I only remember a couple - The Main Event (an excellent tag team wrestling game with a number of fictitious characters), Rampage (a beat ‘em up game where players would control one of three monsters and rampage through cities destroying buildings, eating people, and fighting of the armed forces), and Gauntlet (the first dungeon crawl game & could also be characterized as a run and gun; players had a choice between an elf, wizard, warrior, or Valkyrie).

Each of these games were designed to be played by at least 1 player, but were the most fun when played with 3 (Rampage) or 4 (The Main Event and Gauntlet). This turned the store into a community meeting place for the neighborhood kids - a place where kids could play games, eat candy, and drink soda, so basically it was an arcade with an incredibly small amount of choice between games.

Gauntlet (Atari 1985) is, in terms of my personal history, the first arcade game that I would say I was addicted to. The cabinet itself demanded respect - it was larger than regular cabinets simply because it housed 4 joysticks instead of 2 allowing for co-operational play between 4 players at once. The point of view is top-down, which was later mimicked by games like The Legend of Zelda and Grand Theft Auto 1 & 2. The game takes place in a dungeon that is being taken over by a multitude of different enemies (ghosts, goblins, ogres, etc.) which must be killed or avoided by one, two, three or all four of the games protagonists. The game’s main objective is essentially the same as many other games in this genre: to restore the order and rid the castle of the enemies.

Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin in Remediation discuss the status quo as objective, “Players are ultimately the security guards whose task is to shoot (or kill) anything that appears threatening because the ultimate threat is that the enemy will destroy the equilibrium of the system and eventually halt the game by killing the player. In essence, the player is constantly asked to defend or reestablish the status quo,” (93). Restoration of order has been a fundamental objective in a number of games both before and after Gauntlet. What made Gauntlet most interesting to me was the cooperative nature of the objective and the need for four completely different characters to work together. A warrior, an elf, a wizard, & a Valkyrie - each with strengths and weaknesses, the warrior was powerful so he could take damage at a slower pace, the elf was quick, the wizard was good with magic, and the Valkyrie was decent in all categories.

Kids would line up to play Gauntlet and, unlike many previous games, players could be killed and another person could reenter the game world simply by paying another quarter. In a given game, ten to fifteen (or more) different people might play, which is communal play much different than that of the games like World of Warcraft. Four person cooperative play for arcade games was a response to the burgeoning console market at that time. Both Atari and Nintendo had introduced two player cooperative play by this time, so it was possible to play games with friends at home. Additionally, the experience of the arcade was different from the console because arcade games had a much better graphical capability due to the technology at the time.

As previously mentioned, Gauntlet was the first dungeon crawl game. The structure the game takes is more or less a maze with enemies and power-ups strewn about the levels as necessary. The concept is quite simple and object of the game is easily discerned by watching the game being played. This coupled with the control scheme made for an addictive experience. Gauntlet had its controls set up in the following fashion: a joystick, a fire button, & a magic button. The magic button could be used once a player had potion in his possession. The potion would clear the visible area of enemies for a moment and grant a momentary reprieve from the constant fighting. The kinetic pace maintained by both the players and their antagonists is addictive in its nature. There is a distinct interest in ridding the castle of the monsters and making an escape from each level and eventually the castle.

The screen is cut into two pieces: one is about seventy-five percent and the other is around twenty-five percent. The smaller piece is the scoreboard and is broken down into four sections (one for each character). As an arcade game, Gauntlet had to keep score in order to keep player's interest. Next to the score, there is a health score that should never reach zero. Should the health meter reach zero, the player's game is over. However, Gauntlet allows players to buy health – there is another section below the scores that reminds players “1 coin = 700 Health” so players are always aware that the game does not have to end as long as they have quarters in their pocket. Moreover, this lends the game a greater sense of urgency, especially when the music changes tone when a player's health is low. The change is musical tone is a reminder to the player and to everyone he is playing with to put another quarter in or risk letting the group down. Gauntlet's structure required players to input multiple quarters – there were always more monsters to kill, more floors to explore, and higher scores to obtain.

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