It's a terrific combination of medieval jousting and Jurassic dangers that was a great game when it debuted in arcades, and it's just as fun and addictive today. Still striking are the game's sound effects, which will immediately evoke the Golden Age of Gaming as soon as you hear them. Don't miss this one. Thy winged steed awaits, Sire!

Check Out Those Socks

They're awesome. I could never pull those off though, I don't have the right calves.

This Week's Grand Prize

Each of the top ten winners in this tournament will receive some GameTap swag from our hall closet. The grand prize winner, though, will also receive a high quality plastic reproduction of the original Joust arcade marquee!



These things aren't just cool in arcade cabinets, you know, they make fantastic wall art.

The Scores to Beat

The all-time high score for Joust, as recorded by video game referrees Twin Galaxies, is 107,216,700. You can't beat that score, it's impossible. I don't mean very difficult, I mean impossible; the score, recorded July 8, 1985 by James Vollandt, was the result of a 67 1/2 hour marathon, the longest marathon play in officially recorded video game history! Our tournament is a mere 18 hours, and while we do encourage you to forego basic nutrition and rest in order to compete as much as possible, you're not going to break the world record. Sorry.


You will never be a more dedicated Joust player than this man. (pic courtesy spyhunter007.com)
GameTap's current high score is a more realistic 76,283,575, set by user RockHauler on August 18, 2006.



But don't worry, you don't necessarily have to compete with these guys! The GameTap Monday Leaderboard Tournament is a one-day affair against your fellow GameTappers. Here are the official rules:

1. Contestants will have from 6 a.m. EST to 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday, April 7, 2008, to submit their scores to the leaderboard via the GameTap client.
2. Only the top score per TapID will count toward the contest, with all other scores being thrown out.
3. Only one TapID per household will be eligible.

Not a Gold user? Not a problem! Joust is available on GameTap for free, so absolutely anyone can compete! And not only that, the game is available for both Windows and Macintosh users, because we are awesome like that.

Again, the tournament starts on Monday, April 14, 2008, at 6:00 a.m. EST. If you need help posting Leaderboard scores, check out the handy guide the next post down. Good luck everyone!

Download and Play Joust