Gauntlet 2 for MS Dos had an optional sound disk. If you bought it from Radioshack, it had Tandy 1000 sound support, If you bought it from other places, you would get a different sound disk you needed to install. If you didn't have a sound disk, the game would still run but with no in game sounds.
The CPC version is all my childhood, something like one of the first games I really took time to play in my life, bought with my all new CPC. So of course... I like it! And this version is very nice for CPC, particularly in 1987. You can't hope for digit speaches on CPC (it's possible but all other processes must be freeze while playing sound to let the Z80 and AY work together) and if not really detailed, GFX are nice. Display area is quite big too. I like the fact they decide to turn the game area as landscape view on 8 bit systems as only a 2 player panel is needed. As sprites have been reduced compared to some other ports, the game offers a nice 12x16 tiles display area. What was interesting too on CPC is that the second player can play using a second joystick with a split-controller adapter connected to the sole joystick connector of the CPC (or using a CPC controller offering the second connector). It was not so ordinary. Few games on CPC offer a 2 player mode simultaneously. Really, CPC version is a very good conversion regarding different points : big display area maintaining a playable speed, colorful GFX, lot of levels, 2 player mode simultaneously with two joystick. A very good work compared to C64 version. The ST and Amiga versions were interesting too. A slightly small game area in my opinion but it's well animated with a lot of sprites. If you play in NTSC, at least the game area fills the screen better and the action is faster. But the real surprise is the use of the 4 player adapter as really few games made use of it (with others like Dynablaster aka Bomberman, Hot Rod, Kick Off 2, Pro Tennis Tour 2 or Super Skidmarks). It was so simple to offer this feature, the adapter on parallel port was so cheap. It's the same problem than with the 1 button gameplay. Talking about that, even in Gauntlet 2, you have to press a key to use magic. They thought about the 4 player mode but not the second button to use magic ? At the time, it was already possible to use a simple SMS joypad for that (at least on Amiga). The nice SFX slightly compensate for this mistake. Nevertheless, for once Amiga/ST conversions are great. Richard Costello (code) and Kevin Bulmer (GFX) will work again together on numerous nice original games and arcade conversions on Amiga like Golden Axe, Hot Rod (a really good technical work only ruined by the too much big cars on the map) and Mortal Kombat 1 and 2. And about the MS-DOS conversion, you made a little mistake. On MS-DOS, the game screen is exactly the same as on ST and Amiga (192x192) but your emulator cheats doubling some lines to maintain the aspect ratio of a well configured VGA screen. You will have the same result playing in NTSC on a real ST or Amiga :-)
The speech samples and that voice are so iconic. Every now and then I’ll say something like Blue Valkyrie needs food badly. My nephews just look at me like I’m an idiot. Kids today...
I had Gauntlet 1,2 and Deeper Dungeons on my Amstrad as a kid, always got them in compialations. But honelstly used to think they were all the exact same game.
I remember playing the arcade when I was 10 at my local Grayhound. My mom and I had left my ex step dad's house and we're homeless for a while. The game distracted me for a while. It was late at night and couldn't go anywhere. Fir that I have a soft spot for this game.
Huh? That's not how I remembered the sound effects on the Atari ST. When you enter an exit you get a cool whirling sound effect. Not sure what happened with the version you're playing. Corrupted disk, bad emulation?
The exit sound can fail to play if theres too many other sounds going on, but we played this version a ton back in the day and never heard that horrible blip. Actually a U.S. ST owner if that matters.
Came here to say the same, I suspect it's being emulated and not being played on actual hardware. If it is actual hardware maybe he's using a 520ST, I never had any sound glitches on my 1040ST.
The first Gauntlet is the first arcade game and the very first game i played as a smal boy. I remember being in a amusement park and my dad gave me some coins to play on those machines. There where already 3 older boys playing Gauntlet but i could join them and played as the Wizard. I remember how magical it was to be able to control a character on screen. It was there where my fascination with videogames began :-D
Ah, they were the day. I'm not sure what me first Arcade game was but I do remember watching Ghost'n Goblins thinking it was cool. Probably the first game I played was something like Space Invaders or Pacman.
Ah yes Gauntlet 2 the reason why you probably never want play Gauntlet 1 again, the music is iconic, it's basically same as first one but much better+fun even if you solo it or play with friend and how ugly the title screen yet you can't help to love it.
I had Gauntlet 2 on Dos back in the day. It used a pc speaker trick called "Real Audio" and had voice sample and in-game sounds. It's was was some pretty rough for audio. But back in the day welcome in our crappy pc. I'm not sure what was worse, the game audio or my cga monitor. Good times.
Had this on C64, then ST, growing up, ST version addressed a lot of the issues of the original, but wasn't full screen. Gauntlet 4 blew the ST and Amiga conversions out of the water.
Gauntlet 2 for NES wasn't developed by Tengen, it was developed by Eastridge Technology and published by Mindscape (at least in the states), I don't think Tengen had anything to do with it outside licensing the property to Mindscape. Just thought you'd like to know. Great video BTW!
Hmm, I'll have to have a gander on the DOS version. I could've sworn it had sound when I played it back in the day. Apparently there was a rumored sound-enhanced version for Tandy 1000 systems.
