Justin

Congratulations Marco1019! Congratulations to High Score Squad "Super Legend" @Marco1019 on his second win in a row! Marco takes the top spot in our Final Standings with an immensely impressive score of 267,650 points. Way to go on your performance, Marco! @RickR came in with a hot performance of his own, scoring an incredible 124,800 points and taking our 2nd spot on the board. 5200 MegaMaster @Atari 5200 Guy jousts his way to 3rd Place with a stellar score of 104,250 points! "The Mayor" @greenween joined us again, posting a score of 53,100 points, taking 4th Place on the board. VCS Guru @Sabertooth came in 5th Place with a solid 37,050 points, followed closely by @Stlrs95 who joins us again with a very nice score of 36,550 points, taking 6th Place in our Final Standings. The doctor is in the house once again, with @TrekMD rounding things out with 17,250 points in 7th! Congratulations once again to Marco for his 2nd BIG WIN in a row, and an incredible performance, and a huge congratulations to our wonderful community for giving us a tremendous turnout for this classic Atari 2600 game! I want to thank @RickR for nominating this game! I hope everybody had fun playing Joust for the Atari 2600! A very special "Thank You" to @Sabertooth who is doing yeoman's work continuously hosting wonderful Squad Challenges and other fun events in our new Club VCS! Be sure to join Club VCS this month for their Missile Command Recharged Squad Challenge! NOTE: Our next Squad Challenge is for the NES. Be there!

Well worth watching:

Best wishes on your development efforts @Geo K, you're always welcome here to seek input or chat up your project. Welcome to the forums!

Hi @RickR! I have, once I was older. I lived very close to Universal Studios Florida for a number of years, close enough that I'd use my pass to get into the park 3-4 times a week just to jog around the lake and enjoy the views, maybe grab lunch with a friend, go on one ride and go home. That probably sounds weird to most people but I'm sure your son or anyone who has worked at Disney or Universal can tell you the parks can become central to daily life, as there is so much to do there. Yes, that's true of both Universal and Disney parks. I always thought that was cool! The cool thing about Universal Studios Hollywood is they have all of the classic film sets, and still film on site. "Hill Valley" is there along with many other famous locations on the backlot. When they first built Universal Studios Florida we had a working backlot as well, and they were filming movies here like "Parenthood" with Steve Martin, and of course we had Nickelodeon Studios as well, but for whatever reason that didn't last very long. Georgia and Canada became the places to film outside of California, partially due to tax credits and other film-friendly incentives. That's a good point! Our Super Nintendo World is supposed to be located behind Back To The Future: The Ride, where the Bates Motel from Psycho used to be with the original Hard Rock Cafe, in what is now a "kiddie" area. I would be okay with them terraforming that into Nintendo World, as long as it's well done. I suspect they may want to make a "Nintendo Island" over in Islands of Adventure, but that part of the park is pretty packed full already too. Everything at our parks tend to be pretty massive. That's true! When I was young I loved our BTTF ride and the idea of it being "The Institute of Future Technology" and the whole vibe of bringing "artifacts back from the future" - but I also used to wonder "This is a giant rectangular building.. why didn't they just make it the Clock Tower?" I think the reason for that is California, and the fact that the real Clock Tower square is on the backlot tour at USH and it would be weird for them to have two Clock Towers simultaneously. Being that they want to parts share and keep the rides similar in style, they opted for something other than a Clock Tower look and feel. California's ride was a lot like Japan's. The two domes were split, and the building was split into two halves. In Florida we had one giant building, and ours was the first to open, ahead of California by about two years. I don't know why they made the changes that they did, I was always happy with our ride experience.

Interesting to hear your positive takes on this game! I can remember Joust being one of the few Atari 2600 games still being promoted as late as 1989-1990, clearly there was a good reason.

Here are a couple pictures from visiting with Gene Landrum during the final days of BTTF: The Ride in Spring, 2007. I've talked a lot about Gene before, he put together Atari's Home Consumer Division and the development and launch of the Atari 2600, and developed Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater while at Atari and left to run it with Nolan. Incredible guy. Loved BTTF: The Ride, too. The second picture is one I took of Gene outside of the Spider-Man ride at Islands of Adventure.

