@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries You made the right decision, good sir. Just... It felt like an acid flashback and I haven't ever actually taken acid. Good stuff. Weird stuff but good.
Thanks for making this video on Joust, keeping the game and memories alive! Back when we were making the earlier coin-op games there wasn't much thought paid to history. You did the best you could with the tech and tools available at the time trying to provide some fun entertainment for as many people as possible that might connect with the theme and mechanics. The assumption was the early games may be forgotten as tech would evolve into interactive movies etc. Looking back, it always feels special to be remembered and most importantly to have your baby remembered. It is wonderful to hear how this game and other games of that era touched people. The games of the coin-op era are rapidly disappearing So thanks again PatmanQC for showcasing Joust and Joust2, and any games to preserve our gaming history.
Thanks for the nice words. I've always enjoyed joust and from the reaction to my video so did a lot of other people. Any reason why you did not care for the ostrich as the second player?
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries Yes, I thought the stork felt weak and not magestic or powerful by comparison to the ostrich. The ostrich was supposed to be bred for combat and enhanced as Python Anghelo later depicted in the poster he drew. He did the best anyone could to make the Stork look equally as strong. The problem was complicated. We needed a second bird and it could only use the limited colors we had. The first impulse was something like an eagle or condor, but the shapes of those would be more buzzard-like and making the walking work so the lances and collison shape was equal to the ostrich was not possible. Our choices were then to either make a light colored ostrich, or an imaginary bird, or to make the best of a sleeker bird like a stork. In the end I felt a different color ostrich would be too confusing to play especially since you could kill the other player accidentally and I did not want the player to feel cheated. Imaginary would be out of place when the other birds were real and more importantly can be easily named when explaining the game to a friend. So, I went with the stork which pixel artist Jan Hendricks was able to do with the available colors and could make the walking animation work to match the ostrich. So really she did a great job making an impossible task work. If done in today's tech, I would make the birds more imaginary and clearly bred for combat.
Mr. Newcomer... thanks for creating one of the most memorable games at Williams Electronics; hell, perhaps, one of the classic video games of all time! JOUST :)
@@beedwarf Thank you so much! We had a great team working on it, especially Lead Programmer Pfutz (Bill Pfutzenreuter). He did so much to make the flying work with the AI. We went back and forth improving it constantly. And the roadrunner skid stop was his idea. And this game would not have happened without supportive upper management. It was a big risk for them because it wasn't the typical space shooter that put Williams on the map (Defender, Stargate, Robotron). Some industry experts really panned it just prior to first live test, but management let us test it at an arcade anyways. Fans literally voted on the game at the cashbox and without question had a direct impact on the game's success.
Yes indeed! Great video, and it was one of my favorites as a kid also. I often played Joust for hours while sipping on my virgin Shirley Temple as my parents socialized and played darts at a nearby pub. It is such a fun and challenging game to be so simple.
My brother pwned this game at our local arcade when we were in high-school. A few quarters a day, he had the high score table all to himself. Great game!
Hey, you got Slopes to cameo in YOUR video this time! Nice! Also, great vid, as always. This one was a big part of my childhood. The gas station in the little town I grew up in had a cabinet, and I'd take the quarters I'd made from doing odd jobs for the neighbors down there on Saturday mornings and play and play.
I REALLY miss the wonderful sounds that used to come out of an arcade back in the early eighties. I haven't even seen an arcade for decades, but from videos I've seen it looks like they are all fighting and "Dance Dance Revolution" type games. Not my cup of tea. The huge arcade near my house ("The Fun Machine") went out of business 20 years ago. :(
One of my top 5 all-time favorites. When I killed the "Unbeatable?" Pterodactyl for the first time, 5-year old me felt like an absolute BADASS for the first time.
Get outta my head! LOL! Over the last week, I have been making Joust soundfile clips for my smartphone ringtones and notifications! LOL! I always wanted to know why the sounds of Defender and Joust are so similar. Now I know why! I think the Williams arcade game and pinball sfx are some of the best classic video game sounds. Great video as always.
