Joust
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| Joust | |
 | |
| Developer(s) | Williams Electronics |
| Publisher(s) | Williams Electronics Arcade Atari Atari 2600 Atari 5200 Atari ST Atari 7800 HAL Laboratory NES Nintendo Gameboy |
| Designer(s) | John Newcomer |
| Release date | Arcade: 1982 (NA) Atari 2600: 1983 (NA) |
| Genre | 2D platformer |
| Mode(s) | Single player 2 player Cooperative |
| Age rating(s) | N/A Arcade Atari 2600 |
| Platform(s) | Arcade Atari 2600 Atari 5200 Atari ST Nintendo Entertainment System Atari 7800 Nintendo Game Boy (As part of Arcade Classic 4: Defender / Joust |
| Input | Arcade: 2-Way Joystick, Button Atari 2600 Joystick NES Controller Atari 7800 Joystick |
| Credits | Soundtrack | Codes | Walkthrough | |
Joust is an arcade game released in 1982. It was ported to the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari ST computer system, and the NES. It was followed in the arcades with Joust 2: Survival Of The Fittest.
[edit] Gameplay
Each player controls a different knight and each of them rides a different mount. The first player is a yellow knight who rides on a flying ostrich. The second player is a light blue knight who rides on a giant stork.
There are three different enemy knights who all ride on giant buzzards and each of them are colored differently. The enemy knights are red Bounders, silver Hunters and dark blue Shadow Lords. The other enemies include the "unbeatable" pterodactyl and The Lava Troll, a giant hand that reaches out and grabs from one of the two lava pools at the bottom of the screen.
In each wave throughout the game, you must defeat every enemy knight in a joust. Everytime you defeat an enemy knight in a joust by ramming him atop his head, he will turn into an egg. You must then capture the egg before it hatches, otherwise, the egg will hatch and the knight will become the next more-difficult character. In other words, a Bounder will become a Hunter, a Hunter will become a Shadow Lord, a Shadow Lord will become a Bounder and so on. After the egg hatches, a new mount will fly out to pick up the newly-hatched enemy knight. You can also collect an enemy knight after he has hatched before he mounts his buzzard.
Sometimes the eggs will fall into the lava pits at the bottom of the screen in later waves. During the first two waves, there are platforms at the bottom of the screen that will allow you to walk over the lava pits, but in later waves, the platforms will be burned away. Also, in later waves, flames will start to burn in the lava pits.
Sometimes, a pterodactyl will show up in some of those waves, usually if you take too long. The pterodactyl will sometimes try to fiercely charge right at you. The only way you can kill the pterodactyl is by ramming him in the mouth to desintagrate him.
If you have your feathered mount fly too close to either of the lava pits, The Lava Troll will reach out and grab your mount by the legs and pull you both into his fiery home. If this happens, you must have your mount repeatedly flap really hard to escape from the grip of The Lava Troll. The Lava Troll will also grab the enemy knights on their buzzards and occasionally pull them in with him.
Even in the later waves, platforms will collapse and disintegrate. Occasionally, there is an Egg Wave where you must grab all the enemy eggs before they hatch. As you advance to later waves, the difficulty constantly increases.
[edit] Notes
A prototype version of this game was developed by Atari for the ColecoVision, but was never completed or released.