Here's my family's invitation / ticket to the sneak preview (soft launch) of Universal Studios Florida on February 28, 1989. Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown) served as M.C. of the event:

I'll share a few more goodies from Universal that you guys might enjoy ☺️ When the ride was scheduled to close, Universal sent out invitations to annual pass holders and VIPs to come visit the ride "before it's history". I received two invitations in March, 2007 and have kept them in the back of a photo album. These were fairly large mailers, 6x10

THANK YOU for saying that!! @TrekMD

The reason for this is they were neglecting repairs as they were waiting for some decisions to come down as to if the ride would be refurbished as BTTF or if it would become something else (eventually Simpsons) and that is when the money was spent to refurb the dome screen and projectors. During most of the '90s the ride was bright and clear, all the cars had working fog, there were separation points in the screen, it felt very real for the time. I'm glad you got to go on it 🙂

I was proudly on the last voyage back to the future on March 30, 2007 at Universal Studios Florida. Here is a video of the final ride, you can see me in the background throughout, I'm tall, wearing a "2015" lenticular hat and black shirt. At 17:34 you hear me say "We're going back to '91 so we can do it all over again" and helping guide the person filming to get the car with the best working fog 😭 I loved the theme park ride as much as I loved the movie. I suppose you could say it made an impression on me. Proud to have been here for this moment in history. Enjoy:

And a cool vintage photo of Southland AMC / Jeep in Ohio

What an incredible story. I've heard many like that over the years, with different kinds of cars. I can't imagine they'd still be offering 40 year old cars as loaners, but who knows. They must love those cars. Definitely two 1986 models in that bunch. Here are a couple of vintage print ads from your dealership, Jones AMC Jeep:

Good luck @TrekMD! Even if your high score is a real stinker, we're just here to have fun 🥚 🥚 🥚 🥚

Love seeing this @MaximumRD thanks for sharing! ❄️🌨️⛄

@nosweargamer has a nice overview of Joust for Atari 2600. It's a great place to start if you're new to the game!

This is a MONTH LONG Squad Challenge! You have through February 28th to post your High Score! Take the extra time to enjoy the game!

Joust Atari 2600 Controller: JOYSTICK / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE Difficulty Level: SKILLED Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / Emulation OK! ✔ Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST February 28, 2023 Nominated by @RickR Objective Play for the highest possible score using the difficulty settings defined in the challenge. Post a photo or YouTube video of your score in this thread. Scores must be achieved between February 1st through February 28th, 2023. Screen captures are not allowed as they are more easily manipulated for falsified scores. Multiple submissions are permitted. The player with the highest score at the end of the competition is the victor! Eligibility Anyone can join in. All players are welcome! Play Rules Games may be played on real hardware, Flashback / Mini console, officially released compilation, or emulation, using any controller or keyboard, following all rules and game settings defined in the challenge. Choosing between real hardware or emulation, and choosing which controller to play on is part of formulating your strategy. Enhancements, rewinds, updated and hacked versions of this game are not allowed. Difficulty Level Skilled. We are starting Joust on Skilled, the default level. (The only other game variation, "Easy", is identified by the Teddy Bear icon next to the score.) The Difficulty Switches have no function in this game. Fair Play Your integrity is everything. Players should play fairly, be honest, and have fun! Falsified scores will result in your immediate removal from the site. It goes without saying that we will not allow cheats, hacks, cartridge frying, enhancements, rewinds, deceitful photo manipulation, subterfuge, or any other dishonest advantage. Everybody hates a cheater. More To review detailed rules on how to play, please visit the High Score Squad page here: Message Welcome to our 142nd Squad Challenge! This month were' playing a quintessential classic for the Atari 2600, Joust! The obejective of Joust is to defend yourself and score points by unseating opponents, the Buzzard Riders, who come in three types, each more dangerous than the last: The Bounders (wearing red) the Hunters (wearing gray) and the Shadow Lords (wearing blue). Do you have what it takes to survive wave after wave after wave of this insanity? Watch out for the Egg Wave, Survival Wave, and Pterodactyl Wave! Special thanks to @RickR for nominating this game! ROM and PDF Instruction Booklet is attached below. Good luck! Joust.bin Joust_Atari_2600.pdf

