stranno
Member
I have finished Gauntlet Legends recently on Nintendo 64, Playstation and Arcade (Dreamcast left) and it amazes me how different it is between versions and how much Nintendo 64 port crushed Playstation version.
Arcade: The game appeared first on Atari Vegas board along October 1998, a powerful system powered by 3DFX hardware. It was the fifth game in the series and the third game in arcades, albeit IDK if we should count Gauntlet II as a single game, since it was just an expansion kit for the original Atari Gauntlet Hardware board.
Nintendo 64: The first port of the game, developed by the same internal studio of Atari Games. It was a gigantic content expansion, boosting the game from a ~30 minutes gameplay to 8-10 hours in a first try. Graphics are smaller and simpler, but performance is great, there are tons of enemies on screen, controls are great, it supports three players out of the box and four players with the Expansion Pack (weird). It is the only version where you can sold weapons and the inventory system is pretty handy. I'd say it is the best version of the game overall, tho it lacks four levels from the Playstation version, music/sound is highly downgraded and it lacks CGI cinematics.
It should use one of those obscure proprietary micro-codes for the Nintendo 64 RSP, since it took like a decade to see it properly emulated.
Playstation: It came out half-year after Nintendo 64 port and featured four "Extra" levels, after the end of the game. It features CGI cinematics and much better sound. BUT, it has far worse graphics than Nintendo 64, fewer enemies on screen (bad idea for Gauntlet), only one stupidly easy difficulty, inventory is clumsy and, above all, it only features two players multiplayer (in a Gauntlet game! come on..)
Dreamcast: Final version of the original game. It features much better graphics than the other two versions, with higher zoom, slightly below the Atari Vegas graphics, but really close. It is a direct port of the arcade so, bad news, it has MUCH less content than the other two versions, no inventory and a crappy shop after levels. Performance is better than Playstation, but not as good as Nintendo 64, and I'd say physics are a bit broken. The biggest change, tho, is that it features some elements from the Dark Legacy remake, appeared one year later for the next generation.
Apparently, these two versions were developed by Midway, instead of Atari Games, but I'm not sure and it's probably wrong on Wikipedia/Gamefaqs. Some sources say that the Nintendo 64 version features the Extra hub, including the four new levels, but, as far as I seen, that's clearly wrong. It would make sense that Atari added those levels as a bonus for a delayed Playstation version.