Foreword

After the big success that was the videogame Track and Field, the comany Konami decides to try luck with a sequel, which now incorporates events from other sports, besides track and field.

Game

Just like the previous game, form 1 to 4 human videoplayers can play, using a particular controller of only three buttons with no joystick, to control the virtual athlete. Now in 7 different events.

The way to determine when the game is over, is pretty similar to the prequel. Meaning, that for each event there is a time to beat, or a minimum score to match to advance thru the next stage. Two of the three buttons, we’ll call GO, are necessary to start actions or running. The third one is the one which makes actions, we’ll call ACTION.

In the version I remember playing, if you finished the last stage, the game ended anyway, but I think adjusting the dip switches of the machine you can restart after finishing the last stage, but with higher difficulty.

Events

Swimming

The first event is probably the simplest of the bunch. Also serves to indicate the videoplayer that this is a different videogame from the sequel, which requires more skill than just smashing buttons as fast as possible.

In this event, both GO buttons makes the virtual athlete swim fast, but every now and then, the athlete says “breathe”. This is the sign to press the ACTION button. If this button is pressed before appears the sign, the swimmer stops, like swallowing water.

Trying to anticipate when to breathe is the most common tactic to beat this event. The sign appears aproximately every 3 seconds.

This event have been present in every Olympic Games since Athens 1896.

Skeet Shooting

This one is curious. The objective is shooting the “skeets” (in shooting this is the name of the targets in this particular event) when they are in the air and pass through one of the two squares.

The position vertical adjusts automatically towards the target, but not horizontally. With the left GO button is shoots to the left square, the right GO button to the right square. If the player hits the target, the squares get bigger and eventually appear other objects which gives more points when shot. These extra objects are mandatory to reach the minimum score.

Be careful if you miss, because the size of the square suddenly shrink to the initial size. And the event gets really harder with a lot of objects in the screen.

Sport shooting has been present in almost every Olympic Games (sans 1904 and 1928), but this particular event had its debut in Mexico 1968.

Vault

This gymnastic event requieres a lot of precision. To start, the videoplayer has to press any GO button once and the gymnast run. When the ACTION button is pressed at the springboard to jump towards the “horse”, and from there press it again at the right time to gain height. The closer to the edge of the springboard, the more higher will jump the virtual gymnast.

And this is important, because once in the air, the videoplayer has to quickly press both GO buttons to perform pirouettes, trying to land in their feet for a higher score. Making from 4 to 5 pirouettes are enough to qualify to the next stage.

This event has been present in almost Olympic Games, sans 1900, 1908, 1912 and 1928.

Archery

This one is hard. At first the wind must be defined, which affects the trayectory of the arrow when thrown. Pray that it be 0.

Only the ACTION button is used in this event, but believe me, it’s enough. The first trick is calculate when to release the button, because when released, the arrow will be fired towards the moving bull’s eye. The moving target will move from up to down. But you also have to worry about the vertical angle of the arrow, which is determined by how much time was pressed the button, if the angle value is around 5º the closer to the center. When the arrow lands at the target, a image showing where hit the target is shown. Seeing the image, the videoplayer can adjust its timing.

Consider that if you don’t shoot the arrow, it will be the same as missing the target. You have 8 arrows to reach the minimum score, which in a hard level, requires that the eight hit the yellow center of the target.

This sport has been present in Olympic Games since München 1972, although it appeared in previous games in 1900, 1904, 1908 and 1920.

Triple Jump

This event probably is the one which requires more skill in all the game. First is running as fast as possible using the GO buttons, then before reaching the first line, press ACTION to the first jump. When landing, press again, and when lands, the final pressing. This is the reason the event is called Triple Jump.

Just like the previous event, it depends how many time the button is pressed to determine the angle of the jump. Between 41 and 46 are the best angles to reach the objective.

Consider if you don’t reach the sand, it will be considered a foul. Just like starting the triple jump after the first line, or not executing the three consecutive jumps.

Event present at every Olympic Games since Athens 1896.

Weight Lifting

The event where GO buttons are more used. First you have to select the weight to lift, then press the GO buttons really fast to lift the weight.

At a certain time, around the chest of the virtual athlete, the weight will blink. Now the player will have to press the ACTION button, and then smash the GO buttons again to fully lift.

The challenge here is pressing the ACTION button at the right time. Paradoxically, is the event which needs more precision.

The sport have been present in Olympic Games since Athens 1896, sans 1900, 1908 and 1912.

Pole Vault

Start the event pressing any GO button, and then down the pole with the ACTION button to put it in the right zone to get impulse to gain height. The closer to the right zone, the speed does not decrease a lot, and the more height reached.

You keep pressing the ACTION button until the highest point is reached. RIght then, release the button, and the virtual athlete release the pole and then with the GO adjust the angle to go pass the bar. For every successful jump, the height increases until the videoplayer misses.

Event present at every Olympic Games since Athens 1896.

Other Plataforms

The videogame was ported to the following platforms:

• Armstrad CPC
• Commodore 64
• Sega SG-1000
• Sharp X1 (Known as Hyper Olympic ’84)
• Sinclair Spectrum

These ports, are different enough to have their own entry:

• Microsoft MSX
• Nintendo Famicom
• Nintendo NES

Legacy

There was an oficial sequel for Arcade called ‘88 Games.

For the Game Boy Color there was a game called Hyper Sports 2002, but it was more oriented to winter sports.

Epilogue

A really worthy sequel of Track and Field, with enough differences and more difficult, to be considered a different game altogether.

It’s a shame than other sequels lost that spark and sympathy of these events.

During my high school years I played this game, and had trouble with some of the events, while others were piece of cake. However, a schoolmate was the opposite. So ussually we made a team to finish the game. I dominated the events of shooting and archery, while struggling with the jumping ones.

References

Sport Icon designed by Smashicons of FlatIcon licensed by CC 3.0 BY.

Console Icon taken from Retroarch.