Gauntlet and Gauntlet II play FAQ and strategy guide,
version 1.3 Final

(c) 2001, 2002, 2016 by Falkentyne (Antos).
This FAQ may not be edited, changed, nerfed
or mutiliated, without my permission.
contact info:  [email protected] and [email protected]


Big thanks to Eric Crabill for his insight into how the machine works, and
his FAQ's.
Also a big thanks to him dumping the original Romset onto the net.

Big thanks to Neill Corlett for helping make Gauntlet emulation a reality.

Thank you to the MAME team for improving the sound and adding savestates.
(Neill had this in MGE in beta form also).

Revision history:
1.0: initial release
1.1:  Added some more strategies
     Added basic game description (forgot all the people who might be
introduced
     to the game via the emulators)
     Added more character information
     Added more game bugs
1.2:  Fixed a few typos, tried to clean up the plain text format a bit.
1.3:  Been mentioning in my older years, on steam forums and elsewhere about
the "2 to the 31st power"
score bug.  Funny how when I wrote this FAQ, I had the right math.  I think
the "Max mesos" limit of the old maplestory confused me, which was 2 to the
31st power -1.  I think I was hit on top of the head by too many lobbers or
something.  Somehow I came to the conclusion that 16,384 x 128 was somehow
equal to 2 to the 31st power.  Pardon me.  The magic number is 2097152 (e.g.
2.1 million points), NOT 2147483647 !!!  Seems like I got this right.


There have been some other play FAQ's on the net, but a few are either
impossible to find now, and one of the best ones, that deal with the 'scoring
/ food bug doesn't seem to be available, so I hope this FAQ will suffice.
I've learned much from other FAQ's, and from emails and beta
testing, from people such as Eric Crabill, who helped make Gauntlet emulation
a reality, with his roms and slapstic hack, as well as Neill Corlett.  Eric
also had a nice FAQ available for the game.  So...without further ado....


* * Game Description * *

A dungeon fantasy based coin munching shooter :)
Some people have said this was the spiritual father of the computer RPG-
action game "Diablo".  It involves around 100 different mazes, on levels that
continue on and on, while you have to fight monsters, ghosts, dragons, and
avoid hazards, while grabbing
food to boost your health.

The goal is simply to stay alive as long as possible, and get as far as
possible.

Gauntlet was really innovative for its time; It did many things that no
previous game had done back during its release.  Sure, nowadays other games
have improved on its concept, but you have to remember that this was 1985-86,
folks :)

Gauntlet was one of the first games with full, decent quality speech.  Other
games had it, but the quality wasn't that great.  (Dragon's lair doesn't
count...that was a laser disc game).

I remember speech being added to some golden oldies (Sinistar, Wizard of Wor,
Berzerk), but
it wasn't much to speak of, although at the time it was quite new.
By 1985, many games had speech chips, but they weren’t as memorable as
Gauntlet :)

It was the first game, AFAIK, that allowed up to 4 people to play
cooperatively to clear the levels.  Coop play has long been a mainstay of
arcade games, especially side scrollers/shooters, but 4 people had never been
done before.

It was also one of the later games to keep the famous tradition of not having
an ending. There were many classic games, where people could play for many
hours on a single credit, when they  became good enough....games such as
Defender (and the sequel, Stargate...one of the hardest games known to man),
Pacman series, Asteroids, Space Invaders, Missile Command,
Centipede.....and many others.  If you became good enough (and this was no
tall order), you could play until your endurance gave out :)

And play forever many people did.  In fact, on the original (Proto,
intermediate release 1 and 2) ....if there was a gameroom that was open 24
hours, you could literally build your health up high enough, to leave when
most people went to sleep, leave a note on the game so hopefully
no one would play while you were gone, then come back in the morning :)

Final Revision of Gauntlet, and Gauntlet 2, fixed this, so that even the best
players would die after awhile (usually after about an hour, which affected
99% of the players. There were a FEW....a very few, who even knew a way
around this, as Atari did something pretty stupid, using score checking
(16,384 points per...) to keep track of how much food a player should be
given....if the score (divided by # of coins, divided by # of players) went
higher, less food would appear on a level.  But, we all know that computers
have a limit to what they can keep track of...more on that later.

It was actually possible for any skilled experienced player to find out the
point at which the score gets so high that the game suddenly loses 'track'
and resets the food counter, but doing this with just one credit was almost
impossible...in fact, it was completely impossible to live long enough to do
this solo.   The way this was discovered (just a guess, mind you), was
probably, one person played and built his health up as high as possible, then
others joined in later.

If Atari had used # of levels played (divided by #of coins and divided by #
of players) to keep track of food.....then what is mentioned later would
never work...this will be discussed in detail later.

Gauntlet and gauntlet 2 were definitely among the best games ever made.
Gauntlet 2 was more fun than Gauntlet, as the levels weren’t static (they
would invert and change orientation, even become flipped--only 180 degrees
though), and there were more hazards, more variations on what the monsters
could do, a few new baddies, monsters that moved 'differently', and new
items.


** Character stats **

Thor, the Warrior:  supposedly a great fighter of legend, even rumored to be
a minor diety, who was cast down to Earth and stripped of most of his godlike
powers to be taught humility.   He excels in hand to hand damage ability, and
his powerful weapon.

Shot power: Excellent: (Battle Axe)
Shot speed: slow
Speed: slow
Armor: very good: toughened skin eliminates 20% of damage.
Fight power: Excellent: 2-3 times normal power; hand to hand: Battle Axe: can
kill monster generators (Note: In Gauntlet II, you must play the Green
warrior to get the proper fight power, due to a bug).
Magic power: poor: will damage monsters, and damage no monster generators.

Thyra: the Valkyrie:  A female warrior who supposedly followed Thor to either
watch his progress, or out of rumored love.  She carries a shield, which
gives her excellent Armor, and her sword can deal out some decent hand to
hand damage too.

Shot power: poor: normal power (sword)
Shot speed: moderate
Speed: moderate
Armor: Excellent: Shield eliminates 30% of damage
Fight power: good: hand to hand: Sword does 2 times normal damage, and can
kill generators
Magic power: moderate: can kill most monsters, and kill some monster
generators.


Merlin the Wizard:  A wizard apparently of no ill repute, although it is not
known how nor why he is meddling in the Gauntlet.  The affairs of Wizards are
not meant to be known by mortal men....

Shot power: moderate.  Magic Missile: 1 to 2 times normal power
Shot speed: fast (moderate in Gauntlet 2)
Speed: slow
Armor: bare skin, takes full damage.
Fight power: very poor, bare hands: normal power; hand to hand cannot kill
monster generators.
Magic power: excellent: can kill all monsters and all monster generators.


