Joust (video game)
| Joust | |
|---|---|
Advertisement depicting a player with the upright arcade cabinet featuring artwork by Python Anghelo | |
| Developer(s) | Williams Electronics |
| Publisher(s) |
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| Designer(s) | John Newcomer |
| Programmer(s) | Bill Pfutzenreuter |
| Artist(s) |
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| Composer(s) |
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| Platform(s) | Arcade, Apple II, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari 8-bit, Lynx, Atari ST, IBM PC, Mac, NES |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Action |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players simultaneously |
Joust is an action game developed by Williams Electronics and released in arcades in 1982. While not the first two-player cooperative video game, Joust's success and polished implementation popularized the concept. 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), who must defeat enemy knights riding buzzards. The characters fly around a single screen filled with floating platforms.
Using the computer hardware from the company's earlier arcade game, John Newcomer led the development team: Bill Pfutzenreuter, Janice Woldenberg-Miller (née 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. It was followed by a more complex and less popular arcade sequel in 1986: Joust 2: Survival of the Fittest. Joust was ported to numerous home systems and included in several multiplatform retro game anthologies.