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Gauntlet by Donald R. Lebeau 1984


highendsystems

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Does anyone else remember this game. I got it as a freeware program

from Atari headquarters back in the day.

 

Just a really fun game, you fly a saucer from screen to screen and

launch 2-3 seeker missiles.

 

Supposedly if you sent in $35 you could get the registered version

which he said played different than the demo. Does anyone have

a dump of this? Or even the 5 1/4" registered floppy version?

 

Does anyone know if Donald cruses these forums?

 

I would love to get ahold of the registered version even if he still

wanted $35.

 

A really cool weapon would be 'seeker Tridents', now that would be

bad as$!!!!

 

 

Thanks!

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Yes, I remember that game. I played it way back in the day, and a few years ago at Dr. Clu's place...

 

I believe Dr. Clu, one of the disks I gave you had the registered version of Gauntlet on them. Still have these disks?

 

http://atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?MENU...VERSION_ID=2170

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That's one ugly page... Need to upload better screenshots :ponder:

 

I believe Dr. Clu, one of the disks I gave you had the registered version of Gauntlet on them. Still have these disks?

Guys, please, PLEASE, PLEASE check the various websites and archive any rare stuff that you don't find on the Internet. This is the sort of program that is IMPOSSIBLE to find nowadays and REALLY needs to be preserved.

 

--

Atari Frog

http://www.atarimania.com

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That's one ugly page... Need to upload better screenshots :ponder:

 

I believe Dr. Clu, one of the disks I gave you had the registered version of Gauntlet on them. Still have these disks?

Guys, please, PLEASE, PLEASE check the various websites and archive any rare stuff that you don't find on the Internet. This is the sort of program that is IMPOSSIBLE to find nowadays and REALLY needs to be preserved.

 

 

I know I have it somewhere!!! When I get everything unpacked I will find it.

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  • 4 weeks later...
That's one ugly page... Need to upload better screenshots :ponder:

 

I believe Dr. Clu, one of the disks I gave you had the registered version of Gauntlet on them. Still have these disks?

Guys, please, PLEASE, PLEASE check the various websites and archive any rare stuff that you don't find on the Internet. This is the sort of program that is IMPOSSIBLE to find nowadays and REALLY needs to be preserved.

 

 

I know I have it somewhere!!! When I get everything unpacked I will find it.

 

 

Has anyone found it? Was wondering if I could get a copy on a 5.25" floppy for the original Atari Hardware?

I'll pay for shipping/handling and floppy ofcouse, or would someone be interested in selling the original?

 

thanks!

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That's one ugly page... Need to upload better screenshots :ponder:

 

I believe Dr. Clu, one of the disks I gave you had the registered version of Gauntlet on them. Still have these disks?

Guys, please, PLEASE, PLEASE check the various websites and archive any rare stuff that you don't find on the Internet. This is the sort of program that is IMPOSSIBLE to find nowadays and REALLY needs to be preserved.

 

 

I know I have it somewhere!!! When I get everything unpacked I will find it.

 

 

Has anyone found it? Was wondering if I could get a copy on a 5.25" floppy for the original Atari Hardware?

I'll pay for shipping/handling and floppy ofcouse, or would someone be interested in selling the original?

 

thanks!

You can find an ATR here:

 

http://vjetnam.hopto.org/index.php?frame=l...ir=g&page=0

 

Go to the 2nd page, the first occurence of Gauntlet is the one.

 

Homepage is of course

 

http://vjetnam.hopto.org

 

- Steve Sheppard

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  • 4 months later...
  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Hi everybody!

 

My daughter just sent me a link to this thread. She was born the same year I wrote Gauntlet. Weird.

 

What a blast from the past! It's pretty neat that there's still some interest in it after all this time.

 

The "registered version" had a number of improvements over the shareware version. There were more levels, most of which were underground, new weapons like mirvs with seekinng warheads, and a bunch of new ememies that were bigger and/or smarter. Some of the new ships would launch smaller ones and they would coordinate their attacks and stuff. There could also be twice as many objects on the screen at a time so the end levels were pretty intense. It also came with a printed manual.

 

The "registered version" was renamed "Gauntletak" because right after I released the shareware version Atari came out with the Gauntlet Arcade game. I had a copyrited the name Gauntlet, but after a pretty funny conversation with a lawyer about my chances about winning a lawsuit against Atari, I decided that changing the name was easier.

 

I sold about fifty of the registered versions. Any of them that are still out there would be labeled "Gauntletak" on the disk.

 

Sometime in '88 I was approached by an independent publisher who was interested in selling some of the old 8-bit games. I made a new master disk from the registered version and he sold them as "Gauntletak". I know he sold a few copies because I got a commission check from him about six months later for about five bucks. That was the last I heard of him. It might be another source of the game if anyone wants to track it down.

