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59-454: Gauntlet II is essentially an expanded version of the original Gauntlet . Like in the original game, there are four character classes to play as, with the choices being Warrior, Valkyrie, Wizard and Elf. The main difference from the original game is that multiple players can now choose to play as the same character class. Because of this each player is now distinguished by the palette of their character, with red and blue being in all versions of

118-478: A B− or higher from the three individual grade: "Silver" awards for games averaging a grade of B− to B+; "Gold" awards for games averaging a grade of A− or A; and "Platinum" awards for games with three A+ grades. The current letter grade system replaced a long-standing 0–10 scale in the April 2008 issue. In that system, Silver went to a game with an average rating from 8 to 9, Gold to a game reviewed at 9 to 10 and Platinum to

177-494: A Video Game" and "Most Innovative Video Game" at the 1986 Amusement Players Association's Players Choice Awards; the overall Game of the Year award went to the arcade version of Super Mario Bros. The arcade original was followed by a 1986 sequel, Gauntlet II , which was followed by further sequels on home platforms, including Gauntlet: The Third Encounter , Gauntlet III: The Final Quest , and Gauntlet IV . The arcade series

236-411: A competition throughout Europe in which ten winners were awarded prizes, a Gauntlet T-shirt and a copy of the program for their computers. The contest was announced in the instructions of many of the ported games. The levels are presented randomly and its artwork is the side panel artwork of the arcade cabinet with only the main characters shown. The enemies were removed from the image and replaced with

295-460: A different name, XG continued EGM2 ' s numbering system. XG lasted for 39 issues until October 2001 (with the last issue being XG #88). The first issue of EGM2 was in July 1994. The magazine lasted 49 issues with the last issue under the original name coming out in July 1998. The change of name prompted a cleaner looking redesign although the content of the magazine would remain the same. In

354-480: A game that received nothing but 10 ratings. Until 1998, as a matter of editorial policy, the reviewers rarely gave scores of 10 and never gave a Platinum Award. That policy changed when the reviewers gave Metal Gear Solid four 10 ratings in 1998, with an editorial published half a year before announcing the shift. In addition, they gave the game (or multiple games in the event of a tie, as with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for Xbox and NCAA Football 2006 ) with

413-401: A letter in April 2020, editor Josh Harmon announced that the site would no longer publish long-form articles, prompting speculation that the publication had shut down. Harmon edited the announcement shortly afterwards to confirm that the site would continue "some form of daily news coverage". In October 2024, EGM launched a Kickstarter campaign for a retrospective book about the history of

472-444: A mailbag section, a deeper look into the most recent issue of the magazine, or interviews with special guests such as Marcus Henderson and Ted Lange from Harmonix and Cliff Bleszinski from Epic Games . The "*" at the end of the name was to denote that the podcast was not actually "live" in the general media sense. It was later replaced by 1UPFM , another weekly Monday podcast where 1UP crew members Nick Suttner and Phil Kollar hosted

531-480: A new website, 1UP.com , after GameSpot was sold to CNET Networks . Since the magazine's relaunch in 2010, the affiliated website has been egmnow.com. EGM Live* was a podcast hosted every Monday by the editors of EGM on 1UP.com. The podcast was available for download at 1UP.com or the iTunes music store. Much like other podcasts on the 1UP network, the program could include discussion of various message board topics, an analysis of new games being reviewed,

590-500: A pink background. Reviewers noted that the levels were much harder than those in the original game, although the consensus was that it was not quite as good as the first game or the newly released arcade sequel. The game was highly profitable upon its November 1985 launch in North America, reportedly earning one San Mateo, California arcade operator $ 15,000 in sixteen weeks and another Canadian operator US$ 4,500 in nine days. In

649-526: A player "It" and drew all enemies towards them. The only way to release this curse is by touching another player or entering the exit, turning any level containing "It" into a fantasy filled game of tag. Other notable additions include the ability to ricochet shots off walls by means of a special pick-up , acid puddles that caused large, predetermined amounts of damage and a large dragon which occupied multiple squares and required multiple hits to destroy. New level elements were also added, adding more variety to

