The game that never was

Tonks · Post by **Tonks** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 1:16 am

When I first got my Vic 20 way back in 1983, there were a few games that I thought were coming out on the Vic, but were never actually released. One such game was Joust.

For a while Joust was my favourite game at the arcades. I played it and played it and I even held the highscore record in the arcade for about 2 months. I also really enjoyed the Atari 2600 version.

Well a friend of mine who claimed to know everything about video games told me that Joust was coming out on cartridge for the Vic 20. I just about fainted on the spot from sheer excitement. So I raced into my local computer shop to put in an order for the game. The shop owner knew nothing about it, but told me he would check. Every week for almost a year I kept going into the shop only to be told there still was no news.

I think I was lied to by my so called friend.

Was Joust ever officially announced as a game for the Vic?

Did you ever wait for ages for a game that was simply never to be???

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 3:48 am

Tonks wrote:Was Joust ever officially announced as a game for the Vic?

Yes. Likewise for the C64. Never came out for either. It's in the master Atarisoft list along with being announced on the back of several other Atarisoft games. Not sure who was supposed to be programming it though.

Schema · Post by **Schema** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 8:26 am

Your friend might have heard about the game "Medieval Joust" (which is a real game) and gotten confused..

Post by **Jeff-20** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 10:26 am

I still expect a prototype to surface.

Tonks · Post by **Tonks** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 5:43 pm

Schema wrote:Your friend might have heard about the game "Medieval Joust" (which is a real game) and gotten confused..

This certainly happened with another Vic 20 game. Again, back in the day, we heard that River Raid was coming to the Vic. Unfortunately for us we confused it for the game "River Patrol".

I think you are allowed to be a bit stupid when you are 14.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 3:29 am

Whereas I know work on a few unreleased Atarisoft games was started, I've never heard anything about Joust at all.

aneurysm · Post by **aneurysm** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 12:14 pm

how hard would it be to code a port of that game? how many bad guys are on the screen at once? like 6 plus that pterydactyl and some eggs....

Post by **Jeff-20** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 4:04 pm

I thought "Bagdad" was an early sketch for Joust. It is almost exactly what one would expect from Atarisoft. Check out the file; it's really good.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 5:08 am

Bagdad as per COMPUTE's Gazette, November 1984? It was programmed for the VIC-20 by Bryan Files, MO. The editorial programmer Kevin Martin came up with the C64 conversion. Oddly, he introduced some variation in the game play. I believe COMPUTE often made small changes whenever they ported reader's submissions, maybe to get a more playable game?

It is said that Bagdad uses the entire memory on an unexpanded VIC, including stack and screen memory, and therefore loads in three parts.

ArugulaZ · Post by **ArugulaZ** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 3:30 am

The vaporware VIC title I wanted most was Wizard of Wor. All the other Midway arcade translations on the system were fantastic... far better than they were on any game console. I can only imagine that the VIC-20 version of Wiz would be equally brilliant.

JR

wlkim · Post by **wlkim** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:19 am

I'd read someplace that Phoenix was to be ported to the Vic. Even though it's yet another invader game I'd have snapped it up in a second.

Although ports were never announced for the Vic, I'm also a sucker for those semi-unknown "off-brand" arcade titles by manufacturers like Universal. Cosmic Avenger, Looping, Ladybug or Spiders for the Vic? I'd take 'em.

Denial

The game that never was

The game that never was

Re: The game that never was