Video games - Joust

Home > Listing Index > Video games > Joust (arcade game)

	Video games - Joust

This article is about the 1982 arcade game. For the medieval spectacle with knights mounted on horses, see Jousting

Joust is a classic arcade game by Williams Electronics that was produced in 1982.

Description

The player takes the role of a knight with a lance, mounted on a flying ostrich or stork, battling waves of computer-controlled enemy knights. The enemy knights are of three different speed and agility levels and are mounted on giant vultures. The game screen is static; its only features are five platforms hanging in mid-air (some wrapping around the screen), the ground, and a pit of lava below.

The game's incredibly simple controls are a factor in its wide appeal. A joystick moves left and right, and a "Flap" button flaps the mount's wings once. Pressing "Flap" in rapid succession will cause a gain in altitude until gravity drags the player downward.

Gameplay

Each wave begins with enemy knights appearing on the screen at one of four "spawn points." To destroy an enemy knight, the player has to collide with the knight while his lance is vertically higher than the enemy knight's lance. After destroying an enemy knight, a giant egg will appear and fall, bouncing on the ground. The player has to go touch (and thus destroy) the egg, gaining additional points; if this act takes too long, the egg will hatch and another, more powerful enemy knight will appear and continue the fight against the player.

A wave is cleared when the player destroys all enemy knights and eggs. If too much time elapses on a particular wave before this occurs, the dreaded pterodactyl will appear from one side of the screen and fly around until it collides with the player, destroying him; until the player finishes the wave; or until the player destroys the pterodactyl by hitting it directly in the mouth with his lance, a difficult task.

Two players can play Joust, and each player will get points for destroying the enemy knights, and also for destroying his human opponent. Cooperative play is possible by agreement between the players, but they will still kill each other if they are to collide.

A lava troll inhabits the lava pit at the bottom of the screen; if any player or enemy knight flies too close to the lava, the troll's hand will emerge and tug the mount downward toward the lava. Players can get out of the troll's grip by hammering on the "Flap" button.

Cheats

One "bug" in the program's design turned out to be popular enough for the game's producers to leave it in and call it a "feature." On the right side of the screen, two platforms are situated in such a manner that one was higher than the other, and a player can become stuck in the corner where the two platforms meet. However, if a player guides his bird towards this corner at a certain angle, his bird will illogically "squeeze" through the meeting point of the two platforms, and pop out below the platform. Skilled players took advantage of this flaw as a gaming strategy: a player could suddenly pop out below the platform and land on an enemy knight below (or a competing player), catching him by surprise. Game creator John Newcomer stated in interviews that this flaw in the game's design was so popular, they decided to intentionally leave it in and it became a permanent part of the game.

Early ROM revisions of the game included an exploit by which a skilled player could accumulate an infinite number of points on certain waves, with low risk. The player would attempt to maneuver one of the enemy knights too close to the lava, such that the lava troll would grip it - not low enough to the lava so the troll would succeed in pulling it in, and not high enough so the enemy knight could escape the troll's grip. By doing so, the knight could never attack the player and distract him from performing the exploit, and the wave would also never end. Then the player would stand in the middle of the platform in the center of the screen. The pterodactyl would appear from one side below the player and charge right at him; if the player simply stood in the middle of the platform, facing the pterodactyl, the player's lance would strike the pterodactyl in the mouth, killing it. A new pterodactyl would immediately appear from the other side of the screen, and could be killed in the same manner. This could be repeated indefinitely.

Legacy

The Joust Series

Joust (1982)
Joust pinball machine (1983)
Joust 2: Survival of the Fittest
(1986): Joust 2 added a "Transform" button, allowing the player to switch between an ostrich and a pegasus. Because Joust 2 was released during the waning days of the golden age of arcade games, it did not achieve nearly the level of success that Joust did, and is now considered a collector's item.
Joust X: An updated version of Joust for home consoles was planned in the 1990s but never released.
Joust keychain (1998): Tiger Electronics created a handheld adaptation of Joust as part of its Extreme Chain Series.
Joust the Movie: John Newcomer has said in interviews that he plans one day to produce a film based on Joust.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Joust (arcade game) ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Joust (arcade game); it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.