Gauntlet (1985 video game)

Gauntlet is a 1985 fantasy-themed hack and slash arcade game by Atari Games.[3] It is noted as being one of the first multiplayer dungeon crawl arcade games.[4][5] The core design of Gauntlet comes from Dandy, a 1983 Atari 8-bit family dungeon crawl, which resulted in a threat of legal action.[6]

This article is about the 1985 video game. For other uses, see Gauntlet.

Gauntlet
Arcade flyer
Developer(s)Atari Games
Publisher(s)Atari Games
U.S. Gold
Designer(s)Ed Logg
Composer(s)Arcade/NES
Hal Canon
Earl Vickers
Atari ST
2 Bit Systems Replay
Amstrad/Spectrum
Ben Daglish
Master System
Tiertex
SeriesGauntlet
Platform(s)Arcade, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Macintosh, Commodore 64, MSX, Master System, NES, Genesis, ZX Spectrum, MS-DOS
ReleaseArcade
November 1985[1][2][3]
Genre(s)Hack and slash, dungeon crawl
Mode(s)Single-player, 4-player multiplayer
Arcade systemAtari Gauntlet

The arcade version of Gauntlet was released in November 1985 and was initially available only as a dedicated four-player cabinet. A total of 7,848 units were distributed.[7] Atari later released a two-player cabinet variant in June 1986, aimed at operators who could not afford or did not have sufficient space for the four-player version.[2][8]

Gameplay
Arcade version screenshot

The game is set within a series of top-down, third-person perspective mazes where the object is to find and touch the designated exit in every level. An assortment of special items can be located in each level that increase the player's character's health, unlock doors, gain more points, and give magical potions that can destroy all of the enemies on screen.[9]

Each player controls one of four playable fantasy-based characters: Thor, a warrior; Merlin, a wizard; Thyra, a valkyrie; or Questor, an Elf. The characters are named on the cabinet artwork, but in-game they are referred only by the title of their classes. Each character has his or her own unique strengths and weaknesses. For example, the warrior is strongest in hand-to-hand combat, the wizard has the most powerful magic, the valkyrie has the best armor, and the Elf is the fastest in movement.[10] The characters are assigned by control panel in the four-player version, whereas in the two-player version each player selects their own character at the start of the game or while joining during the middle of play.

The enemies are an assortment of fantasy-based monsters, including ghosts, grunts, demons, lobbers, sorcerers, and thieves. Each enters the level through specific generators, which can be destroyed. While there are no bosses in the game, the most dangerous enemy is Death, who can only be destroyed by using a magic potion—otherwise Death will vanish automatically after it has drained a certain amount of health from the player.[9]

As the game progresses, higher levels of skill are needed to reach the exit, with success often depending on the willingness of the players to cooperate by sharing food and luring monsters into places where they can be engaged and slaughtered more conveniently.[9] While contact with enemies reduces the player's health, health also slowly drains on its own, thus creating a time limit. When a character's health reaches zero, that character dies. The character can be revived in place with full health by spending a game credit—inserting a coin in the arcade—within a certain short time window after it died. This allows even the least proficient players to keep playing indefinitely, if they are willing to keep inserting coins. However, each player's final score will be divided by the amount of credits they used to play, resulting in an average.

Aside from the ability to have up to four players at once, the game is also noted for the narrator's voice, which is produced by a Texas Instruments TMS5220C speech chip.[5][9] The TMS5220C speech was encoded by Earl Vickers.[5] The narrator (voiced by Ernie Fosselius)[5] frequently makes statements repeating the game's rules, including: "Shots do not hurt other players, yet", "Remember, don't shoot food", "Elf shot the food", and "Warrior needs food, badly". The narrator occasionally comments on the battle by saying, "I've not seen such bravery" or "Let's see you get out of here". When a player's life force points fall below 200, the narrator states, "Your life force is running out", "Elf needs food", or "Valkyrie is about to die".

The control panel for the four-player cabinet is wider than other standard uprights in order to accommodate four people at the same time. Each player has an eight-way joystick and two buttons: one for "fire" (ranged attack) and one for "magic". The "magic" button also starts the game. After Gauntlet's release, other games started using this design, so it was a popular conversion target for newer games after it had its run.

Development

Originally called Dungeons,[5] the game was conceived by Atari game designer Ed Logg. He claimed inspiration from his son's interest in the paper-based game Dungeons & Dragons and from his own interest in the 1984 four-player dungeon crawl for the Atari 8-bit family, Dandy.

