Gauntlet (1985 video game)

Gauntlet
Arcade flyer
Developer(s)Atari Games (arcade)
Tengen (NES)
Publisher(s)Arcade
Ports
Tengen
U.S. Gold
Designer(s)Ed Logg
Programmer(s)Bob Flanagan[6]
Artist(s)Sam Comstock[7]
Susan G. McBride[7]
Alan J. Murphy[7]
Will Noble[7]
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, Mac, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, MSX, Master System, NES, Genesis, ZX Spectrum, MS-DOS, PlayStation
ReleaseArcade
Genre(s)Hack and slash
Dungeon crawl
Mode(s)Single-player, 4-player multiplayer
Arcade systemAtari Gauntlet

Gauntlet is a 1985 fantasy-themed hack-and-slash arcade video game developed and released by Atari Games.[3] It is one of the first multiplayer dungeon crawl arcade games.[8][9] The core design of Gauntlet comes from 1983 game Dandy for the Atari 8-bit computers, which resulted in a threat of legal action.[10] It also has similarities to the action-adventure maze video game Time Bandit (1983).

The arcade version of Gauntlet was released in November 1985 and was initially available only as a dedicated four-player cabinet. Atari distributed a total of 7,848 arcade units.[11] In Japan, the game was released by Namco in February 1986.[5] 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][12]

  1. ^ "'Role-playing' Vid". Cash Box. November 2, 1985.
  2. ^ a b "The Adventures Continues With Gauntlet" (PDF). Atari Games Players Journal. Vol. 1, no. 3. August 1986. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 23, 2014.
  3. ^ a b "Gauntlet". The International Arcade Museum. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
  4. ^ "Gauntlet (Registration Number PA0000275895)". United States Copyright Office. Retrieved June 7, 2021.
  5. ^ a b "ガントレット" [Gauntlet]. Media Arts Database (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  6. ^ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-flanagan-906586 [self-published source]
  7. ^ a b c d "Gauntlet (1985) Arcade credits". MobyGames.
  8. ^ "GDC Vault - Classic Game Postmortem: Gauntlet". Retrieved November 17, 2014.
  9. ^ "Gauntlet Postmortem by Ed Logg" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on October 1, 2013. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Palevich was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ "Atari Production Numbers Memo". Atari Games. January 4, 2010. Archived from the original on January 20, 2013. Retrieved March 18, 2012.
  12. ^ "'Gauntlet' For Two". Cash Box. June 21, 1986.