Yup the old pinball game called Firepower was very heavily influenced by Defender. My friend and I would put in a coin apiece and play pinball. If neither of us won a game, but popped one, then we went into what we called Dragon Attack. Dragon Attack involved both of us playing that game at the same time, where he would take a flipper control and I would take the other. I'm not sure we ever won a game playing like that, but it was pretty fun to use up a game nobody won really. Incidentally the voice used on Firepower, was the exact same one used on Black Knight. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-p4QenLJTdpw.html
I'm actually surprised we haven't see a modern revival exploring this world further. It was such a wild concept of people riding giant birds and jousting each other over this land of floating rocks and molten lava. I feel like you could come up with an amazing story campaign play thru if you dived deeper into that. I really enjoyed this game when I was younger I played both the 2600 version at my older cousin's house and the 7800 version at friend's house. The 2600 was definitely playable as it had the speed and feel of the arcade, the 7800 was a treat to play as it was a much more colorful version look at with far more details in the sprites. I had no idea there was a Joust 2, as I'd never seen it in the wild, or heard anyone mention it prior to this video. Between that mindblowing ad for the game you had some deep cuts into gaming history for us Patman. You always manage to delve into some aspect of gaming I've missed despite being fairly knowledgeable on the subject.
@@hunterdavis3003 I'd never heard of it either. It's actually called: Joust 2: Survival Of The Fittest. Surprised there weren't any home ports of it. Or maybe there were and I just missed them.
Joust 2 is certainly an acquired taste; saw Joust 2 in Times Square New York arcades & the way I felt abt the game then is exactly the way I feel it now - - - ; too many odd influences; probably play best as it was intended...a commercial, two player, 'pay to play win' design. Unfortunately. Doesn't take anything away f/the original which is a masterpiece.
I flipped Joust many times. Favorite game by far. I found a cheat once, if you can get the troll to grab a Bounder or Hunter the troll can't pull them down. Wait for the dactil. After seven(?) dactils they start coming out in never ending groups of three. (I think this cheat could be turned off or on in the start up menu) Another trick was "flutter", use two fingers tapping real fast. I could fly just like the Shadow Lords. In later stages with only the middle side platforms and only Shadow Lords keep your mount where the center platform should be. I could clear a level in about 15 seconds. Really one of the best games ever. Thank you for the hours of entertainment Mr. Newcomer.
Great vid as always! Loved this game as a kid in the early 80s. I'm surprised that I never saw or don't remember that crazy Atari commercial. For some reason, it kinda reminded me of the beginning of Time Bandits (movie).
"Joust" has always been one of my favorite video games (and one of the few that I was actually any good at). Still have the 2600 version. Loved "Tail Gunner," "Red Baron" and the Star Wars vector graphic arcade games, too. When I was working at Domino's Pizza in the mid 80's, several of us would go to the local Putt Putt Golf and Games, get $20 in game tokens each and play "Gauntlet" until the place closed on Saturday nights. Man, I miss the 80's. =(
@@makaveli4205 I will not argue that point! I completely agree! The joysticks got loose way too easy. Those number pads were worthless. And the buttons would get stuck at the drop of a hat!
I never played it anywhere other than the arcade. Did you destroy the fire button playing it? Cause let me tell you, the arcade's buttons were resilient!
@@jal051 Arcade buttons were way better than the 5200 buttons. You had to experience those joysticks to see how bad they were. They were on the SIDE of the controller! And were made very firmly. They tended to stick if you were playing for a long time. Which sucked in Joust, since you need those quick button taps to fly just right. Once missed click and you're toast.
They have two Joust Pinball machines at the Museum of Pinball in Banning California. I was supposed to go in march to play it but it closed to covid. It's a really fun machine.
Joust was a favourite of mine in the arcade. One of the few games I could play fairly well, too. I often made it to the Shadowlord levels but they're so tough they'd take me out pretty quickly. Thanks so much for this great review, Patman~! Also I never knew there was a pinball game - it looks really cool and I love that head - to - head concept.
@@rvsb15 You can play thousands of games, including Coin - Op games like Joust at retrouprising; I've been playing games there for years and I think it's excellent.
Joust is the best early arcade with gravity, inertia and position as primary mechanics. When NES came along, My history with Joust was probably why I was immediately drawn to Solar Jetman - as it took these mechanics to the next level, with the addition of sci fi, shooting and large maps to discover. It’s one of the most under rated game of that generation imo.
Excellent! Another staple of the amusement arcades I spent most of my summer holidays frequenting. "Go outside and play!" Mother would yell, but to me that simply translated into; "Go on son, get yourself down to the arcade for hours, and sink all your pocket money into those amazing machines!" I really do miss those days... In fact at the moment when I'm on my days off I just miss being able to go outside?!! I can imagine what few arcades still exist must be really struggling thanks to the lockdown? They are usually quite tight spaces, so I can't imagine how they will enforce social distancing when they eventually do reopen?? Sad times indeed 😥 Thanjs for still pumping out the content Patman, it's a great distraction from everything else happening right now 🇺🇲🇬🇧👍
I loved this arcade. It felt so smooth and precise. The programmer deserves at 10. And it was always different and always challenging. My favorite arcade of all times. I think I was around 12 when they had the machine at a bar below my home. I coulnd't stop playing it.