Questor the Elf:  Elves are a mythical race from a distant land.  No one
knows where he came from or how he became trapped here.  Elves are fleet of
foot, skilled with magic, and can shoot arrows quickly and accurately....

Shot power: poor:  arrows: normal power
Shot speed: fast
Speed: fast
Armor: moderate:  leather armor eliminates 10% of damage
Fight power: poor: dagger does 1 to 2 times normal damage, and cannot kill
monster generators
Magic power: very good: can kill all monsters, and damage all monster
generators.

=========================================================================

Monsters:
*=Gauntlet 2

Most monsters come in 3 levels of power.  The higher level monsters do more
damage.
Ghosts: must be shot...they will consume part of a player's life force upon
immediate contact, making hand to hand fighting impossible.
Damage done to players: 10, 20, 30 points when shot 10 per level
Using magic: 10
Ghosts cannot be fought hand to hand.

Grunts: barbarian warriors who attack with clubs.
Damage done to players: 5, 7, 10
Points: 5 per level
Hand to hand points: 25 per hit
Using magic: 10

Sorcerers: wizards who attack with fists, powerfully augmented by magic, and
who also
Blink in and out.  They cannot be shot when invisible
Damage: 5, 7, 10
Points: 5
Hand to hand points: 25 per hit
Using magic: 10

Demons: supernatural creatures that can breathe miniature fireballs at
players.
At close range, they will attack with their gaping maws.
Hand to hand: 5, 7, 10
Being shot: 10
Points: 5
Hand to hand points: 25 per hit
Using magic: 10


Death:
Only magic hurts death
Death dies after taking up to 200 health.
Damage: 4 health per instant of touch.
Points: 1 (special: this affects magic score points)
Points from using magic: 1000-8000

* Super Sorcerers: Sorcerers who not only can turn invisible at will, but
have teleportation magic, and can shoot magic missiles at players.
Being shot: 15
Valkyrie with extra armor takes less than half damage (7)
Super sorcerers cannot be killed with hand to hand.
Magic stuns super sorcerers.
Super sorcerers die if you use magic while they are stunned.

* Acid puddles: animated pools of acid, that although do not have
intelligence, inflict grievous harm on anyone unfortunate enough to come in
contact with one.
Their attack is so powerful that they stun players temporarily while they
inflict their damage...
Damage: 60
Cannot be shot.
Magic stuns acid puddles.
Using a 2nd potion when an acid puddle is stunned will destroy it.

* Dragon: Ancient beasts that shoot fireballs from a distance, and can attack
with an extremely powerful breath weapon from up close that can incinerate
even the greatest warrior in seconds.
Fireball damage: 10
Flame breath damage: lots
Magic: stun only

Thief:  Denizens of the mazes, these rogues have boots of speed, allowing
them tomove even faster than Elf, and will attempt to steal any bonus powers
the richest player has.   On Gauntlet, he takes extra speed, then extra armor
and shot power. In Gauntlet 2, shot power is his favorite, followed by extra
speed.  If a player has no bonus powers, he will take score, keys, or even
your bonus multiplier.
Damage: 10
Magic does not affect Thief

* Mugger: steals food.  Can be useful for stopping Thief from appearing
Damage: 10

=========================================================================

**Gameplay **

Gameplay revolves around trying to find the exit to the next level, while
grabbing food and goodies, and trying to take as little damage as possible.
Part of the fun factor is trying to complete levels, either gaining or
breaking even in health.  Sure, if you just pumped quarters into the game, to
play all day, it gets boring VERY fast, (and you get poorer for your
efforts), as you are missing much of the challenge.

Gauntlet is easiest with one player.....as with more people, there usually
isn't enough food to go around...even though Final Revision (and G2) gives
extra food for 3 or 4 people.  Two people on the intermediate releases is
possible (without dying), although it usually takes one person to play for
awhile first, grab health and powerups, then when he has sufficient potions
and health, have the 2nd person join.

Gauntlet 2 has some extras, such as secret walls (which yield VERY nice
things when shot, when 3 or 4 people are present), treasure chests (the
chances of receiving food/potions increase with more people), and other
temporary power medallions.

The permanent powerups are:

Shot Power:  Increases shot power by 1 level (intermediate release 1 and 2),
or from level 1 to level 2, but if your base power is already higher than
level 1, it only increases it ½ level (Final revision, and Gauntlet 2)

Fight power: Increases fighting ability by 1 level.

Shot speed: increase shot speed by one level. Warrior's shot speed becomes as
fast as Valkyrie's base speed,
Valkyrie's becomes as fast as Elf's, and Elf and Wizard's become very fast).
Note: Gauntlet 2 has wizard with much slower base shot speed.

Magic Power: Increases magic power by one level.  Gives Warrior abiltiy to
damage all generators and kill all monsters.  Gives Valkyrie the power to
kill all ghosts, and damage monster generators by 2 levels, and ghost
generators by one level, Elf can kill everything, and Wizard can shoot
potions and kill everything (this seems to depend on the rom revision.  In
Gauntlet 2, Wizard with Extra Magic Power can shoot potions and still kill
everything).

Note:  on Intermediate Release 1, Wizard getting extra magic power gives him
an extra bonus potion.

Armor: increases damage reduction by 10%, based on sustaining 10 points of
damage unarmored.  So Wizard will gain 10% armor, Elf 20%, Warrior 30%, and
Valkyrie 40%, but Armor doesn't always work in this manner...as some damage
isn't based on '10'.
Extra armor will ALWAYS reduce damage points by at LEAST 1, regardless of how
much damage the monster does.....for example, Lobbers will only do 2 damage,
even to Wizard with extra armor.

An exception to this is Valkyrie fighting 'level 2' monsters...she loses 5
health, even with extra armor (Warrior and elf both lose 6 health, and Wizard
loses 7). This seems to be a bug in the game, as level 2 monsters are
supposed to do *8* damage, not 7.

Armor has the most effect on force fields.  Valkyrie with Extra armor takes
less than half of the base damage from force fields, while Wizard with extra
armor takes more than double the damage that Valkyrie would take, despite the
40% and 10% normal damage reductions.  Wizard loses 6 health per instant of
being on a force field without extra armor.  Valkyrie loses only 2 health per
tick without extra armor and with extra armor loses just 1 health per tick!
This is a massive difference.

Speed: Increases all character movement speed to that of Elf’s base speed.
If Elf gets this potion, he moves so fast that the game scrolling can't even
keep track of him.  Thief still moves much faster than him, though, and the
Mugger moves slightly faster. (Note: On Gauntlet 1, the Thief moves at the
same speed as Gauntlet 2’s mugger).