You're not wrong. It did have sound when played on a real MS DOS machine. I played so much of it back when I was 7 or 8 years old. It didn't have any speech samples though. And whatever in-game sound sounded scratchy and rough. But that's also where my young mind filled in the blanks. Every time a thief, Death or IT was around, the sounds they made used to scare the crap out of me. It literally sounded horrific to me!
On a Tandy 1000 you get a lot more audio than vanilla MS-DOS. Plus those Tandy's had a volume knob, so if the title music made you want to die, you could just turn out down. Something you sadly couldn't do on a regular IBM-PC at the time.
OH HELL YEAH! This is one of my favorite Arcade games! But yeah, I do agree. The level design is a bit better in the fist one. I guess that's why Gauntlet IV used the first one as a basis instead of the second. Though, I still would of liked some features from II like playing as the same class. In fact, I have a bit of a mandela effect, I swear on Gauntlet IV they say the color of the class like "GREEN WARRIOR" but they never did and just conflating multiple memories.
Apparently, the PC/DOS port of Gauntlet supports Tandy 1000 PCM samples if you set the machine to tandy in DOSBox's options. Also, the Amiga port would be full screen as well if played on an NTSC system since the game is 320x200 when PAL systems display in 320x256.
Mostly competent (-ish) conversions from U.S. Gold this time. It looks like UK licensees generally did a better job when working with American IPs rather than with the ones from Japan. Probably Western companies had better working relationships between them and with things like sharing assets and the likes. Still, they should have added some in-game music to the Amiga and the ST exactly like M2 did with their Gauntlet game for the Mega Drive, because it wouldn't have been acceptable to have a console game with sound effects only. But there was no in-game music in the arcade, and nobody in their right mind would have expected US Gold to do something more than the bare minimum!
It helps that this is a pretty simple game to begin with, leaving little room for even US Gold to screw up. But yes, Gauntlet IV on the Mega Drive is absolutely outstanding, as to be expected from M2.
Stonkin' BotP episode. Gauntlet II, like Gauntlet, is pretty good fun with friends. The arcade version of Gauntlet II is fun, but I didn't own any of the original ports (did have the Tengen black-card version of Gauntlet on NES though). I had at least 2 friends with the NES version of this one though, so I played it enough. It was fun with friends (none of us had the 4-Score or Satellite though, so only 2-player for us). It's kind of a toss up for me for whether I liked the NES port of Gauntlet or Gauntlet II more, but it didn't matter after I got Gauntlet IV. I really liked the early Gauntlet games, but absolutely loved Gauntlet Legends and Gauntlet Dark Legacy. I put a ton of money into two different cabs (one at a theater that stayed as Legacy; the other at a small arcade that got upgraded to Dark Legacy), maintaining characters on both. I bought the N64 version of Legends when it launched and got the DC version later (DC version might look the best and have some of the Dark Legacy features, but the inventory and shop system of the N64 just made me like that version more). I also bought Dark Legacy, first for X-Box, but eventually before the generation was up on PS2 and GC too...I think it was the only multi-platform title of that generation I bought on all 3 systems during that time...Not smart, but I loved Legends/Dark Legacy so much. Also, I had one of my weirdest experiences arcade game experiences with a Dark Legacy cab (not the one I normally played): it was in the entrance area of a Wal-Mart store that was not the one I would normally visit, but I was with a friend who always went to that store instead. He was buying a PSX game of some sort, but we stopped and played Dark Legacy on our way in. And, after we started playing (new characters) suddenly, I'm not joking at all, some dirty, stanky, bum that looked like he hadn't showed in years and definitely had been drinking recently crawled out from between the other two cabinets they had (a racing game I don't remember and Fighting Bujutsu, which was the only place I ever saw that cabinet). He watched us play until both of our credits ran out, and made comments about the game that certainly showed that he'd played the game. Then, this dude said something to the effect of "You boys made a good effort, but playing with just one credit in is child's play." And, here's a direct quote of what he said next that my friend and I will never forget: "Now, watch how a real master does it. I don't mess around!" and proceeded to take some money out of his coat pocket, stuck a $20 and a couple $5 bills into the coin/change machine there by the arcade and claw machines, and put all-in-all around $40-$50 in quarters into the machine. He loaded up a high-70s level Wizard and goes to town. I'll never forget how that guy just cackled at the look on our faces when he shoved his probably entire net worth into the machine. We eventually went in, and my friend bought whatever it was he was getting (Vagrant Story, maybe), and this guy was still going to town. Insane experience, but hilarious too.
@@saturnman9129Could you supply a source for this claim please? Years ago the UK press claimed Bob Armour was busy converting Gauntlet to the 7800,absolute rubbish, no such conversion ever started.
There was a kind of version of this for the Acorn Archimedes, but it had a different name and different character names. It was called White Magic, by The 4th Dimension.
@@RetroCore It's was terrible compared to Gauntlet. Shame, the Acorn Archimedes could have killed the conversion with the best graphics, sound etc. Since so much more powerful. Instead we get White Magic! Compare Pacmania on the Acorn, superior in every way to any other version. Also, Terramax.
In the arcade, is so so but then again Atari was deeply troubled then. ST does the job mostly. Amiga is better than ST. PC is just there. Amstrad can mostly work within limitations. ZX Spectrum is grand. C64 is full of monotony. NES surprised me with greatness. Game Boy isn't all too hot.
