GC9X Summer of Love: Gauntlet II Challenge

[Snarboo]

If anyone is interested in a game of Get Medieval, we can definitely set one up, or post instructions on how to. We have yet to try LAN play through Hamachi, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. And given the troubles the Gauntlet games have been giving us, I'd say it's good enough.

[Feynman]

Jun 9, 2012 18:30:31 GMT -5 Bobinator said:

You could PM NamelessFragger, he's got a version hanging around that'll work on 64-bit Windows.

Thanks for mentioning this... I figured that if the game itself runs in 64-bit OSes, that the problem was probably just the game installer itself being incompatible. It turns out that Get Medieval is the kind of game where you can just copy the necessary data files directly from the CD to your hard drive, so I have the game running now. Huzzah!

[xerxes]

Jun 9, 2012 7:00:21 GMT -5 kutan said:

I've been playing single-credit games, and I've only been able to get up to the 6th level. Amusingly, I never even considered attempting the door in the first level, so thanks for that, xerxes. (Actually, I think I tried once, and got mauled by a million zillion ghosts. And got game over. On the first stage.)

That's kind of the problem, isn't it? The game doesn't really have credits. It just has HP. I've been playing through by starting with a dollar's worth of HP.

Oh, and another problem. The coin-op Gauntlet II ... DOES NOT END! At a certain point it just cycles back to earlier stages. I checked up on this, and it really is endless.

Once I figure out the scoring stuff, I'll have a better idea what our goal is gonna be.

[Snarboo]

Seems Get Medieval refuses to be played in multiplayer too. :/ All attempts with Hamachi failed, the game simply doesn't see multiplayer servers at all.

I have no idea what it is about this subgenre of games that makes them so difficult to play online, whether it be desynchs, crashes, delisting, or just outright refusing to run.

[kal]

At this rate we are literally going to end up playing Magicka for the online portion as it is the only one that ACTUALLY WORKS :V and even that was a stretch for awhile after release.

Did we try any of the NES versions?

[Snarboo]

Jun 10, 2012 3:12:19 GMT -5 kal said:

Did we try any of the NES versions?

Bobinator and I tried Gauntlet II (NES) in MAMEHub. It seemed to work well at first until it crashed about five minutes in. We can always give it another go, but we might run into the same problem we had with Gauntlet 4 on the Genesis: it doesn't support multitap.

Edit: Minor correction.

[kutan]

It seems really weird that MAME would selectively fail at Gauntlet II netplay. I used to play 4-player MAME games for hours at a time (the D&D Capcom games, if you're wondering) and never had any issues. I was using Kaillera back then (Mame32++), and I recently tried Kaillera for some extended NES netplay, and it worked just fine. No VPN nonsense or anything.

As for Gauntlet II: still playing 1 credit, still playng valk. Holy hell, why is level 6 so brutal? It's an absolute roadblock for me. Getting there is easy enough-- keep the potion from level 4, nuke the ghosts and grunts on level 5, and you're there in pretty good shape. But level 6 is just tons of twisty corridors flooded with monsters, and the spawners are positioned in such a fashion (usually around corners) that you can't shoot them. The monsters fill up the corridors, and spawn faster than they can be shot down. It's ridiculous. I suspect this is the "get a friend to join in as a warrior" level, because I can't figure out any way to clear it. I've even popped in another credit after death to play the level with 750 health, and I still get crushed almost immediately.

I still have a few ideas on where to go from here:
1) Be really clever with the rebound shot on level 5, and finish it without using your potion. I've experimented with this, and have not been successful.
2) Start looking for breakable walls with goodies (or exits). More potions would be a godsend.
3) Figure out the bonus room criteria for levels 1-5. I've seen some bonus room hints, but haven't written them down (shame on me!)
4) Give up completely and go to the alternate (invisible wall) stage 6, accessible from stage 1.

And yeah, xerxes, Gauntlet II loops. Finishing one loop would be considered a "clear", I reckon. The game's supposed to scale and get more difficult based on your score, so in theory, loop 2 should be harder than the first... bit it's easy enough to subvert that by just deliberately not getting points. (Since I started gimping my score, the game did get noticeably easier-- at one point, I had 950 health on level 4.)

