Gauntlet

Players—up to four at a time in the arcade version—choose from four playable fantasy characters: Thor, the warrior; Merlin, the wizard; Thyra, the Valkyrie; or Questor, the elf. Each character has their own unique strengths and weaknesses. For example, the Warrior is strongest in close combat, the Wizard has the most powerful magic, the Valkyrie has the best armor, and the Elf is the fastest. After selecting a playable character, the gameplay takes place in a series of mazes viewed from a bird’s-eye view (third-person perspective), where the goal is to find and touch the designated exit in each level. In each level, there are various special items to find that increase the character’s health, unlock doors, earn more points, or contain magic potions that can destroy all enemies on the screen. The enemies are a colorful mix of fantasy monsters, including ghosts, minions, demons, lobbers, wizards, and thieves. Each of them enters the level through specific generators that can be destroyed. Although there are no final bosses in the game, the most dangerous enemy is “Death,” which can not only reduce a character’s health but is also difficult to defeat. As the game progresses, increasingly advanced skills are required to reach the exit, and success often depends on the players’ willingness to cooperate by sharing food and luring monsters to locations where they can be more easily fought and killed. While contact with enemies reduces a player’s health, it also slowly depletes on its own, creating a time limit. If a character’s health drops to zero, that character dies. The character can be revived on the spot with full health by spending a game credit (i.e., inserting a coin) within a short time window after their death. This allows even the most inexperienced players to continue playing indefinitely, provided they are willing to keep inserting coins.