Cracking battle thanks Mark, I was happy with my Amiga version but it's not as good as my memory of it here, also you took the words right out my mouth with the shitty title screen comment, what a nasty piece of art. Like everyone else though I'll have to say I've been spoilt by gauntlet 4 on the MD, damn those tracks are amazing.
The NES version is the most impressive conversion when you consider system specification. I played both G1&2 to death on my Amstrad. Good Amstrad game, good conversion.
Should have included the TRS-80 Color Computer 3 version, "Gantelet 2". Yes it was a mere clone but it definitely looked better than the Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC versions. Make sure to have the Speech/Sound Cartridge installed to have the computer talk - although the voice is very robotic and not as good as the arcade.
I remember being really into Gauntlet for a little bit back in the day after playing an arcade cabinet. Not sure which version it was exactly. Some decent ports in this group. The NES especially does a nice job bringing the arcade feel home from the looks of it. I can see why you'd call the Game Boy version a bit boring. I was thinking the same when watching it. Based on the footage, it looks especially slow with less going on overall. There are fewer enemies to deal with which makes it less engaging. I don't know if they could have made it run faster, but obviously they wanted to avoid motion blur. And the lower resolution would make it harder to pack the play area with enemies as well. Of course, some good music goes a long way to keeping boredom away.
I think you should look at using eXoDOS for the MS-DOS ports - he's spent years compiling almost every known DOS game, with the best DOSBox configs for emulation accuracy and audio for each one.
Awesome. :) I actually really enjoyed playing the NES version with 3 of my friends way back in the day. For some reason I find it a lot of fun and just hilarious to play. A great party game if you're not taking it to seriously, haha
Whenever I watch these Videos, I always begin to wonder if the US Ports were altered slightly... Like @Larry Bundy Jr , I owned both Gauntlet (And the Deeper Dungeons Expansion Cassette) and Gauntlet 2 for my CPC... And here in the UK - It my mememory does suggest that the POrts to other counteries were different in some silly ways! I remember clearly that in most screenshots - The Exit on BOTH was marked with "E" which always disappointed me... But Playing the game it was always "EXIT"... Also here in the UK, Gaultlet 2 was released by US GOLD. Probably stil devloped by Gremiln Graphics ... But it was 100% A US GOLD Release! That said, Yeah... I LOVED THESE GAMES... While there was far less effort put into Gauntlet 2, I played it for HOURS AND HOURS!!! Though to show the lack of effort... Lets talk about the Cassette Size... For younger Viewers, Cassettes came in 3 Sizes Generally... C-15, C-60 and C-90... Thats a 15 Minuite, 60 Minuite and 90 Minuite overall play time... Gauntlet and the Deeper Dungeons - C-90... These were MASSIVE GAMES!!! Gauntlet 2... a C-15... A 15 Minuite Total of Data!!! You could play through and repeat the game in as little as an HOUR!!!! And with all those ROTATED LEVELS... Yeah, This was squeezed out to be little more than a cashgrab! And it got me... I WAS HOOKED!
Maybe there were two revisions. An early one that said E on the exit that magazines covered and a later revision that was on sale? This is kind of common, especially on consoles. Later releases even on the same console have changes.
ST port was THE SHIT, back at the day ;) After the first, horrible, port. This was very enjoyable. The only problem is, that the whole Gauntlet gameplay, as a single player game was not/is not very enjoyable... Multiplayer is better, but anyway ;)
That MS DOS opening sounds like it was on a cheap talking toy that was about to run out of batteries. UGH. I'm sure any in game sounds would just be a prolonged, buzzing static sound.
@@RetroCore Indeed yes, Mark, I couldn't believe now much WORSE than the smooth-playing original it was. Every point in your video is spot on (as always 😎 )
@@andy6576 yep ZZAP64 might of been the C64 Bible, but man, I bought some real duffers on the strength of their reviews, but then same goes for C. U and C+VG
I don't know why, but I really like the way the graphics look on the Amstrad version. Like little mini characters. Has a pleasant aesthetic for me. Shame the game isn't that great overall on the amstrad.
Back then they could have done that too. Turbo Outrun was an upgrade kit to the original Outrun. I guess Atari wanted to big up the game as something new.
Oh, Atari ST Port is impressive for the first time. In some aspects, even better than the original game, because I always thought it was too polluted with too many stuff on the screen.
I disagree about the level design. Once you get off the first 6 starter levels it gets way more interesting. Gauntlet 2 is designed to smash you so you put more 10p/quarters in it. The trick is not to score very high, because once you get to 300000 points the game begins to starve you. This is on the arcade and Mame versions. They did this on gauntlet 2 because the players like myself could come in when the arcade opened, put 10p in Gauntlet 1, and play all day on that 10p. Needless to say, some arcade owners didn't appreciate that as profits were lost. My local arcade was fine with it because when there was a Gauntlet machine all the kids were in there watching the pros and buying chips and playing the other games. They made money indirectly because of it and not from the game itself.
I used to play this game on my mate's Atari ST back in the day. I don't remember there being an issue with the "Exit" sound with the ST version. Have just checked some videos of the game played on real hardware and it seems fine. Were you emulating it? If so, I suspect it was an emulation issue.
