May 27th, 1992
Documentary 


Introduction and history
--------------------------

Do you remember JOUST, a game which came out in the second quarter of 1986 ?
It was published by ATARI itself, and, after it was cracked by Softrunner
(in the same year, I think) it had public domain status ..
It all began in the winter holidays 1991/92, when I began to learn ST assem-
bly code. 'Armed' with an combined assembler/reassembler, I - an old joust
fan - couldn't let it be to reassemble this nice (I still like it !) game.
After approximate two months the work was finished - Joust 1.01 got a
more beautiful title-picture, an useful trainer mode and .. it got an end.
Yes - while examining the dusty program code I checked out that this game
was endless. Whenever it reached wave 51, the internal wave-counting
variable was reset to 48 ! So - I did what I had to do - and painted a more-
or-less good game-over-picture. I'm no graphics-ace (surely not !), but it's
not too bad.


Starting and usage
--------------------

Start Joust 1.01 by a left-mousebutton-doubleclick on the joust.prg icon.
Important : If joust can't find its graphic-file joust.gra, it might crash.
When the title-picture is loaded, press one of the following keys :
- Control-C or escape to quit the program (This is one of the less programs
  which offer you the option to return to the desktop !)
- 1 or 2 to start the game using the single- or double-player-playing mode,
- T to switch the trainer mode on and off.


How to play
-------------

I don't know the real story of joust because I never had an original of it,
but perhaps you like this one :
Between australia and tasmania there were several little isles, and on one
of them lived two knights. These two knights had a very nice castle and two
birds - ostrichs. In the castle, there was a big kitchen in which they
cooked marzipan. But then, one day, the marzipan escaped from the castle,
swam to australia and met a lion (see also : illustration to 'A kind of
mag!x', Atari Journal 6/92, Page 20). The lion liked the marzipan, but his
neighbour, an evil wizard, hated it. So he asked the lion where the marzi-
pan came from, transformed him to a peanut, ate it, and began searching for
the mysterious two knights .. Arrived on their isle, he turned the water in-
to a red sea of fire, the castle into a banana and created 6 platforms.
He wanted to transform the two knights into cheese, but it was friday the
13th, and he hadn't very much time because of a meeting with a witch he had
seen in the cinema. So he gave the two knights a last chance : They should
joust against his ostrich-armed guards. After 17 rounds, they should have
their castle back ..
Now it's your turn : You control one of the two knights, armed with a lance.
To clear a wave, hit all guards with the lance - they'll transform into eggs
you must collect. If you don't collect them, a new guard will appear - even
more powerfull than the previous !


Controling the knight and the ostrich
---------------------------------------

You control the sprite with the joystick : Left- and right to accelerate
or brake (that depends on your direction) and fire to fly.
To dismount an enemy guard, drop on them. Caution : if you need too much
time, pterodactyl, a wizard's friend, will appear - this nasty bird - or
better : dragon - is nearly (!) immortal.


Hints
-------

- Try to catch the egg as early as you can - you might get bonus-points.
- Earn a bounty for killing your partner in 'gladiator waves', for coop
  eration in 'player cooperation waves' or for not loosing any lifes in
  survival waves.
- Get even more points by killing stronger knights : After beeing an egg,
  red knights will turn into whites, whites into blues. But beware of these
  colibries : they're fast.
- Use the trainer mode for practising new techniques..
That's all for now, I'm sure you want to discover some tricks, too.


Outlook
---------

There are a few projects planned and will (perhaps !) be realized when
we improved our assembly knowledge, like Joust II, Midimaze 3D, and
Tron 3D ..


Some last words
-----------------

So ..  have fun with this (old) game.
                                                                       Kyne
                                                                     of the
                                                                   sorcerer
                                                                apprentices
                                                             so.ap.

P.S.: Yesterday, I read in our 'the sorcerer's cookbook' the following
      sentence, perhaps it's useful to you - I don't know what it means :
      'Advice 2 - You should try to press the double-shifted predecessor 
      of you - written in this curious >how-you-speak-it-style<.'

