billericay, and after helping RHS get a minibus, went to the bowling alley on the pier, back when Adventure Island was Peter Pan's Playground (btw, nice pic of the train and the old boating lake), so it was not only great it gets a mention but adds some lovely history and background info. Crystal Maze is much missed from the Freeview channel Challenge, as is Knightmare, and is highly appreciated and features in my own playlists titled 'Here's a Quiz' on both of my pages. Keep up the good work.
Most excellent video Kim, I do have a copy of that MB Games Crystal Maze if you ever want to borrow it? Was going to do a video with Ashens on it, but it was way too complex to set up and go through the rules than what time we had sadly. Also, Itsmyyard was a contestant on the Adoyade version, won the most crystals of anyone in the entire history of the show.
Percentagewise, yeah I'll let him have that. 9 won from 10 games. 90%. Most crystals is 10, in the very first episode. But they played 15 games (format was a lot looser in the 90s) so 66%.
I'm from the USA, so I have no frame of reference for this show, but those Cyberdromes and live experiences remind me a ton of a place my wife and I went to a few weeks back, Level99 in Natick, Massachusetts. Same type of thing, time limit, group based challenges to win stars, some of them really obtuse. Not my particular thing but if you ever find yourself in the Boston area might be worth a stop.
I had the game book! (the one second from left in the book photo, with a photo of ROB holding the crystal on the front). I can't vouch for the others, but that one was really good - I played through it loads as a kid. It was written in the style of a White Wolf crossed with a puzzle book, and they did some serious attempt to reproduce some show style challenges with puzzles on a page and maybe a dice. It had some real dark humour in it too with your team members sometimes implied possibly killed!
I have to say this channel is second to none to me finding out the backstories to many long forgotten names from my childhood such as your videos on old software houses. I loved the Crystal Maze back then and even recently watched them all again on Challenge TV. Please keep up this awesome content.
I actually went to the Crystal Maze in Tenby a fair few years back and had a great time!! It was brilliant and really did feel like the show, shame it's gone now
Me and my mate from school would go and grab some munch then pile round my to watch it... Then spend at least half the show shouting at the TV at what a bunch of muppets we have this week..
Another great video Kim. I've fond memories watching Crystal Maze and even owned the book. I played the first machine in a local pub along with another quiz machine maybe question of sport before they were replaced with newer reel fruities.
Like you Kim, I was a massive fan of The Crystal Maze, so to see this video was a lovely treat, well researched with some lovely memories. Great video, well done! 😃👍
The show was great I grew up with it..the prizes were shit, all I wanted was one of those crystals ..interesting that they only started handling them out later in the series too. I hope te early contestants kick up about it. Great review 👏 and fond memories 👌 thank you 😊
My band played with Eddie Tudor Pole, he had us play swords of a thousand men with him even though none of us knew what the fuck we were playing. He was great though and gave me wine.
Oh yeah, he told me that on the program at the end they just pick up the tokens off the floor and then they refilm it to make it look like they are grabbing them out the air.
Makes sense yeah - from what I found, they shot episodes over 2 days. 1st day they play the game for real, and then the 2nd they shoot all sorts of close ups, noddies and so on.
@@Kim_Justice if you watch a longer dome and carefully look at each camera cut, you can see them shift between jumping around to crawling on the floor to jumping around again to jumping around but with a camera in amongst them
Some friends and I went to Blackpool when we were 16. We'd meticulously planned the day out, including going to the Crystal Maze, and obviously Pleasure Beach. After our first slightly confusing go on the Crystal Maze, those plans immediately altered so we could have another go and try to improve our score. It was really well put together, and a lot of fun.
@@mutate34 I watched it on Freeview back in around 2010s I want to say. Challenge was on Channel 46 and the programming was great. All kinds of old game shows, kind of sucks that all Challenge seems to air these days are endless Bullseye & The Chase re-runs 😂
Krypton factor was also great. Always fancied a go in the flight simulator and on the assault course. Then there was super champs and kick start, anything where they were doing something physical that looked exciting I didn't have access to I'd want to do it myself. Gladiators, challenge anika, there's probably loads more that I'm neglecting to mention
I went to the oakwood one as a kid back in 2001. I remember my parents let me do one challenge, I think I did ok. But at the end we sadly didn't win. But I just remember having lots of fun.