Was the "Hals arfed" follow up intentional? Also, have you tried DOSBox SVN Daum? The ear wrenching part could be because of shoddy PC Speaker emulation in the regular DOSBox version. Edit: Hals arfed is at 2:21
I heard that too, though it sounded like "Hass affed" to my ears. I thought it was intentional, but perhaps it was just one of those happy accidents. No complaints from me. I don't know much about DOS Box, but I figured the sound had to be better on a PC of the era with the right hardware.
I can certainly see from whom did Blizzard North has taken notes :-) Speaking of the devil... if you like dungeon crawlers, I got good news! Diablo for PS1 is an excellent port. Naturally, PC Win does have better visuals, but PS1 version is good, both visually and gameplay vise. I've beaten them both.
i was playing this with my brother once on the nes. we got pretty far then one level said: to reach a secret room...go on a diet. we laughed for 5 minutes straight
the pillerbox format seen here is would not been a issue when the game has been played on a real ntsc or pal Amiga monitor. What you see is the classic ntsc->pal->ntsc issue. etc ntsc resolution used in a pal game and then converted back to 16:9 again. Sadly actuelly many console fate the same issue really (that include mega drive and others). No doubt many today actuelly do hate pal games. a property pal game is howover fine when done right.
@@azuremateria I just tried it on one of my actual vintage PCs and tbh it's really not that awful. Part of the reason why it sounds so overdriven via DOSBox is that it was done that way so you could actually hear it over all the computer fan noise and such. Alien Syndrome and All Dogs Go to Heaven have worse PC speaker sample playback, imo.
Such a shame this one is worse than the original thanks to western fanservice. It reminds me of some western "fans" of bigger franchises like Rockman/Mega Man (oh how the fanbase fell from grace...), Sonic (despite not liking the series), and Smash Bros (speaks for itself, really) that try to shove in what THEY think is appropriate for the series down everyone's throats (and will attack you if you say otherwise). Only difference is that unlike Gauntlet II, they often don't get what they want. Serves them right.
Oh boy, the Smash comunity, the main reason of why i lost interest to that game. Something as simple as not having ONE character they want in the game seems to be enough for them to crap their pants and cry all over the place.
Gauntlet 2 for MS Dos had an optional sound disk. If you bought it from Radioshack, it had Tandy 1000 sound support, If you bought it from other places, you would get a different sound disk you needed to install. If you didn't have a sound disk, the game would still run but with no in game sounds.
That explains why the base game was silent.
The CPC version is all my childhood, something like one of the first games I really took time to play in my life, bought with my all new CPC. So of course... I like it! And this version is very nice for CPC, particularly in 1987. You can't hope for digit speaches on CPC (it's possible but all other processes must be freeze while playing sound to let the Z80 and AY work together) and if not really detailed, GFX are nice. Display area is quite big too. I like the fact they decide to turn the game area as landscape view on 8 bit systems as only a 2 player panel is needed. As sprites have been reduced compared to some other ports, the game offers a nice 12x16 tiles display area. What was interesting too on CPC is that the second player can play using a second joystick with a split-controller adapter connected to the sole joystick connector of the CPC (or using a CPC controller offering the second connector). It was not so ordinary. Few games on CPC offer a 2 player mode simultaneously. Really, CPC version is a very good conversion regarding different points : big display area maintaining a playable speed, colorful GFX, lot of levels, 2 player mode simultaneously with two joystick. A very good work compared to C64 version.
The ST and Amiga versions were interesting too. A slightly small game area in my opinion but it's well animated with a lot of sprites. If you play in NTSC, at least the game area fills the screen better and the action is faster. But the real surprise is the use of the 4 player adapter as really few games made use of it (with others like Dynablaster aka Bomberman, Hot Rod, Kick Off 2, Pro Tennis Tour 2 or Super Skidmarks). It was so simple to offer this feature, the adapter on parallel port was so cheap. It's the same problem than with the 1 button gameplay. Talking about that, even in Gauntlet 2, you have to press a key to use magic. They thought about the 4 player mode but not the second button to use magic ? At the time, it was already possible to use a simple SMS joypad for that (at least on Amiga). The nice SFX slightly compensate for this mistake.
Nevertheless, for once Amiga/ST conversions are great. Richard Costello (code) and Kevin Bulmer (GFX) will work again together on numerous nice original games and arcade conversions on Amiga like Golden Axe, Hot Rod (a really good technical work only ruined by the too much big cars on the map) and Mortal Kombat 1 and 2.
And about the MS-DOS conversion, you made a little mistake. On MS-DOS, the game screen is exactly the same as on ST and Amiga (192x192) but your emulator cheats doubling some lines to maintain the aspect ratio of a well configured VGA screen. You will have the same result playing in NTSC on a real ST or Amiga :-)
The speech samples and that voice are so iconic. Every now and then I’ll say something like Blue Valkyrie needs food badly. My nephews just look at me like I’m an idiot. Kids today...
They have no idea lol.
Nephews need Retro....badly.
Mine is "Warrior Needs Food ... Badly."
I had Gauntlet 1,2 and Deeper Dungeons on my Amstrad as a kid, always got them in compialations. But honelstly used to think they were all the exact same game.
