Joust Arcade Machine is an action game developed by Williams Electronics and released in arcades in 1982. While not the first two-player cooperative video game, Joust’s success and polished implementation popularized the concept.
Objective:
- To defeat the groups of enemy knights riding buzzards in each wave.
Game Play:
- Player 1 controls a yellow knight riding a flying ostrich. Player 2 controls a blue knight riding on a stork.
- The flap button repeatedly pressed gains altitude by flapping the ostrich’s wings.
- A two-directional joystick controls direction.
- In a collision with enemy knights riding buzzards – or the other player – the higher rider dismounts the other.
- The player navigates the protagonist around the game world, which consists of rock platforms floating above a flat island surrounded by lava.
- A defeated enemy turns into a falling egg which can be collected for points.
- If the player does not collect the egg, it hatches into a knight that gains a new mount and must be defeated again – unless the egg falls into the lava, in which case it is destroyed.
- Face three types of enemy knight: 1) Bounder 2) Hunter and 3) Shadow Lord -which are separate colors and worth different amounts of points.
