Ah, the nostalgia! This used to be one of my favourite DOS games back in the day! :D

Altough some of you already figured things out below, I couldn't refrain myself from typing this out.

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Graphics seletion menu: It's the classic list of the ancient IBM PC/MS-DOS graphics card hardware (it wasn't just built into the motherboard in the olden days, even for 2D), with which the games' appearance differed drastically (some of them won't work here because they need a different DOSBox configuration).
256-color VGA is the one you would always want to pick, if you're a newbie to DOS gaming.
(Use the numbers on the top row of the keyboard, the numpad won't work here.)

Golden Axe autodetects the presence of the Adlib sound card, which makes the music sound mediocre. To change sound output hardware:
Quit the game to the DOS prompt (keep pressing ESC until you are at C:\GOLDENAX>)
Then type GOLD.EXE /PCSP and press Enter. This will make the game go with the sound on the internal PC beeper (although DOSBox routes it to your regular speakers).
Then get ready for punishment kids, that's how we really heard it back in the day! :D

Password entry screen: the "good ole" offline form of copy protection, where you had to look up and type in specific words from the printed manual that came with the game, to prove that you bought the game (as in physically, in box, with floppy disks, there was no Steam in 1990). The protection here is already cracked by the pirates, so you don't have to worry about it, type anything and it will let you in.

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Arcade is the main story campaign. It also contains the 2 extra levels from the Genesis/MegaDrive port (as opposed to the shorter Arcade original).
Beginner mode gives you less enemies, and ends on level 3. It's more like a practice mode.
Duel mode with 1 player gives you an arena and a bunch of enemies to fight in multiple rounds. Then it ends with... let's just say, a programmer's joke.
For 2 player mode (not online, side-by-side), first you have to set it at the top of the main menu.
2 Player co-op play is in Arcade and Beginner modes. Although watch out for "friendly fire".
2 Player vesus play is in Duel mode.
For a little less difficulty, you might want to go to the options, and set the Life meter (more like health bar) from the default 3 to 5 points.
The character selection screen uses the player control, attack is select.
(after selecting the charaters, the emulation usually hangs for a little while, it seems DOSBox has a little problem performing the VGA color palette fade effect.)

Keyboard controls:
-Menus: Cursor keys, Enter, Esc
-Player 1: Cursor keys/Numpad directions for movement, numpad 5 to attack, numpad 0 to jump, Right Shift to invoke magic attack
-Player 2: WAXD moves, S attacks, Tab jumps, Left Shift magic-s

Mouse or (analog) joystick controls: Those can be set in the options menu. But they're horrible and really not recommended! May not even work here (depends on the DOSBox configuration).

Double press forward to run.
Attack while running to headbutt, also useful for getting over platform gaps.
Some special attack moves exist too but I don't remember them.

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I think someone already told about the trick of playing with enemy sprites, by renaming some of the game files in DOS.

Another notable thing is with the weird scoring system:
https://dreamandfriends.com/2010/05/12/how-to-hate-golden-axe/

Dopo aver scelto il personaggio da usare, non si avvia la partita. Qualcuno mi sa dire quale tasto bisogna premere per Invio ?

Can you guys tell me please how select the girl? Cannot select with any button....

1st player use WASD shift etc.
2nd use num. key pad...gg

Excellent for 1 person!
Does someone knows which are the controls for the 2nd player?

Great job!

Here are a few things I discovered:

COMMAND PROMPT:
Entering 1 - EGA 16 Colors: Faded color tonesand pixelated graphics, audio loads correctly.
Entering 2 - CGA 4 colors: Yellow/red/green graphics only, audio loads correctly.
Entering 3 - HGA: Video stays on the command prompt screen, game audio loads correctly.
Entering 4 - VGA 256 colors: Game video and audio loads correctly. Use this one.
Entering 5 - Tandy 16 colors: Clustered, unrecognizable graphics with pulsing blue and red characters.

PASSWORD
Type any word to get through the password request page.

