MobyGames entry says it all about one of the most celebrated arcade games of all time:
Gauntlet, the original arcade smash hit, is fighting game where you choose a character a let rip into the hordes of enemies that assault you on you way to the end of the level. It featured a choice of four characters to play with, each with different weapons. Thor the Warrior, with his bludgeoning battle axe. Thyra the Valkyrie, with her close range sword. Questor the Elf, with his long range bow. And Merlin the Wizard with his magical bolts.
You (and another player) must make your way through 100 levels of mayhem and magic. Ghosts, goblins and even the life draining Death are your enemies. They stream out of generators. Destroy the generators first before tackling the rest. Find keys to help you progress to the exit. Battle your way past ghosts, ghouls and a wide variety of evil monsters using magic and potions, as you desperately try to escape before your health runs out.
Look for scattered magic potions. These act like smart bombs and clear the screen of all enemies. Beware of poison though. Treasure is abundant throughout the levels and adds to your score. [This download] is a faithful conversion of the classic multi-player arcade hit. Both graphics and sound here are delightful and once you get into this game, many, many hours can be lost!
Definitely one of the best multiplayer games ever made, and a great action/RPG combination that is a must-have for ever arcade fan's collection. Highly recommended!
Review By HOTUD
English 
Chinese 
Comments and reviews
Why are there games under c64 that are actually dos?
'The Warrior shot the food'... U wot m8!?
first game which gave me a virus.
it was that text character dropper from
the top of the screen
would not go away
so i had to format c: and reinstall dos
and all my stuff
never touched it since
Meh, I don't see the attraction, it's just an endless array of monsters coming at you from all directions. I never got into it when it came out and I still don't get what all the hoopla is all about LMAO
"rpg elements" should be added to "theme" section.
Played this to death with friends (and solo). 512 dungeons, saw them all! In two player you can resurrect so long as the other player is alive.
I played the game in the 80s
Me too. It was a top down pixelated arcade game for at least two player. There as an archer dude that was blue, he had many hundreds of ammunition. You could dig through the "ground " tiles and the screen was scrolling as you walked through. It's not any of the Gauntlet versions and Amiga folks I've talked to don't know it.
I remember playing this on the Amstrad, I remember that if you held down all keys on the keyboard as it was booting up - you would get a different coloured screen at the start - cant remember what that did - maybe more lives.
Lastly if you could never find the exit - just wait - all the walls turn into exits. Possible to skip through the game doing this.
I had to put a fan on my 1541 disk drive to keep it from overheating while binge playing Gauntlet!
the c64 version was far better. Trust me
To respond to a comment from years ago, a game similar to Gauntlet but with darker tones might be Mageslayer, or possibly Alien Breed if it wasn't necessarily a fantasy game.
Go to "DOSBox 0.74 Options" or "dosbox.config", then find the expression "machine=svga_s3" and replace by "machine=ega".
Starting the game with dosbox works fine, but after picking a character the screen goes black and does nothing anymore. Like it's failing to load the levels etc.
Anyone got this to work?
All together now:
"DON'T SHOOT FOOD!!"
Dudes.. i've played a game similiar to Gauntlet, but I cant find... it had darker tones
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.