The game's development spanned from 1983 to 1985, with a team being led by designers Ed Logg and Roger Zeigler. The working title became legally unavailable in April 1985,[5] so it was renamed Gauntlet in May. Based upon some of the most elaborate hardware design in Atari's history to date, it is the company's first coin-operated game that features a voice synthesizer chip.[11]

Dandy dispute

Ed Logg, the co-creator of Asteroids and Centipede, is credited with the original game design of Gauntlet in the arcade version, as well as the 1987 NES release. After its release, John Palevich threatened a lawsuit, asserting that the original concept for the game was from Dandy, a game for the Atari 8-bit family written by Palevich and published in 1983. The conflict was settled without any suit being filed, with Atari Games doing business as Tengen allegedly awarding Palevich a Gauntlet game machine.[6] While he is credited with "special thanks" through 1986, Logg is entirely removed from credits on later releases[12] and as of 2007 Logg claims no involvement with the NES game.[13] Dandy was later reworked by Atari Corporation and published for the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, and Atari 8-bit family as Dark Chambers in 1988.[14]

Ports
Cover for the NES port.

Gauntlet was ported to MS-DOS, Apple II, Macintosh, MSX, Nintendo Entertainment System, Apple IIGS, Sega Master System, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum. A X68000 version was under development by M2, before being showcased to Tengen and released as Gauntlet IV for Sega Genesis.[15]

Although NES version, which was released in 1988, states "The #1 Arcade game!", there are many differences between the Arcade and NES versions, with the NES version featuring new levels, a story structure and elements introduced in Gauntlet II. It omits the voiceovers, though the sound effects of players getting hurt or enjoying food can still be heard. Gauntlet was among the first NES games to be developed in the United States, as well as anywhere outside of Japan. There are two different Gauntlet cartridges for the NES, a grey version licensed by Nintendo, and a black unlicensed version, published after Tengen's lawsuits against Nintendo. The game program is identical, and both have the same box art by Joe Chiodo, which was used on other ports as well.[16]

Expansion pack

Gauntlet: The Deeper Dungeons is an expansion pack for the original computer ports of Gauntlet with 512 new levels. It was released in 1987 by the British company U.S. Gold in the UK and Europe, and Mindscape in the United States for the Amstrad CPC, MSX, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum ports of Gauntlet.[17] It was developed by Gremlin Graphics.

Many of its levels were entries in a competition throughout Europe in which ten winners were awarded prizes, a Gauntlet T-shirt and a copy of the program for their computers.[18] The contest was announced in the instructions of many of the ported games.[19] The levels are presented randomly and its artwork is the side panel artwork of the arcade cabinet with only the main characters shown. The enemies were removed from the image and replaced with a pink background.

Reviewers noted that the levels were much harder than those in the original game, although the consensus was that it was not quite as good as the first game or the newly released arcade sequel.[20][21][22][23]

Reception

The game was highly profitable upon its November 1985 launch, reportedly earning one San Mateo, California, arcade operator US$15,000 in sixteen weeks and another Canadian operator US$4,500 in nine days.[11] In Japan, Game Machine listed Gauntlet on their March 15, 1986 issue as being the second most-successful upright arcade unit of the year.[40] Atari ultimately sold a total of 7,848 Gauntlet video game arcade cabinets.[7] At the 1986 Golden Joystick Awards in London, Gauntlet won Game of the Year, and was runner-up in the category of Arcade-Style Game of the Year.[38] Entertainment Weekly picked the game as the 14th-greatest game available in 1991, saying: "There have been sequels to this game, but nothing matches the original Gauntlet, an innovative, fast-playing mix of mazes, monsters, and magic spells."[41]

Yung Min Choi reviewed Gauntlet with Demon Stalkers for Computer Gaming World, and stated that "In reality, players who crave this type of action will not be disappointed with either game."[42]

The Macintosh version of the game was reviewed in 1989 in Dragon No. 150 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game four out of five stars.[27] Compute! praised the Macintosh version's sound effects.[43] Computer and Video Games praised the accuracy of the Amstrad version, and said that it had "great graphics, good sounds, and perfect playability." Crash praised the smooth and fast scrolling, and the longevity, with Avenger being listed as the only alternative. In their Master System review, ACE said that people of all ages could quickly master the controls and tasks. The Spectrum version was the biggest-selling game of 1986,[21] and was voted number 38 in the Your Sinclair Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time.[44]

More than a decade after release, the Official UK PlayStation Magazine noted that they "spent many a night hunched over a fag-stained Gauntlet machine", but said that the limitations had become apparent in the late 1990s.[45] Next Generation, while not including the game in their "Top 100 Games of All Time", noted in the intro that "for the record, Gauntlet was number 101."[46]

Reviews

Sequels and legacy

The arcade original was followed by a 1986 sequel, Gauntlet II, which was followed by further sequels on home platforms, including Gauntlet: The Third Encounter, Gauntlet III: The Final Quest, and Gauntlet IV. The arcade series was revived with Gauntlet Legends in 1998, which itself saw the sequels Gauntlet Dark Legacy and Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. The original Gauntlet arcade game is included in Midway Arcade Treasures (2003) for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows.

