[{"TitleName":"Gauntlet II","Publisher":"U.S. Gold Ltd","Author":"Ben Daglish, Bill Allen, Kevin Bulmer, Tony R. Porter","YearOfRelease":"1987","ZxDbId":"0001991","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 49, Feb 1988","Price":"£1.25","ReleaseDate":"1988-01-28","Editor":"Barnaby Page","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Managing Editor: Barnaby Page\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Dominic Handy, Gordon Houghton, Lloyd Mangram, Ian Phillipson\r\nSubeditor: David Peters\r\nPhotographers: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson\r\nOffice: Frances Mable, Glenys Powell\r\nTechnical Writers: Simon N Goodwin, Jon Bates\r\nPBM Writer: Brendon Kavanagh\r\nStrategy Writer: Philippa Irving\r\nEducation Writer: Rosetta McLeod\r\nContributors: Robin Candy, Mike Dunn, Paul Evans, Dave Hawkes, Nathan Jones, Nick Roberts, Ben Stone, Paul Sumner, Bym Welthy\r\nEditorial Director: Roger Kean\r\nProduction Controller: David Western\r\nAssistant Director: Markie Kendrick\r\nDesign: Wayne Allen\r\nProcess and Planning: Jonathan Rignall (Supervisor), Matthew Uffindell, Nick Orchard\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Andrew Smales\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nEditorial and Production: [redacted]\r\nPlease address correspondence to the appropriate person!\r\n\r\nMail Order and Subscriptions: [redacted]\r\n\r\nADVERTISING\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting by The Tortoise Shell Press, Ludlow\r\n\r\nPrinted in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistributed by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return anything sent into CRASH - including written and photographic material, software and hardware - unless it is accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material is welcome and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates. Competition entries and letters to the CRASH Forum, to other sections and to staff are always read with interest but cannot be acknowledged even if an SAE is included, and letters submitted for publication may be edited for length and style.\r\n\r\n©1988 Newsfield Limited\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: US Gold\r\nRetail Price: £7.99\r\nAuthor: Tony Porter\r\n\r\nThis is the age of the sequel - Gauntlet II follows US Gold's phenomenally successful Gauntlet just over a year after the original's release.\r\n\r\nHere, four brave warriors wait to battle against virtually insurmountable odds in a desperate bid for freedom.\r\n\r\nEach has different attributes and characteristics. Thor is well-armoured and a fine fighter but has poor magic skills; Thyra has more magic, but is not such a strong fighter; the wizard Merlin has of course excellent magic, but carries no armour and cannot fight well either; and Questor is an elf with some fighting skills, armour and very good magic.\r\n\r\nYou can choose any one of these characters to undertake the dangerous course that leads them to ever-higher levels on a perilous mission beset by a myriad of monsters.\r\n\r\nGenerators release the villainous monsters into the labyrinthine 100 levels of dungeons through which our heroes journey.\r\n\r\nThe stock of devilish bogeymen includes disappearing ghosts, club-wielding grunts, fireball-shooting demons, rock-hurling lobbers, sorcerers and super sorcerers, floor-covering acid puddles and Death himself, who can only be fought with magic.\r\n\r\nFurther evil distractions include the IT monster, which can transform a warrior into R by touch alone; and the THAT, which can deprive any warrior of his powers and potions as well as taking away 100 valuable health points.\r\n\r\nShould a warrior choose not to fight against the fiendish flocks and dally for 30 seconds, locked doors are opened, and more monsters which lurk waiting behind them are released upon their hapless victim.\r\n\r\nBut the flow of monsters can be halted by destroying the generators.\r\n\r\nAmong the heroes' weapons are ten super shots which can take out any monster in their path; reflective shots that can be fired around comers; and glowing red transporters which take their occupant to the nearest location containing another transporter.\r\n\r\nAnd special potions found in the dungeons of Gauntlet II confer upon the user increased armour, magic, shot power and speed, and improve a warrior's ability to pick up items and amulets which temporarily give him special powers. Food and cider restore a warrior's health.\r\n\r\nSometimes potions can be found in the treasure chests which are scattered through the subterranean netherworld and which can be that for points - but beware. Other caskets are dangerous, containing only Death.