Gauntlet (ARC)

Gauntlet

Platform: Arcade Year: 1985 Developer: Atari Games Corporation

For other games in the series, see Gauntlet.

Gauntlet is a top-down hack and slash dungeon-crawler. Up to four players can play simultaneously controlling each of the four heroes: the warrior, valkyrie, wizard, and elf. Each labyrinth is filled with generators that produce monsters like ghosts, grunts, demons, and more. Players defeat the monsters with their weapons and by using magical potions to clear the board. Locked doors are opened with keys that must be collected along with treasure and assorted power-ups. As player progress further into the game, the monsters become more powerful and the mazes more devious. The game doesn't have an ending, so players compete for the highest score.

The original cabinet had four control units, one for each player, but a two-controller model was made which was cheaper and took up less floor space. Gauntlet was officially translated into German and Spanish, though the speech audio was still in English. The game was also released in Japan, but no attempt was made to translate the game.

The Xbox 360 online release of Gauntlet emulates the arcade version, so the music is the same.

Screenshots

Cheerfully ending lives at the title screen. The various items you can collect. Starting Level 1. The gang's all here! Four players simultaneous exploring. Things get especially difficult later on.

Music

VGMPF Album Art

Gauntlet's is very light on music with only two unique songs, the title music and the treasure room music. The title music, which plays in the key of F-major, is re-purposed for the game over music, and a shorter version is used for the level start jingle. Hal Canon composed the music and sound effects. The narrator's voice is Ernie Fosselius recorded by Earl Vickers.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Length	Listen	Download
01	Gauntlet Theme	Hal Canon	0:20		Download
02	Level Start	Hal Canon	0:05		Download
03	Information	Hal Canon	0:03		Download
04	Treasure Room	Hal Canon	0:28		Download
05	Gauntlet Theme (Complete)	Hal Canon	0:44		Download

Credits

• Ripper: Sonic of 8!
• Recorder: TheAlmightyGuru
• Game Credits:
  • Sound Design: Hal Canon
  • Sound Design: Earl Vickers
  • Not Credited Voice Artist: Ernie Fosselius
  • Not Credited Sound Driver: Rusty Dawe

(Sources: Credits, High Scores)

The game credits Hal Canon and Earl Vickers as Sound Design and both "HAL" and "EAR" are names in the default high score list. Vickers has been contacted and explained that while he may have created some of the sound effects, all the music was composed by Canon. Vickers's contribution was to record the voice of Ernie Fosselius (who is not credited either in the credits or the high score list) and edit it to work with the TMS5220C speech chip. The POKEY audio driver was written by Rusty Dawe who was not credited in the game.

Albums

That's Atari Music, Vol.II -G.S.M. Atari Games 2- 1991-09-21 Legend of Game Music 2: Platinum Box 2006-01-18

Game Rip

Format	Conversion	Download
		Download (Info)

The music was logged to VGM format during game play. Currently, the rip is missing some of the game's jingles, and a proper-timed Gauntlet Theme. The recorded version was manually timed and faded to match how it's played in the game. The internal format is, as of yet, unknown, and a true audio program rip does not yet exist. The recording was made with Game Emu Player v1.193 in foobar2000.

This rip is missing songs.

Audio Devices

The game music and the vast majority of its sound effects are synthesized on a YM2151 (clocked at 3.579545 MHz). The POKEY (clocked at 1.789772 MHz) is used only for the sound effects of the player's long-range shots and the lobber's rocks. The narrator's voice is played on a TMS5220C clocked at 650.826 Khz.

Releases

USA Title: Gauntlet Platform: Arcade Released: 1985-10-?? Publisher: Atari Games Corporation     Germany Title: Gauntlet Platform: Arcade Released: 198?-??-?? Publisher: Atari Games Corporation     Japan Title: ガントレット (Gauntlet) Platform: Arcade Released: 198?-??-?? Publisher: Namco     Spain Title: Gauntlet Platform: Arcade Released: 198?-??-?? Publisher: Atari Games Corporation     World Title: Gauntlet Platform: Xbox 360 Released: 2005-11-22 Publisher: Midway Games, Inc.

Links

• mobygames.com/game/arcade/gauntlet - MobyGames.
• gamefaqs.com/arcade/583775-gauntlet - GameFAQs.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauntlet_%281985_video_game%29 - Wikipedia.