Gauntlet (1985 video game)

This article is about the 1985 video game. For an overview of the series, see Gauntlet (series). For other uses, see Gauntlet.
Gauntlet

Arcade game flyer
Developer(s) Atari Games
Publisher(s) Atari Games, U.S. Gold
Designer(s) Ed Logg
Series Gauntlet
Platform(s) Arcade, Various
Release date(s) October 1985[1]
Genre(s) Hack and slash, dungeon crawl
Mode(s) Single-player, 4-player multiplayer
Cabinet Custom upright
Arcade system Atari Gauntlet
CPU 1xMotorola 68010 @ 7.15909 MHz, 1x MOS Technology 6502 @ 1.789772 MHz[2]
Sound 1xYamaha YM2151 @ 3.579545, 1x Atari POKEY @ 1.789772 MHz, 1xTexas Instruments TMS5220@ 650.826 Khz
Display Raster, 336×240 resolution

Gauntlet is a fantasy-themed hack and slash 1985 arcade game by Atari Games.[1] Released in October 1985, Atari ultimately sold a total of 7,848 Gauntlet video game arcade cabinets.[3] It is noted as being one of the first multi-player dungeon crawl arcade games.[4][5]

Gameplay

A screen showing the typical gameplay of Gauntlet. The Warrior is in the lower left with several Ghosts approaching him. Two treasure chests are also visible. On the right, it is indicated that the Valkyrie, Wizard and Elf have not joined the game

The players, up to four at once in the arcade version, select among four playable fantasy-based characters: The Warrior, Wizard, Valkyrie, or Elf. Each character has his or her own unique strength 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.[2]

Upon selecting a playable character, the gameplay 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 player's character's health, unlock doors, gain more points and magical potions that can destroy all of the enemies on screen.[6]

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 not only drain a character's health, but is difficult to destroy.[6]

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.[6] 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 (i.e. inserting a coin) 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.

Aside from the ability to have up to four players at once, the game is also noted for the narrator's voice, which was produced by a Texas Instruments TMS5220C speech chip.[5][6] 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!" Occasionally, the narrator will comment 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 fell below 200, the narrator states, "Your life force is running out", "Elf needs food", or "Valkyrie ... is about to die!".

To accommodate up to four players, the control panel is wider than other standard uprights. Each player has a 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.

It is possible to play the original version of the game with a hypothetically unlimited amount of time on one credit, especially with the Warrior and Wizard. A ROM update was released, reducing the "extra shot power" and "extra shot speed" powerup bonus for Warrior and Wizard, and adding a new points-based difficulty counter to the game. The difficulty counter makes the game more difficult, in 16,384-point steps, which removes more designated food from the levels, and made the monsters respawn faster. However, this means that on the default game difficulty of 4, it is almost impossible to pass levels 1–7 without dying, and level 4 was designed so that some of the food drops would block the monsters from swarming the player. This is because the game removed some of the "default" food for playing solo; on difficulty level 0, at least one food placement was removed from every single level (at low scores), and on difficulty 4, two or three food drops were removed. This greatly increases the game's difficulty, unless the machine is set to difficulty 0. Instead, the game gives bonus food for three or four players playing together. (Three players gave all of the default food, while four gave extra food in random locations.)

This was later refined for Gauntlet 2, so that Valkyrie and Elf would not receive extra food removal penalties, and only Warrior and Wizard would receive the extra penalties. Valkyrie and Elf would receive all of the default food that the current difficulty setting plus points difficulty scaling would allow, although Valkyrie would receive the fewest food penalties at higher (non-point based) difficulty levels. Elf would get some food removed at difficulty levels 6 and 7. The game still gave extra food for three or four players playing together.

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 1983's Atari 800 home computer game 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.[7]

Ports and re-releases

Due to its success in the arcades, Gauntlet was ported to several home systems of the day. These platforms include DOS, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, MSX, NES, Atari Lynx, Apple IIGS, Sega Master System, Mega Drive/Genesis (as Gauntlet 4), Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum, among others. In 2003, an emulated version of Gauntlet was included in Midway Arcade Treasures; a compilation of arcade games available for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles and Windows. For some machines, only Gauntlet II was converted, since it was considered to be more advanced than the original. In 1990, the original Game Boy received a version of Gauntlet II. 16-bit conversions (Atari ST and Mega Drive/Genesis) had similar sound and graphics as the original game, and retained the four-player mode (lesser machines only allowed a maximum of two players).

