Port of Joust for the Atari 2600 (which in turn is a port of the arcade version). Reasonably faithful to the Atari 2600 version but adapted for the Pico-8 screen, colours and sprite size, with some added particle effects.
Additional enhancements (available in options):
- Zen Mode: Play forever without game over (allows lives to be negative).
- Turbo Flap: Pressing and holding X repeatedly flaps (like a turbo button).
- Players: Switch between 1 or 2 players.
- Co-op Mode: If enabled, players cannot unseat each other (they bounce instead). Pressing O will pass a life to the other player (this can be done at any time).
- Eggs Fall: Make eggs obey gravity like they do in other Joust versions (they can also fall into the lava).
A game where you fly around and collect planets (and comets, if you can catch them). My target audience is mostly my 3-year old son, who also liked the original Evan the Astronaut. This cart started from the Stars & Space tutorial by Liquidream.
Originally the controls were relative (left/right buttons to turn, like Asteroids), but my son had trouble figuring that out. I switched to cardinal directions by default. I find the latter more intuitive on a controller, but prefer the relative controls on keyboard. It can be changed in the options.