Gauntlet IV Soundtrack, Masaharu Iwata / Hitoshi Sakimoto, 1993
In an industry dominated so much by spin, it is refreshing to see a corporate history description as honest as developer M2’s: “Gathered a bunch of friends who used to play Gauntlet together at the arcades and ported it to PC (X68000) for fun. Presented it to TENGEN/ATARI GAMES, who then sold it for the MegaDrive title after some back and forth.” It’s a perfectly succinct description of how Gauntlet IV came about – although it is worth pointing out that at least the game’s title was a clever bit of marketing. Technically, Gauntlet IV was a significantly enhanced port of the original Gauntlet, adding three new gameplay modes. However, naming the game after an eight-year-old title that had already been ported many times to other platforms probably didn’t look like a promising strategy. So, a roman numerical was added, and Gauntlet IV was instead sold as a sequel.