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 quietus [1]. 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 gameplay [2]. The voiceover recordings were created using the Texas Instruments [3] 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 Solution [4].
- ↑ Panic attacks and anxiety episodes were frequent amongst the game's young patrons, with reports of dizziness, chest pains, and stifled breathing common especially in the most bustling of arcades.
- ↑ In a programming quirk, over 40% of the game's voiceover triggers consisted of Questor stating, desperately, "Elf needs food . . . badly" in an annoyingly cloying voice. These triggers sounded regardless of the player's health meter quotient or peripheral actions, contributing to Questor's designation as the "loser slot" on the game's control board (a position reserved for newbies, younger siblings, and mall dorks).
- ↑ A multinational digital technologies company known for its four primary product lines: overpriced high school graphics calculators, infrared weapons technologies, early childhood development Speak & Spell machines, and AI-based speech recognition and generation software.
- ↑ The band failed to find traction due to its offensive moniker and grim lyrics (composed by Fosselius), only releasing one commercial recording: a live EP performed at The Matrix in the year 1966.