Joust 4-Player

● connecting

Connecting…

Controls

←→↑↓ or WASD — joystick
Space Z X or Ctrl — fire (flap)
Enter or fire — START · O — OPTION (players / teams; every game starts as a 4-player free for all) · 2 — SELECT (difficulty) — between games
Gamepads work too: stick or d-pad, A/B fire, Start, Back = SELECT, X = OPTION. On a phone or tablet, use the on-screen stick.
Watching? Press fire to get in line — or to take your seat when it's offered.

The game

Atari's 1983 Joust cartridge, rebuilt for four knights at the same time: yellow, green, light blue and pink. Flap to fly; when two riders meet, the higher lance wins. Unhorse the buzzard riders, grab their eggs before they hatch, watch out for the pterodactyl and the lava troll's hand — and in free for all, each other (1,000 points for an unhorsed knight). OPTION between games also offers teams: 1+2 against 3 (and 4). Everyone has 4 men in reserve and one more every 20,000 points. Out of men while others play on? PRESS FIRE flashes in your score box: flap to jump back in with 4 more (your score starts again at 0; your best run counts).

How the arcade works

Everyone here sees the same game. The arcade runs a real Atari 800, and your browser runs an identical copy in step with it — so there's no video stream, just the four joysticks. The first four people in get the seats; everyone else watches and can get in line. When a seat opens, the next in line gets 10 seconds to take it. Every game is a 4-player game: an empty seat's player is in it too, and whoever takes the seat takes that player over on the spot.