Great video as always :) The Crystal Maze was one of my favourites, only playing second fiddle to Treasure Hunt. During my primary school days one of my classmates went on one of the Christmas specials and we were all rather jealous of him for that. I loved the Industrial Zone and was gutted when they changed it to the Ocean Zone. As for the games, I had the DOS game and both me & my sister enjoyed playing it often. To load the game one had to solve a puzzle as part of the anti-piracy where you would need to use the back of the game manual and the inside cover of the game-box to create a rainbow/prism effect with the answer being which shape was at the end of a chosen colour. I must admit that I am a bit disappointed watching the footage here as I don't remember the game being particularly "bad" though I had my least favourite challenges for sure. I did get to experience the "Cyberdrome" in Blackpool (it was inside the Sandcastle Centre) and found it very disappointing, all of the games were on computers spread out through the game zone with no physical challenges at all, even the Crystal Dome was done virtually and we didn't get a plastic crystal at the end. Maybe it was a prototype or maybe it was towards the end of its existence, I honestly can't remember when I visited other than it being the 1990s).
I have a very vivid memory of listing my favourite TV shows in Primary school and Crystal Maze was in the no.1 spot! I loved it. Always found Richard O'Brian really weird and didn't really understand much of what he was saying to camera :)
The Crystal Maze was undeniably great. The only downside was that collecting the gold tokens at the end was seemingly extremely difficult, which rendered the rest of it a bit meaningless. But you could say the same about Takeshi's Castle!
Nearly all teams went on their hands and knees gathering the tokens from the floor, which was considerably easier but looked rubbish on camera, so these scenes were re-shot purely for visual effect
There was a large arcade/bowling place in Maidenhead in Berkshire that had a Crystal Maze area.. it had sort of physical puzzle games and video games - you collected time, then you get in a glass tube surrounded by buttons that light up. Instead of grabbing gold and silver paper, you have to press the buttons that light up to get points. That was 20+ years ago, so it's not likely there any more.
Great video as always! I’ve been to the live experience in both London and Manchester and if you bring along a group of friends who are up for it you’ll have a great time!
Your assessment of the cyberdrone was very accurate. We would call in after Oakwood for a game. Looking back my father followed me around and played nothing. Except in the dome.
Ironic that it was designed to be a UK version of Fort Boyard only to be replaced on TV by...Fort Boyard. (incidentally, this resurfaced memories of going to a fancy dress party as Richard O'Brien. An ill-fitting bald cap and vinyl jacket with leopard print trim were present, if memory serves me right)
We had the arcade machine (probably the first version) in Napier Student Union. We soon realised that ration of gold to silver wasn't constant - it changed as the machine was ready to pay out. You still needed 4 or 5 crystals (from the easy games) but you could generally tell by watching the silver/gold ratios of other players when it was worth throwing a pound of your student loan in!
Oh man this was a big part of my childhood CM was must-watch-TV back in the day. Rewatching the OBrian years I noticed that he was definitely not above doing the Dominic Diamond and including double entendres on prime time tv!!! But then what would you expect from the creator of Rocky Horror!?! Would love to see videos focusing on some of the kids TV challenge game shows that were a popular genre in the 90s. Funhouse, Finders Keepers, that weird towerblock game show presented by David Walliams and uh....Scavengers that was presented by John Leslie!!! And yeah you now really need to do one on Knightmare. Ooh...nasty...
Also, worth noting that The Crystal Maze gets a name check in the Half Man Half Biscuit song Paintball's Coming Home.....th-cam.com/video/LPb_xpDh2rg/w-d-xo.html
Love to see videos featuring TCM! Great overview. A bit of a shame you didn't like the PC version, maybe it's nostalgia talking but I loved it (as a kid and now). Good music and I felt the environments were almost an extension of the show, like if the show had an unlimited budget. Cool to learn about the arcade versions - will have to give them a play!
Man, Mondays and Thursdays used to be special, the best nights of the week - coming home to either Knightmare or The Crystal Maze. A far more innocent time! Thank you for this retrospective.
My main take on Ed Tudor-Pole was they got another colourful eccentric, who was eccentric in a different way to O'Brien. The problem was, to whatever degree it was planned, he was basically trying to be an O'Brien style eccentric, when just being a Tudor-Pole eccentric would have actually served him much better.
I used to catch reruns and a lot of other shows like fort boyard as a kid, and I even had one of the adventure books. I loved it at the time, and I had no idea there were any videogames
One thing about the SWP games... Barcrest changed the cursor in the Dome to make it much harder after the original machine. Instead of a super accirate Cross-hair, it became a "grabbing hand", making it impossible not to grab Silver tokens, reducing your final score.
My younger brother and I beat the arcade game once. However it was in Zante and took Drachma. It didn't pay out. But, we went back a year later and our name was still on the high score list!
