The Commodore 64 version of Gauntlet II was developed by Gremlin Graphics and was published by US Gold in Europe, and Mindscape in North America, in 1987.

It is a reasonably authentic experience, and can be played by two players simultaneously, rather than the arcade original‘s four. Like in the arcade version, players can now choose characters of the same class, but make them different colours.

This port contains all of the one hundred levels, and most of the features, of the arcade version, including things like power-ups that allow you to bounce shots off walls; ‘magic walls’ that change into monsters or items when hit; moving exits, and the hilarious “it monster“, that will curse whichever player it touches, making all monsters attack them (and ignore the other players). The only way to remedy this, is by the “it” player touching another active player, passing the curse onto them… This basically creates a frantic game of ‘tag’ among players, at least until the curse itself wears off.

The graphics are chunky, but still quite appealing, and the controls are responsive enough to make the game playable and fun. There’s no in-game music – just sound effects. Which is probably for the best.

If you’re a Gauntlet or Commodore fan, Gauntlet II on the C64 is still worth playing today. An Easyflash cartridge release was put out by The Master in 2019, and that is the version to play now, because loading is almost instantaneous.

More: Gauntlet II on Wikipedia
More: Gauntlet II on CSDb