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708-552: A second contest where players were tasked to find the secret rooms in the game itself. After fulfilling a certain task, the players were given a code, which they submitted to Atari Games via an entry form; the grand prize was a U.S. government saving bond valued at $ 5000, and the first 500 entries received a t-shirt. The contest was held until December 19. Gauntlet II was ported to the ZX Spectrum , Amstrad CPC , Commodore 64 , Amiga , Atari ST and MS-DOS in 1987. These versions of

767-449: 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. The game is set within a series of top-down, third-person, orthographic mazes where the object is to kill monsters, gather treasures, and find the exit in every level. An assortment of special items can be located in each level. These items can increase

826-461: Is a monthly American video game magazine . It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. The magazine was founded in 1988 as U.S. National Video Game Team 's Electronic Gaming Monthly under Sendai Publications. In 1994, EGM spun off EGM² , which focused on expanded cheats and tricks (i.e., with maps and guides). It eventually became Expert Gamer and finally

885-628: Is credited with "special thanks" through 1986, Logg is entirely removed from credits on later releases and as of 2007 Logg claims no involvement with the NES game. Dandy was later reworked by Atari Corporation and published for the Atari 2600 , Atari 7800 , and Atari 8-bit computers as Dark Chambers in 1988. Gauntlet was ported to MS-DOS , Apple II , Mac , MSX , Nintendo Entertainment System , Apple IIGS , Master System , Atari ST , Commodore 64 , Atari 8-bit computers , Amstrad CPC , ZX Spectrum , and

944-539: Is known for making April Fools jokes. Its April 1992 issue was the source of the Sheng Long hoax in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior . In March 2019, EGM announced that it was going to relaunch "later this year" into an outfit that will have "a new look and a focus on long-form features, original reporting, and intelligent critique." It enters under the backronym "Enjoy Games More". In

1003-473: Is the company's first coin-operated game that features a voice synthesizer chip. Another game that Gauntlet bears a striking resemblance to is Time Bandit (1983), especially its Atari ST version released in 1985, which led to claims of one possibly being a "clone" of the other. However, Time Bandit designer Harry Lafnear stated that his game was based on Konami 's earlier arcade game Tutankham (1982), and that he only found out about Gauntlet after

1062-537: The Atari 8-bit computers , which resulted in a threat of legal action. 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. In Japan, the game was released by Namco in February 1986. Atari later released

1121-460: The Atari ST version was completed in late 1985. He believes neither game copied each other, but that their similarities stem from being inspired by earlier " maze shoot 'em up " titles such as Tutankham . In 2008, Retro Gamer magazine called Tutankham "an early Gauntlet ". Ed Logg , the co-creator of Asteroids and Centipede , is credited with the original game design of Gauntlet in

1180-543: The Macintosh version's sound effects. Computer and Video Games praised the accuracy of the Amstrad version, and said that it had "great graphics, good sounds, and perfect playability". Crash praised the smooth and fast scrolling, and the longevity, with Avenger being listed as the only alternative. In their Master System review, ACE said that people of all ages could quickly master the controls and tasks. The Spectrum version

1239-506: The Platinum award for two separate versions of the game. In 2002, EGM began giving games that earned unanimously bad scores a "Shame of the Month" award. As there is not always such a game in each issue, this award is only given out when a game qualifies. Originally, a team of four editors reviewed all the games. This process was eventually dropped in favor of a system that added more reviewers to

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1298-774: The United Kingdom, the home computer conversions topped the UK sales chart in December 1986. It went on to sell more than 200,000 copies in the UK by 1987, and over 300,000 copies as of 1988 . The arcade game received a positive review from Clare Edgeley of Computer and Video Games upon release. Yung Min Choi reviewed the home computer conversion of Gauntlet with Demon Stalkers for Computer Gaming World , and stated that "in reality, players who crave this type of action will not be disappointed with either game". Entertainment Weekly picked