Lol, 😁😂
I remember playing the arcade when I was 10 at my local Grayhound. My mom and I had left my ex step dad's house and we're homeless for a while. The game distracted me for a while. It was late at night and couldn't go anywhere. Fir that I have a soft spot for this game.
Huh? That's not how I remembered the sound effects on the Atari ST. When you enter an exit you get a cool whirling sound effect. Not sure what happened with the version you're playing. Corrupted disk, bad emulation?
Was going to say, I don't ever recall getting that on the ST version either..
The exit sound can fail to play if theres too many other sounds going on, but we played this version a ton back in the day and never heard that horrible blip. Actually a U.S. ST owner if that matters.
Came here to say the same, I suspect it's being emulated and not being played on actual hardware. If it is actual hardware maybe he's using a 520ST, I never had any sound glitches on my 1040ST.
The first Gauntlet is the first arcade game and the very first game i played as a smal boy. I remember being in a amusement park and my dad gave me some coins to play on those machines. There where already 3 older boys playing Gauntlet but i could join them and played as the Wizard. I remember how magical it was to be able to control a character on screen.
It was there where my fascination with videogames began :-D
Ah, they were the day. I'm not sure what me first Arcade game was but I do remember watching Ghost'n Goblins thinking it was cool.
Probably the first game I played was something like Space Invaders or Pacman.
Ah yes Gauntlet 2 the reason why you probably never want play Gauntlet 1 again, the music is iconic, it's basically same as first one but much better+fun even if you solo it or play with friend and how ugly the title screen yet you can't help to love it.
I had Gauntlet 2 on Dos back in the day. It used a pc speaker trick called "Real Audio" and had voice sample and in-game sounds. It's was was some pretty rough for audio. But back in the day welcome in our crappy pc. I'm not sure what was worse, the game audio or my cga monitor. Good times.
Had this on C64, then ST, growing up, ST version addressed a lot of the issues of the original, but wasn't full screen.
Gauntlet 4 blew the ST and Amiga conversions out of the water.
Gauntlet 2 for NES wasn't developed by Tengen, it was developed by Eastridge Technology and published by Mindscape (at least in the states), I don't think Tengen had anything to do with it outside licensing the property to Mindscape. Just thought you'd like to know. Great video BTW!
Thanks for the info. Never heard of Eastridge Technology though.
@@RetroCore They're a ghost studio Mindscape would use for a lot of the NES games, like the NES port of Paperboy and the NES Last Starfighter game.
That tune... Such memories. They had this in the canteen of my local leisure centre in the late 80s lol.
Hmm, I'll have to have a gander on the DOS version. I could've sworn it had sound when I played it back in the day. Apparently there was a rumored sound-enhanced version for Tandy 1000 systems.
You're not wrong. It did have sound when played on a real MS DOS machine. I played so much of it back when I was 7 or 8 years old. It didn't have any speech samples though. And whatever in-game sound sounded scratchy and rough. But that's also where my young mind filled in the blanks. Every time a thief, Death or IT was around, the sounds they made used to scare the crap out of me. It literally sounded horrific to me!
On a Tandy 1000 you get a lot more audio than vanilla MS-DOS. Plus those Tandy's had a volume knob, so if the title music made you want to die, you could just turn out down. Something you sadly couldn't do on a regular IBM-PC at the time.
Decent game, with equally decent ports. Not something I'd ever play much, after all Gauntlet IV on the Mega Drive exists, but still not a bad game.
OH HELL YEAH! This is one of my favorite Arcade games! But yeah, I do agree. The level design is a bit better in the fist one. I guess that's why Gauntlet IV used the first one as a basis instead of the second. Though, I still would of liked some features from II like playing as the same class. In fact, I have a bit of a mandela effect, I swear on Gauntlet IV they say the color of the class like "GREEN WARRIOR" but they never did and just conflating multiple memories.
Being able to play as the same class as your friends was a great addition. Glad they added that.
Apparently, the PC/DOS port of Gauntlet supports Tandy 1000 PCM samples if you set the machine to tandy in DOSBox's options. Also, the Amiga port would be full screen as well if played on an NTSC system since the game is 320x200 when PAL systems display in 320x256.
Actually, I just tried the game myself and I got in-game sound effects even without having to do that. Odd.
That is very odd.
I grew up on the NES port. Had lots of fun playing it, never could get very far though.
Mostly competent (-ish) conversions from U.S. Gold this time. It looks like UK licensees generally did a better job when working with American IPs rather than with the ones from Japan. Probably Western companies had better working relationships between them and with things like sharing assets and the likes. Still, they should have added some in-game music to the Amiga and the ST exactly like M2 did with their Gauntlet game for the Mega Drive, because it wouldn't have been acceptable to have a console game with sound effects only. But there was no in-game music in the arcade, and nobody in their right mind would have expected US Gold to do something more than the bare minimum!
It helps that this is a pretty simple game to begin with, leaving little room for even US Gold to screw up. But yes, Gauntlet IV on the Mega Drive is absolutely outstanding, as to be expected from M2.
Stonkin' BotP episode. Gauntlet II, like Gauntlet, is pretty good fun with friends. The arcade version of Gauntlet II is fun, but I didn't own any of the original ports (did have the Tengen black-card version of Gauntlet on NES though). I had at least 2 friends with the NES version of this one though, so I played it enough. It was fun with friends (none of us had the 4-Score or Satellite though, so only 2-player for us). It's kind of a toss up for me for whether I liked the NES port of Gauntlet or Gauntlet II more, but it didn't matter after I got Gauntlet IV.