Great video. I played the original Williams upright in the arcade in 1982. In 86 when the arcade closed I bought the game from them. It is still in my basement nearly 35 years later for my 10 year old and I to play! There were a few different versions of the arcade roms. Mostly pterodactyl bug fixes. Early buggy roms are more fun to play!
the physics, animations, and controls of the original game are rock solid stable. There were glitchy and hard to follow games even in arcades, console ports in that era all looked pretty crappy and many were terrible to play, but Joust is so simple and direct, it was playable on anything.
You sir have the best documentary on these games with period piece commercials of days past. I’m glad these things are shared on you tube for educational archives from how much the gaming industry has come along. Thanks again for your dedicated service for historical accuracy.
@mn5 stoat Now that you mention it, that actually would’ve been a pretty good choice. Nothing I’ve ever encountered is nastier than an angry swan 🦢. They can be extremely terrifying & won’t back down from a fight
Totally remember that commercial with the knights breaking through the walls. So funny. Oh, and, I loved the arcade Joust. Such unique gameplay and simultaneous 2 player action.
Great inertia physics, Thrust on C64 was a big step up where you collect a power core doohickey that drags on your ship's flight, an absolute bugger but soooo addictive! 💙👍🏼
Played this at the Barcade in LA last night, for the 1st time in several years. Forgot how truly addictive it is - really one of the best classic games ever, and manages to STILL be just as good today as it was when it appeared 40 years ago! Love Joust!
I love this game, it's one of my all-time favorite 2 player arcade games. I actually got to play against John Newcomer a few years back at the Let's Play Gaming Convention. I could tell that he's played this game a lot :)
Not sure if this was one of the items on your list, but Joust actually made it into World of Warcraft. Back in 2010, Blizzard worked in a quest line that represented Joust located in a fiery, lava filled hatchery where you would equip a lance and mount up on a hippogryph which, unlike other flying mounts in the game, needed to have you repeatedly tap the "flap" button to get it to fly. You had to knock other enemies off their mounts in two waves. The third (egg) wave has you going and destroying all the eggs within the hatchery to complete the quest line before you return to the main quest giver. You were rewarded with a choice of either a gold or blue mini-jouster battle pet (pokemon) which featured a tiny rag doll, holding a tiny spear, riding atop a similarly colored buzzard (kind of a weird choice since the enemies in Joust rode buzzards). The controls were a bit clunky, but once you worked it out you could manage fairly well. It wasn't a 100% recreation as instead of a fiery hand grabbing you from the lava, there were lava eruptions that would occasionally happen, the lava never rose up to burn the bridges and since it was a 3D environment, you had to work on all axis to win. Unfortunately, there was no pterodactyl. However, later on (and after much griping at not being able to have both mini-jousters), they implemented a daily (a daily repeatable quest) where you had to return to the hatchery and "joust" more enemies. If you did this ten days in a row, you were awarded the achievement "The 'Unbeatable?' Pterodactyl: BEATEN" (again, ironic because there was no pterodactyl) and you were given the reward of the other mini-jouster you were not able to choose before.
@@latedep31 'Pinball Hall of Fame William's Collection' for the modern gaming systems should be of interest; I want the compilation for 'Black Knight', one of the 1st pinball games that solidified those classic sound effects used in the video games.
Galaga, Joust & Gauntlet - those were my three favorites. I was never particularly good at the first two but I had one play of Gauntlet that went on for a few hours. I had to purposefully tank so I could make an afternoon class. That commercial looks like something that would be a commercial break for "Too Many Cooks" ;-)
Underrated classic, always one of my favorites. We had the Atari 800 version, which didn't look arcade perfect but played great and my brother and I would play for hours and hours.
Joust was one of my favourite games. I played it a lot in the arcades and with the fabulous Atari ST conversion (1986) which was definitely the best port. I still play it from time to time on the MAME emulator along with Joust 2 which I never had the chance to play before (it was never released in my country). Thanks for your great videos!
Thank you for watching, the Atari ST version was fantastic. It's too bad joust 2 was released just after the videogame crash was recovering because it was still a great game and should have received more coverage
I was hoping you would do a Joust History video. This game is solidly in my all time top ten 80's arcade games. My dream mancave/gameroom would have an original one in it upright or tabletop. What a wild concept that actually worked. I never had a home console version. I'm thinking about getting it for my gameboy advance sp. I think most of the game designers of that era were rightly bitter for being underpaid. Especially after seeing their ideas/games/concepts make multi millions they never got a slice of. Great work as usual.
whenever I visited arcades in the 2010's I would always flock to the world arcade collection machine that had joust on it I was addicted. Joust is my favorite arcade game. The medieval fantasy premise, the challenging unique control of the bird, the graphics and sounds just ogh man so wonderful.
