Gauntlet was huge in the arcades. It was the original hack and slash RPG which drew on the fantasy worlds of tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons. Players had to fight their way through a series of dungeon chambers fighting off ghosts, demons, sorcerers and thieves not to mention death himself. The game was open ended so you could play as long as you liked and with up to four players teaming up to slaughter monsters it was incredibly popular.

It was designed by Ed Logg and released by Atari in 1985 in a stand up cabinet with four sets of controls each featuring an eight way joystick and two buttons. It was basically a maze game with a top down view on the action and some really clever game-play mechanics which kept people pumping in the coins.

You could choose from four characters, all fantasy staples. There was the barbarian Warrior with the battle axe, the speedy Elf with his bow and arrows, the magical Wizard and the Valkyrie with sword and shield. They each had special abilities, Thor the Warrior was the toughest in terms of dealing out damage, Questor the Elf could move faster than the others, Merlin the Wizard had the best magic and Thyra the Valkyrie had the best armor. Everyone had their favourite and embarking on a game with three pals was a new experience at the time. Although it was usually four guys and you’d argue over who had to wear the skirt (Thyra was female).

There was no end point and the genius of the design compelled you to move and search for food to replenish your health or it would drain away even without monster attack. You could also collect treasure for points and there were potions scattered around which would destroy enemies, of course they were most powerful in the hands of the wizard. You could also pick up bombs and keys to help you make your way through the maze of underground chambers. Sometimes you would accidentally pick up poison and suffer the ill effects.

The co-operative game-play was a big hook and it could also turn extremely competitive as you each raced for the limited goodies. RPGs have become far more sophisticated over the years but there are still elements of Gauntlet in each of them. The wide array of enemies would throw themselves at you wave after wave until you destroyed the generator spawning them. Death himself was the ultimate enemy.

The game was originally going to be called Dungeons but they went with Gauntlet in the end. It was one of the first games to feature open ended game-play without a linear progression. It also featured some great sound effects and narration from a kind of dungeon master character who would warn you who was short of what and who was about to die. Gauntlet got ported to everything in sight and there were several sequels. It was an important release in videogame history and proved to be an influential title.