1357-649: The United States for the NES. Gauntlet: The Deeper Dungeons is an expansion pack for the original computer ports of Gauntlet with 512 new levels. It was released in 1987 by the British company U.S. Gold in the UK and Europe, and Mindscape in the United States for the Amstrad CPC, MSX, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum ports of Gauntlet . It was developed by Gremlin Graphics . Many of its levels were entries in

1416-528: The United States, it topped the monthly RePlay upright arcade cabinet chart in December 1985, and topped the Play Meter arcade video game charts from January 1986 to March 1986; after being displaced by Sega 's Hang-On in April, Gauntlet returned to the top spot in May. RePlay listed it as the second highest-grossing arcade video game of 1986 in the United States, below Hang-On , while AMOA listed it as

1475-440: The amount of credits they used to play. Aside from the ability to have up to four players at once, the game is also noted for the narrator's voice, which is produced by a TMS5220C speech chip . The TMS5220C speech was encoded by Earl Vickers. The narrator (voiced by Ernie Fosselius ) frequently makes statements repeating the game's rules, including: "Shots do not hurt other players, yet", "Remember, don't shoot food", "Elf shot

1534-473: The arcade version, as well as the 1987 NES release. After its release, John Palevich threatened a lawsuit, asserting that the original concept for the game was from Dandy , a game for the Atari 8-bit home computers written by Palevich and published in 1983. The conflict was settled without any suit being filed, with Atari Games doing business as Tengen allegedly awarding Palevich a Gauntlet game machine. While he

1593-485: The defunct GameNOW . After 83 issues (up to June 1996), EGM switched publishers from Sendai Publishing to Ziff Davis . Until January 2009, EGM only covered gaming on console hardware and software. In 2002, the magazine's subscription increased by more than 25 percent. The magazine was discontinued by Ziff Davis in January 2009, following the sale of 1UP.com to UGO Networks . The magazine's February 2009 issue

1652-447: The food", and "Warrior needs food, badly". The narrator occasionally comments on the battle by saying, "I've not seen such bravery" or "Let's see you get out of here". When a player's life force points fall below 200, the narrator states, "Your life force is running out", "Elf needs food", or "Valkyrie is about to die". The control panel for the four-player cabinet is wider than other standard uprights in order to accommodate four people at

1711-482: The game as the 14th-greatest game available in 1991, saying: "There have been sequels to this game, but nothing matches the original Gauntlet , an innovative, fast-playing mix of mazes, monsters, and magic spells". The Mac version was reviewed in 1989 in Dragon No. 150 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game four out of five stars. Compute! praised

1770-605: The game was also released by Sony Online Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 on May 3, 2007 as a downloadable game on the PlayStation Store , but has since been delisted. The Game Boy version was praised by the German Play Time magazine for its technical implementation (including 8-directional scrolling), faithful recreation of graphics, and for evoking nostalgic feelings with similar sound effects; however, this version

1829-585: The game were released in North America by Mindscape and in Europe by U.S. Gold . Most versions only supported two players, but the Atari ST version supported an adaptor that allowed two further joysticks (totalling four) to be connected via that machine's parallel port . Mindscape later ported the game to the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990 and the Game Boy in 1991. The NES version of Gauntlet II

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1888-465: The game, while yellow and green are featured in the 4-player version. New voice samples were added in Gauntlet II , identifying each player by their color and class (e.g. "Yellow Elf", "Red Wizard"). New level designs were added, including the possibility of encountering them in altered ways by having the play-field turned in steps of 90°. Other new features include the enemy "It", which upon contact made

1947-521: The highest average score for that issue a "Game of the Month" award. If a "Game of the Month" title receives a port to another console, that version is disqualified from that month's award, such as with Resident Evil 4 , which won the award for the Nintendo GameCube version and subsequently received the highest scores for the PlayStation 2 port months later and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 , which won

