I can’t make a simple post to save my life. This was going to a bundle about handful of crappy vintage computer games that weren’t interesting enough merit their own post. Curiosity killed my free time, and so here we are. In 1988 a 16 year old kid named James Closs programmed a crappy skateboard computer game for the Sinclair Spectrum called Skateboard Joust. He sold it to a publisher and made enough money to buy a car and have some cash during college. James had never stepped foot on a skateboard at the time, or actually played the game Joust. By his own admission the game wasn’t very good, and that always bothered him. 32 years later he released the sequel, Jetboard Joust on the Steam platform in 2020.
As amazing as the illustration is, the game, a half baked clone of Joust is pretty bad. But man, look at that art! DEATH!
From Eurogamner:
Yeah, it was a bit crap,” admits Skateboard Joust’s developer James Closs tells me some 30 plus years later. “I mean, that’s part of the reason I started doing this – it was a bit of a joke, because Skateboard Joust was not very good.”
Skateboard Joust was made back when James was 16. He had never played Joust, the game from which it took some inspiration, but had seen a screenshot once. He’d never ridden a skateboard but knew it was all the rage, so he fashioned a game to capitalise on the trend. Back then the term granny bait used to be bandied around – a game designed to trick people into buying their grandchildren. By James’ own admission, Skateboard Joust could well have fit the term.
All of these Silverbird titles have the same basic layout for the cassette tape j-cards. Check out the description on the back, the game play is set in the year 2001! “Hip radical, street cool, skateboarding in 2001!” They missed the obvious chance tonnage it 2001, a Skate Odyssey.
Have a look at the inside packaging g with directions and a Commodore 64 port to cassette tape, the preferred storage mechanism for some computer games at the time. Source: Ebay.
Here’s the only screen caps I could find, thanks to Lemon 64. Looks like the splash screen may have been the highlight of the game. The mechanics were loosely based on the huge arcade hit Joust, which incredibly, had never been played by James. Another thing pointed out in the Eurogamer article, Skateboard Joust may be the first game in which you could jump off your skateboard and use it as a weapon. It’s a feature that wasn’t explained very well because most of the play through videos don’t show this option.
Witchfinder1976 has made it his mission to review all these old Silverbird published games. He claims this game is somewhat rare and hard to find. Here’s a couple screen caps from his video. The bad guys look like Daleks on skateboards! And yes, those are cooked turkeys on skateboards for some inexplicable reason.
Enjoy the full review, made quite seriously.
I can’t find any advertisements or peripheral materials related to the game, so this is the end. If you’re wondering about the the sequel Jetboard Joust, it’s supposed to be a fairly good Defender clone (so much for Joust) that takes place on a hoverboard… well a jetboard. Check it out.
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