Together Retro: Gauntlet

[alienjesus]

So I sank an hour or two into Gauntlet 4 yesterday, into the quest mode. I know it's not the original arcade game, but it looked more interesting, so whatever!

I started as the Valkyrie and my girlfriend chose the Wizard (who instantly seems better). We explored each of the towers in turn (Earth, Water, Wind, Fire). This game is hard, looks like a lot of grinding will be needed to get the gold necessary to beat the game. The levels are quite frustrating mazes too.

However, we had a lot of fun, managed to buy our first pieces of new equipment and found a heal ring in the fire tower. The presentation here is way better than I expected. The graphics in game are pretty meh, but the music is great and it feels like a lot of effort was put in. Glad I picked it up! That said, I might not be once I have to grind enough gold to buy some of this equipment...

[Betagam7]

So I sank an hour or two into Gauntlet 4 yesterday, into the quest mode. I know it's not the original arcade game, but it looked more interesting, so whatever!

I started as the Valkyrie and my girlfriend chose the Wizard (who instantly seems better). We explored each of the towers in turn (Earth, Water, Wind, Fire). This game is hard, looks like a lot of grinding will be needed to get the gold necessary to beat the game. The levels are quite frustrating mazes too.

However, we had a lot of fun, managed to buy our first pieces of new equipment and found a heal ring in the fire tower. The presentation here is way better than I expected. The graphics in game are pretty meh, but the music is great and it feels like a lot of effort was put in. Glad I picked it up! That said, I might not be once I have to grind enough gold to buy some of this equipment...

I just remembered last night that I had this game as a bootleg cart. I'd always assumed it was the Japanese version which put me off playing the Quest mode.

Checking over my handheld Genesis,however I noticed a tiny switch I'd never seen before. Low and behold it turned out to be a region switch! Sure enough, Gauntlet runs in English now!

I'm pretty much where you are in Quest mode, except I'm playing solo as the Wizard. The heal Ring pretty much stops you from losing energy constantly (Edit: it also stops damage tiles from hurting you). I explored until I had 1500 then I used the warp wing to quit as I was losing the last of my health.

I bought the first upgrade for the wizards firebolts. Any clues on which tower is best to attempt first? It seems like once you find all the secret panels on a stage the enemies stay dead but the treasure regenerates so the floors can be plundered again and again.

[alienjesus]

So I sank an hour or two into Gauntlet 4 yesterday, into the quest mode. I know it's not the original arcade game, but it looked more interesting, so whatever!

I started as the Valkyrie and my girlfriend chose the Wizard (who instantly seems better). We explored each of the towers in turn (Earth, Water, Wind, Fire). This game is hard, looks like a lot of grinding will be needed to get the gold necessary to beat the game. The levels are quite frustrating mazes too.

However, we had a lot of fun, managed to buy our first pieces of new equipment and found a heal ring in the fire tower. The presentation here is way better than I expected. The graphics in game are pretty meh, but the music is great and it feels like a lot of effort was put in. Glad I picked it up! That said, I might not be once I have to grind enough gold to buy some of this equipment...

I just remembered last night that I had this game as a bootleg cart. I'd always assumed it was the Japanese version which put me off playing the Quest mode.

Checking over my handheld Genesis,however I noticed a tiny switch I'd never seen before. Low and behold it turned out to be a region switch! Sure enough, Gauntlet runs in English now!

I'm pretty much where you are in Quest mode, except I'm playing solo as the Wizard. The heal Ring pretty much stops you from losing energy constantly (Edit: it also stops damage tiles from hurting you). I explored until I had 1500 then I used the warp wing to quit as I was losing the last of my health.

I bought the first upgrade for the wizards firebolts. Any clues on which tower is best to attempt first? It seems like once you find all the secret panels on a stage the enemies stay dead but the treasure regenerates so the floors can be plundered again and again.

Not sure which tower is best, but I'd assume fire, mainly because you get the heal ring there for free and the main obstacle of the tower (the damage tiles) is nullified.

The wind one seems worst from a quick glimpse, as the obstacle there (blocks which push your character about and make it hard to move) seems the hardest to deal with.

[Betagam7]

So I sank an hour or two into Gauntlet 4 yesterday, into the quest mode. I know it's not the original arcade game, but it looked more interesting, so whatever!

I started as the Valkyrie and my girlfriend chose the Wizard (who instantly seems better). We explored each of the towers in turn (Earth, Water, Wind, Fire). This game is hard, looks like a lot of grinding will be needed to get the gold necessary to beat the game. The levels are quite frustrating mazes too.

However, we had a lot of fun, managed to buy our first pieces of new equipment and found a heal ring in the fire tower. The presentation here is way better than I expected. The graphics in game are pretty meh, but the music is great and it feels like a lot of effort was put in. Glad I picked it up! That said, I might not be once I have to grind enough gold to buy some of this equipment...

I just remembered last night that I had this game as a bootleg cart. I'd always assumed it was the Japanese version which put me off playing the Quest mode.

Checking over my handheld Genesis,however I noticed a tiny switch I'd never seen before. Low and behold it turned out to be a region switch! Sure enough, Gauntlet runs in English now!

I'm pretty much where you are in Quest mode, except I'm playing solo as the Wizard. The heal Ring pretty much stops you from losing energy constantly (Edit: it also stops damage tiles from hurting you). I explored until I had 1500 then I used the warp wing to quit as I was losing the last of my health.

I bought the first upgrade for the wizards firebolts. Any clues on which tower is best to attempt first? It seems like once you find all the secret panels on a stage the enemies stay dead but the treasure regenerates so the floors can be plundered again and again.

