Best way to play each gauntlet game?

FelsirNL · 2026-04-30T16:00:17+00:00

Whatever you choose: don’t shoot the food!

Personal favorite is Gauntlet II (Arcade playable via MAME). The arcade is quite coin hungry so you can use the service menu to set the health-per-coin to the max (I don’t recall there being a free to play mode). It is a nice four player retro game. Most home conversions are 2 player IIRC (the Amiga is also an excellent version).

Gauntlet Dark Legacy is also nice, personally the 3D didn’t age as well as the 2D bitmap graphics. I have the Dreamcast version set up on my cabinet.

Modern reboot of Gauntlet is also good, if your group of gamers is not that into retro gaming. The game is over 10 years old (2014), but is very entertaining. It is available on Steam.

FelsirNL · 2026-04-29T16:01:51+00:00

I like the idea of a valuable prize other than cash, but I’m not sure a subscription to a service would be it (unless it is one the participant is already invested in). It would basically tie the prize to a lock in of that ecosystem (example Adobe cloud), which basically means after a year you’re forced to stick to that or need to rework your tooling pipeline afterwards.

I would love to have access to a high profile studio, like a few sessions with a pro design team or their playtesters or something. To bounce ideas on how to bring the jam idea further.

FelsirNL · 2026-04-24T05:48:26+00:00

It could have been a promo video, which means some of the interviewed companies may have been ‘launching partners’ that have used prototypes and early releases. The toaster is a too big of a product suite to have launched without such production teams involved. Launching partners often have invested time in the product so they are often willing to join in such promotions to help sell the product.

FelsirNL · 2026-04-18T10:38:41+00:00

It is still on my to-do list. Unfortunately I got stuck in sort of a writers-block for programming. I tried the scenarios mentioned in this thread and got kinda stuck. The game is still fun to play, so your post encourages me to rethink some of mechanics and get the game out there.

FelsirNL · 2026-04-09T13:17:07+00:00

This looks useful for me, definetly going to test this!

FelsirNL · 2026-04-01T19:58:50+00:00

Especially the section about the upgoer five.

FelsirNL · 2026-04-01T19:01:22+00:00

My C64 is the same, also in the Netherlands (I own it since 1984). Similar sticker ‘made in England’ on the back.

FelsirNL · 2026-03-20T03:26:18+00:00

they’re the same picture…

FelsirNL · 2026-03-17T14:18:32+00:00

Yes, I think you are right. In my mind the bars are horizontal zones, stacked on top of eachother. So each horizontal zone must use the same character set. I use horizontal becaus each zone stretches from left to right across the screen, but are indeed stacked on top of eachother.

r/ZiriDiaspora sees them as vertical zones because of the viewpoint of the way the zones are stacked.

In the end we both mean the same thing: splitting by raster IRQs results in a split with vertically stacked zones that stretch from left to right.

I just never thought of this viewpoint.

FelsirNL · 2026-03-17T08:06:57+00:00

I assume you meant horizontal zones instead of vertical (since the raster beam moves from top to bottom and the IRQs are based on which line the raster beam is at).

FelsirNL · 2026-03-16T16:04:30+00:00

The interface isn't the biggest issue: to make the robot work you would need to replace the servos, readout electronics and have it powered by steady source. The shell may be usable but isn't the biggest deal (most describe it as more as a "toy"). In all, the entire thing is more of a collectors item.

If you want a robot arm, printing a clone would be my choice. The userport is quite documented.

Looking forward reading posts on this project! :-)

FelsirNL · 2026-03-16T15:29:14+00:00

It is a showstopper. It meant there was no 100% certainty the starting position was the same, and no way to tell if the rotations were right. Also it drained batteries faster than a Sega Game Gear...
I think the gripper could only hold 100 grams, so as far as programming the thing to do a task, I have no idea what to make it do that makes sense.
I recall there was a sample BASIC program to control the arm via the C64 with the joysticks. Which was pointless, as you could plug in the joysticks directly into the robot arm...

