THE INSIDE STORY ON JOUST

Video games, even in the early '80s, took many months, large amounts of money and multiple programmers to complete. Companies frequently gambled their whole existence on the success or failure of a single project. Such stakes in other industries might result in conservative product strategies. But being conservative with new video games was like signing a death warrant. Kids then and now want a new surprise every time they enter the arcade, and if you don't give it to them, some other company will. This was the atmosphere in 1982 when Williams decided to gamble on a fighting game with no fire button called Joust.

Call it a calculated risk. Williams must have had some blind faith in John Newcomer, the young ex-toy designer who conceptualized Joust. They knew what they were getting with John. After all, he submitted his resume stuffed down the throat of a rubber chicken.

There were lots of skeptics at Williams once Joust began. As far as Joust's gameplay conventions went, Newcomer, lead programmer Bill Pfutzenreuter, and the rest of the crew were going for a wildly different approach (which was starting to become a habit at Williams). The biggest concern was the absence of firing. Few at Williams expected a game with no shooting to do well. Joust consisted of flying combat with no projectiles and a funny control called a "flap" button, which was unlike anything ever seen on computer game.

Newcomer and his team turned Joust into a high concept strategy game that stretched the limits of the machine's memory. Not only with gameplay, but with artwork too (clip #1). Joust utilized essentially the same color raster scan monitor and multiboard electronic system that Williams had pioneered with Defender. Star Tech Journal, a technical magazine for the amusement industry, described this system as "somewhat revolutionary." It showed that the future did not belong to the X-Y, or Vector, monitors used in popular games like Tempest and Asteroids. Artist Jan Hendricks put a tremendous effort into pushing the graphics beyond what had been done before on the same system, developing realistic looking ostriches and buzzards that would also move. "It was all hand pixeled," says Newcomer. "Very few people could have pulled that off."

Distributors and operators gave the game a frosty reception, despite the fact that it had the capability of receiving two quarters from two players for the same play time, something that only two other video games had done to date (Space War and Wizard of Wor). The negative buzz didn't bother Newcomer, who likes playing the underdog. He knew success or failure would be decided by a democratic vote of quarters. "It came down to whether players were going to accept and learn a new control in the flap button."

Accept and learn it? Players embraced the flap button and turned Joust into a break out hit in 1982, one that went on to ship more than 26,000 units. The combination of Joust's organic characters, strategic play and less violent action earned it a broad base of fans that spanned both men and women, young and old.

Now, years later, Newcomer is more than happy to talk about the little bugs and imperfections in this classic game. The belly flop bug (clip #2) is Newcomer's favorite because it's so crucial to playing cutthroat Joust. Cutthroat is where you ignore racking up points in favor of trying to kill the other player. The savage Joust development crew racked up countless hours "testing" Joust's cutthroat capabilities. Newcomer readily admits this is why they never had the time to fix the belly flop bug.

The bug allowing players to repeatedly kill the invincible pterodactyl by remaining stationary on a cloud (clip #3) was created after last minute pixel adjustments to the pterodactyl art were not double checked. The very first Joust machines were shipped with this bug but Williams sent out replacement ROMs soon after and fixed the bug on all subsequent machines. On the attract mode, the pterodactyl was described as "undefeatable?", the question mark alluding to the fact that there was actually a tiny three pixel space in which the beast could actually be killed. Star Tech Journal said of the software glitch which made the three pixel Achilles Heel: "I'm sure Williams has sternly reprimanded the 'pterodactyl programmer' and that in the future, anything that is supposed to be 'undefeatable' will be." Obviously the pterodactyl glitch was amusing to everybody but arcade operators.

The glitches were minor. Williams had succeeded in creating a fun new game with a world all its own. "His Majesty King Williams will receive his many subjects at his magnificent Joust tournament in ye Land of Molten Magma and Stoned Clouds. Whereat all able and brave Knights shalt ride their Bird and shalt fight with lance ye evil enemies." So reads a rare 1982 promo poster for Joust.

Newcomer wanted to make the scenario even more involved. "Everybody wanted to do stories and movies, but we just couldn't. I would have loved to have done more characters, but we had to squeeze out every last frame just to make room for the ones we had."

These days, memory is no longer a problem for video games. Whole digitized mini-movies can be contained in a machine and some popular games even make the transition to the silver screen. But the concept of video game based movies dates back years before Super Mario Brothers, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. The possibility of a Robotron movie was once discussed and John has always felt Joust would make a great movie (clip #4).

Joust, like all the other Williams classic games, has become a pop culture phenomenon, which is just a fancy way of saying it's now a collectible (clip #5). Joust took on several different forms, all considerably more rare than the standard upright version of the game. Unlike Defender, Robotron, and Defender II, no Joust cabaret models with 13" monitors were produced. Cocktail Joust, engineered by Leo Ludzia, was the only cocktail game that two players played side by side. Newcomer was recently able to snag a good deal on the cocktail Joust, of which no more than 500 were made (clip #6).

Joust Pinball, released in 1983, was the first two player head-to-head pinball game ever made. Players shot for the "Egg Bonus Multiplier" and the "Lava Pit Eject Hole." "Dual earnings like never before!" screamed the promo brochure. "When two people play, each mans his flippers for supercharged competition. When one person plays to the excitement alone he controls both sets of flippers and both play fields!" Designed by Barry Oursler and Constantino Mitchell, Joust Pinball still has a cult following. A pinball convention in Phoenix, Arizona hosted a Joust pinball tournament just last year. Like cocktail Joust, less than 500 pinball machines were produced.

The most coveted piece for any Joust-meister would have to be the rare and ill-fated Joust 2 (clip #7). In 1985, Williams decided to do a sequel to Joust. Three years later, they had better technology and more memory. Newcomer decided to add all sorts of new characters to the game and use a vertical monitor to increase flap space. In the new game the backgrounds were better, the buzzard eggs mutated and a "transform" button gave you the choice of flying an ostrich or a Pegasus. Subtitled "Survival of the Fittest," Joust 2 had 35 screens and complex M.C. Escher inspired backgrounds that utilized a more advanced hardware system than the original game. Unfortunately, Joust was already three years old in 1985; the video game industry was experiencing its first bad slump. The vertical screen made home conversion impossible, snuffing its second life on consumer systems. The end result was this excellent game shipped less than 1,000 units and became a little known episode in the Joust saga.

Newcomer's advice to Joust players is simple: stick to the center, don't fly all the way to the top, make them bounce and let them come to you. You'd think that the creators of a video game would be the best at playing it. "We thought we were so hot when we were testing it, we knew all the tricks," says John. After a week in the arcade that all got thrown out the window. "By that time players can smoke you." That's your own fault John. If you hadn't come up with a game so crazy, there wouldn't have been so many people determined to conquer it!




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