Gauntlet (history and reception)

At the January 1988 Consumer Electronics Show, Computer Entertainer listed Tengen, Inc. among the eight companies just announced as Nintendo licensees, and reported that Tengen would bring Gauntlet to the NES at $39.95, with a password feature and two-player cooperative play. gauntlet-history/ces-announcement

Cited by: Gauntlet

Gauntlet was out for the NES in North America by mid-1988. Nintendo Power's first issue, dated July/August 1988, featured it; Computer Entertainer's August 1988 review called it finally available, and the same issue's availability list filed it under July, marked as shipped by press time. gauntlet-history/release-na

Nintendo of America's list of licensed NES games (nintendo-nes-games) has no entry for Tengen's Gauntlet; its only Gauntlet is Mindscape's Gauntlet II.

Cited by: Gauntlet, Gauntlet II

The NES manual reads "Manufactured by Tengen" and thanks the player for choosing Tengen's Gauntlet; its copyright line is "® and © 1985, Atari Games Corp.", and Tengen gives the warranty. gauntlet-history/manual-maker

Unlike Tradewest's Double Dragon manual, the text of this one has no line saying the game is licensed by Nintendo, and the scout found none on its pages.

Cited by: Gauntlet

Computer Entertainer called the NES game the definitive home version of Atari Games' coin-op, credited Tengen with programming it, and said it outshone the computer versions. gauntlet-history/port

Cited by: Gauntlet

Computer Entertainer described Gauntlet as a multi-level maze-action game seen from overhead, in which one or two players each guide a character through labyrinths full of danger, treasure, and helpful items. gauntlet-history/kind

Cited by: Gauntlet

In the NES manual, Marak (Morak in its story) the Evil One has stolen the Sacred Orb, without which the people of Rendar are helpless against his magic. Four warriors reach his Gauntlet, but its portal lets only two through: the player chooses among Thor the warrior, Thyra the valkyrie, Merlin the wizard, and Questor the elf, alone or with a friend, and explores its mazes for the exit of each room, fighting enemies and collecting food, treasure, and other items. gauntlet-history/premise

The manual spells the villain Marak on its first page and Morak in the story; Nintendo Power's feature also has Morak.

Cited by: Gauntlet

The four characters have different strengths and weaknesses. The NES manual suggests the warrior or the valkyrie to a beginner, for their power, firepower, and armor. Thor is big and slow, with an axe that does a lot of damage; Thyra is well balanced; Merlin has the best magic but no armor; and Questor has great speed but weak shots and armor. gauntlet-history/characters

Cited by: Gauntlet

In the NES game you start with an amount of power that enemies drain by touching or shooting you, and the game ends when the power is gone; food restores it. In a treasure room there are no enemies, and finding the exit before the timer runs out refills power to the maximum. gauntlet-history/power

Cited by: Gauntlet

Two players can play the NES game as a team or in competition. In team play enemies go for the nearer player, so one can draw them while the other shoots them from a distance, and the two share food and treasure. In competition each grabs treasure and food for himself, can block passages with his body, and in some rooms can stun or hurt the other with shots. gauntlet-history/two-player

Cited by: Gauntlet

The NES game's mazes make up five worlds, the Castle, the Dark Forest, the Lost Caverns, the Unseen, and Volcana, Lair of the Guardian, each mapped in the manual. Computer Entertainer counted over 90 mazes; Nintendo Power wrote of more than 100 rooms. gauntlet-history/worlds

The tier is the manual's; the two counts are the magazines', and they differ.

Cited by: Gauntlet

The NES game gives a password on the pause screen. Entered at the start, it resumes after the last treasure room completed, with the same character, treasure, maximum power, keys, bombs, and extra abilities; the highest room a password can start from is 79. The manual warns that a password stops working once a player has collected more than 2000 treasures. gauntlet-history/password

Cited by: Gauntlet

The last rooms of Volcana in the NES game are locked behind a combination of eight letters or digits. Each part is revealed by touching the ? in one of eight clue rooms and leaving before its timer reaches 0, when Morak appears with the clue. The combination is unique to each player, and its clues must be collected with the same character and the same series of passwords. gauntlet-history/final-combination

Cited by: Gauntlet

Computer Entertainer's August 1988 review gave the NES version four stars for graphics and four for game play, out of four, and recommended it. gauntlet-history/ce-score

{
 "review": "Computer Entertainer",
 "of": 4,
 "scores": {
  "graphics": 4,
  "game play": 4
 }
}

Cited by: Gauntlet

Computer Entertainer praised the NES version's colorful graphics, challenging play, smooth control, and sound, and its cooperative two-player game. It held up Tengen's manual as a model of how such booklets should be written, and warned that the game, like most NES games then, might be a little hard to find. gauntlet-history/ce-verdict

The review is unsigned.

Cited by: Gauntlet

Computer Entertainer's August 1988 review listed Mindscape's computer versions of Gauntlet, for the Commodore 64/128, Atari XE/XL, Apple II, IBM PC compatibles, Apple IIGS, Amiga, and Atari ST. gauntlet-history/other-versions

Cited by: Gauntlet

The NES version was 15th on Computer Entertainer's chart of videogames in August 1988. Nintendo Power's November/December 1988 issue had it fifth in the Top 30, its first time on the chart. gauntlet-history/charts

Computer Entertainer's page doesn't say what its chart counts.

Cited by: Gauntlet