Atari 5200 Joust.

[Aswald]

About a week ago or so, I found the 5200 version of Joust.

Since I already had the 2600 version, and the 7800 version is why I bought a 7800 back in 1988 in the first place, I decided what the hey, I'll just buy it- it was only $1.00, after all.

The first thing I noticed about it was weird: the ledges are green, no matter how much you adjust the tint- until several minutes go by, that is; THEN they turn gold. This is directly related to how long the 5200 is on, not the television. Why is this?

After a pretty good title screen, I played it. I remember the commercials and reviews for it so long ago, and have seen it on YouTube, but this was the first time I actually played it.

It's good, but doesn't quite have that arcade feel about it, the way the 7800 version does. The biggest problem is the way the enemies fly: mostly horizontal, so the game is easier than the arcade version, and the way new knights appear is clumsy.

Is there any footage of the CV version? I'd like to see it in action, rather than a screenshot.

[Greg2600]

I think colors changing after the system has been on a while is a common 5200 occurrence. Due to age I think.

As for Colecovision Joust, the rom was released for the prototype some time ago (Classic Gaming Expo 2001 along with Pac-Man and Dig Dug). It plays great on emulators, but there's no sound. Not that Joust has a ton of sound anyway.

http://gamesdbase.com/game/coleco_vision/joust.aspx
http://my.ais.net/~xtreme/SF/Coleco/joust/index.html (http://my.ais.net/%7Extreme/SF/Coleco/joust/index.html)

Frankly, all the Atari Soft CV games, both released and unreleased, were really well done.

Released: Centipede, Defender, and Jungle Hunt.
Unreleased (Roms available): Dig Dug, Galaxian, Joust, Moon Patrol, and Pac-Man.
Unreleased (not found/dumped): Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position, Robotron 2084, Stargate, and Vanguard.

[Steve W]

Pole Position wouldn't be all that great on the Colecovision. The Texas Instruments Home Computer had the same graphics chip, and the TI port of the game isn't very good.

[fishsandwich]

Pole Position wouldn't be all that great on the Colecovision. The Texas Instruments Home Computer had the same graphics chip, and the TI port of the game isn't very good.

Assuming all things are equal, I would tend to agree with you.

However, all things are NOT equal. The programmer for the TI port of Pole Position might have been until a tight schedule. Or maybe he was a dumbass with no programming talent.


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