2006-525: The intro that "for the record, Gauntlet was number 101". In 1995, Flux magazine rated the game 89th on their "Top 100 Video Games." In 1996, GamesMaster ranked Gauntlet 18th in its "Top 100 Games of All Time." At the 1986 Golden Joystick Awards in London, Gauntlet won Game of the Year , and was runner-up in the category of Arcade Game of the Year. It also received a Smash Hit award from ZX Computing magazine. It also won "Best Audio Enhancement in

2065-590: The last page. EGM en Español was released in Mexico in November 2002. It was published by Editorial Televisa and is edited by a different staff. Sometimes the content was more focused to the Latin American gaming crowd (e.g. soccer games were paid more attention than NASCAR or American football games), as well as the humor and other features. Sometimes it featured jokes among the Mexican community and sometimes supported

2124-557: The level through specific generators, which can be destroyed. The most dangerous enemy is Death , who can only be destroyed by using a magic potion—otherwise Death will vanish automatically after it has drained a certain amount of health from the player. As the game progresses, higher levels of skill are needed to reach the exit, with success often depending on the willingness of the players to cooperate by sharing food and luring monsters into places where they can be engaged and slaughtered more conveniently. While contact with enemies reduces

2183-407: The magazine, titled The Electronic Gaming Monthly Compendium . The campaign reached its fundraising goal of $ 35,000 within less than 24 hours of its launch. The magazine includes the following sections: EGM' s current review scale is based on a letter grade system in which each game receives a grade based on its perceived quality. Games are reviewed by one member (originally a team of four until

2242-479: The main weaknesses as the sound and the over-similarity to the original. In 1997 Electronic Gaming Monthly listed Gauntlet II as the 3rd best arcade game of all time. Gauntlet (1985 video game)#Gameplay Gauntlet is a 1985 fantasy -themed hack-and-slash arcade video game developed and released by Atari Games . It is one of the first multiplayer dungeon crawl arcade games. The core design of Gauntlet comes from 1983 game Dandy for

2301-428: The original PlayStation console as part of Midway's Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 2 . An X68000 version was under development by M2 , before being showcased to Tengen and released as Gauntlet IV for Sega Genesis . The NES version was developed and published by Tengen , Atari Games' consumer software publishing division, and was released in 1988, and was the very first title to be developed in

2360-579: The original game. These included "all walls are invisible", "magic walls" which changed into monsters or items when hit, "stun tiles" which stunned the player, and fake exits. Another challenge in the game is the possibility to find a "secret room". This can be found by completing specific achievements within the level (e.g., "don't be fooled", means that you must find the real exit first). The secret room contains items such as food and magic potions (extra shot power, extra shot speed, extra magic power, extra speed, extra armor and extra fight power). Shortly after

2419-455: The paper-based game Dungeons & Dragons and from his own interest in the 1984 four-player dungeon crawl for the Atari 8-bit computers , Dandy . The game's development spanned from 1983 to 1985, with a team being led by designers Ed Logg and Roger Zeigler. The working title became legally unavailable in April 1985, so it was renamed Gauntlet in May. Based upon some of the most elaborate hardware design in Atari's history to date, it

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2478-484: The player's health, health also slowly drains on its own, thus creating a time limit. When a character's health reaches zero, that character dies. The character can be revived in place with full health by spending a game credit—inserting a coin in the arcade—within a certain short time window after it died. This allows even the least proficient players to keep playing indefinitely, if they are willing to keep inserting coins. However, each player's final score will be divided by

2537-442: The player's health, unlock doors, award more points and destroy all of the enemies on screen. Each player controls one of four playable fantasy-based characters: Thor, a warrior ; Merlin, a wizard ; Thyra, a valkyrie ; or Questor, an Elf . The characters are named on the cabinet artwork, but in-game they are referred only by the title of their classes. Each character has his or her own unique strengths and weaknesses. For example,