Other notes: Thief's speed has been increased in Gauntlet 2, he can come out
an unlimited amount of times on each level, unless you block the starting
square with his treasure bag or another item (or get him stuck), and he can
also dodge your shots (by moving along the same path that you traveled on, so
he won't "sidestep" unless you've done a lot of zigzagging yourself.  Ouch.

To make thief easier to handle, if you hear him come out, move in a straight
line so it’s easier to pick him off--remember, Thief follows your exact path.

Gauntlet final revision, and Gauntlet 2, have different ways of allocating
food. Final Revision is so difficult, it’s literally pointless to play
without dying, unless the game difficulty is set at 0.  If not, will find
that starting out, without dying, is next to impossible.  This is because, if
you are going solo, 1-2 food (usually 2) is taken out on the first 7 levels
for a 1 player game.  Thereafter, level 8 has AT LEAST one food taken out.
This is dependent on the game base difficulty (score 0-16384 + difficulty “0”
= 1 food taken out per level).  And of course, as your score increases in
16,384 point chunks, more food gets removed and the respawn speed is
increased.

More food is given when more people are playing, and the "score check" is
divided by # of people and # of coins (I believe the player's scores are
averaged, then divided by # of coins inserted).  4 players playing on easy
difficulty will give bonus food at random spots.

At game difficulty 4, AT LEAST TWO Food are taken out on level 8+, and from
two to *THREE* are taken out on the first 7 levels (this depends on the
level).  This leaves level 2 and 3 completely empty of food, and 1 food on
level 4.  Levels 5, 6 and 7 usually don't remove as much.

On difficulty 7, three foods are taken out on the first 7 levels.

As you can see, this makes playing Final revision virtually pointless, unless
the difficulty is set very low.  And, if a 2nd player joins, only 1 bonus
food is given which doesn't exactly help ;(

So unless you're playing on difficulty 0 (the game DOES get MUCH harder,
regardless of the difficulty setting in the service menu), don't even bother.
It is a good game on difficulty 0, though, provided but your best chance of
survival, or being able to get enough health to do the 4 player “Food score
bug” is with the Elf.

There *IS* a way to make the first 7 levels MUCH easier.   By using the
intermediate release roms "10a" and "10b", and renaming them to match the
corresponding final release roms (assuming you are using an emulator of
course), you will be given an extra food on each of the first 7 levels
(assuming difficulty is at easiest).  I have not seen any ill effects of
doing this on levels 8+, but even on difficulty 0, at least one food is
always removed.

I would assume you could also burn the eeproms into a real machine.

It isn't the first 7 levels that are much of a concern anyway, as you can
always simply go from 1 to 8, or even 1 to 4, to 8, if the difficulty level
is set low), but the problem is, on the start of the non-fixed levels (8+)
Gauntlet doesn't exactly have balanced level layouts.  Many levels in
Gauntlet are just chock full of level 3 ghosts and monsters, which makes
things very hard if you don't have potions (or a character with good magic
power).  Some levels may have  only 1 or 2 food on them also.  On
Intermediate Release (1 and 2), many of these levels were
Marginal, meaning you could break even if you had the right bonus potions, or
magic, but final revision always removes AT LEAST one food, and that can make
the difference between gaining health (or breaking even), or losing 100
health.  It matters, except when the food that is removed is in an
inaccessible place, or one where it would cost you too much life to get it.
Put it this way: Playing Intermediate Release 2 (in MAME, revisions 1 through
7) on difficulty 7, is often easier than playing final release on "0",
considering that all the food is always given on every level.

As to playing intermediate release 2, the problem is, even though it’s fun,
it’s just too easy.  Even at difficulty 7, it’s still not as fun as final
release is, once you've done the starvation workaround, but remember, Final
revision is only playable (if you do the starvation workaround) on difficulty
“0”.  Remember that the game difficulty scales with points anyway, so in the
end, the difficulty setting affects how much initial food is removed, and the
starting monster respawn speed.

If it had kept the increasing difficulty (faster monster generation) from
Final revision, without removing food on the early levels, it would be MUCH
better.  The wizards at Atari saw this, and changed things around a bit for
Gauntlet 2.


Gauntlet 2 is not only MUCH easier going on the first few levels (no food is
removed early on unless the difficulty is set to "5" or higher, or you're the
wizard—and Valkyrie always gets ALL the food (even on difficulty “7”, until
her score increases), it’s also more fun to play :)
A word about how the food tables were changed here.

Valkyie, who starts off (magic wise and shot power wise) weaker than the
other characters, is ALWAYS given all the food early on, even on difficulty
level 7.  Overall, she gets more food than the other characters.

Elf gets a lot of food also, unless the difficulty is set to 5 or higher, in
which he is usually penalized 1 food/level.  Warrior is penalized more,
slightly more than the Elf, although he gets all the food on difficulty 0,
and Wizard is heavily punished...there is always 1 food gone/level even on
difficulty 0, just like final revision of Gauntlet.

Wizard is nerfed.  Don’t play the wizard if you want to get very far.  Elf is
better than Wizard in every possible way, once they both have all of the
powerups, and due to Elf getting more food and having lower stun times and
longer repulsiveness timers, there’s no reason to choose the wizard.

The ONLY reason to ever play the Wizard is if you hacked the .6a and 6b
attribute roms and un-nerfed Wizard’s and Warrior’s extra shot power powerup,
to match the older revisions of Gauntlet 1.  Then there is actually play
benefits to playing the Warrior with 3x shot power, but with no ability to
shoot through cracks, and Wizard, with 2-3x normal shot power and heavy
discrimination.  Even with the removal of the nerfs to Extra Shot Power
through the ROM edits, Valkyrie is still much better than the Warrior.
Without the rom edits to remove the Extra shot power nerfs, Warrior and
Wizard are useless.

The attribute editor is an old 16 bit windows (made for windows 3.1) file;
you can run it in DOSBOX, using the windows 3.1 preinstalled files (I can’t
help you find them, you’re on your own); I can only give you the advice of
setting the Super VGA driver to SVGA 800x600 in the windows setup, and
experimenting with the correct video driver in DOSBOX.
Try “svga_et4000” In the DOSBOX CONF file (you can use the SVN builds for
easier editing).

The old 16 bit files are available here:
http://www.ionpool.net/arcade/gauntlet/main.html
I’m warning you: do NOT email that person or mention ANYTHING about
emulators.  He will hate you forever.  When I was talking with Eric Crabill
about the 16,384 score difficulty scaling, he told me to ask Todd about if he
could make an edit to disable the scaling; I tried an edited rom but it
didn’t stop the scaling.  Then he asked me if I owned the machine.  When I
said no, he was angry.  Eric told me that he’s just like that.  Neill Corlett
(of the first Multi-Gauntlet emulator), I forgot what he thought of that :)
it was so long ago... (We’re talking like 1997 here).

