Main Menu

Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 01:54:55 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Best Athletics Games

Started by Shoulders?-Stomach!, September 25, 2021, 05:01:26 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Shoulders?-Stomach!

1. KONAMI INTERNATIONAL TRACK&FIELD
2. ATLANTA 96
3. SYDNEY 2000 (Dreamcast and probably others)

The latter has a surprisingly fun choice of events, they cast the net quite wide and it turns out to be a good idea. Kayak and diving are fun and divert from the inevitable button bash events.

International Track & Field though. That has a genuine sense of tension, almost like a Decathlon as you try to nail each event and come P1. Unlike the actual Olympics the 100m comes first. Normally the Pole Vault fucked me up, no idea what to do with that one. Scraped by and tried to 100% the rest. Archery was a trial and error too.

I have always liked athletics games for having such a direct correlation between physical effort and concentration and output even if they are ridiculously low skill vs Shmups and FPS.


Now tell me how subsequent athletics games have made them look like so much dog shit.



Shoulders?-Stomach!


Shoulders?-Stomach!

They should make a marathon game, just utter tedium, not even the personal stake and tension if you were running your own marathon, just 2 hrs of watching a body labour while you have to press the buttons at low speed at a regular frequency. That'd be class, absolutely class.

Chedney Honks

Me and my brothers thought we invented a technique for Track and Field on the PlayStation. No button bashing, just stretch a sock very tightly over your hand and rub your middle finger across the two buttons instead of bashing them. Insane world records like 6 seconds in the 100m sprint and half a mile on the javelin. First time I tried it out with some mates they were pissing themselves and then they got annihilated and had to bow down to the king. I'm sure we found out later it was an established pro technique which we'd just stumbled upon. Genuinely could have been millionaires off the back of it had we got in there first.

BeardFaceMan

Daley Thompsons Decathlon on the Speccy was my intro to these games, and it's never been bettered. Probably.

AsparagusTrevor

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on September 25, 2021, 05:04:40 PMThey should make a marathon game, just utter tedium, not even the personal stake and tension if you were running your own marathon, just 2 hrs of watching a body labour while you have to press the buttons at low speed at a regular frequency. That'd be class, absolutely class.
The athletics equivalent of Desert Bus?

jamiefairlie

Quote from: BeardFaceMan on September 25, 2021, 05:15:47 PM
Daley Thompsons Decathlon on the Speccy was my intro to these games, and it's never been bettered. Probably.

Track & Field in the arcade, the greatest game ever.

"Whun fwoive fwore mwheters!"

holdover

Quote from: Chedney Honks on September 25, 2021, 05:10:25 PM
Me and my brothers thought we invented a technique for Track and Field on the PlayStation. No button bashing, just stretch a sock very tightly over your hand and rub your middle finger across the two buttons instead of bashing them. Insane world records like 6 seconds in the 100m sprint and half a mile on the javelin. First time I tried it out with some mates they were pissing themselves and then they got annihilated and had to bow down to the king. I'm sure we found out later it was an established pro technique which we'd just stumbled upon. Genuinely could have been millionaires off the back of it had we got in there first.

I used that method when playing Athens 2004 on the PS2. But the owner of the console deemed it an illegal method :(

jamiefairlie

Quote from: Chedney Honks on September 25, 2021, 05:10:25 PM
Me and my brothers thought we invented a technique for Track and Field on the PlayStation. No button bashing, just stretch a sock very tightly over your hand and rub your middle finger across the two buttons instead of bashing them. Insane world records like 6 seconds in the 100m sprint and half a mile on the javelin. First time I tried it out with some mates they were pissing themselves and then they got annihilated and had to bow down to the king. I'm sure we found out later it was an established pro technique which we'd just stumbled upon. Genuinely could have been millionaires off the back of it had we got in there first.

Reminiscent of cheating South African F1 driver Jody Scheckter oiling his shoes to win the squat thrusts in the 1981 World Superstars competition.

One for the kids there.

evilcommiedictator

C64 Epyx games were my first step here, and were great, and the animations were incredible at the time. Love it when you're weightlifting and screw up, and occasionally the barbell hits you on the head and jams you into the ground.
The DOSGAMECLUB podcast did xmas last year on Skiing games, which is basically just skifree and every single DOS Winter olympics game too :).

Now, as for Skateboarding games, Skate or Die.....

Gurke and Hare

Quote from: jamiefairlie on September 25, 2021, 09:57:12 PM
Reminiscent of cheating South African F1 driver Jody Scheckter oiling his shoes to win the squat thrusts in the 1981 World Superstars competition.

One for the kids there.

Am I right in remembering they used a bit of 4x2 to stop that happening again?

Cold Meat Platter

Quote from: evilcommiedictator on September 26, 2021, 12:19:43 AM
C64 Epyx games were my first step here, and were great, and the animations were incredible at the time. Love it when you're weightlifting and screw up, and occasionally the barbell hits you on the head and jams you into the ground.

The epyx games get a kicking online because of the shitty NES versions but the C64 games were great. Rather than stick waggling or tapping buttons they were timing-based but the yanks always complain about complicated controls. Oafs.

jamiefairlie

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on September 29, 2021, 11:56:37 PM
Am I right in remembering they used a bit of 4x2 to stop that happening again?

Yeah that rings a bell.

Sonny_Jim

Hypersports, obviously.  Utterly nails it in terms of simplicity, fun and scope for getting a better score.  Most events have a semi-secret way of playing that gets you more points.  Some I remember off the top of my head:

Skeet shooting, get a perfect set and shoot the last target with the 'opposite' button, get a special extra target to shoot

Weight lifting, hit both buttons as he drops the weight to get a special 'cheerleader' bonus

Archery hit all bullseyes and you'll get an extra apple target to hit.

Also Numan Athletics is great fun, like Hypersports but on Japanese Anime Steroids with pumpin' 90's Namco Rave soundtrack.  Instead of archery, you blow up submarines, instead of weight lifting you have to stop a speeding train, that sort of thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epMg5AEnjRQ

madhair60

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games