Joust (1982). Play online

Summary

Joust rose to fame in early‑80s arcades with its instantly recognizable silhouette of knights on flying birds. Built on Williams’s Defender board, the game runs on a 19‑inch color CRT and even uses three AA batteries to keep high scores when the cabinet is unplugged.

You control an ostrich‑mounted knight (or a stork for player 2) with a two‑way joystick for left/right and a single button that continuously flaps the wings, letting you hover or dive. Combat is pure vertical, because the higher lance wins; when you knock out an opponent his lance turns into a falling egg that must be caught before it hatches.

A two‑player cabinet lets the blue knight either cooperate or turn on the partner, while a hand reaching out of the lava below adds a constant sense of danger. Enemies range from random‑moving Bounders to hunter‑type knights and the ever‑dangerous Lava Troll that drags anyone too low.

The arcade version shipped 26,000 units, topped U.S. Play Meter charts in January 1983, and sported stenciled art by Python Anghelo—a fact that still thrills collectors today.

Storyline

In Joust, you take the role of a knight astride a flying ostrich—switching to a stork when you play with a friend. The arena is a floating platform that hovers over a sea of lava, and waves of enemy knights on buzzards swoop in to challenge you. When you knock an opponent out of the sky, they drop as an egg that can later hatch into a new combatant, keeping the battle fresh. Adding to the chaos, a pterodactyl circles the arena while an indestructible Lava Troll roams the platform, forcing you to stay constantly on the move.