Congratulations Marco1019! Congratulations to High Score Squad "Super Legend" @Marco1019 for becoming our Atari 5200 Berzerk Squad Champion! Marco takes the top spot in our Final Standings with an immensely impressive score of 8,480 points. Way to go on your performance, Marco! @greenween came in with a hot performance of his own, scoring an incredible 6,730 points and taking our 2nd spot on the board. We're joined again by a long-missed High Score Squad Legend @RadioPoultry who has won many Squad Challenges in the past. Radio Poultry takes 3rd Place in our Final Standings with an impressive score of 5,580 Points. @RickR scored a solid 4,180 Points, taking 4th Place on the board, followed by @- Ω - a known Atari 5200 superhero who joins us with a a terrific score of 3,010 Points, claiming 5th Place. Rounding things out, it's @Atari 5200 Guy and @TrekMD in a tie for 6th Place, both with a score of 2,860 Points! Congratulations once again to Marco for another BIG WIN and incredible performance, and a huge congratulations to our wonderful community for giving us a tremendous turnout for a great Atari 5200 game! We've done Atari 5200 Squad Challenges in the past, but mostly avoid them, as turnout is always low. That wasn't the story this time, we had a terrific turnout, and I want to thank @greenween and @RickR for nominating this game! I hope everybody had fun playing Berzerk for the Atari 5200! A very special "Thank You" to @Sabertooth who is doing yeoman's work continuously hosting wonderful Squad Challenges and other fun events in our new Club VCS! NOTE: Our next High Score Squad is Joust for the Atari 2600. Be there!

THANK YOU to @Sabertooth for hosting these Recharged Squad Challenges, and congratulations to @D.joe on his big win, and to @Mockduck @stirrell @Stlrs95 and @RickR for joining in this Challenge 💥

Here is a terrific look at the American Motors Kenosha, WI assembly line in 1974. In production you'll see the: AMC Hornet sedan and fastback coupe, Sportabout Wagon, and Gremlin, all of which share most of the same components and are essentially variants of the same car. Despite the name of this movie, this was filmed a year before the Pacer was introduced and I don't think the Pacer, Matador or Ambassador are shown here. Enjoy:

Yes those are the American-built Renault Alliance, better known as the Renault 9 in the rest of the world, just as the AMC Renault Encore was the Renault 11. They were built on the AMC assembly line in Kenosha, WI and had mostly AMC interior with AMC colors. They were an AMC product in North America. It won Motor Trend Car of the Year 1983 and sold well in the first few years. They ran into an issue with the dealer network being able to service the cars properly as they were a unique French design quite different from what the AMC / JEEP / Rambler / Nash / Hudson dealers were accustom to, and once Chrysler bought out AMC they wanted nothing to do with the Renault line and most Chrysler dealers refused service the Renault cars after 1989, which is why the cars disappeared from American roads shortly thereafter. @Atari 5200 Guy Those cars are missing trim along the sides, but I suppose that's going to happen after 40 years. Have they been sitting there "new" the entire time, or are they just someones cars that are parked there? The tires look inflated. The second white one and the copper one look like 1986 models, as distinguished by their redesigned slim nose. If you look in the distance you will also see another AMC product - the JEEP Cherokee, which was designed by AMC with input from Renault. If you look at the Renault Alliance parked next to the Cherokee you will see similar lines from the side, including the belt line, doors and window treatments, as though they are from the same "family". They follow a similar design philosophy.

😭😂🤣 Bruce McCulloch's Kids In The Hall "Bank People" skit is pure black tar comedy gold

1968 AMC Javelin commercial featuring the incomparable Richard Dreyfuss