Remember the scene from the movie " Throne "Where the hero of Jeff Bridges sets records in the shooter Space Paranoids In the arcade hall? Now the population of slot machines is rapidly reduced even in Tokyo, but the 1980s were their time. Players idle for hours Galaxian , Spy Hunter And, of course, Gauntlet. The latter – a cooperative meat grinder in which the players cleaned the dungeons from the monsters – became cult, and several continuations followed it. The last of them appeared on Steam just the other day.
It's time to understand the epic associated with this series.
1985: the beginning of the beginning
Gauntlet (1985) created Atari Games – One of the two companies formed on the site of abolished in 1984 Atari (The pioneer of the video game market fell victim to the very crisis of the industry). The game immediately attracted visitors with a cooperative for four – at that time it was a rarity.
► enemies in Gauntlet are taken not by intelligence, but by mass. So it was and, it seems, will always be.
IN Gauntlet The classic quartet made their debut: the warrior Thor (the strongest), Valkyrie Tira (in the best armor), the magician mage and the elf questor (the fastest). The levels were Captain Marlin Casino generously scattered at the levels, food, restoring health, and magic potions that allowed the enemies to mow enemies.
Ghosts, demons and sorcerers appeared from obelisks-generators, which were required to eliminate in the first place. In addition, there was nothing in the game. Even the plot. Only a metal -free voice of a speech synthesizer (real high -tech!), who communicated the rules and released annoying comments in the spirit of “Warrior really needs food!".
In addition to the cooperative, Gauntlet attracted random passers -by with ease of development – know yourself, warewell to the joystick and clats on two buttons: Fire and Magic. True, many newcomers, resting his forehead into the legions of monsters, instantly waste all their lives and fled for the next batch of tokens.
► Creator Gauntlet Ed Logg (he is the author of the hit Asteroids and Centipede) spied on the idea of the project in the game Dandy (1983, Atari 800) for four players. She also proposed to clean the dungeons from monsters generated by generators, look for keys and select food from the floor. And there was a level editor!
1986-1987: Gauntlet is going home
The success of the game on arcade machines opened her way to home systems. The most famous version appeared on Nes in 1987. It was supplied with the likeness of the plot (it was required to return a certain sacred sphere abducted by the sorcerer) and limited a hundred levels (the arcade version could continue to infinity while you were alive). The difficulty increased a little – it was allowed to cut only together, and his health was descended by little, if not cutting enemies.
Meanwhile, already in 1986, the regulars Arkad received new entertainment- Gauntlet 2. Secret treasures, false exits from the level, chests with unpleasant contents, as well as an adversary called “it” (it) appeared in it. It was worth touching him, and your hero himself turned into "it". Then I had to either “post” another player, or get out of the maze.
All this helped the franchise not only to keep afloat, but to gain even more popularity.
► Among other things in Gauntlet 2 Secret rooms first appeared where you can get hold of, for example, food and potions.
1988-1993: Sunset of the first era
We have already mentioned that in 1984 Atari broke up into two companies: Atari Games engaged in arcade releases, and Atari Corporation I published games for home platforms. After frantic success Gauntlet The first company also tried to master home systems, but in 1989 its grandiose plans collapsed. Atari Games found hundreds of thousands of cartridges with " Tetris "And then lost Nintendo Rights to his publication. Cartridges remained in warehouses, and the company sharply tightened the belts.
There was enough time for only two continuations. They offered a familiar routine, only everything became more and noticeably prettier schedule. After the release Gauntlet 4 In 1993, unfortunate monsters received a legal respite – at this time the long -suffering Atari Games tried to stay on the market. I resisted, the company took under its wing giant of the arcade industry Midway Games.
► GAUNTLET: The Third Encounter from the ATARI Lynx portable was to be called Time Quests and Treasure Chests, and renamed it from marketing reasons.
1998-2000. Another 100 levels of chaos and magic
At the junction of millennia fans Gauntlet We received two sequels. Gauntlet Legends debuted on arcades in 1998. The graphics became three-dimensional (finally!), each of the heroes learned a special “turbiataca”, rudiments of pumping appeared, and the elf was replaced by a busty arc. But the essence of it has almost not changed: how the archer remained clever and mark, so Gauntlet Legends remained outcredless cooperative chopping.
Gauntlet Dark Legacy (2001) is considered only an addition to Legends , But, in truth, it was significantly modified for new consoles (PS2, Xbox and GameCube), and it was played significantly different. The combat mechanics were completely reviewed in it: instead of a single basic blow, weak and strong attacks appeared, which can be binded in effective combinations, as well as a block, a strip and even paired techniques.
But Gauntlet Remained Gauntlet. When the whole world got acquainted with the first Devil May Cry, Nobody understood Midway attempts to adapt the time, but, as it has already become clear, a murderous monotonous gameplay for modern standards. And when to Gauntlet returned again, the developers had to reconsider their values.
► sometimes in Gauntlet New characters appeared, but only a four of a warrior, a magician, an elf and Valkyrie became “classical”.
► Despite a significant time spread and different platforms, Legends And Dark Legacy They look almost the same.
2005. Rural drama: seven sorrows or one big sadness
IN GaUntlet: Seven Sorrops (2005) For the first time in the history of the series, they decided to wind up a whole plot epic instead of a straightforward search for artifacts from previous parts. It turned out … incompetent. The good old quartet (the elf, by the way, returned) faithfully served the emperor, then fell out of disgrace and went into exile, but then the advisers betrayed the lord, and – well, yes, the heroes were needed again. And let everyone save.
► first for SEVEN SORROWS Given John Romero And Josh Soyer. True, they left the project even before the release, and it seems that because of this we lost many good things. For example, from the game they cut out the tragic and a speaker invented by the classes.
That which was very good with the hands of the previous parts, in SEVEN SORROWS turned into gaping holes. The heroes, despite the obvious external differences, were felt almost the same – everyone had a near -fight and remote attack, knew how to throw the enemy and punch a block. There was almost no sense in new tricks, which opened gradually: the basic set is almost the most valuable that you could learn later. The rest of the games that grew out of the Myasnitsky School Gauntlet (the same Diablo ), compensated for simple combat mechanics with deep pumping and tons of trophies, and in SEVEN SORROWS The growth of parameters and the collection of new weapons seemed to be rudimentary. They did not change anything.
Our days. Veterans again on a bloody clearing
SEVEN SORROWS failed, and Gauntlet tried to return to the basics. For some time, Midway prepared a remake of the original for Nintendo DS , But in the end they forgot about him. And what happened next, you probably already know: the next time the alteration was entrusted to the creators Magicka, And they still brought the work to the end. Almost linear dungeons, the same schematic story, malicious sunbathing comments, keys searching, brainless monsters … But-for once an excellent kinesthetic, which turned cooperative cabin into action, comparable to the addictism comparable to Crimsonland.
► View from above, four heroes, “Warrior really needs food” … Wait, we are again in the eighties?
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It's funny to see the story described the circle and returned to the beginning. All attempts to modernize the series and make it “relevant” were unsuccessful. And now Gauntlet at once she stopped trying to build a serious mine and depicted a parody of herself almost thirty years ago. And suddenly it really benefited her. It turns out that for happiness it was only necessary.