As an American who was a passionate Rocky Horror fan who just kind of assumed Richard O'Brien went back to his home planet after Shock Treatment, I remember staying up all night when I randomly discovered a bunch of Crystal Maze reruns on TH-cam a few years back. It was like slipping into an alternate dimension.
@@chaos.corner I WOULD say, "Well secluded... I see all!" But I totally don't see all. Because the BBC makes it REALLY damn hard to watch shows outside of the UK even when you pay them for it. 😂
Loved the programme. And enjoyed playing the physical Crystal Maze Cyberdome attraction in Pembrokeshire a number of times over the years. First in about '94, not long after it opened. Last visit in early '06, not long before it evenually closed. Towards the end, it was looking very shabby with some games out of action. Nearly all the games were in fact computer based in some way. They looked like, and I think I read somewhere, running on either Acorn Achimedes (most likely) or Amiga (less likely, but can't remember exactly). A low resolution and poorly animated host 'speaks' to your team, instructing you on the next challenge. The character in those interludes was a bearded man bearing no resemblence to either of the show's hosts. Many of the less physical games were simply computer games like we'd know them. The one example that stick in my mind was the Futuristic Zone game where you climbed up into a small recreation of a lunar capsule or lander. And then control a computer game that's basically Lunar Lander. You win that challenge if you land safely, obviously. Because I remember it pretty well, feel free to ask me anything, if you want.
Gread vid Kim. You know actually The Crystal Maze would be a good IP for adaptation to a VR game. Physical based mini-games and you could run around the zones from room to room.
I saw Richard O'Brien once, at the Notting Hill Carnival. I was really drunk and I saw him standing there and all I could think to do was shout 'Crystal Maze' and wave my arms about, he just looked at me and walked off. I still think about it, that was my favourite programme when I was a child I wish I had made a better impression.
There was also Crystal Maze references in other media. The one I think of specifically is the Crystal Maze parody (complete with Richard O'Brien) in Crystal Kingdom Dizzy.
Ah, so many memories! I loved the TV show and even applied for one of the kids specials, but they were inundated with applications and 90% of people were rejected through a raffle, so I never got the chance. I won many a £5 on the SWPs though, and even had the Archimedes game - at the time I loved it, apart from the physical games which were impossible and poorly executed. I had a couple of visits to the Cyberdrome near Tenby which was excellent - although in 2006 it was still running on PCs from the 90s, so it was very much like a time capsule of an earlier attempt to capture the game - amazing fun and value for money though. And later I helped to crowdfund the resurgence of the live experience, how could I not?! I couldn’t really get into the TV revival though, between the celebrities and tweaks to the format (fewer games per show, no choice of game type etc) it was missing something for me. It’s funny that Fort Boyard did eventually make it to our screens on Channel 5, but it was inferior to the Crystal Maze in every way. A true British classic!
If you watch the Rocky Horror Picture Show when they arrive at the mansion theres one wide shot and look at the roof and theres a crystal dome on the roof! Never seen this mentioned anywhere, but suggests Richard had some input in making the dome a Thing
They weren't running around the Crystal Maze for fun as you said in the video. The shows were filmed in October and November and it would have been flipping freezing at that time of year. They were running to keep warm.
What are your memories of the almighty Crystal Maze? Did you ever play any of these games? Have a shout about it here, and thanks for watching. :)
Went to Blackpool a few times and played it in The Sandcastle. It was a bit shit compared to the TV show but it tried its best, even had a mini 'crystal dome' at the end to bugger about in.
As someone who did a lot of the content for the fan blog, it's great to see someone put it to good use. Thank you. :)
The first time I heard of the Crystal Maze was in junior school, I'll never forget the description I was given 'These people in a maze collect crystals then have to put gold in to a letter box, It's really good' I was so confused. A week later I saw an episode while staying at my aunt's house and have loved Richard O'Brian ever since. I wanted to go on there so badly as a child but I'm glad I didn't, it would have shattered the illusion seeing it as a film set.
Never played any of the games but loved the show. As a fan of BBC 2's The Adventure Game this was a perfect replacement
@@TerenceA72 The 90s version, the set was all interconnected as it looks on screen so the illusion would have just about held up, as long as you never looked up
What a great surprise to open TH-cam and find my favourite documentary maker with one of the most iconic shows ever! "START THE FANS, PLEASE!" CHEERS, KIM!
Totally agree!
The words from my mouth...
This, Knightmare and The Gamesmaster always takes me right back to sitting in front of the family 14” TV, eating a cheese and marmite sandwich and drinking squash before being sent off to Cub Scouts 😂
I always wanted to go on Nightmare
I'd say The Krypton Factor also ranks up with those lol
Went to the Crystal Maze in my City of Manchester last year. Great few hours and really well put together. Thought I was 10 again.