2596-453: The previous two weeks, below Sega's Space Harrier , before Gauntlet topped the chart in April. It went on to be Japan's third highest-grossing upright/cockpit arcade game during the first half of 1986 (below Hang-On and Space Harrier ), and the sixth highest during the second half of the year. It was Japans's fourth highest-grossing upright/cockpit arcade game of 1986 (below Hang-On , Space Harrier and Pole Position II ). In

2655-467: The production with a poster. Adrián Carbajal “Carqui”, with a long experience in Mexican gaming magazines (prior to EGM en Español , he worked in now competitor publications Club Nintendo and Atomix ), was the editor-in-chief through the entire run. There was a weekly official podcast called "Playtime!" hosted by most of the editorial staff. EGM en Español has been cancelled as of December 2008 due to Ziff Davis Media's economical problems. EGM Italia

2714-419: The release of the original Gauntlet , until March 31, 1986, Atari Games held a contest where players submitted level designs, game ideas, and other suggestions for a potential Gauntlet sequel. The winners of the contest were announced in the April 1986 issue of Atari Games' newsletter, and the developers implemented some of those submissions in Gauntlet II . During the release of Gauntlet II , Atari Games held

2773-452: The same time. Each player has an eight-way joystick and two buttons: one for "fire" (ranged attack) and one for "magic". The "magic" button also starts the game. After Gauntlet ' s release, other games started using this design, so it was a popular conversion target for newer games after it had its run. Originally called Dungeons , the game was conceived by Atari game designer Ed Logg. He claimed inspiration from his son's interest in

2832-456: The show, along with other 1UP members. EGM2 (stylized as EGM ) was a video game magazine published by Sendai Publishing from July 1994 to July 1998 as a spin-off of Electronic Gaming Monthly . Unlike EGM , however, EGM2 lacked a reviews section and had a greater emphasis on import games. Starting in August 1998, EGM2 became Expert Gamer (often abbreviated as XG ). Although with

2891-477: The staff so that no one person reviewed all the games for the month. Though the scores ranged from 0–10 on the previous numerical scale, the score of zero was almost never utilized, with exceptions being Mortal Kombat Advance , The Guy Game and Ping Pals . At the very end of every single magazine made during the Hsu period there is a funny/random message after the absolute last text (copyright/disclaimer text) on

2950-564: The warrior is strongest in hand-to-hand combat, the wizard has the most powerful magic, the valkyrie has the best armor, and the Elf is the fastest in movement. The characters are assigned by control panel in the four-player version, whereas in the two-player version each player selects their own character at the start of the game or while joining during the middle of play. The enemies are an assortment of fantasy-based monsters, including ghosts, grunts, demons, lobbers, sorcerers, and thieves . Each enters

3009-406: The world. EGM Thailand is published by Future Gamer Company Ltd., EGM Singapore is published by MediaCorp Publishing and EGM Turkey is published by Merkez Dergi. EGM Turkey got closed in January 2009 for financial crisis. In 1995, EGM ' s first online website was nuke.com. It merged with GameSpot in 1996 after Ziff-Davis purchased Sendai Media Group. In 2003, EGM created

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3068-413: The year 2000, then a team of three, and finally knocked down to one in 2008), except for "the big games", which were reviewed by one of a pool of editors known as "The Review Crew." They each assign a grade to the game and write a few paragraphs about their opinion of the game. The magazine makes a strong stance that a grade of C is average. Towards the top of the scale, awards are given to games that average

3127-443: The year's highest-earning dedicated arcade cabinet. Atari ultimately sold a total of 7,848 Gauntlet video game arcade cabinets . In Japan, Gauntlet was a commercial success for Namco. At a Japanese trade show in late 1985, the game drew large crowds and set record earnings for an Atari arcade cabinet. Game Machine listed Gauntlet on their March 15, 1986 issue as being the second most-popular upright/cockpit arcade game for