=========================================================================
** FAQ:

Q: How do I avoid taking so much damage and getting surrounded?

A: Try to not rush through levels. You will need to learn the fine points of
the levels you are playing, and learn how to pick off monster generators one
by one.  Also, be careful which door you open. Technique is a VERY big part
of mastery. If you want to judge your level of technique, try playing
Gauntlet revisions 1 and 2 (NOT final revision, or Gauntlet II), to see if
you can play continuously without dying or inserting more credits. It will
take a lot of time, but the rewards will be worth it.

If you want to try to pick off pesky generators, move until the generator is
off screen, so you can kill any monsters that are around.  Doing this, then
quickly attacking the generator will minimize the # of monsters that are on
the screen.  Although, on some levels, you just have to sit there and shoot
(or use magic).

Q: Is there an easy way to pick off monster generators besides just sitting
there shooting forever (and probably losing tons of health?)

A: Yes, but the way seems counter-intuitive. A VERY important way of killing
monster generators (particularly when they generate FAST), is to chase your
shot 'off' screen, so it hits the monster generator right when it appears.
This is easily done by moving so you are lined up with the generator, but
having it off screen, then shooting. Before your shot disappears (when the
shot leaves the screen, its gone), chase your shot. If you time this
correctly, the monster generator will get hit RIGHT when it appears on screen
again. This is a VERY important technique that can make a huge difference in
being able to gain health on levels, or losing health.  With practice, you
will see just how necessary doing this will be. This is a lifesaver if you do
not have "Extra shot power" and are fighting level 3 ghosts.

It’s important to NOT keep the generator on the screen for any more than a
split second, especially as the game gets more difficult, as monsters will
pour out and your shot will hit them, instead of your target: the generator.

Try this with diagonal shots.  You might find that even when the monsters are
generating nonstop, you will have gaps to get the generators if you shoot it
diagonally, as opposed to a primary direction.  Getting diagonal shots on
generators can give you the opening you need!

Q: I've done everything you say, and I haven't even gotten HIT in Gauntlet
final revision, but I'm still almost dead by level 5!  There's no food at
all, why?  Losing 1 health each second doesn't help....

A: This was a huge design blunder by Atari, but at the time, they were losing
money from people in Japan and many arcades in America, playing on one credit
all day long.  You see, there were about four to five releases of Gauntlet
before the 'final' revision. They were the "Prototype release", which I
actually saw when I was a kid.....boy did that one have a LOT of food! :) And
there were Intermediate releases 1 and 2 and a third (which I believe allowed
stalling for 200 health to turn walls into exits). Those versions had ALL the
'set' food in a level, on all levels, regardless of score or difficulty. So,
once you became good enough (and if you had a good series of levels starting
with level "8"), you simply would not die. And playing solo forever did not
help the game make money, and arcades would lose money just from electricity
to run the machine!  So Atari changed the code for the food and monster
generation for the Final release.  However, they overdid it, BADLY. First, in
order to be able to get any significant food on the first 7 levels in Final
Release, the difficulty must be set on an easy level. Even on difficulty #0,
there is always **ONE** food removed from every level from level 8+ when
going solo, and more food removed from levels 1-7. This gets worse with
scores increasing by 16,384 point blocks (see below), as more food is removed
as the game gets more difficult. If the game was played on default (level 4)
difficulty, there would simply NOT be enough food to survive, even on level
8+. And Gauntlet had some monty haul epic gain health levels, as well as some
hell levels where you could lose 500 health if you didn't have potions or
extra powers, BEFORE final revision.....
None of this would be much of a problem if you didn't lose 1 health each
second...but since you do...

Also, extra shot power powerup levels were reduced 1/2 level increase for
warrior and wizard, but the game always removed a set amount of food,
regardless of who you were playing.  Playing with 2 people gave most of the
food back, and 3 or 4 people gave a lot more *bonus* food. It IS possible to
play without extra credits in the main player, or dying on final release, but
only on a low difficulty and if "level 8" has a good level sequence, but you
needed to get at least 6000 health and do the anti-starvation workaround.

The game still had the starvation routines that were in Gauntlet II: see
below.

Atari saw this mistake with the base game food drops, and realized people
would just get frustrated and not play, if no matter how good they were, they
would just die in 10 minutes, and realized they made Gauntlet TOO hard (as a
veteran player could die by level 6), so they changed a few things for
Gauntlet II.

First, the amount of food that was given in Gauntlet II, and whether you
would get all the 'set' food in a level, depends on the character you are
playing. Valkyrie was given the most food (most chances of all set food
appearing, as well as some "random" food on levels 6+), Elf was in 2nd place.
Warrior received less food, and the game discriminated very heavily against
Wizard. In fact, Valkyrie was the only character who would usually get all
set food, even on difficulty 7, but the food you received was based on your
score, in 16,384 increments (see below).

However, doing some math, in binary, bit "7" is a value of "128" (the places
for bits are 0-7), and 16,384x128=2.1 million. Something VERY interesting
happens at 2.1 million (see below).

Q: I used to be good at Gauntlet (older releases), but final release seems to
starve me after awhile.  Same goes for Gauntlet II: Why?

A: This was Atari's "answer" to solo players going at it forever.   In
Gauntlet Intermediate Release 1 and 2 (and the proto release), all the food
was ALWAYS on every level.  So if you got a good run of levels starting with
level 8, and the important power potions quickly, you were set for the rest
of the game.  Gauntlet Final Revision, and Gauntlet II changed this
drastically.  Basically, as your score increased, the food decreased.
Gauntlet final revision and Gauntlet II had the same formula for this, with
the exception that Gauntlet I ALWAYS removed at least ONE food on EVERY
level, at difficulty 0, and even more on higher difficulties, whereas
Gauntlet II removed 'extra' food, depending on which player you are playing--
-Valkyrie got the most food by far, followed by Elf. Anyway, it was
determined by a few people, like Todd (he ran a Gauntlet hack page), and a
few other expert players (I learned this (the sudden giving of all food at
"about" 2 million points) from an older FAQ, but the 16,384 point ramp, from
Todd), that the game difficulty increases a 'notch', at every 16384 point
increase. This usually means, Thief has a higher chance of appearing,
monsters generate faster, and the
Biggie: food is removed. It’s a somewhat 'random' variance in how much food
is removed (although doesn't vary that much), but let’s say, at higher than
32768 points, you might have one food removed per level (so levels that have
one food, will suddenly have none), and levels that have tons of food will
have one food less (still tons). And at higher than 65536, maybe another food
is removed. This keeps going, until where enough food is removed, that you
can't gain health anymore. Keep in mind that the SCORE the game uses, is the
average SCORE OF THE ALL of the players, DIVIDED by the # of coins. So if you
had 200,000 points (not a lot of food on a level if this is your effective
score), and used 2 coins, your effective score is 100,000.

