I wanted to say that I have not been able to make the "famous" thief/mugger bugs work in the emulated version. When I was beta testing MGE for Neill, I explained to him about these 'bugs', and he told me that there are certain issues regarding emulated CPU's (as opposed to actual arcade hardware), which can actually stop certain bugs from manifesting.

This is VERY MUCH like the old Street Fighter 2 glitches, where some of Guile's glitches, that would reset the Arcade game, would not reset an emulator. I believe this was technically explained awhile back, when the cps1 SF2 was first emulated.

Anyway, to get back on subject...
In Gauntlet II, if you stand right next (1 tile away) to the starting square (of the richest player), or if you move right next to this square ,when the thief or mugger first appears, BEFORE they start chasing you (in other words, if you move up to them and touch them), along the INITIAL PATH that the thief/mugger would use to chase you, they seem to lose their linked list.....and they will run right up to a wall after they attack you.....and stop. This at least works on the emulators too.

Of course, doing this with mugger was an advanced trick that would stop the thief from appearing (and you get your food back next level anyway), however, if you go to the OTHER SIDE of the wall that the thief or mugger is stuck on, one of three things will happen.

1) nothing at all.
this is currently what seems to happen on the emulated versions. 

2) Mugger or thief will suddenly gain "transportability", and will teleport and then vanish, followed by all sorts of strange glitches (similar to how Gauntlet Intermediate release 1 worked, if when 2 ppl are playing, if one died while transporting, strange things would happen).

3) Thief/mugger will transport on top of you, and become "part" of you...changing your color, or resetting the game, making strange sounds, changing the next level to level "2", or, perhaps the best bug, stopping the monsters from attacking you (unless you touch them). The game was not built to handle players being "telefragged", only monsters, so some really cool glitches would happen.

I think the most memorable glitch I had, was mugger transporting on top of me, when a Dragon was on the level, then, when the dragon activated (?), the game made a REALLY horrible loud noise, and froze, then the graphics went bonkers, and then the game reset. :) 

Has anyone been able to reproduce these in ANY emulated version?

I've played levels upon levels (400+ with saving) on MGE, and now 500 (using saves) on MAME, and have not been able to reproduce this.

The recent thread about crash bugs in MK2 got me thinking about how MAME handles CPU exceptions...

Remember, I submitted a bug report regarding Gauntlet2, and the mugger / thief rarely teleporting on top of you after they get stuck (if you make them get stuck right at the start of the level---see my FAQ (eric's FAQ only mentions some Gauntlet 1 bugs). Well, some more testing found out some even worse issues....

1) Mugger CAN teleport on top of you, but its very rare, and usually *only* if he is facing a wall on the **EDGE** of the map, and you go to the other side. Sometimes the mugger will teleport immediately as soon as he gets stuck (this won't crash the game), but sometimes there is an object in the way (such as a key or treasure). Picking up the object causes the mugger to immediately try to teleport on you, causing the game to crash. (crashes with garbage characters, then the game resets). This never happens in the arcade.

It seems, based on my tests, that mugger teleporting on top of you will ALWAYS crash MAME. On the arcade, mugger teleporting on you would happen more often (and in far more areas), but would usually not crash the game. (but really strange things might happen).

Thief actually has a higher chance of teleporting "on " you than mugger, but usually the thief will attempt the teleport (if you get him stuck----IF he does teleport--VERY VERY rare, in any way---I had to use a save state at the end of a level to replicate this--and ONLY through precise actions would it replicate), and then cause a wall to change into an artifact object. if you shoot the object then walk into it, you will (if you did it right) be able to walk through some of the walls on the level, as well as monsters stopping when they touch you. (actually, you turn into the "Red" player, as far as damage is concerned--WEIRD).

For those who are interested in seeing some of these "bugs" in how MAME handles these exceptions, check out Eric Crabill's Gauntlet FAQ, and notice his reports regarding bugs in Intermediate Release 1 (Dying while hitting a teleporter). Then, try the same thing on MAME-----MAME won't handle the "bugs" properly.
(usually, the dead player will be an invisibe object that can NOT be pushed...if he CAN be pushed, it will lead to more bugs happening, as per Eric's FAQ).

-Antos