Edit: Well, if you kill any of the deaths on level 5, you get sent to invisible wall level 6. Does that count as a "secret room"? I dunno! I'm guessing it is, since it's got an upgrade potion in it.

As for why you would NOT want to jump to level 6... you can get a ton of keys by stalling on level 4, then grabbing all 5 keys from the exit alcoves when they open. Not sure how useful that is in the long run.

[xerxes]

Yeah, food seems to get more scarce as your points go up. I'm still kinda torn about taking the first warp. The keys I'm not toooo concerned about, but there's a lot of foodstuffs to grab in those easier early levels.

I've settled on playing as the Elf, btw. Warrior and Wizard are just not useful at all.

[kutan]

Jun 11, 2012 11:25:12 GMT -5 kutan said:

if you kill any of the deaths on level 5, you get sent to invisible wall level 6.

This is completely wrong.
There's some Bubble Bobble voodoo at work here. In normal, clean-slate plays, I've seen a bunch of maps show up at level 6 now. Can't figure out how to trigger any of them.
However, if you die, start a new game, and then make it to stage 6, stage 6 will be the map you died on. IE, if you make it to "Stage 8" and die, and "Stage 8" is a hedge maze, stage 6 will be that same hedge maze on your next run.

I think stages 1-5 are always the same because they're more or less tutorial levels. When you finish those, then the random shit kicks in. I guess the warp is there if you want to jump right into the action.

I'm not sure how much Gauntlet II relies on previous games for decision-making, but it seems like quite a lot. Example: die while poisoned, then start a new game. You'll begin the game poisoned.

[xerxes]

Yeah, the randomized levels makes it especially hard to "prepare" for a set game. It makes more sense to practice techniques for avoiding damage.

BTW, here's how the live challenge is gonna go down, for those who can make it. We'll be meeting up at Barcade in Jersey City (date TBA). A group of four will start, each putting in one dollar (3000 HP). Once a player dies, the next person can jump in with their dollar and give it a shot. Once all present have blown their dollar, the challenge is over. Unless we want to give it another shot, under the same rules.

There is no other goal, other than to drink good beer and hate on Gauntlet II. But obviously, we'll get a lot further into the game the more people we have. So please let us know if you're interested and can make it. We'll schedule it in such a way as to include the most people.

(To HG101 and GC9X fans in other parts of the world, we still love you. If you can organize your own live Gauntlet II challenge somewhere else, we'll include your thoughts in the podcast.)

[xerxes]

So far we have...

Me
discoalucard
Arkanoid
vysethebold

C'mon, there's got to be a few more of us in the NYC area. I mean, at this point, your chances of winning the Frank Thomas Big Hurt Raffle are EXCELLENT.

[xerxes]

Thanks to Kurt and Vyse for keeping it real last Friday. In related news, I found this GDC post-mortem with Ed Logg. Mostly about the original Gauntlet. Fascinating.

[Discoalucard]

Here is a picture of the machine, along with the meat and cheese platter to go along with it:

[kal]

That's a pretty AMAZING IMAGE right there.

[sprite]

I've spent a good amount of time with this game. Ask me anything!

Gauntlet really puts a premium on precision movement to manipulate the enemy in a favorable fashion, as well as experimentation to find out the best ways to deal with sections. Its a strange combination, and doesn't really make for a good spectator experience, but I've found myself being drawn in again lately. I can't make it very far either, but Gauntlet is definitely something you can improve at.

It's also a type of gameplay that continually yields new ways to do well. I recently learned of a way to deal with the "ghost hallway" of level 4 in Gauntlet I, which has been a constant source of frustration for all players of the game, pro and newbie alike. I should probably upload a video of it sometime.

One neat thing about Gauntlet II are the secret rooms. To this day, no one really knows how to do any of the tricks (at least not for the arcade version). There is a lot of speculation on the internet (such as the Kathy Lew FAQ), but no concrete information is available. Its one of gaming's best kept secrets, even if that's only because of a lack of interest (I'm sure hackers could figure it out the exact mechanics fairly quickly).

It's pretty hard to gain enough health to make it far on one credit, but the world record is currently a whopping 10,000 health, achieved by a player named 'TER'. He scored 1.8 million points, which is just 0.3 million short of resetting the difficulty of the game, which would allow infinite play on a single credit.

Maybe its time for me to sit on my hands