Genre: Arcade
Developer: The Rugby Circle, Inc
Publisher: Atari

Joust saw itself ported to practically every platform under the sun in the near-decade following its release, and for good reason: from a graphical standpoint, its lava hand, floating disintegration platforms and surrealistic flying ostridge-riding midevil knight imagery was downright jarring! This Atari ST port has sprites and tile art that's an almost pixel-by-pixel copy of the arcade original's-- so unlike many of the other conversions, the player gets an authentic experience with this one.

Joust's iconic "moahhh!" spawn sound, the pitter-patter of the player's mount running along the ground, and the terrifying cry of the game's pterodactyls are each expertly adapted to the ST's sound chip via combination of PSG and digital voice channel effects. Excellent! Audio was never one of Joust's strong points, but what's present in this port is exceedingly well done.

When people think of 70s and 80s arcade games, they inevitably rattle off games like "Missile Command" or "Pac-Man". Why not Joust? In this single screen classic, players tap the joystick button to flap their mount around while trying to eliminate baddies from above, in increasingly difficult waves. There are loads of strategies to employ, and this ST port captures the physics of the arcade version superbly!

In its original form, the Atari ST's lack of a blitter and sophisticated sound chip meant it was more of a competitor for its 8-bit predecessors and the just-released 16-bit Macintosh than with later computers, like a soundcard-equipped 386 PC, or the Amiga. But that's ok, because what it could do with one circuit tied behind its back was reproduce single screen arcade games with stunning accuracy. Joust is one such example-- and this port will even write its high scores back to its own disk upon exit!