Gauntlet: The Deeper Dungeons

Gauntlet: The Deeper Dungeons is an expansion pack for the original ports of Gauntlet with 512 new levels and required the original program. It was released in 1987 by the British company U.S. Gold in the UK and Europe, and Mindscape in the USA. It was released for Amstrad CPC, MSX, Atari ST, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.[8] It was developed by Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd.

Many of its levels were entries in a competition throughout Europe in which only ten winners were awarded prizes, "A Gauntlet T-Shirt and a copy of the program for their computers."[9] The contest was announced in the instructions of many of the ported games: "In early 1987, U.S. Gold will release an expansion cassette for Gauntlet containing hundreds of new levels and treasure rooms. You can have the chance to have your own maze included on this tape!"[10] 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.

Many 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 (then) newly released arcade sequel.[11][12][13][14]

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
CVGCPC464: 36/40[15]
SMS: 92%[16]
Crash92%[17]
Dragon[18]
Sinclair User[19]
Your Sinclair9/10[20]
ACE859[21]
Amstrad Action93%[22]
Commodore User9/10[23]
Computer Gamer94%[24]
The Games Machine72%[25]
Joystick79%[26]
Mean Machines94%[27]
Mega90%[28]
MegaTech94%[29]
Your Computer[30]
Zzap!6493%[31]
Awards
PublicationAward
Golden Joystick AwardsGame of the Year[32]
ZX ComputingSmash Hit[33]

The game was highly profitable upon its October 1985 launch, reportedly earning one San Mateo, California arcade operator US$15,000 in sixteen weeks and another Canadian operator $4,500 in nine days.[7] Atari ultimately sold a total of 7,848 Gauntlet video game arcade cabinets.[3] 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.[32]

The Macintosh version of the game was reviewed in 1989 in Dragon #150 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.[18] 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,[12] and was voted number 38 in the Your Sinclair Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time.[34]

Of the Mega Drive release in 1993, MegaTech said that "the action is flawless" and had stood the test of time well. They continued that it was "a brilliant game, and one that warrants immediate attention". Mega praised the longevity of the game, saying it was "huge fun and a must-buy". They placed the game at #19 in their list of the best Mega Drive games of all time.[35]

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.[36]

Controversy

Controversy arose after the release of the game in the arcade and its subsequent port to the Nintendo Entertainment System. Ed Logg, the co-creator of Asteroids and Centipede, is credited for Original Game Design of Gauntlet in the arcade version, as well as the 1987 NES release version. After its release, John Palevich threatened a lawsuit, asserting that the original concept for the game was from Dandy (later Dandy Dungeon), a game for the Atari 800 computer written by Palevich 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.[37] Logg is taken off this credit in versions subsequent to the 1987 NES release. While he is credited as "special thanks" through 1986, his name is entirely removed from credits on later releases.[38] Logg currently claims no involvement in the NES release.[39] The game Dandy which was the basis for the threatened lawsuit was later reworked by Atari and re-published for the Atari 2600, Atari 7800 and Atari XE as Dark Chambers in 1988,[40] subsequent to the release of Gauntlet II in 1987.

Legacy

On September 23, 2014, Arrowhead Game Studios released a remake exclusively for Windows under the same title,[41] though it also includes an unregistered trademark symbol: Gauntlet™.

In popular culture

The seventh track from Five Iron Frenzy's album The End is Near is entitled "The Wizard Needs Food Badly," and contains audio snippets from Gauntlet. One of the B-sides on We Are Scientists Chick Lit EP contains a song called "Gauntlet" in reference to the game. Their album Brain Thrust Mastery contains many video game titles for songs such as "Lethal Enforcer," "Altered Beast" and "Ghouls" (from Ghouls 'n Ghosts).[42] Belgian band à;GRUMH... released a song called "Wizard Needs Food" on their 1988 album Bloody Side, with similarly Gauntlet-themed lyrics.[43] Blizzard's World of Warcraft has a quest called "Blue Dwarf Needs Food Badly" in the Kun-Lai Summit zone of Pandaria. The world record holder for Gauntlet is Russ Cool of Hanover, Pennsylvania with a score of 5.1 million points, set December 6, 2013.[44]

