I remember having 9 lives at some point, but I lost more than 5 lives by 200K. If I practice hard enough, It wouldn't be impossible

Well regardless I'm impressed. I can't wait to play tonight and see if I can get on a roll like you brotha! 

And I wonder why they make it a 5 live rule and not just until Gameover?

I was wondering that too...

Probably gives it some level of parity with the arcade game, which I doubt gives you extra lives.

This version seems tougher than the arcade original. Of course I haven't played the arcade version in quite some time so I could be wrong. And I've seen pinball games with less bouncy gameplay.

Score updated... almost cracked 300k

Question do you folks with the high scores, use the A button and press press press, or the B button with less pressing? I discovered if I you hold B you don't have to button smash. I can not get far in this game and can't break 60,000 yet.

Holy shit I didn't even realize B was auto like in balloon fight. I could have prevented so many cramps.

I just discovered this, myself. But I couldn't figure out how to get to game A or B or 2 player.

I pretty much only use the B button. You move around alot quicker...

Thanks, I bet this game is fun with the Game Genie. LOL

I find it fun when I don't play it.

Honestly,I don't see how some of these high scores are possible. I've been trying since yesterday and I just can't get anything even remotely decent.

Joust is officially my most hated game of all time. I wish I had the cart so I could destroy it with a baseball bat. Well,maybe not....but I would most definitely sacrifice it to make a compatible repro. I'll probably never play this game again unless it's for a charity event or someone pays me money.

I'm tempted to mail you my copy just to see you destroy it!

Lol,then you'd have to dominate via emulator. It's not a terrible game,but the cheapness of it,especially when it comes to the pterodactyl,is maddening. I'll give it the good ol' college try today and tomorrow,but if I can't make vast improvements before monday I'm definitely getting bounced. I can't think of a game that I suck at worse than this one. Maybe GnG or Battletoads...

Oh well,can't be good at everything...except for Tom.

Don't feel bad this game is pretty terrible IMO too. I really can't imagine playing it again after this contest is over.

120,500 (Tier 2)

I usually wait until the end to post a tournament score, but 1) there's no way I'm besting this score and 2) we've been having a lot of bad storms lately here so I don't wish to chance it with a late posting.

I'd like to thank everyone who mentioned about the B button being the auto fly button since, embarrassingly, I also didn't know that and even when I played this last year I only used the A button. I found out about it last night reading the thread. Otherwise, my best score up to this point was 99K.

One more thing, I had a hard time getting a clear picture of the title screen so I also took a picture during the demo, which shows the score of the last game that was played.

So this just happened:

I was playing Joust trying to best my current high when I just kept getting killed cheaply over and over. My patience had had enough. Time to unleash hell. Something had to be destroyed to quell my fury!

So after yelling a few choice words at the game,I go outside to the dog pen where I pick up this old plastic dog bowl that's no longer used and proceed to smash it into tiny bits and while finishing it off,out of the corner of my eye I spot some movement.

Upon further inspection,it turned out to be a copperhead snake. Still raging over Joust and not wanting to let a poisonous serpent roam my yard,I grabbed this roughly 50 pound rock in the dog pen and proceeded to turn the snake into a ribbon.

I rarely get angry as it is undue stress I don't need,but on occasion my buttons get pushed....and it's Hulk smash!!!!

So I should probably never play this game again after monday lest I Hulk smash something else.

Well, I managed to break into the 200k-club yesterday afternoon.

This game is truly hit-and-miss for a run that strong, based on how lucky you are with the spawn location kills.

The only things I really feel cheaped out on are when I get telefragged for no apparent reason or when I hit a pterodactyl during their spawn period (another telefrag complaint, I guess).

i am afraid that i may have reached the point of laying down the controller and saying i can't do any better. was hoping to break 200k before the weekend was over but i am not sure i have it in me.


TIER 3
155,250

Tier 2 93,250

Gsjdgajzvxhwja! Well on my way to crossing 100k and pterodactyl spawns on me after I grabbed the last eeg. It spawned on my head.

LOL.  And here I thought I had some serious rage quits back in my day!

If it makes you feel any better, I'm no good at Joust either.  I've always been too annoyed by the control scheme to bother with it.

To answer an earlier question about why Twin Galaxies only allows 5 men: Some arcade players can marathon this game.  The arcade world record on default settings is a ridiculous score of 107,301,150 (not a typo)!  The game gives you so many extra lives that once you reach a certain level of mastery, it's really hard to lose.  So the 5-man tournament setting was created for both arcade and NES, and they didn't bother to create a marathon variation on NES.  The NES variation hasn't seen much action, but on arcade the record for 5 men is 1,489,250.

I really would love to see the technique involved in the truly high level play of this game on the NES if there is any. I found one high score video on youtube but it isn't the same version we're playing...

186,250 - Tier 2

While I'm not totally terrible at this game, my overall experience was that of Gutsy's; this game can go f@#$ itself.

Yeah,not trying to completely turn round 1 into a Joust bashing fest,but this is by far the most frustrating game I have ever played. I thought Battletoads and GnG was bad,but this game takes the cake and the ice cream.

What I don't understand is why is the game so freaking bouncy?!  You bounce off of everything! I feel like I'm playing a pinball machine.

And real dick move on the programmers making it to where the pterodactyl spawns early and often ususally right where you are at the edge of the screen for an insta-kill...especially in the later waves. And of course once he's on screen he often lingers after you collect and kill everything sometimes resulting in a cheap death.

I haven't timed it,but I swear after about wave 10 you get maybe about 15 seconds before the pterodactyl comes out. Seriously?! I just started the freaking wave and you already are telling me to hurry up?! Thanks a lot a-holes.... And in my humble opinion,this would have been more suitable as a final round game. Just my zero two on it.