Do you enjoy playing slasher games? If so, then Gauntlet just might be the game for you to play. Created in the year 1985, Gauntlet is one of the world’s first ever multi-player dungeon crawl games – no small feat when we consider how vast the arcade game world is. In fact, aside from being the first to reach that milestone, Gauntlet also has quite a few other important features that make it stand out from all of the other arcade games that we saw back then and today. The research in this article (as well as the resources) goes over these things and more.
Gauntlet gameplay video
History
Gauntlet, originally titled Dungeons was created by Atari, or more specifically one of their game developers Ed Logg. The game was said to be inspired by one of his children’s (his son’s) love for the Dungeon and Dragons game as well as from his interest in the Atari 800 and Dandy. It took 2 years, from 1983 to 1985 for Gauntlet to be finished completely and only took less time because of the help Ed received from Roger Ziegler (another programmer from Atari). Another fun fact about the game is that the only reason the game didn’t keep its title Dungeon was that it became unavailable right before the game was set to be released. This is where the title Gauntlet came from.
*this is the first-ever arcade game that featured a voice synthesizer chip, which is pretty cool.
Gameplay
So, this is how the game is structured. You are allowed to have up to 4 players at once in a dungeon with you. You then choose between 4 fantasy characters (all of whom are playable): Merlin, Thor, Questor, and Thyra. Each of these players has their own specialty, as well as their own weaknesses and strengths. For instance, the Wizard, Merlin is the strongest magic user you’ll find in the game but is nowhere near the strongest fighter in the game. After you select a playable character you are then allowed to begin playing the game. Basically, you’re able to see each of the players from the top of the screen down and see each of their movements from the top of the screen (it’s in third-person). The design of the game is maze-like which means that the objective is to get from one point of the game (the entrance) to the exit. As you move through the game you’ll see that there are a number of different objects that you’re able to acquire -each of which has a different effect on the player’s health, stamina, unlocks doors, and have the ability to give you extra points.
Throughout the game, you’ll find that there are a number of different enemies that you can encounter during the gameplay. For instance, you will run into monsters such as ghosts, demons, grunts, sorcerers, lobbers, and thieves. You’ll find that each of these different monsters enters the game through different generators, each of which will be located in different areas in the game (or map). Even though there are no bosses in the game you will find that you’ll have to face Death, a being who has the power to drain a beings (your) life and is extremely difficult to kill.
As with any game, as you move through each level you’ll find that you’ll need to have a higher level of skill in order to reach the exit. Your success in the game completely depends on each player’s level of interdependence or rather, their ability to cooperate with one another and share food and other resources. Contact with enemies in the game will slowly drain your health but, on that same token, your health will drain on its own which means that there is a time constraint in the gameplay. When a certain character’s health reaches zero that person can be considered to be dead. To revive that player you must spend a game token(credit) or, insert a coin in the arcade within the time frame they give you. This basically means that you can play the game forever if you have enough coinage with you.
The actual module for gameplay is big enough to allow 4 different players to enjoy the game at one time. Every player has the ability to control their player using a joystick (each of which is equipped with 2 action buttons). One of the buttons on the joystick is used for Fire and the other is used for Magic. You also use the magic button to actually start the game.
To play the game online you can go here
Fun Facts about Gauntlet
- The more players you have in a game equals more opportunity to make money: The reason why you have the ability to play with 4 different people on this game is because of a struggle that many arcade games were having during this period. Because many arcades were struggling financially in the 80s they decided that it would be a good idea to make it so that people could play in teams and have multiple people on one machine. What did this allow arcades to do? Essentially, they were able to make a lot more off of one machine – an entire dollar rather than the quarter they usually make.
- Two of the players, Valkyrie and Warrior, had their names changed from Amazon and Hulk, respectively:
- Gauntlet was originally supposed to be called Dungeons: The original name for Gauntlet used to be Dungeons, however, sometime in the 2 years the game was being created the name “Dungeons’ had been taken and they were forced to change the name to Gauntlet. Still not a bad name though.
- Gauntlet was originally inspired by Dungeons and Dragons: One of the inspirations for Gauntlet was the creator’s, Ed Logg son’s love for the popular board/card game Dungeons and Dragons.
- The official tagline for Gauntlet was supposed to be, “The most fun a quarter can buy”. Cool right?: This was the official tagline for the game – meant to be their slogan. It was also used in commercials, which was pretty different for an arcade game at the time.
- There were about (or exactly) 7850 copies of Gauntlet cabinets sold to customers in the US: While the game Gauntlet was seen as being successful in the eyes of Atari it, in reality only sold 7850 copies in the US – this is about 5000 more than another game that was in the Atari portfolio, Temple of Doom.
Conclusion
So, there you have it a brief history of, gameplay, and a few fun facts about Gauntlet. Did you find it interesting? Well, give playing it a try – you might enjoy it. Don’t worry about the pixelated gameplay – it’s from the 1980s. For more information check out the resources below.
This information was taken from Wikipedia
Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauntlet_(1985_video_game)
https://www.ign.com/articles/2012/03/08/seven-facts-you-never-knew-about-gauntlet
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