59 - Gauntlet II (Arcade)

"Red wizard is IT"

One of the most enduring arcade games, Gauntlet is really as straightforward as they come but it's still incredibly good fun. My first experience of it was the Spectrum conversion of the first game, and I remember playing it right through the levels on the tape - and it just hanging on the loading screen as the tape came to a stop at the end of side two!

Later on I got Gauntlet II on the Atari ST, and many, many hours were spent in two-player mode with a friend. We'd jump onto a Gauntlet arcade machine wherever we spotted one and happily divest ourselves of change. Between the two games there's not much to choose, but the extra bits added to the second edge it out in my favourites. Looking back it's a real coin-gobbler, as I suppose all old arcade games were - there's not much in the way of strategic play. It remains superb fun in multiplayer though, and credits on MAME come rather cheaper...

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