I was one of the first people to ever step foot into the Crystal Maze Experience in London on its opening day back in 2016. Still got my team picture, my ticket and crystal that I won. One of the best days of my life. ♥️
I remember the crystal maze machines in pubs in the 1990s. One thing to point out though Kim is that these machines were governed by the same laws that regulate fruit machines so they had to pay out at least 70-80% of their takings. So as their pay-tubes filled up with coins more gold tokens would be present in the crystal dome game making it possible to win. Also the slot where the cash came out had a bit of a ramp which some coins would get stuck until dislodged by a win. I once won and £9 pound came out.
I used to love this show as a kid - there is also a pretty fun (yet challenging) Crystal Maze mod for DOOM that's been out for quite a while now, you get to choose your challenges in a set number of games, with some added categories to fit with the game like survival and destroy all monsters in a maze - but the "more standard" CM type levels are in there too, with proper puzzles to solve and whatnot - it's definitely worth a play if you're a fan of CM and DOOM :)
I could totally imagine Richard O'Brien or Edd Tudor pole playing the doctor in Doctor Who. Even their costumes look like something the doctor would wear
Infact Edd lood like a young peter capaldi
"Will you start the fans please!" One of my favourite childhood shows, Never played any of the games though!
Bloody loved The Crystal Maze back in the day - even the "Tentpole Tudor" years. Great video, Kim! 😁
Richard was an eclectic and brilliant host. Love the concept and music of the Crystal Maze too.
Thanks, Kim.
He was great in Robin of Sherwood.
I love the way he'd introduce some shows with "Hello delicious Rick here" lol
I loved Crystal Maze and Richard O’Brien so much as a kid. I wrote to him and actually got a letter back, along with a signed photo. What a legend. It was filmed in an airbase in North Weald, Essex. It was 15 minutes from me but never knew til I was older! Great video.
The first series was actually filmed at Shepperton Studios, but when it came to series 2 the production team felt the set needed to be bigger, so they moved production to Aces High Studios instead
Another A+ video Kim. Was such a big fan of The Crystal Maze. Always was one of my highlights of my TV watching week. Loved the show and loved Richard, he was so perfect for the show. Ed was too I thought when Richard left on one could ever fill his eccentric shoes. But damn he came close. And interesting you say Richard's style was very similar to a renegade Time Lord. as I always thought he would of made a great Doctor. If Doctor Who had not been cancelled in 1989 and continued into the 90s Richard O'Brien would of been a perfect candidate to of been The Doctor. With good writing and his eccentric Doctor I think he could of done in the 90s what Tom Baker did in the 70s and brought new heights to the show, what a shame we never did :(
The kid who sat next to me in middle school was on (I think) the first kids' special, it's weird seeing him again in the clips shown here. That escapade earned him at least two days worth of serious respect from the rest of us.
Loved the show and still amoung my 3 favourite gameshows ever, Didn't know any video games existed hoever I do still own the board game.
The original run of the crystal maze is so ingrained in the British consciousness of a certain age group that I'm kinda shocked it only ran for a few years with Richard O'Brian. Goes to show how much it was rerun on channel 4 in the 90s (then later on freeview channel challenge seemingly every day). I always loved how difficult it was to win in the dome and how naff the prizes were.
Another triumph. My first encounter with CM was during the school holidays. In Scotland they broadcast repeats around breakfast-time, and I watched it religiously with my grandmother, eating sugary cereal. It was one of these programmes where one never wanted an episode to end. My gran, in her 80s, took it as seriously as I did at 6. The amazingly dramatic theme tune set the tone of adventure. And it was followed by Gamesmaster repeats of the first series! Channel 4 was astonishingly creative, and you felt like a dangerous lad for watching that edgy stuff.
Richard O'brien made that show, and to top it off it was a really good show as well, dont get that very often in this day and age. Channel for was great back in the 90s we had Gamesmaster and all the late night "programs" they used to show from drop the dead donkey, roseanne to whos line is it anyway, loved friday night as a kid!
The Crystal Maze SWPs take me back, with some mixed memories. I had an insider's view of those games getting developed, and particularly the second and third games. The second was largely just a re-skinning of the first, as I think it was pushed out quite quickly to update the game when the tv show added the Ocean Zone. I think Barcrest figured they could use the Ocean Zone as an excuse to promote the game as brand new, when actually a lot of it was recycled. The third game I think had the luxury of more time devoted to it as the video developers dug their heels in and insisted they do something a bit more original. I have a vague memory that for a long time the managers couldn't decide whether they wanted to do a third CM game or not, but they didn't really have any other good ideas, so...