Joust has always been my #1 fav arcade game, followed by defender and Pac Man. So much fun to be able to play a cycle accurate copy of it on Mister FPGA. Next best thing to having the actual cabinet.
The main reason why Joust 2 failed to click was that it presented fairly classic arcade action and frankly still quite a retro look, in what was by then a decidedly post-NES world. It's the same reason why another Defender or another Centipede simply couldn't be expected to repeat their early successes by 1986, and why they'd basically given up on reiterating/cloning traditional Pac-Man. I did see it in an arcade once, in the early 90s, and was quite surprised to learn of its existence. Footnote: The most successful clone of Joust, Balloon Fight, is mistakenly considered by most Japanese gamers to be the originator of the Joust gameplay gimmick, with Joust being a later game that simply ripped the idea off.
Great documentary Patman! Just picked up a copy of the Atari 7800 Joust port myself. Including a recommendation, and a link to your video on my Atari 7800 Joust review video.
Cool stuff thanks for the memory, loved both games back in the day, lost so many quarters too. Never knew that they produce a pinball version, neat stuff.thank you
Great game. Wasn't willing to feed it enough quarters to get good, but loved the 400/800 port. Never knew about Joust 2, suspect I won't find a modern port and may wind on mame.
I actually got to play Joust 2 in an arcade in Long Island back in the very early 90s. It was strange to find because I had never known it existed. I was already a huge fan of Joust, as well as Dig Dug. Seeing this in an arcade was a real treat for me. I probably spent close to $2 in my first outing, and I can tell you it was a little harder than the original. I had never seen another cabinet after this encounter. Not even in a much larger arcades. Years later, I got the PS1 version of Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits. I remember there being video interviews with programmers. There was a few about Joust, including mention of Joust 2. Only then, I found out how rare Joust 2 really was. For a short moment, I felt kinda of special being able to play this in a legit arcade.
Great game! I love the concept and especially the sound. That the knight hatches from the egg rather than the birds, is funny and very clever. The Game Boy version was interesting because it had options of either the classic background or an 'updated' one that looked pretty cool. It also had the option of 'auto-fire' for the game that let you hold a button down to flap the wings. Was kinda hard to control your mount that way, but a nice feature to give your thumb a break. It's a fun version.
Another great video, and one of my favourite arcade games back in the day. It's now got a special place in my heart as when I go to the excellent Arcade Club in Bury or Leeds here in the UK it's one of the few games that I actually not terrible at playing at these days! I absolutely suck at most of the games I used to be good at playing as a kid but I surprised myself by not being absolutely rubbish at this despite not having played it for 35 years or so.
Really enjoyed this one. I had an Atari 400, which saw a very nice port of Joust for it. I can't afford a real arcade cab, but was able to pickup an Arcade1up version of Joust, this week. Thanks for sharing.
Does anyone else remember a completely different game for the TI-99/4A, also called "Joust?" It was set up like a jousting competition you'd see at a ren faire. You could choose one of three weapons (mace, lance, or sword as I recall). Your opponent (or the computer) had the same three options. Each weapon would beat one, but lose to another. Essentially, it was a glorified rock-paper-scissors.
I used to work at the arcade, I could play joust for a really long time. You could capture a joust bird and kill pterodactyls on the center island easily. I'd build up a bunch of guys then sell the game for my original quarter when things got busy.
Yep, the local arcade put up a sign "NO HUNTING FROM THE ROCK" Here's someone demonstrating it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8DZ4dDQtb3c.html
Really, really nice video; I used to play those Mattel Electronics Football I & II hand held devices; didn't know the game designer of Joust worked on those games.
I loved Joust back in the day, and was shocked at the ONE time I ever defeated the pterodactyl. I actually played the Joust pinball machine when it was at one of our local arcades, and it was definitely one of the most unique tables I'd played.
A few years ago, the World of Warcraft paid tribute to the Joust video game. Inside a special area, your toon rode a flying mount which you kept up by tapping the spacebar on your keyboard. You had to collect eggs, while avoiding enemies and falling into the lava below. The main difference was, WoW's version was from a first-person perspective, and was quite a challenge to complete. When a buddy of mine and I first saw it, we said "Hey, that's Joust." It was a really neat alternative version to the classic arcade game.