Ok, so scoring health is bad, so that means that death will come, always,
since you can't stop your score from increasing, right?

Well, most people thought so, however there were some players who, apparently
when they were very bored, wanted to find out what would happen if your score
became VERY high. They might have actually had other players join in, just to
see if the game would always have no food. Whoever did this, is a genius.
Anyway, at 16,384 * 128 (2097152), which is about 2.1 million, apparently
something really strange happens. It seems as if a comparison
"overflows"...whatever is calculating how much food is removed, probably
overflows at bit 7 *128* times your score, and resets here (Atari never
figured someone would get this far on 1 credit !), and suddenly the games
will give you the **MAXIMUM** possible food per level. The monsters STILL
generate at maximum speed though. And at 16,384 * 256 (4.2 million /
4194304), as we all know, 255 is the highest value that can be expressed in 8
bits, so at 256, apparently the memory location resets as if your score were
0. What this means is, the ENTIRE GAME Difficulty just totally resets
here....it’s as if you had just started over (meaning, monsters suddenly
generate VERY slowly, although thief still appears every level). But this
means that you will be hit by starvation again as your score continues to
increase, just like before. :) So once again, food is taken out heavily, by
about 4.4 million points. Now, doing some simple logic tells you that you
will ONCE AGAIN start receiving all the food at 4.2 million + 2.1 million, =
6.3 million. A cycle, right?

Q: But how do I take advantage of this?
A: Following is the big secret to playing forever in Gauntlet 1 (Final
revision: the intermediate revisions don’t apply though) and Gauntlet 2.
VERY FEW people know this.

This is what you need to do:

First, you need to be good enough, to build up your health as high as
possible, with one credit. If this is Gauntlet, any character will do, as
none are discriminated against. If this is Gauntlet II, use Valkyrie or Elf,
depending on your style of play. If you can't seem to get a lot of health,
even when your score is low, you need to improve your technique on the
levels.

The best way to maximize your health on the two games, is to do the
following: 1) Keep the "Use magic on death" score at 1000. The value for
Death changes each time you shoot it. I believe (I could be wrong) the cycle
is: 1000, 2000, 1000, 4000, 2000, 6000, 2000, 8000, and then back to the
beginning. This is the same for both Gauntlet games.

Having death set to 8000 and using magic on them is the fastest way of being
starved to death (you can literally be starved by level *10* if you have two
levels with a lot of "Deaths" running around).

2) Only potion Death if it’s necessary. Sometimes it’s worth it to lose 200
health, instead of jacking up the score by 1000 or more by using a potion.

3) Avoid grabbing unnecessary treasure or keys, and if you open chests, don't
grab treasure bags.  If thief is coming out, try to get him with the trick
mentioned below, so his treasure bag blocks the entrace.  You get 500 points
JUST for shooting thief.

4) If possible, shoot monsters instead of fighting them.

In order to do the following trick, you really should have at least 6000
health, and a LOT of time to spare (disabling speed throttling on emulators,
if your CPU is fast, can decrease the time required by over 400%).
Obviously, on the real arcade machine, you can't put the game into "turbo"
mode.

Anyway, this is what you need to do: (applies for both Gauntlet final, and
Gauntlet II).
1) Build up your health as high as possible; the more the better.
2) Keep playing until you can no longer gain health on levels, when a lot of
starvation hits. This is usually around 150,000 points.  Since Gauntlet 1
removes food right away, you will want to do it sooner than on Gauntlet 2.  I
would set my target around 125,000 points on Gauntlet 1, and 150,000-175,000
on II.

3) Keep playing until you come to a level with a lot of ghost generators.
While ideally, you want there to be many level 3 generators where you can
shoot around (after the walls turn into exits), having more generators is
more important than having higher level, but fewer generators.  Having an
entire level filled with level 1 and some level 2 generators can work better
than a small number of level 3 generators, since you will be hitting things
much more frequently.  Having a lot of level 3 ghost generators is easier on
Gauntlet 1 than Gauntlet 2.  You also need to make sure there are at least
four treasures that you have access to. Then, have the other 3 players join
in.   If you're using an emulator, you will need to define the keys for the
other players). Then, have your character pick up 4 treasures so your bonus
is 8x score (the bonus does NOT affect magic on death). Then stall until all
the walls turn into exits, then find a safe place where you can shoot tons of
30 point ghosts safely. (Another advantage of emulators, you can disable the
speed throttle to REALLY speed things up now).

Note: if the other players exit the level, the monster spawn slows down
greatly so it helps if the health per coin is set to a high value, so they
can remain on the level with you while you score lots of points.

When the other players are about to die down to about 50 health or so), have
them all exit, but you remain on.  Now, do whatever you need to be able to
keep shooting, with your 8x bonus multiplier until your score is 2.1 million.
Place a weight on your joystick button or something to keep the fire button,
key or whatever you use, pressed down. If you have done this correctly, you
should have 2.1 million points with only a cost of around 3000-6000 health.
Make sure you have Extra Shot Power, as your score for shooting is double the
base value.

Remember, a level with a lot of level 1 ghost generators and some level 2’s
are much better than a level with only a few level 3 generators, with them
not all in a big area.  The more ghosts that spawn, the faster this goes.
You can get an entire map with a lot of level 1 ghost generators and nonstop
level 1 ghost spawn and still manage to get 2.1 million points with <4000
health, especially if the health per coin is set high, and the other three
players stay on the map, giving you increased ghost spawn for a much longer
time than the default 750 health would allow.

Finding mega ghost level is probably much easier on Gauntlet 1....as G1 has
tons of levels full of level 3 ghosts :)

-2016 edit: It's far more important to find a level with a LOT of ghosts,
rather than a bunch of rank 3 ghosts.  Rank 1 ghosts work just fine, like on
that one infamous winding level with nothing but ghost generators.

There's another trick to speed this up even more.  If you have health per
coin set to 2000, when you have the other three players join, keep them on
the level (after exits appear) until they are down to 20 health.  This is
because the monster spawn remains almost full speed UNTIL the new characters
exit the level.  If you make them exit the level quickly, the monsters spawn
extremely slow, which winds up costing you much more health.  If you're
playing on an emulator, do yourself a favor and set the starting health
higher.  You don't need this to be default and the "High score" contests on
the internet are invalid if you insert credits in other players anyway, so
the 750 base health isn't needed.

Once you've done this, exit the level and kill off the others. There will not
be any food on the new level, since there were 4 people playing, but pass the
new level, and you should get max food on the following levels (max food - 1,
on Gauntlet final release, and food -1 if playing the Wizard on Gauntlet II
(assuming difficulty=0).

