Gauntlet

Gauntlet is a 1985 arcade game by Atari Games. It runs on its own dedicated hardware (a Motorola 68000 running at 7.15909 MHz and a Motorola M6809 running at 1.789772 MHz), and it brought the theme and dungeon-crawling action of pen-and-paper role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons to the arcade environment. A party of between one and four (or two, on the two-player-only cabinet) players fight their way through endless dungeons, both cooperating to kill enemies and competing to collect gold and upgrades. The game also employed the voice of an unseen narrator who alternately helps the players by giving tips or mocks them when they destroy food, are nearing death or begin a difficult level. The four-player action meant the cabinet was wider than standard uprights, giving it an imposing presence in the arcades at the time it was new. This addictive formula of simple gameplay and non-stop action made the game an instant hit (both in the United States and in other countries).

Just like an RPG, players can choose from four characters, who are assigned to the coinslots on the four-player cabinet, but selectable on the two-player one: Thor the Warrior (Player 1, red), Thyra the Valkyrie (Player 2, blue), Merlin the Wizard (Player 3, yellow), and Questor the Elf (Player 4, green). Each has their own unique visual appearance, and various strengths and weaknesses (for example, Merlin excels at magic on account of being a Wizard, while his hand-to-hand attacks are weak). The game was also one of the first ones to allow arcade-goers control over their progression through the levels (however, progress is still inevitably linear, on account of previous levels cannot be revisited).

This game's huge success in the arcades led to a large number of home conversions, an expansion disk (Gauntlet: The Deeper Dungeons), as well as seven sequels that continued until 2005, bringing the series' classic elements to a newer generation of players. The Nintendo Entertainment System's version later came full circle by appearing in arcades on Nintendo PlayChoice-10 hardware in 1986.