Together Retro: Gauntlet

[Tanooki]

Directly, no. Indirectly get a 2nd controller as I recall you can pop in a 2nd person, and that'll allow the game to continue flowing so if you eat it on 1P you can press start and return. Otherwise death is permadeath back to Level 1.

[Betagam7]

You guys were right. NES Gauntlet is sadistic. I switched to the sequel instead (same system) which is a lot better. But is there any way to continue? Maybe I'm just an idiot.

I remembered I have the first game for C64 but I dunno if I want to bust that out...

Gauntlet III has always intrigued me. It was exclusively released on computers, which is surprising.

Perhaps not that surprising. U.S Gold and other software houses tended to do this quite often, obtaining licenses and publishing exclusive sequels for home computers in the UK and Europe (See also Renegade 3: The Final Chapter). It's worth remembering that the home computer scene was FAR more popular than the console scene at that time in Europe. The NES was seen as a rich kids toy in the UK back in the 80's. Everyone owned C64's, Spectrums or Amstrad CPC's and the natural upgrade to that was the Amiga and Atari ST.

With Gauntlet III I suspect they were playing to the strengths of those markets. Interesting that it meant that the Lynx console game had to be "The third encounter" as a result.

[noiseredux]

Renegade 3? As in Kunio? What was Renegade 2? Tell me about these sequels.

[Ivo]

I recall playing a demo of a Gauntlet clone where the Archer said "Perfection has arrived!". Does anyone know which game this is?

I think it is early CD-ROM era, I played it in a PC. Top down view as far as I recall. Archer was probably an elf dressed in green.

[Erik_Twice]

It was designed to be a quarter-drainer and the console ports followed suit.

Actually the difficulty of Gauntlet heavily depends on the revision and there are around 14 of them plus regional variants, if I recall correctly.

Most versions of Gauntlet, specially the early ones, are maratonable and it was actually a big problem for operators because not only players took hours to finish, they left the games without dying, forcing the operator to either restart the machines or take ages until all the accumulated health went down.

This wasn't difficult, either, many people report that you don't need to be that good of a player to do it.

There's people on MARP that have posted videos of them playing for days, even going to sleep with the game still on. You get comments like this

Ended game on level 108 + 6964 health. Elf maxed. 4 hour recording. 10oook/6ook = 16 hour game to get number 1 score >: 3600 health used per hour. *8 hours sleep 28800 health. I know point leeching is a no no. What about 8 rest where i do nothing? Is that too a no no?

This is what i've discovered about the differint revisions of gauntlet(4 player).
Revisions 1-5 all food given.don't have ranking sysyem and can be marathon'd.wall's dont turn to exits.
default game settings health 600 difficulty 4(moderate).
Revision 6-9 all food given.don't have the ranking sysyem and can be marathoned.
default game settings health 600 difficulty 4(moderate).
Revision 10(german release) first release to employ the ranking system,can't be marathoned.
default game settingt health 700 diffuculty 4(moderate).
Revision 12(japanese) food removed levels 1-7 ,dont have ranking sysyem and can be marathon'd.
default game settingt health 1000 diffuculty 4(moderate).
Revision 13(japanese) has the ranking sysyem and can't be marathon'd.
default game settingt health 1000 diffuculty 4(moderate).
Revision 14 has the ranking sysyem and can't be marathon'd.
default game settingt health 700 diffuculty 4(moderate).
Revision 15 (spanish) has the ranking sysyem and can't be marathon'd.
default game settingt health 700 diffuculty 4(moderate).

Design-wise, it's also not a quarter-muncher. I think the problem many players have with the game, including me at first, is playing it in a very "dumb" manner, going all in and trying to kill all the guys instead of treating it like a puzzle game and planning how to tackle each area.

It's a much more nuanced game than it seems at first glance, specially in multiplayer as many good tactics (Baiting enemies, screen control, who kills what) depend on having several players. If you haven't seen people play at a high skill level, I really recommend it because it's very revealing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... kWYdDGJTcw

I'm also told that the MAME version is not fully accurate as it doesn't cycle the maps as it really should and this does away with some favourable exploits.

[dunpeal2064]

Great post! I wasn't aware of the nuanced play, and am looking forward to digging into it even more now.

[Erik_Twice]

Great post! I wasn't aware of the nuanced play, and am looking forward to digging into it even more now.

Don't get me wrong, it's not superdeep or anything but it's far more interesting than it seems at first glance

[Gunstar Green]

My go-to for old school Gauntlet is Gauntlet IV on the Genesis. Its a remake of the original game, a very "arcade-to-home" port that clearly had a lot of love put into it. Honestly feels superior to the arcade game for me. Nice mode selection, 4-player co-op via multi-tap, and a killer OST from Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata (FF Tactics, Vagrant Story, Ogre Battle, Mushihimesama, and many others under their belts.)

Definitely a must-play imo, and the quintessential Gauntlet experience.

My recommendation as well. It's also got an additional "Quest Mode" with a story where you have to adventure through five elemental themed towers. This is the definitive home version of the original Gauntlet.

[BoneSnapDeez]

See, I'm probably a bit biased. Growing up we had the arcade cab in our house, so I could "credit-feed" (which I did constantly) without adding actual quarters. So the temptation was always there. I really like how the health system works, where a quarter simply refills some HP. I believe Midway reused this method with Xenophobe.

My go-to for old school Gauntlet is Gauntlet IV on the Genesis. Its a remake of the original game, a very "arcade-to-home" port that clearly had a lot of love put into it. Honestly feels superior to the arcade game for me. Nice mode selection, 4-player co-op via multi-tap, and a killer OST from Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata (FF Tactics, Vagrant Story, Ogre Battle, Mushihimesama, and many others under their belts.)

Definitely a must-play imo, and the quintessential Gauntlet experience.

Dude. Duuuuuuuuude.

I passed on this game in the past because I told myself "I don't need another variation of Gauntlet" but your comment prompted me to watch a YouTube longplay and it looks killer!!! It ain't cheap but I may try to track down a cart-only copy.

[BogusMeatFactory]

The soundtrack on Gauntlet IV is also stellar I might add.