3186-1709: Was already completed, but was not published. In May 2009, EGM founder Steve Harris purchased the magazine and its assets from Ziff Davis. The magazine was relaunched in April 2010 by Harris's new company EGM Media, LLC, widening its coverage to the PC and mobile gaming markets. Notable contributors to Electronic Gaming Monthly have included Martin Alessi, Ken Williams (as Sushi-X), Jim Allee, "Trickman" Terry Minnich, Andrew "Cyber-Boy" Baran, Danyon Carpenter, Marc Camron (later Director of Operations), Mark "Candyman" LeFebvre, Todd Rogers, Mike Weigand A.K.A. Major Mike (now Managing Editor at GamePro Magazine ), Al Manuel, Howard Grossman, Arcade Editor Mark "Mo" Hain, Mike "Virus" Vallas, Jason Streetz, Tim Davis, Ken Badziak, Scott Augustyn, Chris Johnston, Che Chou, Dave Ruchala, Crispin Boyer, Greg Sewart, Jeanne Trais, Jennifer Tsao, artist Jeremy Norm Scott, Game Scholar Leonard Herman, Shawn "Shawnimal" Smith, West Coast Editor Kelly Rickards, Kraig Kujawa, Dean Hager, Jeremy Parish and Mark Macdonald (who later went on to become director of Gamevideos.com before leaving Ziff-Davis ). Writers who also served stints as editor-in chief include Ed Semrad, Joe Funk, John Davison, James Mielke, artist Jeremy "Norm" Scott , Dan "Shoe" Hsu and Seanbaby . In addition, writers of EGM ' s various sister publications – including GameNow , Computer Gaming World / Games for Windows: The Official Magazine , Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine – would regularly contribute to EGM and vice versa. The magazine

3245-412: Was criticized for difficult-to-recognize sprites and its technically weak theme music. The Spectrum version of the game was well received, Sinclair User said it was "a corker. Fast action and superb gameplay make Gauntlet II probably the first sequel worth the cash". Your Sinclair said it was "a 'must have' for all of you who asked for Gauntlet on your Desert Island Disks". Both YS and Crash gave

3304-623: Was one of the earliest games for the console that supported up to four players, being compatible with either the NES Four Score or NES Satellite adapters. Unlike the NES version of the first Gauntlet , Gauntlet II was a more direct conversion of the arcade original, lacking any sort of storyline or ending. Gauntlet II is also included in the compilations Midway Arcade Treasures 2 (released for PlayStation 2 , Xbox and GameCube in 2004) and Midway Arcade Origins (released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2012). A stand-alone port of

3363-627: Was published in Italy by Edizioni Star Comics S.r.l. from 2001 to 2003. EGM was also published in Brazil as EGM Brasil by Conrad Editora since April 2002. Since the last quarter of 2005, EGM Brasil was being published by Futuro Comunicação. With the suspension of U.S. sales of the EGM, the Brazilian EGM was rebranded to EGW (Entertainment + Game World). In 2006 three other editions of EGM were published around

3422-673: Was revived with Gauntlet Legends in 1998, which itself saw the sequels Gauntlet Dark Legacy and Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows . The original Gauntlet arcade game is included in Midway Arcade Treasures (2003) for the GameCube , PlayStation 2 , Xbox , and Microsoft Windows , and Midway Arcade Origins (2012) for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 . The game was rebooted in 2014 on home platforms as Gauntlet . Electronic Gaming Monthly Electronic Gaming Monthly ( EGM )

3481-588: Was the biggest-selling game of 1986, and was voted number 38 in the Your Sinclair Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time. More than a decade after release, the Official UK PlayStation Magazine noted that they "spent many a night hunched over a fag-stained Gauntlet machine", but said that the limitations had become apparent in the late 1990s. Next Generation , while not including the game in their "Top 100 Games of All Time", noted in

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