I really liked the early Gauntlet games, but absolutely loved Gauntlet Legends and Gauntlet Dark Legacy. I put a ton of money into two different cabs (one at a theater that stayed as Legacy; the other at a small arcade that got upgraded to Dark Legacy), maintaining characters on both. I bought the N64 version of Legends when it launched and got the DC version later (DC version might look the best and have some of the Dark Legacy features, but the inventory and shop system of the N64 just made me like that version more). I also bought Dark Legacy, first for X-Box, but eventually before the generation was up on PS2 and GC too...I think it was the only multi-platform title of that generation I bought on all 3 systems during that time...Not smart, but I loved Legends/Dark Legacy so much.
Also, I had one of my weirdest experiences arcade game experiences with a Dark Legacy cab (not the one I normally played): it was in the entrance area of a Wal-Mart store that was not the one I would normally visit, but I was with a friend who always went to that store instead. He was buying a PSX game of some sort, but we stopped and played Dark Legacy on our way in. And, after we started playing (new characters) suddenly, I'm not joking at all, some dirty, stanky, bum that looked like he hadn't showed in years and definitely had been drinking recently crawled out from between the other two cabinets they had (a racing game I don't remember and Fighting Bujutsu, which was the only place I ever saw that cabinet).
He watched us play until both of our credits ran out, and made comments about the game that certainly showed that he'd played the game. Then, this dude said something to the effect of "You boys made a good effort, but playing with just one credit in is child's play." And, here's a direct quote of what he said next that my friend and I will never forget: "Now, watch how a real master does it. I don't mess around!" and proceeded to take some money out of his coat pocket, stuck a $20 and a couple $5 bills into the coin/change machine there by the arcade and claw machines, and put all-in-all around $40-$50 in quarters into the machine. He loaded up a high-70s level Wizard and goes to town. I'll never forget how that guy just cackled at the look on our faces when he shoved his probably entire net worth into the machine. We eventually went in, and my friend bought whatever it was he was getting (Vagrant Story, maybe), and this guy was still going to town. Insane experience, but hilarious too.
Wow, that guy must have had a lot of disposable income.
The Amstrad version looks kind of great!
Surprising that Atari didn't do a 7800 or Atari 8bit port. Both systems could have used a shot in the arm like this around that time.
There is an 8 bit xl/xe version , the 7800 was planned and developed but never released
@@saturnman9129Could you supply a source for this claim please? Years ago the UK press claimed Bob Armour was busy converting Gauntlet to the 7800,absolute rubbish, no such conversion ever started.
I remember playing a Java version of the game on a Sony Ericsson phone.
Good times. xd
There was a kind of version of this for the Acorn Archimedes, but it had a different name and different character names. It was called White Magic, by The 4th Dimension.
Nice. I'll have to check that out some day.
@@RetroCore It's was terrible compared to Gauntlet. Shame, the Acorn Archimedes could have killed the conversion with the best graphics, sound etc. Since so much more powerful. Instead we get White Magic! Compare Pacmania on the Acorn, superior in every way to any other version. Also, Terramax.
I used to love the C64 port, spent many, many afternoon's playing it with my brother. I don't remember it being so poor! That was a shocker
Our memories ways make things seem better than they were.
In the arcade, is so so but then again Atari was deeply troubled then. ST does the job mostly. Amiga is better than ST. PC is just there. Amstrad can mostly work within limitations. ZX Spectrum is grand. C64 is full of monotony. NES surprised me with greatness. Game Boy isn't all too hot.
"Mark, shooting potions has a lesser magic effect".
Hehe, yep but then I get to hear the speech.
@@RetroCore fair enough.
That musical score! 👏
Ah, yes, the NES version. I remember the 11 years old me taking it back to the rental video store and getting a different game ASAP. xD
Still sounds rather bad but if you want the rest of DOS's audio you need a Tandy machine.
Richard Costello coded the ST and Amiga versions in his spare time 😊
He did a pretty good job for a spare time effort.
Atari ST and NES was the best quality ports.
I had the pc version and it definitely had audio. The music was shrill, but the voice samples were quite impressive for the pc speakers.
Atari/Midway/Bally made excellent arcade games.
Iconic and fun games!
Cracking battle thanks Mark, I was happy with my Amiga version but it's not as good as my memory of it here, also you took the words right out my mouth with the shitty title screen comment, what a nasty piece of art. Like everyone else though I'll have to say I've been spoilt by gauntlet 4 on the MD, damn those tracks are amazing.
Love the arcade port especially when it’s pure chaos and you have unlimited health.
Gameboy version is as definite winner here, purely for the effort put into it.
Wot's the NES? Chopped Liver?
At least IT (amazingly) DIDN'T slow down whilest playing PCM samples! :P
Gauntlet on the C64 is why Druid was made.
The NES version is the most impressive conversion when you consider system specification.
I played both G1&2 to death on my Amstrad. Good Amstrad game, good conversion.
It’s all about using the Cowboy, in Epyx’s reboot of Gauntlet, only for the Atari Lynx.
