In the pantheon of video game classics, Joust stands as a testament to innovation and simplicity, capturing the hearts of gamers with its unique gameplay and imaginative design. Released by Williams Electronics in 1982, Joust broke the mold with its two-player cooperative play, pitting knights riding flying giant birds against enemy knights on buzzards in a fantastical medieval jousting tournament. What sets it apart? Perhaps it's the game's simplicity, combined with its challenging gameplay, that has captivated players for decades. Or maybe it's the camaraderie and competition fostered by its cooperative and versus modes.
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Production Notes
This is the 315th episode of the Retroist Podcast and episode 17 of this season.
Fourth episode of 2024. You might notice this wasn’t supposed to come out anytime soon, but I got Joust fever recently and decided to finally tackle it.
This show was released late. I apologize for the delay.
I have looked at Joust a lot and never realized that in the arcade game, player 1 and 2 weren’t both ostriches. A stork??!
The laser disc video game craze was so overblown. Amazing how much money disappeared on that tech.
The flap mechanic seems like it should be cumbersome, but on Joust I find it really intuitive. They really got the flap to life ratio right.
I am very pro Buzzard outside this game.
I cut out a section about how colorful this game is and compared it favorably to Centipede in art style. Joust has a solid and bright color pallet.
I played this at the store near me, but in the same year, two of the other three places in my town that had arcade games got a Joust machine. We were Joust saturated.
I think they could give this game an update with a large screen like Killer Queen. Maybe bring it up to 4 or more players?
If you have the opportunity to play a working version of Joust pinball, do it. But be gentle, it’s rare.
I will post the clipping I mention over on Patreon soon.
With this big Joust score busting marathon, they must have kept the arcade open overnight for this young kid. I wonder if people were allowed to be in the arcade all night while he was playing? All-night arcade was a dream of mine as a kid.
Keeping this up here. I have been having issues with YouTube lately. Until that had been worked out, I will not be posting episodes of the show there. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Music on the show is, as always, by Peachy.
Thanks for listening to the show and I hope you have a great weekend.
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