 

I don't have any of the Gauntlet software anymore. Got rid of the last of it in '98 when I found out that none of my floppies were readable. They had been stored in an attic for a few years and I guess the heat did them in. It was pretty emotional getting rid of something that I had worked on for about four years. Kind of weird how software can just disappear.

 

I'm actually pretty excited to see that it's still available online. Thanks for posting the links! It'll be great to see it again after twenty years!

 

I still have the original printed manual and probably the contact information for the independent publisher. I've just moved and most of my stuff is currently in storage, but if I find any more information I'll post it here.

 

In case anyone's interested, here's some history:

 

Gauntlet actually started out as a lunar lander program in BASIC from Antic magazine. I typed it in and then started messing around with it. Made it so you could take off again and then you had to land on different pads. Added a second lander so you could play with a friend. Started thinking "Now if only I could make them shoot at each other", but at that point I was pushing the limitations of the BASIC language. So I decided to rewrite it in assembly language.

 

About that time I read an article by Chris Crawford saying that it was impossible to write a bitmapped game for the Atari. I took that as a challenge and found out that he was right - IF you used Atari's video drivers which recalculate the screen resolution EVERY TIME you plotted a pixel. But if you wrote your own driver, you suddenly had a very fast gaming machine with the most horsepower available for it's time. So I kept seeing what cool things I could pack into it and Gauntlet was the result. I was trying to create a game that I wanted to play myself.

 

It took about two years to complete the shareware version. I did as a learning project and it was my first "real" software program. I was a hardware engineer at the time and I actually used Gauntlet to land my first programming job by describing the multitasking, queueing, data pipes, and other stuff I had learn about to create a realtime video game. Never made any money writing games, but I've been a programmer ever since.

 

Take care,

 

Don

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Hallo Donald LeBeau!

 

Great to hear from the person who wrote that great game that I remember well!

 

Please excuse me for not registering it. I am not sure though if I ever even finished the demo version. By the quality of the game you should have sold 5000 copies, not 50. Maybe you gave us too much upfront, or maybe shareware just doesn't work. I wonder if you would have had better luck getting a publisher, or APX, but IIRC Gauntlet came somewhat past the heyday of the Atari 8bit.

 

I think the demo version is readily available, in fact I must have it here myself somewhere. It is your full version that is missing from the Internet Atari 8bit retro community that thrives on disk images and flashcarts and emulators and SIO2PCs and even some vibrant current development.

 

I would love to have full-version Gauntlet on a cart. Perhaps if you are willing, a full version of Gauntlet could be found and put on a cart such as those sold here on AtariAge.

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Hey Don, just wanted to say that if you had a place or E-mail to send paypal to, I would buy this game from you now. (like $20.)

 

Laugh if you want to, I played Cap'n Magneto on the Macintosh for like 15 years before I finally found the author was still alive and registered the game with him. I was broke once, now I am not so broke. :)

 

Kinda my gesture for all the good years I had with Atari.

 

Sorry I did not buy this back in the 80's, but you know, I was 14 at the time. :)

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Great to see people still enjoying a game and that the author popping by... :) yeah. i played the shareware version as well and i liked Gauntlet... could be good game for Xbox Live! arcade... :D just dreaming...

 

and selling 50 is not much and it's a shame but that's maybe the free version looked so "complete"... as working in the games biz now for years and the entertainment bizz i tend to buy original software, music and film...

Edited by Heaven/TQA
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He hee....

 

Sorry if I get nostalgic for a second, but seeing another shareware game author pop by gets the old memories cranking....

 

I remember the first shareware registration someone sent me, they threw in an extra five bucks if I would add a feature they wanted, so I fired up Laser C and did it, sent the guy the new registered version. He kept sending me ideas for the game for over a year, it was super cool, (and made the game Way better!) Was in the Delphi (or was it Genie?) top ten for a while (Woohoo!)

 

Then there was the time, a few years after I had moved to PCs (boo), when someone from Suzy B called me and asked my permission to include the game on their ST compilation CDs. I was floored that some even ASKED!

 

Didn't get rich, but it was fun. :cool:

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Hi everybody!

 

My daughter just sent me a link to this thread. She was born the same year I wrote Gauntlet. Weird.

 

What a blast from the past! It's pretty neat that there's still some interest in it after all this time.

 

The "registered version" had a number of improvements over the shareware version. There were more levels, most of which were underground, new weapons like mirvs with seekinng warheads, and a bunch of new ememies that were bigger and/or smarter. Some of the new ships would launch smaller ones and they would coordinate their attacks and stuff. There could also be twice as many objects on the screen at a time so the end levels were pretty intense. It also came with a printed manual.