The team aspect of the third game was partially inspired by the Speedball 2, which I recall had been recently released around the time. There was discussion about what to do in the third game to make it different. I recall one of the junior guys who worked on Barcrest's video team brought into the office the face graphics ripped from a copy of Speedball 2 for inspiration, and Barcrest's graphics guy changed them to make the faces in CM3. Some of the faces and names are based on staff who worked in the office who were mates of the graphics guy. (Rob, Lister, and Ian, I have hazy memories of. Rob I think was the guy who drew the cabinet artwork for all the Barcrest games, Lister I think was something to do with designing the physical cabinets, and Ian was a manager or something who occasionally supervised the video projects.)
When CM3 first went into pubs Barcrest got a lot of complaints from landlords because customers were posting obscenities to the high score table. The video team were asked to compile a list of every vile and nasty word they could think of so they could add a swearing censor into the game. Unfortunately the lead developer on the CM series (who shall remain nameless) was very vocally and unashamedly right wing... in a way that would make Nigel Farage blush. He refused outright to put any racial slurs from the list into the filter, so the F word etc. was blocked, but the N word, P word, etc. etc. were allowed. (Maybe they got added in later, in yet another update... I can't recall.) I remember being really mad about that at the time, but the managers just wanted to keep their most senior programmer happy.
Thanks for the video.
Great video. You are bang on about Richard O'Brien - he was just perfect for the show. Very happy memories of it. He would have made an excellent Dr Who.
We had a cyberdrome in Southampton and spent many an hour in there with mates. It really was pretty cool, there was a physical game involving swinging over a big gap and climbing a rope to get the crystal. Was always amusing to see some terminals stuck on an American megatrends bios screen, and a certain aztec tower with a ladder that had a distinct scent of piss about it - fond memories of this all regardless
Can't forget the trackball controlled version of 'Snake' either. It was an amazing place.
I've always heard about this show in passing and I have to say it looks incredible! Richard O'Brian really nailed it as the host.
Its the greatest game show ever, and that's a hill I will defend to the bitter end
Oh nice. Loved that show back in the day.
Many thanks for this video Kim, I absolutely adore the Crystal Maze, I applied to be on the kids' specials, had all the books, did the Cyberdrome version in Blackpool, have done the London live experience (very much recommended if people haven't done it), just a shame the recent revival was killed off by doing crap celebrity specials rather than featuring the much more interesting members of the public. This video brought back a lot of memories so thanks again!
Richard playing the harmonica!! Good memories! Great video kim
Awesome. Thanks for the upload. This video is a decent and definitely a must see. I am a true Essex boy, originally from Ingrave, Brentwood (not far from the airfield in North Weald where the Crystal Maze was filmed in), and is and was a regular visitor to Southend on and off for years, especially when I was at my last (5th of 5) school, Ramsden Hall (RHS) in Billericay, and after helping RHS get a minibus, went to the bowling alley on the pier, back when Adventure Island was Peter Pan's Playground (btw, nice pic of the train and the old boating lake), so it was not only great it gets a mention but adds some lovely history and background info. Crystal Maze is much missed from the Freeview channel Challenge, as is Knightmare, and is highly appreciated and features in my own playlists titled 'Here's a Quiz' on both of my pages. Keep up the good work.
Most excellent video Kim, I do have a copy of that MB Games Crystal Maze if you ever want to borrow it? Was going to do a video with Ashens on it, but it was way too complex to set up and go through the rules than what time we had sadly.
Also, Itsmyyard was a contestant on the Adoyade version, won the most crystals of anyone in the entire history of the show.
Percentagewise, yeah I'll let him have that. 9 won from 10 games. 90%. Most crystals is 10, in the very first episode. But they played 15 games (format was a lot looser in the 90s) so 66%.
I'm from the USA, so I have no frame of reference for this show, but those Cyberdromes and live experiences remind me a ton of a place my wife and I went to a few weeks back, Level99 in Natick, Massachusetts. Same type of thing, time limit, group based challenges to win stars, some of them really obtuse. Not my particular thing but if you ever find yourself in the Boston area might be worth a stop.
I had the game book! (the one second from left in the book photo, with a photo of ROB holding the crystal on the front). I can't vouch for the others, but that one was really good - I played through it loads as a kid. It was written in the style of a White Wolf crossed with a puzzle book, and they did some serious attempt to reproduce some show style challenges with puzzles on a page and maybe a dice. It had some real dark humour in it too with your team members sometimes implied possibly killed!
we had the Dos game on our school computer back in the early 90s. Good times
Love the Crystal Maze. Its an INCREDIBLE game show!
