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Inventor makes a real-world 'Assassin's Creed' rope launcher
One of the centerpieces of Assassin's Creed Syndicate is Jacob Frye's wrist-mounted rope launcher -- he can scale buildings like a Victorian-era Batman. But would such a thing be possible in real life? If you ask Colin Furze, the answer is yes... sort of. As part of a promo for Ubisoft, the inventor built a real rope launcher gauntlet that uses a carbon dioxide canister to propel the line, and a motorized winch to hoist you up. You wouldn't want to use it for any daring escapes: it's bulky, slow, and needs a harness to support your weight. However, the very fact that it works at all is impressive. If you ever need to fight Templars (or just want to climb walls with ease), you'll want to ask Furze for some pointers.
Joystiq Streams: New Gauntlet needs a workout badly
All these space wizards and Dinklages and space balls telling us about our Destiny as conqueror of the darkness have exhausted us. Now we thirst for simpler pleasures. No more moon wizards! Just regular wizards, who are mightily hungry and may or may not need food in the immediate future. The Joystiq crew is going old school today, diving into an early build of the newly resurrected Gauntlet! Joystiq.com/Twitch will be broadcast a piping hot plate of Gauntlet one week before its release, starting today at 4:00PM EST. Jess Conditt (@JessConditt), Alexander Sliwinski (@Sliwinski), and Anthony John Agnello (@ajohnagnello) will dive into the game blind with absolutely no clue how to succeed! Come and talk to us as we wonder what the hell we're supposed to do with all these arrows. That's Joystiq.com/Twitch at 4:00PM EST, just like we broadcast every Tuesday and Thursday. Want to catch our irregular streams like last week's all-staff Destiny roundtable? Make sure to follow us on Twitch, Facebook, and Twitter! [Images: WBIE]
Gauntlet needs new release date, badly
WBIE's Gauntlet reboot is being delayed by a couple weeks so everyone can build up more rage against friends who will inevitably shoot the food. Originally scheduled for September 3, the game has now been moved to a September 23 launch.
Gauntlet E3 trailer joins party
In prep for next week's E3 extrabonanza, Gauntlet has unleashed a new trailer highlighting the game's relic system. The RPG-esque system grants players the ability to upgrade powers and weapons. Join up with three other buddies for the reboot of the original dungeon crawler on September 3.
Seen@GDC: Gauntlet needs food truck badly
A Gauntlet food truck can be found vanquishing hunger around the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week. Branded with the natural hashtag #NeedFoodBadly, the mobile food dispensary is serving smoked turkey legs, candied apples, old fashioned root beer and water. The truck also has buttons with each character's symbol. If you're hanging about the convention, you can track the truck at @PlayGauntlet. The game's reboot was announced earlier this week and is scheduled for PC on Steam this summer. Now, just don't let any elves shoot near the foodtruck or they'll ruin it for everyone.
Gauntlet reboot needs food badly this summer
Gauntlet, the original co-op dungeon crawler, will return this summer to a home-based arcade near you. Announced only for Steam on PC at this time, the game will also have full support for SteamOS and Steam Machines. Warner Bros. revealed the "completely modernized action RPG" will be part of its direct-to-digital WB Games Vault portfolio. The initiative will deliver downloadable games based on WB and Midway arcade brands, along with original intellectual properties "across multiple digital networks." "With Gauntlet we combined the arcade style of the original game with an entirely new look and feature set that includes emergent, local and online four-player gameplay," said SVP of digital at WB David Haddad. Gauntlet is being developed by Arrowhead Games, best known for creating Magicka. We'll hopefully have more details to share about the game this week after seeing the title at this week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
Classic game postmortems return to GDC
Last year, for the 25th anniversary of the show, GDC featured a series of "Classic Game Postmortems" on games like Pac-Man, Prince of Persia, Another World, and Marble Madness. These new looks at old games proved so popular that the show is bringing them back for the crucial 26th anniversary event.This year's set of classic games to go under the microscope includes Alone in the Dark (with designer Frederick Raynal), Fallout (with designer Tim Cain), Gauntlet (with creator Ed Logg) and Harvest Moon (with producer and former Marvelous CEO Yasuhiro Wada). Forget about all those new games! This is why we really go to conferences.
THQ partners with Innovative Leisure for digital and mobile
You gotta hand it to THQ, despite posting a $56 million loss last quarter, the publisher is still willing to take a risk on bringing a fresh-faced developer into the fold. Of course, when you take into account that said developer is staffed by a who's who list of classic game designers, the proposition sounds less risky.Innovative Leisure, the brand-new developer in question, touts Seamus Blackley, Ed Logg, Ed Rotberg, Rich Adam and others among its ranks. If those names sound slightly familiar, it's for a good reason: Blackley co-wrote the original Xbox proposal and helped shepherd the product into existence. Meanwhile, Logg was responsible for Asteroids, Centipede and Gauntlet, while Rotberg and Adam were responsible for Battlezone and Missile Command, respectively.The studio will focus on creating titles for mobile, downloadable and social platforms; THQ is applying Innovative Leisure's extensive collective experience in design-driven experiences to produce accessible titles that work well in small doses. Here's hoping for a Saints Row-themed Missile Command clone for iOS and Android.