\r\n\r\nKeys also lie upon the dungeon floors, and at random moments treasure rooms appear. A warrior must then enter the treasure room and collect as many valuables as possible before time runs out.\r\n\r\nBut there are obstacles all around. Walls can prove impenetrable, though some can be blasted out of existence; force fields, which drain health points, are effective periodically and cannot be destroyed; traps can make walls disappear when triggered; and stun tiles temporarily knock out those who step upon them.\r\n\r\nSome exits are easily reached, but others move about continuously, or are fake, being no more than painted floor tiles.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nJoysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair\r\nGraphics: small and effective, but no improvement over the original's\r\nSound: poor collision effects; lacks a decent tune\r\nOptions: choice of four players","ReviewerComments":["The small graphics and dismal tuneless sound just aren't worth it, and Gauntlet II is pointlessly similar to the original Gauntlet -the same idea, the same graphics, but not the same CRASH Smash!\r\nNick Roberts\r\n55%","Gauntlet was a great arcade conversion, it was expanded by The Deeper Dungeons (extra levels which could be bought and added to the basic game), and Gauntlet II will add to this elite group of classics. It follows the same lines as its predecessor, but has some original qualities too - such as the useful option to bring in a second fighter when you need one. And new hazards and foes present new problems, giving this sequel a feel of its own.\r\nNathan Jones\r\n74%","Hacking a path through hordes of hell-fiends should provide greater entertainment than this. Certainly, the potential is there: the instructions do much to set the grisly scene and create a hack 'n 'slay atmosphere, and the presentation is subtly effective. Unfortunately, this subtlety goes too far when it comes to sound - bleeps and peeps simper apologetically as your character cuts, slashes and chops, each squeak too quiet and indistinguishable from the others. The characters and monsters are sharply drawn and move well, but the colour scheme is a little bland - more plain dull than evocatively sombre. Gauntlet II isn't much of an improvement on the original, just different, and the differences don't merit buying the sequel if you've got Gauntlet.\r\nMike Dunn\r\n66%"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: A follow-up for sure, but hardly different enough from Gauntlet to be a valuable supplement.","Page":"94","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"55","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Nathan Jones","Score":"74","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Mike Dunn","Score":"66","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Dungeons ever deeper: Gauntlet 2"},{"Text":"'The same idea, the same graphics' as Gauntlet."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"71%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"61%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"62%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"63%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"65%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 26, Feb 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-01-14","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nArt Editor: Peter George, Darrell King\r\nDeputy Editor: Marcus Berkmann\r\nTechnical Editor: Phil South\r\nActing Production Editor: Fran Husband\r\nContributors: Richard Blaine, Audrey & Owen Bishop, Ciaran Brennan, Jonathan Davies, Mike Gerrard, Gwyn Hughes, David Jones, David McCandless, Duncan McDonald, John Minson, David Powell, Nat Pryce, Rick Robson, Peter Shaw, Rachael Smith, Mischa Welsh, Tony Worrall\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Simon Stansfield\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nPublisher: Kevin Cox\r\nPublishing Director: Roger Munford\r\nManaging Director: Stephen England\r\n\r\nPublished by Dennis Publishing Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England.\r\nTypesetters: Carlinpoint [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinters: Chase Web Offset [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1988 Felden Productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Sinclair is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"US Gold\r\n£8.99\r\nReviewer: Phil South\r\n\r\nAt last! Another really good reason to spend all day playing Gauntlet. Yes indeed, the sequel you've all been waiting for, with more levels than Mr Spock's chessboard and more ghosts and ghouls than a Bela Lugosi flick. All the publicity for Gauntlet II makes out that there's so many new features it's practically a new game. Is this the truth or is US Gold just pulling a fast one, I asked myself?