You're a bloody national treasure Kim, bravo! 👏
Never got this in New Zealand, I imagine I would have loved it 😊
The homage to The Crystal Maze in Crystal Kingdom Dizzy was a surprise (even if the game wasn't great)
I have to say this channel is second to none to me finding out the backstories to many long forgotten names from my childhood such as your videos on old software houses. I loved the Crystal Maze back then and even recently watched them all again on Challenge TV.
Please keep up this awesome content.
What a show, Richard was brilliant in the original version, Thanks Kim
I actually went to the Crystal Maze in Tenby a fair few years back and had a great time!! It was brilliant and really did feel like the show, shame it's gone now
Absolutely loved this show Kim, thanks for the docu, superb as always! :)
Me and my mate from school would go and grab some munch then pile round my to watch it... Then spend at least half the show shouting at the TV at what a bunch of muppets we have this week..
My aunt was a contestant on the first ever episode of Crystal Maze. Angela Goddard, that's her 3rd from the left in the clip at 1:38
A child of three could see that this is going to be an amazing video
"Send for the child of three, please! NO CHANCE!"
I loved the arcade game - my friends and I played it most days for 6 months in my local pub!
Anyway great video - Mommsy is proud of you, lol
Another great video Kim. I've fond memories watching Crystal Maze and even owned the book. I played the first machine in a local pub along with another quiz machine maybe question of sport before they were replaced with newer reel fruities.
Like you Kim, I was a massive fan of The Crystal Maze, so to see this video was a lovely treat, well researched with some lovely memories. Great video, well done! 😃👍
The show was great I grew up with it..the prizes were shit, all I wanted was one of those crystals ..interesting that they only started handling them out later in the series too. I hope te early contestants kick up about it. Great review 👏 and fond memories 👌 thank you 😊
My band played with Eddie Tudor Pole, he had us play swords of a thousand men with him even though none of us knew what the fuck we were playing. He was great though and gave me wine.
Oh yeah, he told me that on the program at the end they just pick up the tokens off the floor and then they refilm it to make it look like they are grabbing them out the air.
Makes sense yeah - from what I found, they shot episodes over 2 days. 1st day they play the game for real, and then the 2nd they shoot all sorts of close ups, noddies and so on.
@@Kim_Justice keep up the great vids dude:)
@@Kim_Justice if you watch a longer dome and carefully look at each camera cut, you can see them shift between jumping around to crawling on the floor to jumping around again to jumping around but with a camera in amongst them
Don't forget "The Adventure Game" & "The Great Egg Race" Doog yrev"
Some friends and I went to Blackpool when we were 16. We'd meticulously planned the day out, including going to the Crystal Maze, and obviously Pleasure Beach. After our first slightly confusing go on the Crystal Maze, those plans immediately altered so we could have another go and try to improve our score. It was really well put together, and a lot of fun.
I loved the iOS crystal maze game I just wish they made another one
Used to love watching this show when I was young, it was great to watch on Challenge along with Takeshi’s Castle, Ninja Warrior etc.
did you watch it on digital TV in the 00s? I remember those shows on together
@@mutate34 I watched it on Freeview back in around 2010s I want to say. Challenge was on Channel 46 and the programming was great. All kinds of old game shows, kind of sucks that all Challenge seems to air these days are endless Bullseye & The Chase re-runs 😂
Krypton factor was also great. Always fancied a go in the flight simulator and on the assault course. Then there was super champs and kick start, anything where they were doing something physical that looked exciting I didn't have access to I'd want to do it myself. Gladiators, challenge anika, there's probably loads more that I'm neglecting to mention
I went to the oakwood one as a kid back in 2001. I remember my parents let me do one challenge, I think I did ok. But at the end we sadly didn't win. But I just remember having lots of fun.
Great video as always :)
The Crystal Maze was one of my favourites, only playing second fiddle to Treasure Hunt. During my primary school days one of my classmates went on one of the Christmas specials and we were all rather jealous of him for that. I loved the Industrial Zone and was gutted when they changed it to the Ocean Zone.
As for the games, I had the DOS game and both me & my sister enjoyed playing it often. To load the game one had to solve a puzzle as part of the anti-piracy where you would need to use the back of the game manual and the inside cover of the game-box to create a rainbow/prism effect with the answer being which shape was at the end of a chosen colour. I must admit that I am a bit disappointed watching the footage here as I don't remember the game being particularly "bad" though I had my least favourite challenges for sure.
I did get to experience the "Cyberdrome" in Blackpool (it was inside the Sandcastle Centre) and found it very disappointing, all of the games were on computers spread out through the game zone with no physical challenges at all, even the Crystal Dome was done virtually and we didn't get a plastic crystal at the end. Maybe it was a prototype or maybe it was towards the end of its existence, I honestly can't remember when I visited other than it being the 1990s).