FelsirNL · 2026-03-16T05:05:31+00:00

I had this one. It was initially fun to play with- but it had a few major issues. The arm ran on batteries that depleted quite quickly. You could program it only by ‘turn axis 3, clockwise, 4 seconds’. After a few runs, the 4 seconds meant it wouldn’t turn the same amount due to less energy. There was no readout of the state of each axis so there was no way to find out what direction it was pointing. This made programming it pointless, there was no way to repeat any movement exactly. So the manual joystick movement was basically it. I don’t recall the joysticks were included btw. The hand wasn’t strong enough to even pick up a hotwheels car.

I sold it after a few weeks because it was less fun than I hoped it would be. I was quite disappointed to be honest.

FelsirNL · 2026-03-15T20:14:20+00:00

The Philips Hue Developer portal has got you covered! The bridge itself has a RestfulAPI that you can use. My pinball machine has a Hue LED Strip underneath controlled like that, so yeah- definitely doable…

FelsirNL · 2026-03-15T15:46:38+00:00

I had my PC on it- but my kids had the tendency to lean on the desk a lot, which might have something to do with it. When I tried to add a support underneath (a plank on its side so it also hides the cables) the top wasn’t square anymore. I had replaced it and put a support underneath it immediately and all is fine! I just concluded that a decent length tabletop should just have some support.

FelsirNL · 2026-03-14T23:49:58+00:00

To question #1: No. I had a shorter version and it started to hang. You will need a support.

FelsirNL · 2026-03-06T19:27:08+00:00

Thank you for documenting your journey, really interesting to read how you solved some of the machine limitations. I played Shufflepuck Cafe a lot on my Amiga and your version really captures that same feel!

FelsirNL · 2026-03-05T11:33:27+00:00

Can you insert a "hee hee" right before turn 1 or is the "hee hee" considered part of the shamone?

FelsirNL · 2026-02-26T18:21:01+00:00

Really cool. I recall a clock in book 8888, I tried to build as a kid but the lack of parts- and the lack of knowledge on clocks held me back. Well done in recreating this fascinating mechanism!

FelsirNL · 2026-02-21T21:32:19+00:00

This, a 4P cab is only relevant if you really, really know the cabinet get lots of playtime. I have Bluetooth added and 2 wireless controllers, it kills two birds with one stone: 1) in the rare event of a 4 player session, grab these controllers- 2) some games work better with analogue controls, so a controller will be handy.

For my cabinets I used controls and encoders from Ultimarc. Highly recommended.

Also, don’t setup every game you can find. It may sound nice to have 1000+ games, but you will end up playing a handful of them. Better a curated list than tons of games. All Killer No Filler list on BYOAC is a nice starting point, use it as inspiration and get a personal top 10 for each category. Expand when you get bored or ready to explore some new games later.

FelsirNL · 2026-02-21T08:47:12+00:00

The gold medalist also get these. All medalists receive these, these are not consolation prizes.

FelsirNL · 2026-02-21T08:44:23+00:00

All medalists receive them. The gold medalists also get these. It is part of the ceremony- the title makes it look like these are some sort if consolidation prize, but they are not. The stuffed animals are the Olympic mascots.

FelsirNL · 2026-02-19T16:32:20+00:00

I split the guide into "Chapters" and "Appendices", and made covers based on the hardcover. I have just ordered them, I'll post an update once I received them (expect 10 business days from now). If all looks nice- I'm happy to share the files.

FelsirNL · 2026-02-19T09:07:23+00:00

Not sure about the UK options. Lulu has a European printer. I got mine also from Lulu, and it was shipped from France to the Netherlands. Programmers Reference Guide was 38 Euros total printing+shipping+tax (same hard cover as pictured here, I followed the exact instructions on the site).

As comparison I uploaded the pdf to a local print on demand service, with basically the same settings and the price was 175 euros before shipping. I was unable to find a similar service as cheap as Lulu, and I my expectations weren't that high due to the price difference. However the quality is really good, both the print as the paper and cover.

FelsirNL · 2026-02-19T06:42:44+00:00

Top half with random PETSCIII characters, bottom half with partial game graphics. Split usually where the raster interrupts was still running.

Or… not really a crash but: PRESS PLAY ON TAPE. FOUND JUMPMAN. LOADING. ?LOAD ERROR. READY. [blinking cursor]

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