Museum of the Game ®

International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®

Gauntlet

Description

Up to four people can play at once, exploring dungeons and fighting monsters from a top-view perspective. Each player's character has different strengths and weaknesses. The players collect food, potions, and treasure in return for points, health, magic and power-ups.

Gauntlet was produced by Atari Games in 1985.

Atari Games released 89 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1984. Atari Games was based in United States.

Other machines made by Atari Games during the time period Gauntlet was produced include: E.T., Last Starfighter The, Marble Madness, Paperboy, Gauntlet (PlayChoice), Peter Pack Rat, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, Road Runner, and Star Wars - Empire Strikes Back

Specs

Name	Gauntlet
Developer	Atari Games (United States)
Year	1985
Type	Videogame
KLOV/MOG #	7922
Class	Wide Release
Genre	Labyrinth/Maze
Monitor	Orientation: Horizontal Type: Raster: Standard Resolution Color: Color 19-inch Wells-Gardner 19K4900
Conversion Class	unique
# Simultaneous Players	4
# Maximum Players	4
Game Play	Joint
Control Panel Layout	Multiple Player
Controls	Joystick: 8-way Buttons: 2 - FireMagic
Sound	Unamplified Stereo (requires two-channel amp)
Cabinet Styles	Upright/Standard - 2 Player Upright/Standard - 4 Player-277 lbs
Instructions	Gauntlet Instructions Image
Bezel	Gauntlet Bezel Image
Control Panel	Gauntlet Control Panel Image
PCB	Gauntlet PCB Image

Video Clips

Gauntlet - Arcade

Atari Gauntlet Arcade Video Game PCB Boards

Atari arcade game commercial - Gauntlet

Atari Gauntlet ARcade Video Game

Game Introduction

In this fantasy adventure maze game, there are four different player characters who each have different powers and/or weapons. The Warrior who wields a battle axe the Elf who carries a bow and arrows the Wizard who uses magic and the Valkyrie who uses a sword and a shield.

The four players move through mazes searching for various items and killing monsters. The Warrior does the most damage. The Elf does the least damage but is the fastest. The Wizard can do the most damage with potions. The Valkarie is a good combination of strength and speed. Potions found wipe out varying amounts of enemies and enemy generators, depending on which player uses it. A player starts with a certain number of health points by putting quarters in the machine. These tick down with time and damage from enemies. Food replenishes them. Treasure counts for points. The game has no ultimate goal to be reached.

Gauntlet KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 3.52 (18 votes)

Fun Factor: 3.51

Overall Like	4.00
Fun (Social)	4.11
Fun (Solo)	3.13
Collector Desire	3.50

Technical Rating: 3.84

Gameplay	4.00
Graphics	3.75
Originality	4.00
Sound/Music	3.50

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Cheats, Tricks, Bugs, and Easter Eggs

If a player remains motionless until about 30 health units tick away, all the locked doors will automatically open. If you wait for 100 health units, all the walls on the level will turn to exits.

Images

Trivia

The player characters in the game are also known respectively as Thor (the Warrior), Questor (the Elf), Merlin (the Wizard) and Thydra (the Valkyrie).

In June 1994, Atari applied for and was later granted a patent for a "Multi-player, mutli-character cooperative play video game with independent player entry and departure". (USRE035314)

A poorer version of this game (Gauntlet (PlayChoice)) was also available for Nintendo's PlayChoice arcade machines.

Cabinet Information

The cabinet is somewhat shorter and wider than the average cabinet. The screen is not covered by a protective glass.

Conversion

Atari produced a Gauntlet II conversion kit for this game. Konami also produced conversion kits to convert this game to The Main Event and Crime Fighters. In general, Gauntlet was very popular for conversions to other four player games.

Atari also produced a two-player version of this game, which was released as a limited edition only.

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Gauntlet Census

There are 15,264 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,669 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 166,973 machines (7,000 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 320 known instances of this machine owned by Gauntlet collectors who are active members. Of these, 258 of them are original dedicated machines. One is a conversion in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet. 58 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 8 active VAPS members with a Gauntlet machines for sale. There are 3 active VAPS members with a Gauntlet circuit boards for sale.

Wanted - Very Popular - There are 28 active VAPS members currently looking for Gauntlet. There is one active VAPS member looking for a Gauntlet circuit board set.

This game ranks a 71 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 43 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Technical

Main CPU: 68010. Sound CPU: 6502. Speech IC: TMS-5220C

The game's architecture is similar to that of the Atari System I games (e.g. Marble Madness).

This game was also released as a two-player upright whose program code differed in only a few of the EPROMs and used a different slapstick security chip.

Fixes

The game has a single PCB which is exceptionally large and therefore more susceptable to traces being broken. Handle the board with care and do not bend it.

It is very common to see heavy burn-in on the right hand side of the screen. A layer of smoked lexan over the monitor will help disguise this when the power is off.

Legacy

Manuals

Gauntlet Operators Manual - Gauntlet Manual — **Gauntlet Operators Manual**
(76 pages, 3.2 MB File)

Schematic Package Supplement to the Gauntlet Operators Manual - Gauntlet Manual — **Schematic Package Supplement to the Gauntlet Operators Manual**
(52 pages, 3.7 MB File)

Foto-Finder® (Books)

The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 192; Color photo Price guide: No
Arcade Fever Sellers (ISBN 0762409371) Page: 146; Color photo
Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 192; Color photo

Additional References (logged in members often see more)

3D Model (External): Logo (803c1e77-e6d9-460b-8b2a-8b31d05d145b)
3D Model (External): Dedicated (9a62394bd632d6311d9de88c1cabaeb7)

Arcade Map - Play This Game

Our members have reported that Gauntlet is playable at 2 locations:

Name	Location	State	Country	Details	Check-ins
Level One Bar + Arcade	130 Hutchinson Ave, Columbus	Ohio	United States	Unknown	0
Upstate Pinball & Arcade Museum	109A West Trade St, Simpsonville	South Carolina	United States	Arcade	2

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