Tacit sonar gauntlet gives the blind ultrasonic eyes (video)
Sure, your Arduino project can make a stuffed monkey dance, but is it really doing anything for the greater benefit of mankind? Okay, maybe -- but not to the same degree as Grathio Labs' Tacit glove, an Arduino powered sonar device that can help the vision impaired navigate foreign environments. This wrist-mounted gauntlet is comprised of an Arduino microcontroller, a few ultrasonic sensors, and a pair of servomotors to apply variable pressure to the user's wrist to indicate their distance from an object or obstacle. Best of all, the gizmo's circuit and software are registered under Creative Commons, which means you're free to snag the plans from the source link below, and build your own. Go on, build one. Sure, it's a lot of work, but would you rather rock a wrist-mounted sonar gun, or don an ear-tugging bicycle helmet? Your choice.
The Road to Mordor: Dungeon-running with Turbine
As we talked about last month, Turbine's toting around a double-barreled shotgun full of content that it's preparing to unload. While the biggest blast will undoubtedly be Lord of the Rings Online's third expansion, Rise of Isengard, the team is working hard to provide us with plenty to do between now and then. Part of that effort is directed at Update 3, which is currently scheduled to go live on May 23rd in North America and after June 1st for Europe when the LotRO Global Service takes effect and all of the accounts are moved under Turbine's purview. I eagerly sat down with Turbine's Aaron Campbell and Joe Barry for a play-through of Update 3's two new three-player instances, Halls of Night and Inn of the Forsaken. Both of these scalable instances will be available to a wide swath of players, and they feature mechanics and sights never before seen in the game. Also, they're wicked cool. So join me today as I take you on a brief tour of horrors and adventures beyond imagination. Has everyone used the restroom before we go? Are you sure? It's a long article; I don't want you leaving in the middle of it. OK, let's ride!
GDC 2011: Spacetime pontificates on pocket MMOs
Although portable MMOs seem like the next logical step in enabling our online gaming addiction, remarkably few titles have graced the field as yet. Of the select few, Spacetime Studio's Pocket Legends heads the pack in style and popularity. It appeals to a wide range of players because the basic game is free; the developer charges players only for expansions and other item shop goodies. Cinco Barnes took the opportunity to speak at GDC about how Spacetime sorted out the complex issues surrounding portable MMOs, how the studio came up with the payment structure, and what the team learned as it goes forward with its next MMO, Blackstar. Pocket Legends' roots go back to 2005 when Spacetime Studios took some seed money from NCsoft and began work on a large-space sci-fi MMO for PCs. While the project went bust and NCsoft pulled funding, Spacetime came away with the technology it developed if not the deep pockets to compete in the field. By 2009, the company became enamoured with the iPhone as a gaming device and decided to take the tools it had developed to create a unique game for that platform.
Shocker! Google's Android logo boosted from Atari Lynx title 'Gauntlet: The Third Encounter'
Back in the early 90's whilst playing our Atari Lynx -- friendless and alone, of course -- we couldn't have imagined that a second-rate spinoff of the popular Gauntlet franchise would unlock the secrets behind the birth of Google's Android OS. But, lo and behold, what has one of our faithful tipsters found down here, amongst the ruins of Gauntlet: The Third Encounter? That's right, nearly irrefutable proof that the Android team (or at least its graphic designers) have plumbed the depths of Epyx's not-quite-masterpiece for the iconic droid logo we've come to know and love. Sure, the top-down scroller provided all kinds of new character classes like the "Nerd," "Punkrocker," and "Pirate," but only one of these fresh faces would provide the blueprint for Android's public face. It's hard to argue that there isn't some level of appropriation here, given the multiple similarities between the two pieces of art, right down to the antennae, dotted eyes, general size and shape, and even the strip which cuts across the midsection of the bot. Oh yeah, and the character is named Android. We personally would like to hear what Google has to say for themselves in regards to this blatant theft of intellectual property, and as for the Epyx artists who slaved over a hot Amiga to bring this image to life -- the taste of sweet justice is yours. %Gallery-101193% [Thanks, Davey]
Midway's XBLA classics removed from Marketplace
Several classic Midway games have been removed from Xbox Live Arcade, including Cyberball 2072, Defender, Gauntlet, Joust, Paperboy, Robotron 2084, Rootbeer Tapper, Smash TV and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. The titles have been pulled due to "publisher evolving rights and permissions," according to a Major Nelson tweet, but will remain playable and can be re-downloaded by users that previously purchased any of the games. While Major Nelson didn't expressly say so, it would appear that the disappearing titles are the result of Warner Bros.' acquisition of Midway last year. Warner Bros. now owns at least some of the trademarks involved in the removal from XBLA. You're not alone in suspecting that some of the affected titles were pulled in anticipation of Microsoft's upcoming Game Room (where different versions of the same games could presumably be made available for purchase). After all, the simply emulated Game Room games don't stack up well against their more fully-featured XBLA counterparts. However, Major Nelson has quashed that theory, tweeting, "No, it's not Game room related." This is not the first time that XBLA content has been pulled because of changing publisher relationships. Lost Cities was removed from XBLA last year after licensing rights were lost in the Activision-Vivendi merger.