I have a very vivid memory of listing my favourite TV shows in Primary school and Crystal Maze was in the no.1 spot! I loved it. Always found Richard O'Brian really weird and didn't really understand much of what he was saying to camera :)
Where does that footage with Ricky Dicky, the computer and the screwdriver (minus the debutante) come from!?
Richard O'Brien was a legend in the crystal maze what a show thanks Kim so my memories Elvis in the house
Thanks for this vid, brings back such memories!
The Crystal Maze was undeniably great. The only downside was that collecting the gold tokens at the end was seemingly extremely difficult, which rendered the rest of it a bit meaningless. But you could say the same about Takeshi's Castle!
Nearly all teams went on their hands and knees gathering the tokens from the floor, which was considerably easier but looked rubbish on camera, so these scenes were re-shot purely for visual effect
I really enjoyed this one. Thanks Kim!
Kim Justice content is the best content. Great stuff as always Kim!
There was a large arcade/bowling place in Maidenhead in Berkshire that had a Crystal Maze area.. it had sort of physical puzzle games and video games - you collected time, then you get in a glass tube surrounded by buttons that light up. Instead of grabbing gold and silver paper, you have to press the buttons that light up to get points. That was 20+ years ago, so it's not likely there any more.
This was really interesting. I hadn’t heard of this show, but I love stuff like this! Great work
Great video as always! I’ve been to the live experience in both London and Manchester and if you bring along a group of friends who are up for it you’ll have a great time!
I went to many birthday parties at the Cyberdrome in Southampton. It was paired with a Laser Quest and Bowling Alley/Arcade. It was amazing.
Your assessment of the cyberdrone was very accurate. We would call in after Oakwood for a game. Looking back my father followed me around and played nothing. Except in the dome.
What a great idea for a video, cheers Kim
Thanks for the video, It's great to get the history of The Crystal Maze.
Another great video Kim! #KimistheGOAT 🎉
Ironic that it was designed to be a UK version of Fort Boyard only to be replaced on TV by...Fort Boyard.
(incidentally, this resurfaced memories of going to a fancy dress party as Richard O'Brien. An ill-fitting bald cap and vinyl jacket with leopard print trim were present, if memory serves me right)
We had the arcade machine (probably the first version) in Napier Student Union. We soon realised that ration of gold to silver wasn't constant - it changed as the machine was ready to pay out. You still needed 4 or 5 crystals (from the easy games) but you could generally tell by watching the silver/gold ratios of other players when it was worth throwing a pound of your student loan in!
Great video thanks - Crystal Maze was by far my favourite TV show as a child (followed closely by GamesMaster with Sir Patrick Moore)
Oh man this was a big part of my childhood CM was must-watch-TV back in the day.
Rewatching the OBrian years I noticed that he was definitely not above doing the Dominic Diamond and including double entendres on prime time tv!!! But then what would you expect from the creator of Rocky Horror!?!
Would love to see videos focusing on some of the kids TV challenge game shows that were a popular genre in the 90s. Funhouse, Finders Keepers, that weird towerblock game show presented by David Walliams and uh....Scavengers that was presented by John Leslie!!!
And yeah you now really need to do one on Knightmare.
Ooh...nasty...
I'd add run the risk to that list as well, so much gunge lol
50/50 too
Loved the show. Great idea for a video Kim 👍
Fantastic blast of nostalgia- but with valuable info too- , thanks Kim!
Also, worth noting that The Crystal Maze gets a name check in the Half Man Half Biscuit song Paintball's Coming Home.....th-cam.com/video/LPb_xpDh2rg/w-d-xo.html
Love to see videos featuring TCM! Great overview.
A bit of a shame you didn't like the PC version, maybe it's nostalgia talking but I loved it (as a kid and now).
Good music and I felt the environments were almost an extension of the show, like if the show had an unlimited budget.
Cool to learn about the arcade versions - will have to give them a play!
Man, Mondays and Thursdays used to be special, the best nights of the week - coming home to either Knightmare or The Crystal Maze. A far more innocent time! Thank you for this retrospective.
The nostalgia is real going to make a cuppa tea thanks Kim.
My main take on Ed Tudor-Pole was they got another colourful eccentric, who was eccentric in a different way to O'Brien. The problem was, to whatever degree it was planned, he was basically trying to be an O'Brien style eccentric, when just being a Tudor-Pole eccentric would have actually served him much better.
Brilliant video Kim.