 

The "registered version" was renamed "Gauntletak" because right after I released the shareware version Atari came out with the Gauntlet Arcade game. I had a copyrited the name Gauntlet, but after a pretty funny conversation with a lawyer about my chances about winning a lawsuit against Atari, I decided that changing the name was easier.

 

I sold about fifty of the registered versions. Any of them that are still out there would be labeled "Gauntletak" on the disk.

 

Sometime in '88 I was approached by an independent publisher who was interested in selling some of the old 8-bit games. I made a new master disk from the registered version and he sold them as "Gauntletak". I know he sold a few copies because I got a commission check from him about six months later for about five bucks. That was the last I heard of him. It might be another source of the game if anyone wants to track it down.

 

I don't have any of the Gauntlet software anymore. Got rid of the last of it in '98 when I found out that none of my floppies were readable. They had been stored in an attic for a few years and I guess the heat did them in. It was pretty emotional getting rid of something that I had worked on for about four years. Kind of weird how software can just disappear.

 

I'm actually pretty excited to see that it's still available online. Thanks for posting the links! It'll be great to see it again after twenty years!

 

I still have the original printed manual and probably the contact information for the independent publisher. I've just moved and most of my stuff is currently in storage, but if I find any more information I'll post it here.

 

In case anyone's interested, here's some history:

 

Gauntlet actually started out as a lunar lander program in BASIC from Antic magazine. I typed it in and then started messing around with it. Made it so you could take off again and then you had to land on different pads. Added a second lander so you could play with a friend. Started thinking "Now if only I could make them shoot at each other", but at that point I was pushing the limitations of the BASIC language. So I decided to rewrite it in assembly language.

 

About that time I read an article by Chris Crawford saying that it was impossible to write a bitmapped game for the Atari. I took that as a challenge and found out that he was right - IF you used Atari's video drivers which recalculate the screen resolution EVERY TIME you plotted a pixel. But if you wrote your own driver, you suddenly had a very fast gaming machine with the most horsepower available for it's time. So I kept seeing what cool things I could pack into it and Gauntlet was the result. I was trying to create a game that I wanted to play myself.

 

It took about two years to complete the shareware version. I did as a learning project and it was my first "real" software program. I was a hardware engineer at the time and I actually used Gauntlet to land my first programming job by describing the multitasking, queueing, data pipes, and other stuff I had learn about to create a realtime video game. Never made any money writing games, but I've been a programmer ever since.

 

Take care,

 

Don

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Don,

 

I am one of the 50 that bought the "official" version. I still have the manual and the diskette. As to whether the disk is still good or not will be answered in about a week. I just bought a 1050 drive (old one died) and should have it by next week and we'll see if the disk is still viable. Twenty years is a long time, but it's been in a dark closet.

 

Both games were great.

 

Phil Snider aka SwampRat

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Don,

 

I am one of the 50 that bought the "official" version. I still have the manual and the diskette. As to whether the disk is still good or not will be answered in about a week. I just bought a 1050 drive (old one died) and should have it by next week and we'll see if the disk is still viable. Twenty years is a long time, but it's been in a dark closet.

 

Both games were great.

 

Phil Snider aka SwampRat

 

Since this may be the only copy we ever find...

 

Some disks suffer from the same adhesive problems as the well-documented "sticky" recording tape. The adhesive holding the metal oxide layer to the plastic disk absorbs water and becomes gooey. You usually don't realize it until the head is covered in brown stuff and there's a line of damaged magnetic surface. Most floppy brands seem to be okay, but some failed within a few years.

 

The solution for tape is to bake it at a low temperature for several hours prior to use. I would suggest the following:

 

1. Make a copy of the disk before trying to load it.

2. The top pressure pad on single sided floppy drives places a large amount of pressure on the disk, I've lifted the spring and applied less force with a small weight to safely read failing disks.

3. If you have any problems with the head getting too dirty to read, then stop and the disk can be removed from its outer jacket and baked.

4. I've worked in IT and done many data recovery jobs. I can handle copying the disk if you'd like me to.

Edited by Bryan
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Don,

 

I am one of the 50 that bought the "official" version. I still have the manual and the diskette. As to whether the disk is still good or not will be answered in about a week. I just bought a 1050 drive (old one died) and should have it by next week and we'll see if the disk is still viable. Twenty years is a long time, but it's been in a dark closet.

 

Both games were great.

 

Phil Snider aka SwampRat

This is grate If can get this out we can give donlebeau the payment that he should had got for hes hard work! ;)

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