The game was rebooted in 2014 on home platforms as Gauntlet.

Many dungeon crawler games have drawn some level of influence from Gauntlet, with some imitating it very closely, including Get Medieval.

References
  1. "'Role-playing' Vid". Cash Box. November 2, 1985.
  2. "The Adventures Continues With Gauntlet" (PDF). Atari Games Players Journal. Vol. 1 no. 3. August 1986.
  3. "Gauntlet". The International Arcade Museum. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
  4. "GDC Vault - Classic Game Postmortem: Gauntlet". Retrieved November 17, 2014.
  5. "Gauntlet Postmortem by Ed Logg" (PDF). Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  6. Dark Chambers, ATARI PROTOS.com, retrieved September 11, 2007
  7. "Atari Production Numbers Memo". Atari Games. January 4, 2010. Archived from the original on January 20, 2013. Retrieved March 18, 2012.
  8. "'Gauntlet' For Two". Cash Box. June 21, 1986.
  9. Gauntlet at MobyGames
  10. "Gauntlet The Arcade Video Game by Atari Games Corp". Arcade History.
  11. Scimeca, Dennis (March 8, 2012). "The Making Of Gauntlet -- A Classic Arcade Game That Atari Never Saw Coming". G4TV. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved November 2, 2014.
  12. Gauntlet Credits, Moby Games, retrieved September 11, 2007
  13. tsr. "Tetris Forever". Atari HQ. Retrieved September 11, 2007.
  14. Vendel, Curt. "The Atari 65XEM (AMY Sound Processor)". Archived from the original on September 13, 2011. Retrieved June 5, 2007.
  15. "Corporate Profile". M2. Archived from the original on September 21, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  16. "Computer Entertainer: the Newsletter, August 1988" (PDF). Retrieved March 26, 2017.
  17. Gauntlet: The Deeper Dungeons at MobyGames
  18. Gauntlet: The Deeper Dungeons instructions.
  19. Original Gauntlet cassette tape version instructions released by U.S. Gold.
  20. Biggs, Sara (June 1987). "The Deeper Dungeons review". Your Sinclair (18): 58. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
  21. "The Deeper Dungeons review". Sinclair User. No. 63. June 1987. p. 49. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
  22. "The Deeper Dungeons review". ZX Computing: 35. June 1986. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
  23. "The Deeper Dungeons review". Computer Gamer (27): 73. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
  24. "Gauntlet Review". Crash!. Newsfield (37): 16–17. February 1987.
  25. "Gauntlet Review". C+VG. EMAP (63): 36–37. January 1987.
  26. "Gauntlet By US Gold". C+VG. EMAP (110): 120–121. January 1991.
  27. Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia; Lesser, Kirk (October 1989), "The Role of Computers", Dragon (150): 68–73, 95.
  28. "Gauntlet Review". Sinclair User. EMAP (59): 40–41. February 1987.
  29. "Running the Gauntlet". Your Sinclair. Future plc (14): 56–57. February 1987. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
  30. "Gauntlet Review". ACE. EMAP (37): 87. October 1990.
  31. "Gauntlet Review". Amstrad Action. Future plc (16): 68–69. January 1987.
  32. "Gauntlet Review". Commodore User. EMAP (40): 18–19. January 1987.
  33. "Gauntlet Review". Computer Gamer. Argus Press (23): 46–47. February 1987.
  34. "Version Update Gauntlet". The Games Machine. Newsfield (11): 56. February 1987.
  35. "Gauntlet Review". Joystick (15): 107. April 1991.
  36. "Gauntlet Review". Your Computer. PC Electrical-Electronic Press (23): 47–48. February 1987.
  37. "Gauntlet Review". Zzap!64. Newsfield (63): 20–22. February 1987.
  38. "Golden Joystick Awards". Computer and Video Games. EMAP (66): 101. April 1987.
  39. "Gauntlet Review". ZX Computing. Argus Press: 82–83. March 1987.
  40. "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - アップライト, コックピット型TVゲーム機 (Upright/Cockpit Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 280. Amusement Press, Inc. March 15, 1986. p. 21.
  41. Strauss, Bob. "Video Games Guide". EW.com. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
  42. Choi, Yung Min (April 1988). "Ramparts and Rodents: A Look at Two Action Adventure Dungeons". Computer Gaming World. 1 (46): 40–41.
  43. Aycock, Heidi E. H. (December 1989). "Compute! Specific: Mac". Compute!. p. 16.
  44. "Top 100 Speccy Games", Your Sinclair, Future plc (72): 27–29, December 1991 Alt URL
  45. Atari Greatest Hits review, Official PlayStation Magazine, Future Publishing issue 36, page 125, September 1998
  46. "Top 100 Games of All Time". Next Generation. No. 21. Imagine Media. September 1996. p. 37.
  47. https://rpggeek.com/rpgissuearticle/138561/ludotique
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