Museum of the Game ®

International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®

Joust

Description

You are a knight flying on an ostrich, battling buzzard-mounted enemies. To fly, you repeatedly hit the flap button. To topple the Buzzard-Riders "the highest lance wins." Two-player head-to-head play is excellent.

Joust was produced by Williams Electronics, Inc. (1967-1985) in 1982.

Williams Electronics, Inc. (1967-1985) released 215 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1959. Williams Electronics, Inc. (1967-1985) was based in United States.

Other machines made by Williams Electronics, Inc. (1967-1985) during the time period Joust was produced include: Cyclone (1981), Barracora, Jungle Lord, Pharaoh, Hyperball, Varkon, Thunderball, Bubbles, Robotron: 2084, and Sinistar

Specs

Name	Joust
Developer	Williams Electronics, Inc. (1967-1985) (United States)
Year	1982
Type	Videogame
KLOV/MOG #	8243
Class	Wide Release
Genre	Platform
Monitor	Orientation: Horizontal Type: Raster: Standard Resolution Color: Color 19-inch Wells-Gardner
Conversion Class	Williams
Game Specific	Joust Pinout
# Simultaneous Players	2
# Maximum Players	2
Game Play	Joint
Control Panel Layout	Multiple Player
Controls	Joystick: 2-way (left, right) Buttons: 1 - Flap
Sound	Amplified Mono (one channel)
Cabinet Styles	Upright/Standard - 237 Pounds Cocktail - 176 Pounds
Instructions	Joust Instructions Image
Bezel	Joust Bezel Image
Control Panel	Joust Control Panel Image
Side Art	Joust Side Art Image
PCB	Joust PCB Image

Video Clips

Original 1982 Williams Joust Video Arcade Game Machine

Williams JOUST Arcade Game

Joust Cocktail Table

Game Introduction

Each player controls a different knight and each of them rides a different mount. The first player is a yellow knight who rides on a flying ostrich. The second player is a light blue knight who rides on a giant stork.

There are three different enemy knights who all ride on giant buzzards and each of them are colored differently. The enemy knights are red Bounders, silver Hunters and dark blue Shadow Lords. The other enemies include the "unbeatable" pterodactyl and The Lava Troll, a giant hand that reaches out and grabs from one of the two lava pools at the bottom of the screen.

Game Play

In each wave throughout the game, you must defeat every enemy knight in a joust. Everytime you defeat an enemy knight in a joust by ramming him atop his head, he will turn into an egg. You must then capture the egg before it hatches, otherwise, the egg will hatch and the knight will become the next more-difficult character. In other words, a Bounder will become a Hunter, a Hunter will become a Shadow Lord, a Shadow Lord will become a Bounder and so on. After the egg hatches, a new mount will fly out to pick up the newly-hatched enemy knight. You can also collect an enemy knight after he has hatched before he mounts his buzzard.

Sometimes the eggs will fall into the lava pits at the bottom of the screen in later waves. During the first two waves, there are platforms at the bottom of the screen that will allow you to walk over the lava pits, but in later waves, the platforms will be burned away. Also, in later waves, flames will start to burn in the lava pits.

Sometimes, a pterodactyl will show up in some of those waves, usually if you take too long. The pterodactyl will sometimes try to fiercely charge right at you. The only way you can kill the pterodactyl is by ramming him in the mouth to desintagrate him.

If you have your feathered mount fly too close to either of the lava pits, The Lava Troll will reach out and grab your mount by the legs and pull you both into his fiery home. If this happens, you must have your mount repeatedly flap really hard to escape from the grip of The Lava Troll. The Lava Troll will also grab the enemy knights on their buzzards and occasionally pull them in with him.

Even in the later waves, platforms will collapse and disintegrate. Occasionally, there is an Egg Wave where you must grab all the enemy eggs before they hatch. As you advance to later waves, the difficulty constantly increases.

Joust KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 4.03 (29 votes)

Fun Factor: 4.12

Overall Like	4.25
Fun (Social)	4.39
Fun (Solo)	3.89
Collector Desire	3.93

Technical Rating: 4.05

Gameplay	4.33
Graphics	4.07
Originality	4.61
Sound/Music	3.57

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Cheats, Tricks, Bugs, and Easter Eggs

Bug: The most famous bug is known as the "Pterodactyl bug". First, cause one of the red riders to get caught by the lava hands on either side of the screen. Then, position yourself so that you can kill the pterodactyls as they come in from either side of the screen. This trick only works on certain ROM revisions of the game, though.

Images

Cabinet Information

Early production Joust cabinets came with optical joysticks instead of leaf joysticks and thus had a larger joystick opening in the control panel. The leaf joysticks were substituted later as a cost-saving measure.

Conversion

These cabinets can also play Robotron and vice-versa with a swap of the program ROMs, the sound ROM, and minor wiring harness modifications for the extra joystick inputs required by Robotron. The control panel joystick openings will have to be bored out to accept the 8-way sticks of Robotron if the cabinet has the two-way leaf joysticks. Joust control panels with Opto-joysticks have larger openings and will readily accept 8-way joysticks.

Miscellaneous

Play the game on-line requires Shockwave at http://www.midway.com/classicGames/joust/joust.html

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Joust Census

There are 15,264 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,669 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 166,973 machines (7,000 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 797 known instances of this machine owned by Joust collectors who are active members. Of these, 729 of them are original dedicated machines. 18 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet. 45 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 21 active VAPS members with a Joust machines for sale.

Wanted - Very Popular - There are 72 active VAPS members currently looking for Joust.

This game ranks a 93 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 82 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Williams' Line-up of Games

1983 / 8 Pages

Legacy

Joust
Joust 2: Survival Of The Fittest

Manuals

Instruction Manual - Cocktail - Joust Manual — **Instruction Manual - Cocktail**
(12 pages, 771 kB File)

Instruction Manual - Joust Manual — **Instruction Manual**
(26 pages, 3.8 MB File)

Manual Amendment - Joust Manual — **Manual Amendment**
(7 pages, 781 kB File)

Drawing Set - Joust Manual — **Drawing Set**
(16 pages, 1.6 MB File)

Parts Catalog - Joust Manual — **Parts Catalog**
(4 pages, 373 kB File)

Foto-Finder® (Books)

The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 122; Color photo Price guide: No
Arcade Fever Sellers (ISBN 0762409371) Page: 94; Color photo
Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 122; Color photo
Pinball Compendium : 1982 to Present Shalhoub (ISBN 0764323008) Page: 36; Color photo

Additional References (logged in members often see more)

3D Model (External): Cocktail (68320ef875b5668ac86d48c6a4f11d2c)
3D Model (External): Upright (4833f3cf04204cd8a63a9d7f761c674d)

Arcade Map - Play This Game

Our members have reported that Joust is playable at 5 locations:

Name	Location	State	Country	Details	Check-ins
Bartari	101 Adams Ave, Scranton	Pennsylvania	United States	Bar	0
District 82 Pinball Arcade	800 O Keefe Road, De Pere	Wisconsin	United States	Arcade	0
Level One Bar + Arcade	130 Hutchinson Ave, Columbus	Ohio	United States	Unknown	0
The Very Best Arcade (The Very Best Weiner Shop)	252 E High St, Pottstown	Pennsylvania	United States	Arcade	1
Upstate Pinball & Arcade Museum	109A West Trade St, Simpsonville	South Carolina	United States	Arcade	2

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