There was a game that I saw a friend play in the 90's on a Windows OS. It had VGA style graphics, the company that made it was Sierra or Lucasarts. It featured a wizard (at least I think he was a wizard) and I believe he wore a green coat. It was dark, stormy, and lightning outside and he was inside of a castle. He collected crystals while avoiding the flying bats and other creatures at each floor of the high quality, 2D, VGA castle. I don't remember what kind of music it was although the computer always had to be put in dos mode before you could play it (oh the good ol' days of switching from GUI to the command line prompt).

It was a puzzle solving, logic game I think with a top down view. No speaking I don't think.

At first, I thought it was Crystal Caves or Crystal Caverns but those weren't the titles albeit that was basically what the game was about...Crystal Castle? Crystal Mansion? I really don't know for sure.

I also seem to remember that each floor had a unique theme to it--one floor consisted of a lab of sorts for mixing potions, another floor was your workdesk, and the third floor was something else. I think that there was a shareware version of this game also. Some floors were entirely visible (ie your front desk area was right by the staircase and the window and you could see the rain and lightning flashing)

Hmm, only closer match I found was Crystal Quest. But it's not exactly match your description, unfortunately.

Unfortunately, it isn't the one

Are you sure it was a puzzle-solving, top-down view game? Somehow the parts of your description especially about a castle, crystals and bats (& other creatures) remind me a lot of Hocus Pocus. It was a Jump'N'Run platformer game though.

Looks cool; I will play it. 8)

Unfortunately, that isn't the one; the one I'm talking about, graphically speaking, had more of a "Quest for Glory So Ya Wanna be a Hero?" feel to it. Except that you were inside of a castle and walked up and down a staircase (can't remember if it was a winding one or not).

I just wanna say thanks for the help everyone. And Scatty, thanks for the lead; when I was watching the vid from your link, something told me I was going in the right direction so I skimmed through the list of games from Apogee and I *think* I found the game I had originally requested help for.

Assuming that it's the correct game, it's too bad I couldn't remember the right company.

That aside, the game I *think* I was looking for is called Mystic Towers

EDIT: Where my reference to the QfG quality graphics came from, I have no clue--then again, I always did have a very vivid imagination as a child.

Actually, I think you might be right! I wonder why this game did not occur to me, maybe I got confused by the "top down view" part from the description in the OP (Mystic Towers has an isometric perspective). Lots of other details match though.

Aw! I knew that this "stormy windows" wouldn't be in top down! But no, I didn't guessed Mystic Towers. :(

To be fair, certain kinds of top-down view have visible vertical surfaces that are facing south/the bottom of the screen, so an "outside view" from a window is theoretically possible in a top-down perspective game.

Of course, MrFlibble. If I didn't see examples of that, I would suspect non-bird's view right from the start. But... I imagined something JRPG-like, not actual game in result. :)