Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Arcade Classics: JOUST

I picked up the new JOUST game by Arcade Classics today. These are awesome mini, 6 inch high, battery operated, handheld toys with nearly identical gameplay and graphics to the original arcade machines. They're surprisingly cool and only $20 at Walmart. (PS: I really really hope they do Popeye and Congo Bongo eventually too!) Click HERE to see some footage of it in action, as well as their classic RAMPAGE too! Check the web for all of the other games available too, there are 10 as of now.





Yep, Joust was another one of my all time favorites as a teen, so this was a "must buy" for me. Flying around on souped up birds and jousting opponents and crushing eggs while avoiding pterodactyls and fiery lava demon hands helped shape me into the fine upstanding citizen I am today! Also, ask me sometime to tell the tale of how I actually beat a Joust arcade game one night at Showbiz Pizza on ONE QUARTER. That's right, it took over an hour or so but I did it. The screen went wild with scrolling code as the high score could get no higher. True story!! I AM THE CHAMPIONZ!!!

9 comments:

  1. Man, these are pretty great. I haven't been able to find every title online yet, but I am impressed that they managed to get Joust, Rampage, and Q-Bert into the top ten. Pac Man and Asteroids and the like I expect. Frogger, right? But these three are a beat or two off expected track.

    I hope we see Galaxian of course. And Rush'n Attack. And the terrible Zaxxon--although it would likely difficult to miniaturize the terrible Zaxxon control stick. Or maybe Afterburner!

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  2. So far they have released joust, rampage, Q Bert, Frogger, centipede, Pac-Man, Mrs. Pac-Man, astroids, space invaders, and defender.

    I'd like see Kangaroo, Moon Cresta, and Spy Hunter too...

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  3. Oh, or Vanguard, Sinistar, or Mr. Do! And why do people always want to remake Missile Command? Give me Tail Gunner.

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  4. I literally just bought this (along with Q-bert and Frogger) a few hours ago... I noticed the boxes are numbered, (with Pac-Man being game #1, Rampage being the highest no. so far, at #10) but I can't find #9 anywhere, either in-stores or anywhere on the Internets. Any idea what game #9 is?

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  5. All Hail Karswell, Champion of Joust!

    Hail!

    Hail!

    Hail!

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  6. The only takeaway from this is that most of the games used are said to be possibly hacks or modded versions of Nintendo ports. I know Joust was released for the NES back in the day, it's port was actually programmed by HAL Laboratory as part of a attempt to Nintendo to interest Atari to sell their Famicom originally in the US, leading to further parternship between Nintendo and HAL. That alone is an interesting story if you ever look into the reason why the NES had Millipede, Defender II and Joust released for it.
    https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/254169/A_former_mentor_recalls_the_early_career_of_Satoru_Iwata.php
    https://www.wired.com/2016/08/joust-prototype-nes/
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4cJh2YgrKE

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  7. I have #9 and it's Galaga...?

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