Joust (video game)

Joust
Arcade flyer for Joust. Pictured is a player in front of the arcade cabinet.
Developer(s)	Williams Electronics
Publisher(s)	Williams Electronics
Designer(s)	John Newcomer
Programmer(s)	Bill Pfutzenreuter
Artist(s)	Jan Hendricks Python Anghelo
Composer(s)	Tim Murphy John Kotlarik (sounds)
Platform(s)	Arcade (original) Apple II, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari 8-bit, Lynx, Atari ST, IBM PC, Macintosh, NES
Release	July 16, 1982
Genre(s)	Action
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously
Cabinet	Upright and table
Display	Horizontal Raster, standard resolution (Used: 292 x 240) 19 inch

Joust is an arcade game developed by Williams Electronics and released in 1982. While not the first game to feature two-player cooperative play, Joust was more successful than its predecessors and popularized the concept. The player uses a button and joystick to control a knight riding a flying ostrich. The object is to progress through levels by defeating groups of enemy knights riding buzzards.

John Newcomer led the development team, which included Bill Pfutzenreuter, Jan Hendricks, Python Anghelo, Tim Murphy, and John Kotlarik. Newcomer aimed to create a flying game with cooperative two-player gameplay, but wanted to avoid a space theme, which was popular at the time.

The game was well received in arcades and by critics, who praised the gameplay, the mechanics of which influenced titles by other developers. Joust was followed by a sequel four years later, and was ported to numerous home and portable platforms.

The player controls a yellow knight riding a flying ostrich or stork, from a third-person perspective. Using the two-way directional joystick and the button for flapping the ostrich's wings, the player flies the knight amidst the floating rock platforms and above pools of lava; when maneuvering off the screen to either side, the player will continue its path reappearing from the opposite side. The rate at which the player repeatedly presses the button causes the ostrich to fly upward, hover, or slowly descend.

Players navigate the knight to collide with enemies. The elevation of an enemy in relation to the player's knight determines the outcome of the collision. If the protagonist is higher than the enemy, the villain is defeated and vice versa. A collision of equal elevations results in the two knights bouncing off each other. A defeated enemy will turn into an egg that falls toward the bottom of the screen, which a player can collect for points. An egg that sits on a platform long enough will hatch into a new knight; if the player does not pick him up, he will gain a new mount and must be defeated again.

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 wave begins. The game features three types of enemy knights—Bounder, Hunter, and Shadow Lord—that are worth different amounts of points. A pterodactyl appears after a predetermined time frame to hunt the heroes.