\r\n\r\nActually the blurb wasn't far wrong, there's a lot more to this one than there was in the original game, and come to think of it, there being a point to it at all is a big bonus. In the first Gauntlet all you had to do was chase around the various level mazes, shooting anything that moved and collecting treasure, potions, food and keys in order to proceed deeper into the dungeons. And speaking of Deeper Dungeons, that's what you had next, a bolt-on upgrade tape with a lot more Gauntlet to play if you'd already scaled the 8 billion multiload levels on the first tape. But the initial aim of the game was the same (coo, that rhymes!) and although a good blast for your average shoot 'em up maniac, had very little to offer in the way of action once you'd mastered the basic of survival.\r\n\r\nNow we have Gauntlet II, and what a brillo game it is too. The idea behind the game is to find your way to the dragon's cave and destroy him. thereby getting all his treasure. All the favourite beasties are there from Gauntlet I, the few additions being ITs, THATs, stun tiles, spell-lobbing wizards and sorceresses, and nasty yerchy acid puddles. The exits are a bit more mobile too, phasing in and out, sometimes before you can get into them. Not to mention the magic walls - I told you not to mention the magic walls - which vanish when you shoot them turning into something nice (treasure or exits) or something nasty (monsters or baddies). But to help you through these extra hazards, there's a whole bunch of extra special powers, like extra armour, extra magic power extra shot speed, extra shot power, extra fight power, extra pick power... and who knows, maybe even extra, extra power! (ho ho)\r\n\r\nOne of the nastiest pitfalls in the game is the stun tile. This is an invisible tile set into the floor of a dungeon, indicated by an occasional twinkle as you approach it. When your foot touches it your character is stunned for a few second, not really the sort of thing you want to happen when there's a mound of seething manticores bearing down on you, spitting death. Other high points include a bullet that bounces off the walls, three bounces before it tuckers out, and a super shot, which ploughs through everything in it's path until it hits a wall.\r\n\r\nNot really much sonix to speak of, the tune at the beginning only just sneaking by as music, and the usual scritchity-scratch whenever you shoot at anything. The graphics have been tweaked a bit in this version, not so much that you'd really notice, but the action is just as fast and furious, and I think you're going to like it a lot. A 'must have' for all of you who asked for Gauntlet on your Desert Island Disks. (Yay!)","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"A super sequel to the much loved dungeon based shoot 'em up. As much of a blast as the first, and about twice as addictive. Metaskillo.","Page":"65","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Phil South","Score":"8","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"All the baddie generators have been drawn a little bit more excitingly, and most of the new types of wall, have been decorated to make them stand out."},{"Text":"At least I'm nice and close to the exit... what? It's gone! It just folded up and disappeared before my very eyes... wow! It's back again! What's going on?"},{"Text":"Here we see a flock of spooks, a familiar sight to the well heeled Gauntlet hacker. There are some more dangerous meanies in the game, though..."},{"Text":"Okay, so I'm Thor at the moment. (It must be all that bareback riding, Thilly! Ed) If I want to I can transform into one of the other characters, chosen at the start, and carry on as him/her for a while."},{"Text":"There are chests containing surprises like potions, keys, etc., and also a darker purpose to your trek... to kill the dragon! (Dan daan!)."},{"Text":"Those spooks should be kept at bay... but wait a minute, didn't somebody mention something about the walls disappearing if you shoot them."