Who here also had Dark Chambers for the Atari 7800?

[Aswald]

Since the Atari 7800 had been left in the dust by the NES in grabbing up arcade titles, we Atari 7800 owners often had to "make do" with alternate titles. Clearly, this game was meant to be the 7800 equivalent of Gauntlet.

It didn't really work.

Sound was somewhat weak, but the graphics and scrolling were great, almost the equal of Gauntlet 2 on the NES. It also had random placement of certain things, including the exits!

Unfortunately, the game was largely done in by the lack of variety. There were 5 enemies, but they all moved the same, at the same speed, and all attacked by touch. In effect, except for damage done, they were the same. Even an average player could, with a little caution, get through all 26 levels of the "Expert" option. And once you did that, there wasn't anything new to look forward to- it wasn't even any more difficult. There were only 3 power-ups, and although 2 people could play, the characters were both the same. Either Guantlet on the NES was much better.

Agree? Disagree?

[CrazyImpmon]

I have one and I think Gauntlet is a ripoff of Dark Chambers. I asked this question long ago (I think it was in RGVC) and someone said Atari stole it, redid the game and released it under different name to avoid paying royalities to the original programmer.

It could be wrong but I know Dark Chambers was before Gauntlet.

[ventrra]

It could be wrong but I know Dark Chambers was before Gauntlet.
Yes. It (Dark Chambers) was released as "Dandy" as part of the Atari Program Exchange for Atari home computers. That's why it has a copyright date of 1983 on the label of all versions of it.


Agree? Disagree?
Actually, I lkie both versions of the game. They're both pretty decent adventure games for the systems in my opinion.

[GENESISNES]

my dad has the 2600 version. its ok i guess. it would help if the 2600 had a pause button. :(

[Aswald]

There is a 1983 copyright on Dark Chambers, but still, it was released for the 7800 roughly 5 years later, 3 years after Gauntlet. So Gauntlet existed. Surely Atari could've enhanced it in order to make it better? Enhanced, it would have easily equaled Gauntlet, but we 7800 owners often felt as if Tramiel-Atari didn't really care about the 7800.