The Game
So, what is it all about….?
(Stuff in 'quotes' are mostly Richard quotes, randomly thrown in.)
Well, six contestants have to travel though four zones to complete games to win time crystals, which are worth five seconds of time each. Once they have completed the zones, they go to the Crystal Dome. The more time crystals they win, the more time they have inside the Crystal Dome to win some (rather mediocre) prizes. The contestants have a choice of four types of game: Mental, Physical, Skill or Mystery. They had up to three minutes to complete each game, and played either three of four games in each Zone. One contestant was elected Captain, and another as Vice Captain, to take over if the Captain got locked in. If they did not get out of the game cell within their allotted time they got locked in, and they could be 'bought out' by giving up one crystal. 'Automatic Lock Ins' were introduced later on in series 1.
An 'Automatic Lock In' is when a contestant does something they shouldn't, such as touch the floor, or they get so many wrong answers, or disturb something. They are warned before they go in the cell, and usually get two chances, and locked in on the third mistake. Richard seemed to enjoy locking people in, depending on if he liked the team or not. Once someone was locked in the team had to decide whether or not to release them. The decision depended on how many crystals they had, how many team members were left, and how many zones they had completed. And if the rest of the team liked that team member.
The Dome is a dome (duh!) filled with gold and silver tokens which are swirled round the dome using a huge fan in the floor. They have to collect over 100 gold tokens. The problem is there are silver tokens mixed up with the gold ones, and any silver tokens collected are deducted from the gold total. In the first series they had two levels of prizes: one for over 50 gold tokens collected, and the 'fabuloso super duper prize' for over 100 gold tokens. If they didn't get enough golds, then they went home with a crystal ('I Cracked The Crystal Maze') which could be used to 'impress your friends and family'.
After series 1, the contestants had to collect over 100 gold tokens to win the prize, any less and they just got the crystal. Richard would often pretend they hadn't done very well; 'You've got 84 silver tokens. After deduction from 190 gold, that leaves you with 106 gold WHICH MEANS YOUV'E WON THE PRIZE!!!!!'.
The prize was an adventure weekend doing rally driving, hot air ballooning, sports related stuff or spending the weekend in a luxury hotel or something. The contestants chose which they would like.
It always seemed like they cut Richard off mid-speech at the end of Crystal Maze. I bet he went on for ages, I'd love to hear what he says. I just want to know where it all comes from!
'Well, they're off back to the real world, and I'm going back to Aztec to rake the sand. Goodbye and God Bless, and I 'll see you next week'
