[8][9] The core design of Gauntlet comes from 1983 game Dandy for the Atari 8-bit computers, which resulted in a threat of legal action.

[5] Atari later released a two-player cabinet variant in June 1986, aimed at operators who could not afford or did not have sufficient space for the four-player version.

[2][12] The game is set within a series of top-down, third-person, orthographic mazes where the object is to kill monsters, gather treasures, and find the exit in every level.

[13] Each player controls one of four playable fantasy-based characters: Thor, a warrior; Merlin, a wizard; Thyra, a valkyrie; or Questor, an Elf.

For example, the warrior is strongest in hand-to-hand combat, the wizard has the most powerful magic, the valkyrie has the best armor, and the Elf is the fastest in movement.

[13] As the game progresses, higher levels of skill are needed to reach the exit, with success often depending on the willingness of the players to cooperate by sharing food and luring monsters into places where they can be engaged and slaughtered more conveniently.

The character can be revived in place with full health by spending a game credit—inserting a coin in the arcade—within a certain short time window after it died.

The control panel for the four-player cabinet is wider than other standard uprights in order to accommodate four people at the same time.

Based upon some of the most elaborate hardware design in Atari's history to date, it is the company's first coin-operated game that features a voice synthesizer chip.

[15] Another game that Gauntlet bears a striking resemblance to is Time Bandit (1983), especially its Atari ST version released in 1985, which led to claims of one possibly being a "clone" of the other.

He believes neither game copied each other, but that their similarities stem from being inspired by earlier "maze shoot 'em up" titles such as Tutankham.

[17] Ed Logg, the co-creator of Asteroids and Centipede, is credited with the original game design of Gauntlet in the arcade version, as well as the 1987 NES release.

It was released in 1987 by the British company U.S. Gold in the UK and Europe, and Mindscape in the United States for the Amstrad CPC, MSX, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum ports of Gauntlet.

Many of its levels were entries in a competition throughout Europe in which ten winners were awarded prizes, a Gauntlet T-shirt and a copy of the program for their computers.

At a Japanese trade show in late 1985, the game drew large crowds and set record earnings for an Atari arcade cabinet.

[58] It was Japans's fourth highest-grossing upright/cockpit arcade game of 1986 (below Hang-On, Space Harrier and Pole Position II).

[65] Computer and Video Games praised the accuracy of the Amstrad version, and said that it had "great graphics, good sounds, and perfect playability".

[66][67] More than a decade after release, the Official UK PlayStation Magazine noted that they "spent many a night hunched over a fag-stained Gauntlet machine", but said that the limitations had become apparent in the late 1990s.