Arcade Project 10: Game: Gauntlet Legends

Obligatory Arcade Purchasing Paragraph
Admittedly the choice of what arcades to get is a personal taste.  If you look at refurbished and well taken care of arcades, you will find that they cost well over $1000.  If you go to reputable websites that specialize in selling arcades, you will find them very much expensive.  Ebay and Craigslist are a crap shoot.  Sometimes people will try and give you junk for $2000, and sometimes little old ladies want to clear rooms and sell you pristine Pacmans for $200.  Its the risk you take for the rewards.  My choice in games is my own and will be different from yours.

Gauntlet Legends

It was very hard for me to choose what beat'em up that I wanted to buy.  Growing up, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was THE beat'em up for me.  The 4 player arcade cabinets meant you never had to wait for someone to finish a game, and in fact you were welcome to join since you could help the person get to places they'd never been before.  They are, without a doubt, some of the most sought after and expensive arcades out there.  But that is not why I'm shying away from having one.  The main problem with them is that once you are "done" with them, you are "done".

Enter Gauntlet Legends.  Look at that cabinet, that is one of the most well done and beautiful arcade cabinets in existence.  The main reason I am going with Gauntlet Legends is that it is sort of a Diablo in Arcade form.  You get codes to "save" your character, so that the next time you play, your keep your levels and equipment.  Multiple play throughs are expected and the game adjusts.  You have more to advance than just going through the levels, its almost a Dungeons and Dragons like experience.

There are other reasons though.  First, this game is new enough that MAME has problems with it, and the home versions of the game just aren't accurate to the experience of playing in the arcades.  We work on recreating experiences here after all.  The graphics in this game are gorgeous and "silicon" like many of the top arcades of its period(Killer Instinct, Cruisin' USA, etc).  Another is that for about $55 you can buy an "upgrade" kit for the game that turns it into Gauntlet Dark Legacy!  Yes, you get 2 Gauntlets in one.  Admittedly its not easy to just switch between them, but when you're sick and tired and have just beaten one into the ground, you can switch.  $1300 is about par for the course when it comes to non-rare and non-collectible arcades, and in this instance you practically get 2 games and lots of replay.