But you're not out of the woods yet. You STILL need to build up your health
more, and you will see that the monsters generate at maximum speed. Keep
minimizing your score increase even now...and try to build up your health to
at LEAST 35,000 by the time you reach 4.2 million (when the game difficulty
totally resets). Again, the more health you have, the better. 40,000 is a
good target but it may be difficult to get this much without perfect play.  I
would try to have no less than 25,000 however.  It’s been tested that if you
simply sat on a level, killing level 3 ghosts with 1x base multiplier, with
rank 2 shot power, so each kill is 40 points, it would cost around 25,000
health to get 2.1 million points just by sitting there doing nothing.  So you
will have a lot more fun power clearing levels during the next starvation
stage, getting all treasures, setting Death potion kills to 8,000 per, and so
on.

If you have less than 30,000 health, and don’t want to do the "4 player
trick" again (which I suggest you don’t do a second time), you will have to
play very well and limit your health loss. Your goal is to be able to survive
by yourself.  Remember on Gauntlet 1, you can limit max health loss on a
level to 200, by just stalling at the beginning of a level until walls turn
to exits, and this is a nice compromise if you are on an absurdly difficult
level on Gauntlet 1 (and there are many of them that are hard enough WITH
food on them).  On Gauntlet II, this takes around 450 health, so it’s not
that ideal to do except on levels where you might lose 1000 health+.

Once you are getting starved a 2nd time, at about 4.3-4.4 million, NOW it’s
time to have fun.  Set the Death (magic) value to 8,000 points, and grab as
MANY treasures as you can. And potion death wherever possible, but don’t burn
all of your potions.  There won’t be any food, so your
ONLY GOAL now is to find the exit quickly, grab as many treasures as you can,
and potion Death (try to get several on one screen to conserve potions). You
might not think that you can increase your score by ANOTHER 2.1 million (your
goal is 4.2 million + 2.1 more = 6.3 million for the next mega food period),
but you will be surprised how fast your score increases now. Try to avoid
taking too much damage, and be careful. You should be able to attain 6.3
million and still have 10,000-15,000 health. If you were really good before,
you might even have 20,000. Once you reach this point, remember to set the
Death points BACK to 1,000, don’t grab treasures, and repeat the cycle. You
should be able to gain health out of each starvation/food phase, and come out
on top if you play your cards right. Oh, and don't let Thief steal your
potions, or it will be VERY hard to gain health when the game gets this
difficult.

Also avoid going in the secret room after your BASE score is over 100,000 (or
2.1 million + 100,000 or 4.2 million + 100,000) as you will become overloaded
with keys—up to 128 extra keys, preventing you from picking up potions.

Q: Is this the big play forever secret, then?
A: Yep...just exploiting the "2.1 million point" bug (you are given all food
again at 2.1 million, up to the difficulty reset at 4.2 mil), and remembering
that the game difficulty resets totally every 16,384 * 256 points (4.2
million), and the cycle begins anew (slow starvation, up to 6.3 million,
where you get all the food again :)

Q:  Why does Gauntlet II seem easier for characters without the power
potions, than Gauntlet 1 final revision?

A:  Gauntlet 1 had some VERY difficult and unbalanced levels past level 8; if
you didn't have the right combination of special powers, and if you didn't
have any potions (or a character with good magic power), you could lose
massive health on some of the levels.
Other levels were Smorgasbord levels, where you could gain almost 1000
health. Unlike Gauntlet II, which was more balanced, the trick to doing well
on Gauntlet (if you were not Elf or Wizard), is having a good sequence of
levels starting with level 8.  The "Default" level 8 (when the eeprom is
cleared (brand new), and the sequel levels are moderate, but not the easiest
levels in the world, so usually its best to carry a player a few levels past,
then die on purpose on a 'decent' level.
Then, that level will become the new level "8".

If you wait a few minutes after dying, and then power off the machine, you
will also get a "hidden" potion on level 8, and the new level (the level you
died on) will still be saved as the new level 8, (but if you power off too
quickly after dying, the "old" level will still be in effect, so be careful).
Same applies for "Level 6" on Gauntlet II.

In the intermediate releases of Gauntlet 1, once you got the right potions
and powers, many of the levels became ridiculously easy, as long as you kept
enough potions stored.

Q:  How do I control which transporter I land at, when several are
equidistant from each other?
A:  This depends on if the transporter is "glowing bright" or returning to a
"dim" state. It’s really hard to explain, but glowing bright will bring you
to the transporter either to the RIGHT of you, or below you, and glowing dim
will bring you to the above, or left transporter.  I think it also matters
which rom revision (of Gauntlet 1) was being used.  Regardless, you are
ALWAYS moved to the closest transporter.  You can control which side you will
land on, by joystick directions.

Q: How do I stop getting owned by the Thief? I lose my extra shot
power/speed, or whatever and then I start losing tons of health on the
difficult levels :(

A: The Gauntlet II Thief is much smarter than he was in part 1. In part 1, he
only comes out once a level, and he never tries to avoid your shots. Thief
always follows the richest player's exact path.
In Gauntlet II, when you shoot the Thief, he tries to retreat (along your
path). Then he comes after you again :)

The best way to deal with him, in a tight spot, is to find a "T" or "L"
intersection, stay close, and just shoot so he runs into your shot.

If he is appearing every level, there is a trick you can do:
The thief never appears if something is "blocking" your starting entry point
square. And when the thief appears (in Gauntlet II only), he hesitates a
moment before chasing you. So what you can do is, wait by the start, and when
the thief appears, quickly shoot him BUT DON'T get the treasure he leaves.
That will block the entrance point and prevent thief from reappearing :)

You can also push a moveable block onto the thief starting square, or push a
block so it is 'covering' the path the thief will follow to you.

Do NOT try waiting for the thief to appear, right next to the starting
location in Gauntlet 1....the thief does not "wait" before chasing you here,
and on higher levels, the Thief can come out *five* seconds after the level
begins!.  Just turn around in your passage and shoot, since he does not dodge
you.

There is another bug you can do in Gauntlet II, involving causing Mugger" to
get stuck (losing his linked list?), since only one mugger/thief can be on a
level at one time. I'll get to that later.

Q: Can I kill acid puddles?
A: Yes. It takes 2 potions quickly. The first stuns them, the 2nd kills them.
The same trick works on Super Sorcerers (IF they have already materialized on
the level.  If they have not begun to shoot you, but you are in range, using
a potion may make them appear, and leave them stunned).

Q: Why were Warrior and Wizard nerfed so bad (extra shot power only increases
½ level) in Final Revision, whereas, in intermediate release 1/2/Proto
release, it increases the shot power one full level, and penalized even more
in Gauntlet II (food removal, stun tiles, repulsiveness time, unlucky chests
and secret walls?).