BEST. GAUNTLET. GAME. EVER.
Another great BOTP!
Thanks
Should have included the TRS-80 Color Computer 3 version, "Gantelet 2". Yes it was a mere clone but it definitely looked better than the Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC versions. Make sure to have the Speech/Sound Cartridge installed to have the computer talk - although the voice is very robotic and not as good as the arcade.
I remember being really into Gauntlet for a little bit back in the day after playing an arcade cabinet. Not sure which version it was exactly. Some decent ports in this group. The NES especially does a nice job bringing the arcade feel home from the looks of it. I can see why you'd call the Game Boy version a bit boring. I was thinking the same when watching it. Based on the footage, it looks especially slow with less going on overall. There are fewer enemies to deal with which makes it less engaging. I don't know if they could have made it run faster, but obviously they wanted to avoid motion blur. And the lower resolution would make it harder to pack the play area with enemies as well. Of course, some good music goes a long way to keeping boredom away.
It's the slowdown while PCM samples are playing...
I think you should look at using eXoDOS for the MS-DOS ports - he's spent years compiling almost every known DOS game, with the best DOSBox configs for emulation accuracy and audio for each one.
I'll check it out.
Valkyrie face, on title screen, especially on NES...
I don't know why, but all ports transformed the demon head on the title screen into a *dinosaur head.*
Demons are too evil for the kids 😋
Awesome. :)
I actually really enjoyed playing the NES version with 3 of my friends way back in the day. For some reason I find it a lot of fun and just hilarious to play. A great party game if you're not taking it to seriously, haha
That's so true. Gauntlet is easily a game best played with friends.
I'm not really a fan of Gauntlet II myself. I take the Mega Drive port of the first Gauntlet over any version of Gauntlet II anyday.
I think most people would 👍
Whenever I watch these Videos, I always begin to wonder if the US Ports were altered slightly... Like @Larry Bundy Jr , I owned both Gauntlet (And the Deeper Dungeons Expansion Cassette) and Gauntlet 2 for my CPC... And here in the UK - It my mememory does suggest that the POrts to other counteries were different in some silly ways!
I remember clearly that in most screenshots - The Exit on BOTH was marked with "E" which always disappointed me... But Playing the game it was always "EXIT"... Also here in the UK, Gaultlet 2 was released by US GOLD. Probably stil devloped by Gremiln Graphics ... But it was 100% A US GOLD Release!
That said, Yeah... I LOVED THESE GAMES... While there was far less effort put into Gauntlet 2, I played it for HOURS AND HOURS!!!
Though to show the lack of effort... Lets talk about the Cassette Size... For younger Viewers, Cassettes came in 3 Sizes Generally... C-15, C-60 and C-90... Thats a 15 Minuite, 60 Minuite and 90 Minuite overall play time...
Gauntlet and the Deeper Dungeons - C-90... These were MASSIVE GAMES!!! Gauntlet 2... a C-15... A 15 Minuite Total of Data!!! You could play through and repeat the game in as little as an HOUR!!!!
And with all those ROTATED LEVELS... Yeah, This was squeezed out to be little more than a cashgrab! And it got me... I WAS HOOKED!
Maybe there were two revisions. An early one that said E on the exit that magazines covered and a later revision that was on sale? This is kind of common, especially on consoles. Later releases even on the same console have changes.
ST port was THE SHIT, back at the day ;)
After the first, horrible, port. This was very enjoyable.
The only problem is, that the whole Gauntlet gameplay, as a single player game was not/is not very enjoyable...
Multiplayer is better, but anyway ;)
Remember, don't shoot food.
That MS DOS opening sounds like it was on a cheap talking toy that was about to run out of batteries. UGH. I'm sure any in game sounds would just be a prolonged, buzzing static sound.
I remember buying the C64 port based on the normally-trustworthy Zzap64's review. The first time I realised how fallible they were...
Wow, I bet that was a big disappointment. I can imagine you wondering if you had bought the right game.
@@RetroCore Indeed yes, Mark, I couldn't believe now much WORSE than the smooth-playing original it was. Every point in your video is spot on (as always 😎 )
@@andy6576 yep ZZAP64 might of been the C64 Bible, but man, I bought some real duffers on the strength of their reviews, but then same goes for C. U and C+VG
Weird about the C64 port. The original on C64 was quite quick, responsive, and had excellent music. (well title music...)
I used to play this loads on my Atari ST during last year when the pandemic started I on mame up to level 124 I don't think it has an ending.
Wow, that must have taken quite some time to reach level 124.
I don't know why, but I really like the way the graphics look on the Amstrad version. Like little mini characters. Has a pleasant aesthetic for me. Shame the game isn't that great overall on the amstrad.
It's classic pixel art. Something these so called 8bit style game makers should actually study.
these days they'd of made it as an upgrade kit and it would be gauntlet 1.5 or something on the same machine
Back then they could have done that too. Turbo Outrun was an upgrade kit to the original Outrun. I guess Atari wanted to big up the game as something new.
@@RetroCore was this actually a tape on the zx? id of thought by 86 everyone was past that ......
Something wrong with your ST copy. Mine had the correct level end sound for sure.
Oh, Atari ST Port is impressive for the first time. In some aspects, even better than the original game, because I always thought it was too polluted with too many stuff on the screen.