Not sure which tower is best, but I'd assume fire, mainly because you get the heal ring there for free and the main obstacle of the tower (the damage tiles) is nullified.

The wind one seems worst from a quick glimpse, as the obstacle there (blocks which push your character about and make it hard to move) seems the hardest to deal with.

I made it up to Level nine of the Fire tower before taking too much of a battering and using the warp wing to escape. I bought one of the defense upgrades (there were two types but this one seemed to increase the most stats), I think it was the heavy cloak. As I was about to turn off the machine I also realised that you can spend experience points upgrading your stats! Holy cow, that ought to be a game changer when I re-enter the dungeon tonight!

I'm going to see if I can polish off the fire tower! The password system couldn't get more convoluted could it? One password for your character and one each for your progress in each tower! Yikes, thank goodness we have cell phone cameras these days!

I love the music in the game, it's some of the best I've heard on the genesis and thankfully it seems to be one of the game my handheld clone system doesn't screw up!

I think this might be the best solo player version of Gauntlet I've played.

[alienjesus]

I made it up to Level nine of the Fire tower before taking too much of a battering and using the warp wing to escape. I bought one of the defense upgrades (there were two types but this one seemed to increase the most stats), I think it was the heavy cloak. As I was about to turn off the machine I also realised that you can spend experience points upgrading your stats! Holy cow, that ought to be a game changer when I re-enter the dungeon tonight!

I'm going to see if I can polish off the fire tower! The password system couldn't get more convoluted could it? One password for your character and one each for your progress in each tower! Yikes, thank goodness we have cell phone cameras these days!

I love the music in the game, it's some of the best I've heard on the genesis and thankfully it seems to be one of the game my handheld clone system doesn't screw up!

I think this might be the best solo player version of Gauntlet I've played.

Wait, you can use exp to upgrade stats? How?

I'm playing using the Mega Drive cartridge on my Retron5, so luckily for me I can make use of save states to record my progress.

[Betagam7]

I made it up to Level nine of the Fire tower before taking too much of a battering and using the warp wing to escape. I bought one of the defense upgrades (there were two types but this one seemed to increase the most stats), I think it was the heavy cloak. As I was about to turn off the machine I also realised that you can spend experience points upgrading your stats! Holy cow, that ought to be a game changer when I re-enter the dungeon tonight!

I'm going to see if I can polish off the fire tower! The password system couldn't get more convoluted could it? One password for your character and one each for your progress in each tower! Yikes, thank goodness we have cell phone cameras these days!

I love the music in the game, it's some of the best I've heard on the genesis and thankfully it seems to be one of the game my handheld clone system doesn't screw up!

I think this might be the best solo player version of Gauntlet I've played.

Wait, you can use exp to upgrade stats? How?

I'm playing using the Mega Drive cartridge on my Retron5, so luckily for me I can make use of save states to record my progress.

Press Start to access your items when you're in the hub part of the castle and press up and down. You'll see your stats and by pressing C you can add your experience to them to boost them!

This is why instruction manuals are always helpful so fools like us don't go through the whole game not knowing about it! The clunky interface is probably the game's only drawback but when you add all of this stuff to Gauntlet for the first time it's no surprise that it's a little unrefined.

I had wondered why you gained experience after each floor!

[Betagam7]

I polished off the Fire Tower last night. Wasn't expecting a

Boss Fight

so things were pretty tense.

I bought another upgrade to protect my wizard against magic, spend more experience beefing up my stats and made a few teetering steps into the water tower before retreating as my health was drained. I've sunk about 2 hours into it first. I definitely recommend writing down or saving your password for each tower as well as your character stats password as it saves you having to start the tower from scratch each time!

[alienjesus]

I'm still playing this one!

Me and my girlfriend made it to the boss of the fire tower, but got our asses kicked. We decided to power up by playing through the earth tower in the mean time, but had a lot of trouble with the map layout - it's really hard to find all the switches to clear the floors in this place!

[Betagam7]

I'm still playing this one!

Me and my girlfriend made it to the boss of the fire tower, but got our asses kicked. We decided to power up by playing through the earth tower in the mean time, but had a lot of trouble with the map layout - it's really hard to find all the switches to clear the floors in this place!

I beat him first time. He's not difficult if you stick to a pattern. Stay far at the back and strafe left and right to dodge his bullets , if you're the elf then you should be ideal for this. He takes a while. Don't try blasting away at him, just get a single shot in , dodge, shoot, dodge shoot and repeat. After about twenty shots he should die. You can only hit his head.

Make SURE you have the ring you found equipped though as the tiles in the boss chamber will drain your health otherwise.

[alienjesus]

I'm still playing this one!

Me and my girlfriend made it to the boss of the fire tower, but got our asses kicked. We decided to power up by playing through the earth tower in the mean time, but had a lot of trouble with the map layout - it's really hard to find all the switches to clear the floors in this place!

I beat him first time. He's not difficult if you stick to a pattern. Stay far at the back and strafe left and right to dodge his bullets , if you're the elf then you should be ideal for this. He takes a while. Don't try blasting away at him, just get a single shot in , dodge, shoot, dodge shoot and repeat. After about twenty shots he should die. You can only hit his head.

Make SURE you have the ring you found equipped though as the tiles in the boss chamber will drain your health otherwise.

I suspect this may be harder in 2 player mode because his movements aren't as predictable as he fires at different people and there's less consistency in his pattern.

Any luck on the other temples? Does it get any easier to make money? Those 20000 gold rings seem completely impossible to get right now.