ATARI
16k ROM
Joust is a direct copy of the arcade
original complete with lava troll, pterodactyl and all. The game has a
mediaeval feel with the player finding himself riding upon a flying
ostrich(!) and jousting against other knights. You must attempt to
knock the other knights off their mounts by bumping them from above.
Pressing the joystick button gives you flight while the stick gives
you movement. Easy? Not quite, for many different things hinder your
progress such as floating platforms with which you often collide.
Sometimes when you dislodge a knight he leaves an egg behind which
will hatch into another knight if you don't quickly run over it. Other
enemies include a lava troll who tries to grab any low-flying birds
and a pterodactyl who does its utmost to eat you. Only the pterodactyl
can be destroyed by hitting him directly on the head with your pole.
One final hindrance is that you move with Newton's Laws of Motion i.e.
you cannot stop dead, you have to decelerate and accelerate.
On power-up a nice title page is shown
with the top half taken up by the name written in the same style as in
the arcade. The lower half is in Graphics 0 and gives you details of
copyright, number of players (1/2) and the difficulty level from 1 to
4. Pressing START begins the game. The graphics in Joust are good. The
islands are well arranged and the birds very neat. You can tell when
an ostrich flaps its wings and the lava troll's hand is very good. The
sound is simple but pleasant. Not really brilliant but quite adequate.
Joust is a very enjoyable and addictive
game. I find myself trying to knock other ostrich riding knights from
the sky all day. Only a couple of gripes. Sometimes after you have
lost one of your five lives your knightless bird takes ages to get off
the screen and there is no high score table.
Joust is a very good game. Not the
best, but very good.
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