I agree. The Arcade is way too cluttered.
@@RetroCore smaller screen size kills it for me these days
That was the idea of the game, fighting your way through a crowded gauntlet of enemies.
I disagree about the level design. Once you get off the first 6 starter levels it gets way more interesting. Gauntlet 2 is designed to smash you so you put more 10p/quarters in it. The trick is not to score very high, because once you get to 300000 points the game begins to starve you. This is on the arcade and Mame versions. They did this on gauntlet 2 because the players like myself could come in when the arcade opened, put 10p in Gauntlet 1, and play all day on that 10p. Needless to say, some arcade owners didn't appreciate that as profits were lost. My local arcade was fine with it because when there was a Gauntlet machine all the kids were in there watching the pros and buying chips and playing the other games. They made money indirectly because of it and not from the game itself.
I used to play this game on my mate's Atari ST back in the day. I don't remember there being an issue with the "Exit" sound with the ST version. Have just checked some videos of the game played on real hardware and it seems fine. Were you emulating it? If so, I suspect it was an emulation issue.
Looks like an emulation issue.
Would an ESONIC Sound card plus the drivers give what was lacking in the MSDOS version.
I'm afraid I have no idea.
@@RetroCore I had a PC that had a ESONIC Sound card in it unfortunately I game the machine to a beautiful women i never see now.
"Mark needs food badly"
Wish they would remaster 1 and 2
Was the "Hals arfed" follow up intentional?
Also, have you tried DOSBox SVN Daum? The ear wrenching part could be because of shoddy PC Speaker emulation in the regular DOSBox version.
Edit: Hals arfed is at 2:21
Sorry, I dont know what Hals arfed means.
"Half Arsed" nicer way of saying "Half assed".
@@SomeOrangeCat I know. But he pronounced it "Hals arfed"
I heard that too, though it sounded like "Hass affed" to my ears. I thought it was intentional, but perhaps it was just one of those happy accidents. No complaints from me. I don't know much about DOS Box, but I figured the sound had to be better on a PC of the era with the right hardware.
@@ravagingwolverine DOSBox SVN Daum has accurate PC speaker emulation and is recommended for PC Speaker games.
Are you going to do a comparison on gauntlet the deeper dungeons ??
No, I don't intend on covering that.
I can certainly see from whom did Blizzard North has taken notes :-)
Speaking of the devil... if you like dungeon crawlers, I got good news! Diablo for PS1 is an excellent port. Naturally, PC Win does have better visuals, but PS1 version is good, both visually and gameplay vise. I've beaten them both.
I'll see if I can find a copy of that.
i was playing this with my brother once on the nes. we got pretty far then one level said: to reach a secret room...go on a diet.
we laughed for 5 minutes straight
the pillerbox format seen here is would not been a issue when the game has been played on a real ntsc or pal Amiga monitor. What you see is the classic ntsc->pal->ntsc issue. etc ntsc resolution used in a pal game and then converted back to 16:9 again.
Sadly actuelly many console fate the same issue really (that include mega drive and others). No doubt many today actuelly do hate pal games. a property pal game is howover fine when done right.
Jesus the MS-DOS title music is atrocious!!
Yep, it's really bad.
@@RetroCore To be fair, it wouldn't be quite as bad when played through an actual internal PC speaker compared to headphones.
Not to my ears though. I grew up playing Gauntlet II with my brother and sister on DOS PC. It sounds exactly like how I liked it.
@@azuremateria I just tried it on one of my actual vintage PCs and tbh it's really not that awful. Part of the reason why it sounds so overdriven via DOSBox is that it was done that way so you could actually hear it over all the computer fan noise and such. Alien Syndrome and All Dogs Go to Heaven have worse PC speaker sample playback, imo.
I think if they remade gauntlet it'd be an fps .....
The audio is horrendous, problem during rendering?
Nope, that's how it sounds. The DOS and Amiga has really poor distorted audio.
@@RetroCore Ouch, that really is bad.
Such a shame this one is worse than the original thanks to western fanservice. It reminds me of some western "fans" of bigger franchises like Rockman/Mega Man (oh how the fanbase fell from grace...), Sonic (despite not liking the series), and Smash Bros (speaks for itself, really) that try to shove in what THEY think is appropriate for the series down everyone's throats (and will attack you if you say otherwise). Only difference is that unlike Gauntlet II, they often don't get what they want. Serves them right.
Oh boy, the Smash comunity, the main reason of why i lost interest to that game. Something as simple as not having ONE character they want in the game seems to be enough for them to crap their pants and cry all over the place.
🎶 ☺️
Even the arcade voice clips sound horrible. "OWW". "OOH." "AHH". Sounds like someone reading off a card script and putting no effort into it.
Think the arcade uses a speech synthesizer not sampled audio. Even the iconic announcer sounds synthesized.
Uuhhgg aaaahhhh. Eeehhhh
decent or ugly i hope there isn't an ugliest gauntlet arcade trilogy though
Man, I'm Early
Seems like a very boring game.
Geeze....when did this this channel became yet another AVGN wannabe?
What? I don't see the resemblance.
Yeah, when did it become like that? That's what I'm asking as well. I sure don't see when.
Err, what are you talking about? This video is nothing like AVGN. Neither is the channel.