I used to catch reruns and a lot of other shows like fort boyard as a kid, and I even had one of the adventure books. I loved it at the time, and I had no idea there were any videogames
One thing about the SWP games... Barcrest changed the cursor in the Dome to make it much harder after the original machine. Instead of a super accirate Cross-hair, it became a "grabbing hand", making it impossible not to grab Silver tokens, reducing your final score.
Thanks
I remember the show in the 90's rather vividly.
I hummed the theme tune as this started up.
Another wonderful video. Thank you. ♥
Instantly stopped what I was doing to watch this.
I grew up with crystal maze , loved that show !
My younger brother and I beat the arcade game once. However it was in Zante and took Drachma. It didn't pay out. But, we went back a year later and our name was still on the high score list!
As an American who was a passionate Rocky Horror fan who just kind of assumed Richard O'Brien went back to his home planet after Shock Treatment, I remember staying up all night when I randomly discovered a bunch of Crystal Maze reruns on TH-cam a few years back.
It was like slipping into an alternate dimension.
With voyeuristic intentions?
@@chaos.corner I WOULD say, "Well secluded... I see all!" But I totally don't see all. Because the BBC makes it REALLY damn hard to watch shows outside of the UK even when you pay them for it. 😂
Richard O'Brien is always a deeply eccentric fellow. After all he's swimming in Rocky Horror money.
Loved the programme. And enjoyed playing the physical Crystal Maze Cyberdome attraction in Pembrokeshire a number of times over the years. First in about '94, not long after it opened. Last visit in early '06, not long before it evenually closed. Towards the end, it was looking very shabby with some games out of action. Nearly all the games were in fact computer based in some way. They looked like, and I think I read somewhere, running on either Acorn Achimedes (most likely) or Amiga (less likely, but can't remember exactly). A low resolution and poorly animated host 'speaks' to your team, instructing you on the next challenge. The character in those interludes was a bearded man bearing no resemblence to either of the show's hosts. Many of the less physical games were simply computer games like we'd know them. The one example that stick in my mind was the Futuristic Zone game where you climbed up into a small recreation of a lunar capsule or lander. And then control a computer game that's basically Lunar Lander. You win that challenge if you land safely, obviously. Because I remember it pretty well, feel free to ask me anything, if you want.
Gread vid Kim. You know actually The Crystal Maze would be a good IP for adaptation to a VR game. Physical based mini-games and you could run around the zones from room to room.
Another belter Kim ! Cheers
Awesome video Kim ❤
I saw Richard O'Brien once, at the Notting Hill Carnival. I was really drunk and I saw him standing there and all I could think to do was shout 'Crystal Maze' and wave my arms about, he just looked at me and walked off. I still think about it, that was my favourite programme when I was a child I wish I had made a better impression.
There was an American version of The Crystal Maze hosted by Adam Conover on Nickelodeon. Only lasted a few episodes but, still a fun experience.
Nice one, Kim. I was on the first sries, a great experience
There was also Crystal Maze references in other media. The one I think of specifically is the Crystal Maze parody (complete with Richard O'Brien) in Crystal Kingdom Dizzy.
Ah, so many memories! I loved the TV show and even applied for one of the kids specials, but they were inundated with applications and 90% of people were rejected through a raffle, so I never got the chance. I won many a £5 on the SWPs though, and even had the Archimedes game - at the time I loved it, apart from the physical games which were impossible and poorly executed. I had a couple of visits to the Cyberdrome near Tenby which was excellent - although in 2006 it was still running on PCs from the 90s, so it was very much like a time capsule of an earlier attempt to capture the game - amazing fun and value for money though. And later I helped to crowdfund the resurgence of the live experience, how could I not?! I couldn’t really get into the TV revival though, between the celebrities and tweaks to the format (fewer games per show, no choice of game type etc) it was missing something for me.
It’s funny that Fort Boyard did eventually make it to our screens on Channel 5, but it was inferior to the Crystal Maze in every way. A true British classic!
They had the Barcrest game in my local and I absolutely loved it. I've never seen anyone win it though.
I fairly recently bought my mum a t-shirt with 'Will you start the fans, PLEASE' on it and she loved it.
If you watch the Rocky Horror Picture Show when they arrive at the mansion theres one wide shot and look at the roof and theres a crystal dome on the roof! Never seen this mentioned anywhere, but suggests Richard had some input in making the dome a Thing
They weren't running around the Crystal Maze for fun as you said in the video. The shows were filmed in October and November and it would have been flipping freezing at that time of year. They were running to keep warm.
Loved the original. And have pieces of the recent set in my collection. In Aztec zone blocks n Asian zone door. N more. Super cool