Gauntlet DS found on ESRB website with Majesco as publisher
After being potentially canceled as of a few months ago, Gauntlet DS has re-emerged from purgatory with a new publisher in Majesco. At very least, that's our best guess based on an ESRB rating for the game found by a Gauntlet-lovin' GoNintendo reader.Once announced as being developed by Backbone Entertainment and published by now Square Enix-owned Eidos, the title was delisted from GameStop's website as well as Amazon back in February. Does this mean we'll finally be able to try our very best not to shoot food on the DS in the near future? One can only dream.
Rumor: Gauntlet DS has died
Gauntlet DS has been removed or changed to a nebulous status on several retail sites. GoNintendo took notice that the title was removed from GameStop; allegedly, Amazon told customers that the game had been "canceled." Furthermore, Eidos no longer makes any mention of the title on its site.A source familiar with the development of the title has confirmed to Joystiq that Gauntlet DS has indeed been scrapped; however, we've contacted both Eidos and developer Backbone Entertainment to learn what has (or hasn't) befallen the DS dungeon crawler. We'll update as soon as we hear something official.%Gallery-19968%
Gauntlet delayed again?
What's become of Gauntlet DS? The game was first announced last April, with a then-lightning fast release scheduled for a mere two months later. But June came and went with no multiplayer hack-n-slash game anywhere to be seen, and after a time, we were told October. Later, February. Now? According to GameStop, we might see Gauntlet in April, a year after the game's initial confirmation. And even that's not official.So what's happened to the game? "Official" hands-on reports and impressions have been positive, even when they criticize certain aspects of the game, like its framerate (from impressions of last year's version), though some of our readers have reported negatively on the game. After so many delays, we have to assume Backbone Entertainment was doing something to the game, but what, we just don't know. Gallery: Gauntlet [Via GoNintendo]
Fresh Gauntlet shots arrive: 'Welcome, brown screens!'
Even by Gauntlet standards, the latest screenshots from Eidos' hack-and-slash revival are chockful of brown and beige. Not that we even care that much about how this will look -- Gauntlet is all about the co-op, after all -- but come on, guys! We know you possess knowledge of other colors.In between the unrelenting brownness, you'll get a glimpse of a couple of the enemies you will encounter, including the "Soulless Leech" (the red, swirly chap here) and the "Beast of Burden" (here, no, sorry, here). Gauntlet will now be coming out in October, after it slipped from its original June date.Finally, if somebody could reassure us that they got the reference in the title so we don't feel about 800 years old, that'd be peachy. Cheers.%Gallery-19972%[Via press release]
Stubbs and Gauntlet now on Xbox Originals
It's time for some new Xbox Originals, kids! This time we get Stubbs the Zombie and Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. Stubbs was created by Wideload, the studio behind the upcoming Hail to the Chimp. Those who fancy playing the role of a zombie (as opposed to ruthlessly slaughtering them) should definitely take note. Seven Sorrows successfully managed to fall off the radar, probably thanks to the fact that it launched in December of 2005. You may recall a certain console that launched a month prior. While it may have been overlooked, Seven Sorrows is unique in the Gauntlet series as it was originally developed by industry vet John Romero (best known for the awesome Doom series or the awful Daikatana, depending on your point of view). He left the project (and Midway) just months prior to completion.Of the two 1200 MS Point ($15) titles, Stubbs seems to be the better value, as Amazon has the retail version's used price pegged at around $25, whereas Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows hovers right around the $17 dollar mark with shipping.
Stubbs the Zombie and Gauntlet coming soon to Xbox Originals
Microsoft's Xbox Originals collection on Xbox Live continues to slowly grow, with two new titles to add to the list next week: Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse, and Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows.Stubbs the Zombie is an under-appreciated 2005 release from Wideload Games, featuring a satirical film-noir approach to the zombie genre. Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows is, well, another Gauntlet game, this time handled by veteran Doom designer John Romero. Reviews for Gauntlet were, at best, a mixed bag, so Stubbs looks to be the cream of the crop in this Originals installment. Both titles are due for release Monday, May 19 for 1200 MSP each.
Stubbs and Gauntlet to become Xbox Originals
Microsoft just announced that both Wideload Games' Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse and Midway's Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows are headed to the XBLM as Xbox Originals next Monday, May 19th. Yuppers ...As always, each title will cost 1200 Microsoft points, have no achievements and play exactly as it did on the original Xbox plus any quirks that are introduced thanks to the 360's emulation. But we're going to be optimistic this time and be excited about these new Xbox Originals, because we've been told that we've been too negative in the past when talking about these oh so grand downloads. So, as we smile from ear to ear, enjoy next Monday's entertaining, convenient and affordable Stubbs and Gauntlet Xbox Originals downloads that are sure to put a smile on any fanboys' face. Insert awkwardly large fake smile here.
