The Amstrad CPC conversion of Atari‘s classic Gauntlet arcade game is another decent port by Gremlin Graphics, once again published by US Gold in 1987. The same team who created the C64, Spectrum, Atari 8-bit, and MSX versions also made this.

The graphics in Amstrad Gauntlet are super-chunky and look like a BBC Micro game with extra colours, but are more than adequate since they do the job and move smoothly. In spite of the fat pixels the colours used in the game are vivid and appealing.

Gameplay-wise the game is slower than most of the other 8-bit conversions (barring maybe the Atari 8-bit version), but the scrolling is smoother as the screen moves per-pixel and not by the block. Fire rates are slow, though, which can be frustrating.

I’m not entirely sure why, but the version I played gave the option to load dataset 1 or 2 at the beginning – each being a different set of levels. I don’t know if this was on the original release or if it’s the result of some cracking group shenanigans.

More: Gauntlet on Wikipedia