A: I don't know: ask Atari.  Ed Logg did mention the nerf in his GDC 2012
Gauntlet interview, and the “food starvation” programmed into later revisions
of Gauntlet 1 and 2, but I believe applying the Gauntlet 1 nerfs to Gauntlet
2 was a bad decision.  The entire reason why Wizard and Warrior were
overpowered in the intermediate releases of Gauntlet 1 (the ones with
infinite food drops) is because of the extreme difficulty of the game if you
did not have the powerups.  There were many levels which were filled with all
rank 3 monster generators, and Warrior and Wizard with Extra Shot power were
best suited for waveclearing those difficult levels.  And even without extra
Shot power, Warrior and Wizard could still have a much easier time getting
through them, while Valkyrie and Elf would just get massacred with their poor
shot power.  But as it turned out, since there were only three ranks of
generators anyway, Warrior and Wizard were simply overpowered in comparison
to Elf and Valkyrie (although Elf with all of the bonus potions was just as
good as Wizard, actually).

But in Gauntlet II, the level difficulty was toned down considerably, so that
Valkyrie and Elf could do much better than they could in Gauntlet 1.  To
counterbalance this, Warrior was unable to shoot through cracks at all (some
cracks could be shot through at certain angles and distances, but not as
easily as in Gauntlet 1), and Wizard was given a shot speed nerf and even
more food discrimination.  But these nerfs really didn’t make much sense in
Gauntlet 2 anymore.  For one thing, Elf with all of the extra powerups was
either equal or fully BETTER than Wizard with all of the extra powerups in
EVERY possible way, except one—Wizard shooting a potion, with Extra Magic
Power, would keep full effectiveness.  So there was NO reason at all to play
the Wizard without anything to distinguish him from the Elf, except dying
fast.  And Warrior being unable to shoot through cracks combined with the
extra shot power being 2-3x unreliable kill rates simply made him worse than
Valkyrie in every way, except his axe having a wider hitbox.

But I have a ROM Editor, and was able to give Warrior and Wizard back most of
their old abilities for Extra Shot Power :) Courtesy of the great Eric
Crabill.

Q: Are there any other bugs?
A: In Gauntlet 1, in intermediate release 1, there were several transporter
related bugs, mainly involving DYING right when hitting a transporter (with
another player playing with you), or transporting on top of Thief. Doing one
of these could cause unpredictable things to happen, even a game reset, loss
of scrolling, or the "dead" player dying again when pushed.

It was also possible to get stuck forever when multiple players were playing,
in Intermediate release 1.  This was fixed in IR2, where stalling for 400
health ticks causes all walls to change to exits.

These transporter bugs were fixed in Intermediate release 2, however, with
the thief and mugger "pausing" on entering a level on Gauntlet 2, they seem
to reappear again. Here is what happens.

If a mugger or thief appears, (Gauntlet II only) and you run up to him
QUICKLY so you are touching him, and stand RIGHT NEXT to him right when he
pops up (in the direction that you started moving when you joined that
level), he will attack you, however, since there was NO path to follow to
chase you (you were right next to him), his linked list seems to get lost,
and after you avoid his attack, he will just walk right up to a wall and sit
there (usually). If you go to the other side of the wall and shoot, something
strange might happen:
1) maybe nothing.
2) Mugger might teleport on top of you.
3) Thief might try to "dodge" the shot, then suddenly teleport on top of you.

If they DO teleport on top of you, the game code was NOT created to handle
such an occurrence--it was only built to handle you telefragging them.  Now
the fun begins...

1) The game might make REALLY garbled sounds, and then freeze and reset, as
the 68010 cpu crashes.
2) You will change color, and the monsters will still chase you, but will not
"attack" you (you can still get damaged by ghosts by running into them, but
they will stop at an "invisible" barrier right at your sprite on their own)
3) You might disappear :(
4) Even stranger things might happen.

Sometimes, the mugger will teleport and turn into a pixeled mess, when you
are right next to a wall, and you do the trick to get him stuck (standing
RIGHT next to your starting point on that maze, when he appears, so his
linked list gets lost).

Touching that pixelated mess will either crash the machine, or turn you into
the "red" player, or, as above, cause the monsters to think you are one of
"them", so they don't actually "hit" you unless you move into them.

*please note*:
On the emulator (MAME) versions, the CPU crash bugs don't seem to happen,
probably due to unemulated exception handling preventing these crashes from
occurring, although this is not arcade authentic.  Similar to how the very
old versions of the C64 emulator 'Vice' didn't handle the SYS 42199
(sometimes recoverable by run/stop + Restore) crashes on the real Commodore
64, which seems to work now.

Being able to select your character, regardless of joystick, in Gauntlet 2,
is a bit bugged.  Only the GREEN player is given the extra 'half' bonus for
fighting ability.  In other words, playing Red, Blue, or Yellow warrior only
gives you 2x normal fight power, the same as Valkyrie.  Green warrior has the
proper fight power.  The same goes for Elf: Red, blue or green gives elf the
same fight power as wizard.

Likewise, playing both Valkyrie and Wizard on the green player gives them an
extra half level, so Valkyrie's fight power becomes equal to Warrior, and
Wizard's become equal to Elf's. If only that applied to shot power... :)


Q: How do I kill the dragon?
A: don't just stay there and shoot....you'll take a lot of damage, and don’t
stay too close unless you want massive flame damage :) When you fight the
dragon, notice his head movements. It’s a distinct pattern, right? And it’s
periodic. There are FIVE (or 6) differnt patterns for his head movement,
however they ALL repeat (meaning the dragon's head position starts over) at
the SAME intervals.

What this means is this: You can time your shots periodically (you will need
to get a feel for how often to shoot, and then quickly dodge behind a
corner...you will learn this on your own, but it’s ABOUT every 2 seconds), so
you can hide behind a wall, then quickly aim a shot at the dragon, then run
back again. If you do this properly, you should be able to kill **ALL**
dragons, except one, without getting hit once, by just timing your shots.
There is one dragon on a "spiral door" level that you must stand up to and
fight, as it’s in a very long passageway. Once you learn this, you can
consider yourself a master.

Q: I've entered a secret room, but after I left, I was full of keys...TONS Of
keys...maybe over 50 and I can't pick up treasures!  What do I do?

A: This is one of the most annoying bugs in the game.
When the game difficulty is low (you have a low score), entering a secret
room will usually overburden your inventory with potions. This is a good
thing.

