I basically killed my wrist on Joust for the 2600. I spent a lot of quarters in the arcades as well. For its era, at least, Joust was top form. And very portable due to its simplicity.
Yeah I love Joust. I wasn’t around when it was popular, so I have never played it on actual hardware, but I have played it on emulator. I first heard about it from Ready Player One and tried it online (tip: you can play it on archive.org) but I haven’t played in a couple of years, so I think I’m going to try it again some time
Notably, the NES port of Joust was programmed by future Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. The game was developed in two months, for release in September 1983, but was ultimately shelved. With his Joust seemingly not happening, Iwata developed Balloon Fight instead, which saw release in 1985. Eventually, his Joust was also released, in 1987. For what it's worth, I love them both.
Man, loved Balloon Fight. I remember many Saturday nights where me and my sis were allowed on the Micro Genius (bootleg NES with lots of games) for an hour.
I wouldn't call Joust the perfect arcade game, because there are many categories of arcade games that Joust does not fit into. However, Joust is an exceptional game and one that certainly is one of my favorites.
If you want an arcade cabinet but dont have the space, I recommend cannibalizing a 3/4 cabinet from Arcade1Up. You can get a decal set for any cabinet or custom design and put any internals and controls you need. Its a bit smaller than the full size cabinet, but perfect for not taking up a large footprint in the home.
I been eyeing the A1Up Joust for a while. May settle for that, but I really want the real one. There's one in an arcade in Binghamton I visited recently and someone put 566000 points on for the high score, idk how that's even possible.
Well once you unplug it the scores will most likely go away. Lots of early cabinets didn't permanently store scores, because they didn't need to for the cost of the components of that functionality.
I understand wanting a real one, but honestly its cheaper and less square footage if you go the A1U way. I personally modified a TMNT 4player cabinet into a Gauntlet Legends replica cabinet for like, $400 less than what a real one costs. Also its way smaller than a real one, but not so small that it is comical. It moves it from being the size of a tall bookshelf to the size of a tall locker. The only downside is because it is a 4 player version, the control deck sticks out on both sides.
I also considered building a Tapper replica cabinet as well.