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"8/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"8/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"9/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"9/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"8/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 70, Jan 1988","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1987-12-18","Editor":"David Kelly","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: David Kelly\r\nDeputy Editor: Graham Taylor\r\nStaff Writer: Jim Douglas\r\nStaff Writer: Tamara Howard\r\nArt Editor: Gareth Jones\r\nDesigner: Andrea Walker\r\nAdventure Help: Gordo Greatbelly\r\nZapchat: Jon Riglar\r\nHelpline: Andrew Hewson\r\nContributors: Richard Price, Chris Jenkins, Tony Dillon, Gary Rook\r\nHardware Correspondent: Rupert Goodwins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mike Corr\r\nSales Executive: Steve Prescott\r\nClassified Sales/Production: Alison Morton\r\nPublisher's Secretary: Debbie Pearson\r\nSubscriptions Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscription Enquiries [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Richard Winnington\r\n\r\nSinclair User\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1986 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nABC 84,699 July-Dec 1986"},"MainText":"Label: US Gold\r\nAuthor: Tony Porter\r\nPrice: £8.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\nReviewer: Jim Douglas\r\n\r\nSequels, in the great swirling mystical scheme of things controlled by the Big Beardy One in the sky, aren't usually much cop.\r\n\r\nBeach Head II? Agent X II? US Aliens? Cobblers. Every one.\r\n\r\nWhich means that when a game like Gauntlet II comes along, you're pretty relieved just to find that it's not too bad at all.\r\n\r\nHow do you follow Gauntlet - easily the biggest selling game of last year?\r\n\r\nIt's been over a year since it came out, and since then we've seen an incredible number of similar games, each boasting a new handful of features over the last. So many you begin to wonder, after such a long time, if the old formula could possibly have any depths as yet un-plummed.\r\n\r\nThe Gauntlet-style of games (Gauntlet, Druid, Dandy, into the Eagle's Nest. Ranarama etc) followed the following lines: big over-viewed scrolling dungeon with one figure (or two) rushing about firing spells/arrows/guns at hundreds and hundreds of enemy troops.\r\n\r\nThough the graphics were smaller and not as finely tuned as many games of the time, the vast numbers of animated characters, loads of levels and the scale of the action made the games incredibly popular.\r\n\r\nGauntlet II is basically a jazzed-up Gauntlet. There isn't actually any progression as such in the game's format, merely enhancements and tweaks.\r\n\r\nSo what do you get? Well, there are four characters, each - he says for probably not the last time ever - with their own attributes. Some are good at shooting, some have good armour, or maybe special magic powers. The idea is obviously to pick two characters which together present the strongest team. Then it's off into the dungeon.\r\n\r\nThere are upwards of one hundred levels, each a smidgen more choc-a-block full of nasties than the last.\r\n\r\nThere are ten things in all which it is best to avoid. Among the more interesting are Lobbers, who will hurl objects over walls on top of you. This reduces the chances of you being able to find yourself a blind-spot from the bad guys, forcing you out into the combat once more.\r\n\r\nThen there's the IT monster which is great. It appears and jumps on to a player, which will then become IT. Every monster in the dungeon will instantly chase straight for this player and kill him. The only way to lose your IT-ness is to touch another player, who then becomes IT, and so on.\r\n\r\nYou'd be amazed at the objects you find lying on a dungeon floor. It's almost as if a large percentage were created just to help you out. There's Extra Fire Power, Extra Armour, Keys (allowing you through the exits and thus on to later levels). Transporters and there are even bottles of cider - poisonous or otherwise - to be used to your advantage.\r\n\r\nIt's being a bit picky but the graphics are a bit workmanlike. They do thieir task, and I suppose when you're dealing with such numbers, and as a result such small scale, there isn't much room for artistic flair.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"A corker. Fast action and superb gameplay make Gauntlet II - with MASK II - probably the first sequels worth the cash.","Page":"29","Denied":false,"Award":"Sinclair User Classic","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Jim Douglas","Score":"10","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"PROGRAMMERS\r\n\r\nTony Porter is the man responsible for Gauntelt II. He programmed the game (like the first) for US Gold unver licence from Gremlin Graphics. He started programming on the Spectrum while still at school, then went on to college and studied computer controls systems. Before joining Gremlin he worked for a time at Activision.\r\n\r\nSoftography: Eidolon (Activision, 1986), Barry McGuigan's Boxing (Activision, 1987), Gauntlet (US Gold, 1986)."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"10/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]