c9c-eh@dorothy.Berkeley.EDU (Warner Young (WHY)) (10/11/87)
Okay, here is my second (ever) review, this time of Gauntlet, by Mindscape, Inc. By the way, what does everyone think of my reviews? That is, should I keep doing them, if I happen to get a product pretty early, or should I shut up and use it? Please e-mail me your response. For those of you unfamiliar with Gauntlet in the arcade, it is essentially a hack-n-shoot game, where up to four players can each move his (her) own character around in a maze to find treasure, magic, and kill monsters. The mazes, or levels, are depicted from an overhead view, and are all beautifully done. On each level is an exit, which leads to the next level. A player dies when his health runs out; health can be augmented by food or cider one finds on the way. Similarly, health can be decreased by monsters hitting or firing on a player, or by Death's touch. The prelimiaries over, I'll examine the ST version. First, it's a very well done conversion. I wasn't sure that all the detail of the back- ground and the characters could be conveyed on an ST, but all the essentials are there. All the levels (that I've ever seen in the arcade) are there, plus some I've never seen before (which only tells me how badly I play on a coin-op). The title screen, plus the music, are there, both done reasonably well. The game looks pretty much the same, and plays the same. There are some differences. First, due to the lack of ports, only two players can play simultaneously; as we are lacking in joysticks here, we have not yet tested two-player mode. Also, the scrolling is necessarily less smooth than the arcade's, and the placement of certain things are less precise. Most of the sounds are the same, too, but gone are the ominous warnings (digitized voice), like "Wizard needs food, badly!", or "Shots don't hurt other players. Yet." None of the digitized voices were reproduced. Mostly I don't miss it, although I think the little "Ugh!" when a player dies could have been added. Also, messages are flashed on a little too quickly. Between levels, if you look away for a second, you might miss the notice "Find the hidden potion". That's about it. The documentation was written to cover the C-64, the Atari 8-bits, and the ST versions, so is somewhat vague, especially on the keyboard controls used to select your players; the game itself flashes an instruction screen by, but this, like the messages, is a bit too quick. Aside from that, I guess I should say that it's copy-protected (what game isn't, nowadays?), and that it comes on two disks, a Program disk, and a Data disk. There aren't too many bugs, though occasionally a destructible brick might leave a ghost image behind, instead of clearing away. All in all, a good game. If you liked it in the arcade, it's a must-buy. And if you've never heard of it before, you should at least take a look. Newsflash: Mindscape is apparently also doing a conversion of Paperboy. Watch for it! [sigh!] if only EA would would put out stuff this good... \ / \ / Warner \ /\ / \__ / Young \/ \/ | \___| "Warp 10: it's not just a good idead; it's the LAW!" Disclaimer: I'm not associated with Mindscape, Inc., Atari Games Corp., Hybrid Arts, Inc., or even sanity.
ps2i+@andrew.cmu.edu (Paul Leonard Sonier) (10/12/87)
It is possible to start another player when you already have one playing, and the second player has already died. Just press <insert> and the second player will come back in whatever character he/she was in before. This makes it possible to get to some really far levels, like 55, which I have done once, and don't want to do again! -Paul