CONTROLS
To change the control input use the down arrow key to navigate to Options. Hit Return. Go down to Player 1 Control or Player 2 Control and use the right arrow key to choose Keypad, Keyboard, Joystick 1, Joystick 2, or Mouse. Use the down arrow key to navigate to Exit and hit Return.

Keyboard allows you to rotate through the players using D and A. To select your player use the key S. Use the following keys to control your player in game:

W - Up
X - Down
A - Left
D - Right
S - Attack
Q - Diagonal (Up Left)
E - Diagonal (Up Right)
Z - Diagonal (Down Left)
C - Diagonal (Down Right)
Tab - Jump
Right Shift - Special Power
Tab + S - Jump Attack
Space Bar - Pause
Esc - Quit Option

Mouse will also allow you to control your players movements on a track pad by navigating left, right, up, and down with one finger.
Attack - Click the trackpad with one finger
Jump - Click the trackpad with two fingers
Right Shift - Special Power
Click with two fingers + click to the right with two fingers - Jump Attack
Slide one finger foward and click - Flying Jump Kick
Space Bar - Pause
Esc - Quit Option

Keypad would only allow cycling through the characters in the character selection screen with the arrow keys or \ key. No key would allow for character selection.

Joystick 1 & 2 allowed for no keys to work and characters freely rotated in the character selection screen.

CHANG AMOUNT OF PLAYERS
Use right arrow key to switch between 1 Player and 2 Player on the top of the Main Menu list.

LIFE METER
To increase your Life Meter go to Options and use the right arrow key to increase life from 3-5.

Special Powers:
Male Human Fighter - Fire Storm Barrage
Female Human Fighter - Fire Breathing Dragon
Dwarf Fighter - Three Lightening Bolts

GAME MODES
Arcade: traditional style game play
Beginner: easier traditional style game play
Duel: player versus increasingly challenging enemies in strength, power, and number in a closed environment.

NOTES:
On the modern keyboard such a a Mac Book Pro, it is difficult to navigate the player and attack using the WDXA and S configuration along with Tab to jump and Right Shift to use a special power. Using the mouse as a control option had more utility and functionality.

It is important to square up directly in front of enemies so that attacks are landing.

The flying jump kick is effective in dismount enemies from creatures they are riding, and is also one of the more effective attack actions to use in general when execute properly.

I was able to inadvertently flying kick once using the keyboard but was unable to replicate it. Much easier to execute using the mouse control.

Is there a way for those of us without numpads (laptops) to play Golden Axe? Cannot get past the character selection screen! :(

Go to options and choose keyboard for control. Once that done, here are the controls;

w - up
x - down
a - left
d - right
s - attack
tab - jump
right shift - special power

I remember playing this game with a childhood friend. We had to pause every 10 min for toilet break because we were getting afraid and excited...

For MacBooks with no numeric keypads, you can assign keypad keycodes to other key combinations (e.g. fn+789uiojkl) using Karabiner: https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/

Anyone got a workaround for macbooks not having a numeric keypad?

Great game, brings back memories - although it was much better in the arcade.

For those of you complaining about not getting past the character selection screen, use the num pad insteadl. Arrow keys on numpad to rotate through the characters, and '5' on the numpad to select your character. Then use the numpad to play.

I wanted this game to work more than any, but the game won't get past the character selection screen.

unfortunately there's no way to get past the character selection screen.

http://www.digitpress.com/library/manuals/genesis/golden%20axe.pdf for the words.

However as the reviewer below said this http://www.starehry.eu/download/action/docs/Golden.Axe-Manual.pdf SHOULD help unless they like to change the address often.

Or Try. http://www.oldgames.sk/en/game/golden-axe/download/8335/

The other link sends you to a website where I couldn't find the game manual.

Write absolutely anything. It'll accept it.

To get answers to DRM questions, here is the link to a pdf version of the manual that worked for me

http://www.starehry.eu/download/action/docs/Golden.Axe-Manual.pdf