Gauntlet [Atari, 1985]

Pioneering hack-and-slash arcade video game released by Atari in 1985. Gauntlet was a fixture in 1980's Mall Culture and is widely recognized for revolutionizing the monetization of arcade platforms and shattering previous metrics for per-hour income. Gauntlet showcased the simultaneous gameplay of four characters - the warrior Thor, the wizard Merlin, the valkyrie Thyra, and the much maligned elf Questor - in a "bullet hell" atmosphere of cascading attacks and countless enemies. Notorious for being the first commercially released "quarter muncher," the game's mechanics incorporated a health meter that depleted over time, requiring a constant stream of coins to avoid quietus1. Gauntlet featured no final bosses or cut scenes of any kind - the game's most dangerous enemy was Death, an invulnerable red-eyed, black-cloaked figure with metallic hands that appeared intermittently to further drain the player's energy. Also innovative was the game's use of voiceover: characters bantered constantly and chaotically, in ways seemingly disjointed from gameplay2. The voiceover recordings were created using the Texas Instruments3 TMS5220C speech narrator, a new product at the time, and voiced by Ernie Fosselius, lead guitarist of the controversial Bay Area band Earth Mother and the Final Solution4.