References

  1. 1 2 "Gauntlet". The International Arcade Museum. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
  2. 1 2 "Gauntlet The Arcade Video Game by Atari Games Corp.". Arcade History.
  3. 1 2 "Atari Production Numbers Memo". Atari Games. January 4, 2010. Retrieved March 18, 2012.
  4. ↑ "GDC Vault - Classic Game Postmortem: Gauntlet". Retrieved November 17, 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Gauntlet Postmortem by Ed Logg" (PDF). Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Gauntlet at MobyGames
  7. 1 2 Scimeca, Dennis (March 8, 2012). "The Making Of Gauntlet -- A Classic Arcade Game That Atari Never Saw Coming". G4TV. Retrieved November 2, 2014.
  8. ↑ Gauntlet: The Deeper Dungeons at MobyGames
  9. ↑ Gauntlet: The Deeper Dungeons instructions.
  10. ↑ Original Gauntlet cassette tape version instructions released by U.S. Gold.
  11. ↑ Biggs, Sara (June 1987). "The Deeper Dungeons review". Your Sinclair (18): 58. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  12. 1 2 "The Deeper Dungeons review". Sinclair User. No. 63. June 1987. p. 49. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  13. ↑ "The Deeper Dungeons review". ZX Computing: 35. June 1986. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  14. ↑ "The Deeper Dungeons review". Computer Gamer (27): 73. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  15. ↑ "Gauntlet Review". C+VG (EMAP) (63): 36–37. January 1987.
  16. ↑ "Gauntlet By US Gold". C+VG (EMAP) (110): 120–121. January 1991.
  17. ↑ "Gauntlet Review". Crash! (Newsfield) (37): 16–17. February 1987.
  18. 1 2 Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia; Lesser, Kirk (October 1989), "The Role of Computers", Dragon (150): 68–73, 95.
  19. ↑ "Gauntlet Review". Sinclair User (EMAP) (59): 40–41. February 1987.
  20. ↑ "Running the Gauntlet". Your Sinclair (Future plc) (14): 56–57. February 1987. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
  21. ↑ "Gauntlet Review". ACE (EMAP) (37): 87. October 1990.
  22. ↑ "Gauntlet Review". Amstrad Action (Future plc) (16): 68–69. January 1987.
  23. ↑ "Gauntlet Review". Commodore User (EMAP) (40): 18–19. January 1987.
  24. ↑ "Gauntlet Review". Computer Gamer (Argus Press) (23): 46–47. February 1987.
  25. ↑ "Version Update Gauntlet". The Games Machine (Newsfield) (11): 56. February 1987.
  26. ↑ "Gauntlet Review". Joystick (15): 107. April 1991.
  27. ↑ "Gauntlet 4 review". Mean Machines (EMAP) (13): 50–53. November 1993.
  28. ↑ "Mega review". Mega (Future Publishing) (13): 32. October 1993.
  29. ↑ "Gauntlet 4 review". MegaTech (EMAP) (22): 76. October 1993.
  30. ↑ "Gauntlet Review". Your Computer (PC Electrical-Electronic Press) (23): 47–48. February 1987.
  31. ↑ "Gauntlet Review". Zzap!64 (Newsfield) (63): 20–22. February 1987.
  32. 1 2 "Golden Joystick Awards". Computer and Video Games (EMAP) (66): 101. April 1987.
  33. ↑ "Gauntlet Review". ZX Computing (Argus Press): 82–83. March 1987.
  34. ↑ "Top 100 Speccy Games", Your Sinclair (Future plc) (72), December 1991: 27–29, archived from the original on 1999-01-01
  35. ↑ Mega Top 100 feature, Future Publishing, issue 14, page 87, November 1993
  36. ↑ Atari Greatest Hits review, Official PlayStation Magazine, Future Publishing issue 36, page 124, September 1998
  37. ↑ Dark Chambers, ATARI PROTOS.com, retrieved September 11, 2007
  38. ↑ Gauntlet Credits, Moby Games, retrieved September 11, 2007
  39. ↑ tsr. "Tetris Forever". Atari HQ. Retrieved September 11, 2007.
  40. ↑ Vendel, Curt. "The Atari 65XEM (AMY Sound Processor)". Retrieved June 5, 2007.
  41. ↑ "Gauntlet remake release date pushed to September 23". Computerandvideogames.com. Archived from the original on 30 August 2014. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
  42. ↑ Lewis, Thomas Attila (May 8, 2009). "LAist Interview: We Are Scientists". LAist.
  43. ↑ "à;GRUMH… lyrics". à;GRUMH... Retrieved March 19, 2014.
  44. ↑ Fleischman, Sarah (December 10, 2013). "Hanover man scores top spot on classic arcade game". The Hanover Evening Sun.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, March 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.