Is Gauntlet: The Third Encounter on Steam?

No. Gauntlet: The Third Encounter is not distributed on Steam, so there is no Steam Charts or SteamDB player count for it. Its live popularity is tracked here via Twitch viewership instead.

What platforms is Gauntlet: The Third Encounter on?

Gauntlet: The Third Encounter is available on Atari Lynx.

When did Gauntlet: The Third Encounter release?

Gauntlet: The Third Encounter was first released on December 31, 1990.

Gauntlet: The Third Encounter

Dec 31, 1990StrategyHack and slash/Beat 'em upAdventureAtari Lynx

Gauntlet: The Third Encounter — frequently asked questions

Is Gauntlet: The Third Encounter on Steam?: No. Gauntlet: The Third Encounter is not distributed on Steam, so there is no Steam Charts or SteamDB player count for it. Its live popularity is tracked here via Twitch viewership instead.
What platforms is Gauntlet: The Third Encounter on?: Gauntlet: The Third Encounter is available on Atari Lynx.
When did Gauntlet: The Third Encounter release?: Gauntlet: The Third Encounter was first released on December 31, 1990.

About Gauntlet: The Third Encounter

Generations ago an enchanted Star Gem crashed to Earth at the base of an ancient castle. Loathsome creatures crept from the castle and carried the Gem into the depths of the fortress. All attempts to retrieve the Star Gem failed. The adventurers were destroyed. The creatures in the castle gain magical strength from the Star Gem. Unless the Gem is taken from them, the evil ones will soon have the strength to venture forth and destroy mankind! You and your friends must take up the quest to rescure the Star Gem...and your world!

Summary via IGDB.

Gauntlet: The Third Encounter on Wikipedia

Gauntlet: The Third Encounter is an arcade-style dungeon crawler role-playing game developed by Epyx and published by Atari Corporation that was released for the Atari Lynx handheld system in 1990. Despite using the same packaging artwork that was used for the NES version, The Third Encounter is not a port of the original Gauntlet or its sequel, but instead is a new game developed specifically for the Lynx. It was originally titled Time Quests and Treasure Chests, but it was changed when Atari Corporation picked up the license for the Gauntlet franchise from Atari Games.

Source: Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0).

Game details

Platforms: Atari Lynx
Developer: Epyx
Publisher: Atari Corporation
Game modes: Single player, Multiplayer
Themes: Action, Fantasy

Details via IGDB.

Collector value & authenticity

Atari Lynx · PriceCharting sold data · Verified 2026-08-07

Loose

$31

Complete

$39

Sealed

$54

Region: NA+EU+JP
Released: 1990
Authenticity: Low

Never re-released — the original cartridge is the only way to playLow counterfeit risk

Atari Lynx prices, all games & how to spot a fake

Sold as Gauntlet, built as something else entirely — and the confusion is priced into it.

Epyx's 1990 release began life as an unrelated in-house project and had Gauntlet branding applied late. Electronic Gaming Monthly reported at the time that Atari had "nabbed the license to Gauntlet 3 for their Gem Quest game", while other period listings carry a separate unshipped title, Time Quest — so which project actually received the licence is unsettled. The result is a top-down dungeon crawler with eight character classes that plays noticeably unlike the arcade Gauntlet people expect, which has given it a reputation problem it has never shaken.

It was one of the 17 titles Mumin Corporation distributed in Japan, and it sits above the platform median on price largely on Gauntlet-collector demand.

What the press said at the time

“According to the dictionary, a 'gauntlet' is a kind of mailed glove worn by medieval knights. It's also an ancient form of punishment in which prisoners are forced to run to their deaths between two lines of beaters, armed with cudgels. Both these meanings are operative in Gauntlet: The Third Encounter.”
— Atari Explorer, January/February 1991

Cartridge & preservation record

Cartridge ROM capacity 1 megabit (128 KB), measured from the preserved cartridge image.

Surviving pre-release builds

1990-01-12	Beta	1 Mbit
1990-06-04	Beta	1 Mbit

Catalogue part number PA2024

Cartridge data from the No-Intro preservation database (metadata only — names, sizes and checksums, no game data).

Worth knowing

Eight classes, forty-four levels, and four-player co-op — if everyone owns a copy. Atari Explorer's 1991 review names the roster as "eight personae: Android, Valkyrie, Gunfighter, Nerd, Pi[rate]..." set loose in a 44-level haunted castle hunting the fabled Star Gem. ComLynx links up to four consoles for co-operative play, but each player needs their own cartridge.
A mistake in this cartridge unlocked the whole console. The Lynx shipped locked — cartridges boot through an RSA-encrypted loader, so only Atari-approved code would run. Atari got the encryption wrong on this one game, and that flaw is the hole the homebrew scene climbed through: BLL, Bastian Schick's Lynx loader toolkit, exploits the bug in Gauntlet's loader to attach a custom bootloader to homebrew code. Schick later built BJL, the equivalent bypass for the Jaguar, so the same developer opened both Atari platforms. Every one of the roughly 168 homebrew Lynx titles in the preservation record traces back to a bug in this cartridge.

Before you buy

An early 1990 title, so multiple shell variants exist and flat first-generation copies carry a premium generalist guides miss. Be clear with the seller about which Gauntlet this is before buying it as a gift.