Joust is a 1982 action game developed and published by Williams Electronics for arcades. Players assume the role of knights armed with lances and mounted on large birds (an ostrich for Player 1 and a stork for Player 2). They progress through levels, which consist of a single screen filled with floating platforms, by defeating enemy knights riding buzzards and other opponents.
Using the computer hardware from the company's earlier arcade game, Defender, John Newcomer led the development team: Bill Pfutzenreuter, Janice Woldenberg-Miller ( Hendricks), Python Anghelo, Tim Murphy, and John Kotlarik. Newcomer aimed to create a flying game, with cooperative two-player gameplay, while avoiding the overdone space theme. After deciding to use birds as characters, he forwent the standard eight-direction joystick control scheme and devised collisions as the means of combat.
The game was well-received by players and critics, and the mechanics influenced other games. Praise focused on the unique premise and enjoyable gameplay. While not the first two-player cooperative video game, Jousts success and polished implementation helped popularize the concept. It was followed by a less popular arcade sequel in 1986: Joust 2: Survival of the Fittest. While Joust was ported to numerous home systems and included in several multiplatform retro game anthologies, efforts to adapt it to other media and create updated video game remakes have been fruitless.
Gameplay
thumb|left|alt=A horizontal rectangular video game screenshot that is a digital representation of a fictional lava world. A small yellow character on a blue ostrich flies around an area populated with floating brown platforms and red and grey knights green buzzards. At the bottom center is a large brown platform protruding from a pit of red lava. Within the platform is a set of yellow numbers.|The player navigates the yellow knight (top center) around the game world to defeat the enemy knights. Scores and available lives are kept track in the bottom platform. An egg from a defeated knight rests on the middle right platform.
Joust is a platforming game where the player controls a yellow knight riding a flying ostrich from a third-person perspective. The player navigates the protagonist around the game world, which consists of rock platforms floating above a flat island surrounded by lava, via two-way joystick and a button. Home console versions, however, use game controllers with directional pads and analog sticks. The joystick controls the horizontal direction that the knight travels, while pressing the button flaps the ostrich’s wings. The rate at which the player repeatedly presses the button directly determines the bird's ascension, allowing the character to fly upward, hover, or slowly descend. When traveling off the screen to either side, the character will continue its path reappearing from the opposite side.
The objective is to defeat groups of enemy knights riding buzzards that populate each level, referred to as a "wave". Upon completing a wave, a subsequent, more challenging one will begin. Players pilot the knight to collide with enemies. The higher of two jousting lances is the winner, whereas a collision of equal height repels the characters apart. A defeated enemy will turn into an egg that falls toward the bottom of the screen, which a player can collect for points. If the player does not collect the egg, it will hatch into a new knight that gains a new mount and must be defeated again. The game features three type of enemy knights—Bounder, Hunter, and Shadow Lord—that are separate colors and are worth different amounts of points. A pterodactyl will appear after a predetermined time frame to hunt the hero. Players can defeat the pterodactyl for bonus points. An indestructible Lava Troll will grab any character flying too low over the lava and drags them into the lava. Losing a clash against an opponent or contact with lava deducts an available game life; the game ends when all game lives are expended. A second player can join the game, controlling a blue knight on a stork. The two players cooperatively complete the waves, optionally attacking each other. The game features amplified monaural sound and raster graphics on a 19-inch color CRT monitor. Like other Williams arcade games, Joust was programmed in assembly language. A pack of three AA batteries provide power to save the game's settings and high scores when the machine is unplugged from an electrical outlet. Anghelo stenciled the cabinet artwork on a wooden frame,
Newcomer conceived Joust as a "flying game" with cooperative two-player gameplay, but he did not wish to emulate the popular space theme of previous successful flying games like Asteroids and Defender. To that end, he made a list of things that could fly: machines, animals, and fictional characters. After evaluating the positive and negative of each idea, Newcomer chose birds for their wide appeal and his familiarity with fantasy and science fiction media featuring birds. To further increase his understanding, Newcomer went to the library to study mythology. He believed that the primary protagonist should ride a majestic bird. The first choice was an eagle, but the lack of graceful land mobility dissuaded him. Instead, he decided that a flying ostrich was more believable than a running eagle. To differentiate between the first and second player characters, the developers picked a stork, believing the proportions were similar to an ostrich while the color difference would avoid confusion among players. Newcomer chose vultures as the main enemies, believing that they would be recognizably evil.