But, when the game difficulty is high (a very high score), usually you are
filled with keys. The game might give you anywhere between 40 to 100 keys
(year 2016 Edit: at about 2.1 million points, it can be 128 keys or more), or
even MORE. This hurts, because you can't pick up potions (but if you walk
over new keys, they simply vanish, as otherwise you would be stuck). The only
way to avoid this is to NOT do the secret trick to reach the secret room.
Which trick? Well, each level has its own trick. Some levels require you to
transport on top of acid puddles, some require you to go on a diet, or to
shoot 2 foods or secret walls, etc. You will get a secret 'hint', if you
shoot a secret wall or kill the Dragon. You can only know what 'trick'
applies to each level, by experience. But, if you know a certain trick
applies for a level, don’t do it. If a level trick is to teleport on an acid
puddle, kill the puddles with 2 potions instead. Occasionally it’s IMPOSSIBLE
to avoid entering the secret room (example: DONT BE FOOLED and you find the
"real" exit), or "GO ON A DIET", when you are in food starvation phase...but
you can cut down on the occurrence significantly :)

Not all levels have a secret trick tied to them, though.  In fact, many do
not.

Here are some more hints to help you along:

Lobbers will shoot you in the direction you are moving, so their balls "hit"
you at the destination. Be careful, as you don't want them shooting your
foods or potions.

In Gauntlet II, you take less damage from demons when shot, rather than hit,
especially as Valkyrie. Try to not let demons shoot your food.

Use transporters to teleport on Death, when you don't want to potion him.

Don't use transportability unless you need it.  If you are using it, remember
that if you are next to the edge of the level, and there is a food or potion
there, you can STILL pick it up by moving DIAGONALLY into it.

Use super shots carefully. Super Shots don’t usually affect Death point total
changes, but if you rapid fire, it might.  Death dies to 9 super shots.

Learn where to use potions, to maximize your health gain (or minimize your
health loss). Try to get as many ghosts/generators as possible.

Sometimes it pays to simply go rambo-style through a level, particularly one
with a lot of food and potions.

Super Sorcerers are annoying, and inflict a lot of damage...they usually will
appear behind you, and they will ALWAYS appear immediately after you walk
into a tile where they just disappeared.  Good dodging and shooting
techniques are necessary to kill them without getting hit.

In Gauntlet 1, it doesn't matter who you play: They are all great. But
Valkyrie has the hardest time.  Without extra powerups, Valkyrie is too weak
to survive very long.  And Warrior's shots will hit something on the other
side of a crack, but won't fit completely through

In Gauntlet II, the best characters are Elf and Valkyrie. Warrior
"apparently" cannot shoot ANYTHING on the other side of a crack now, as well
as his extra shot power only being 2-3x normal (this makes it really
unpredictable since you can't really "charge" shoot level 3 monsters
anymore), and he has LARGE tile stun-times. As well as shorter repulsiveness
times, to boot :(  He CAN shoot the monsters and generators touching the
other side of narrow cracks, but it's REALLY hard to do it now.  You need
both the pixel perfect angle, as well as a certain distance, which can get
frustrating to find.  Usually it’s not worth it as you do lose health every
second.

Note: On Difficulty level "0", Warrior gets all the food once you do the
16384x128 bug.

Wizard gets even less food than Warrior does, and also have short
repulsiveness and large stun times. And the monsters generate much faster
when warrior and wizard are playing :( (Gauntlet II only).

There is no discrimination against Warrior and Wizard in Gauntlet 1 revision
9 and Final Rev. Only the global food removal, and extra shot power nerf only
increases power by a half level.

Elf, with all the special powers, is every bit as powerful magic wise, as the
wizard with all the powers, but fights better, has better armor, and speed,
so wizard is completely useless now :( If he still kept his 2-3x extra shot
power, from Intermediate Releases 1 and 2, there might be SOME point to
playing him, but without using the hacked ROMS, it’s useless.

Play Gauntlet Final Revision, only on difficulty 0, if you want to be able to
survive to get enough health for the "food starvation bypass trick".  But
remember, unlike Gauntlet II, success in Gauntlet 1 relies HEAVILY on a good,
easy sequence of levels starting with level 8, so you can get enough special
power potions quickly.  If you have a bad run of levels (levels with low
food, or high damage) starting on level 8, forget trying to survive very
long....you should find a 'good' level and die there, to make that the new
level "8" :).

If you're using an emulator, it may be necessary to wait 3 or 4 minutes
before exiting the emu, to make sure the NVRAM for the new level 8 is written
properly. It may also involve starting a few new suicide games, so you can
run directly to 8, then die again, to make sure the change sticks.  Or you
can turn off throttling.

Edit 2016: The Gauntlet wizard/warrior nerfs made sense, but they are absurd
in Gauntlet 2 as with the extra shot power nerfs, Valkyrie with all powerups
becomes better than Warrior in every possible way (in testing 2-3x shot power
in Gauntlet 1 final revision, this is hardly anything but a tiny
convenience), and Elf is 100% better than Wizard in every single stat.   The
only redeeming features of Wizard in the old Gauntlet revisions was 2-3x shot
power separated his waveclear ability from Elf's 2x extra shot power, and
they both had very fast shot speed.

This nerf made no sense in Gauntlet 2, due to extra discrimination on Thor
and Merlin. If you really want to play them solo in Gauntlet 2, use Eric
Crabill's attribute editor and give Warrior his 3x extra shot power back and
Wizard his 2-3x extra shot power.  Shot speed is nerfed in
Gauntlet 2 and can't be changed by the beta editor, and even with shot power
unnerfed, vVlkyrie and Elf are still much better, but at least the Big Two
are playable.

Please note: Eric Crabill's editor was made for windows 3.1/95; it will run
in windows 98/XP but NOT in windows 7-10+.  To use it install DOSBOX 0.74 SVN
and look on google for the preinstalled windows 3.1 files that you can just
run.  Setup windows 3.1, install the SVGA driver or edit DOSBOX for ET4000 or
whatever works with the 256 color driver, then rename the MAME gauntlet 2
6a/6b  roms to their old names "Gaunt2.6a and gaunt2.6b" (from memory) and
then edit them and rename them back to the current MAME names.

Enjoy.

2016 edit: Official High score/level rankings.

To get high score ranks on 1 credit (you won't be able to reach the anti-food
starvation point of 2097152, however without inserting credits in the other
players for the 8x multiplier, which isn't allowed) do NOT collect any
avoidable treasures or bags.  Avoid killing any Death creatures unless
mandatory.  Do not collect treasure in treasure rooms.  Keep your score
increase as slow as possible to limit the difficulty scaling and build your
health up as high as possible.  Save up as many potions as necessary.  At
default difficulty of 4, you should be able to get around 10,000 health
before food starvation becomes unmanageable.  Then set the Death score to
8,000 and do the opposite of everything, maximizing your score while
minimizing your health loss.

Note: If you are able to get over 20,000 health, it's possible to reach the
end of food starvation at 2097152 points if Death is set to 8,000 points, but
this is usually impossible to do on the first starvation loop.

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