The early cabinets had the optical ones, while the later ones used the leaf stick ones. Your Joust machine will come with either 2-Way leaf switch joysticks, or 2-Way optical ones. The marquee especially is a stunning rendition of the Joust logo, and two riders inside the Joust world. The control panel, monitor bezel, and marquee are all filled with the expected graphics. This design is fairly simple when compared to the sideart on other games, and can be repainted by hand, as long as you are careful. But it does have sideart, in this case a four color painted rendering of a knight riding a large bird, while carrying a lance. The cabinet is largely black with no painted art on the front of the machine. It is similar in shape to other Williams games from that era, but it is not identical to them. * The upright version of Joust was a dedicated cabinet. Players can lose a life by either being knocked from their steed by an enemy Knight, or by falling into the lava pit at the bottom of each level. A pterodactyl will appear after a predetermined time to hunt the players.Īccurately navigating the player Knights can be initially quite difficult as control is strongly affected by both gravity and inertia.
Joust features three different types of enemy knights - Bounder, Hunter and Shadow Lord - with each earning players different points values when defeated. This must be quickly collected by players as if the egg lands on a platform and isn't retrieved in time, it will eventually hatch into another enemy knight that must be defeated again. A collision of equal elevations results in the two knights bouncing off each other, but if a player is lower than their enemy at the instant of contact, they themselves will be knocked from their steed and lose a life.Ī defeated enemy will turn into an egg that falls to the bottom of the screen. This can only be achieved if the attacking rider is above the enemy knight when the lance connects. This is achieved by 'jousting' both enemy and player knights carry a lance and must fly around the level (actioned by repeatedly hitting the 'Flap' button) trying to oust rival knights from their steeds by ramming them with the lance. The object of the game is to progress through platform-based levels by defeating groups of buzzard-riding enemy knights. Joust is a platform-based action combat game for one or two-players (with the two-player game offering either team-up OR head-to-head combat the first time arcade gamers were given this choice) in which each player controls a knight riding on the back of a flying ostrich. Play your favorite classic games and more with the GameEx front end.