See introduction here
The Game: Joust (White/Green Label)
romname: joust
Reward: $100 (usd)
Deadline for submission to MARP: April 2, 2004 2359 hours GMT
Further Bounty: $250 (usd) for exceeding 1,002,500 by July 1, 2004
Comments: Don't get too excited. The bounties won't generally be this high. I decided to start with a true classic, and set the reward accordingly, also I wanted to start the Golden Era Game of the Week concept off with a bang.
Note Special Rules:
The Twin Galaxies record for the arcade machine on 5-man "tournament" settings is 1,002,500 held by Don Morlan. The controls on this game translate well to a gamepad or keyboard control, so I don't see why this one couldn't be beaten with MAME.BANNED TECHNIQUE : pterydactyl hunting (the player can get the final hunter enemy to be held by the lava-troll, and then wait on the center ledge for pterydactyls to appear ; the ptery's make a suicide run for the player, and will strike at a perfect level into the players lance - 1000 pts. each)
You MUST use TG Tournament settings or harder. TG Settings are 5th level difficulty, 5 lives only with no extra lives. (This rule enacted July 15, 2000)
A pretty thorough strategy guide (though I haven't examined it carefully for accuracy) is available here:
http://web.mit.edu/kaihow/www/joust.html
And don't worry, there will be plenty of opportunity to compete on rare and lesser-known titles in the weeks to come.
I hope others find this idea as entertaining as I do.