Classic of the Month - Track & Field

Manufacturer:	Konami
Genre:	Sports
Board:	M6809
Year:	1983

The London 2012 Olympic Games is well underway and not only is the BBC providing some of the best technology to allow people at home to watch whatever events they want, my family and I were at the Women's Football at Old Trafford just yesterday to see USA face off against South Korea.

I've been in training in my own special way, by playing one of the greatest arcade sports games of all time, Konami's 1983 classic, Track & Field, the first in a series which included Hyper Sports (1984), Konami '88 Games (1988), Hyper Athlete (1996) and Negano Winter Olympics '98 (1998), as well as numerous non-arcade spin offs. The events in each game varied, but for Track & Field there were six:

• 100 Meter Dash – Running by quickly alternating button presses.
• Long jump – Running by alternating button press and correct timing for jump. Hold jump button to set angle.
• Javelin throw – Running by alternating button presses and then using action button correct timing for angle.
• 110 Meter Hurdles – Running by alternating button presses and using action button to time hurdles
• Hammer throw – Spinning initiated by pressing a run button once and then correctly timed press of action button to choose angle.
• High jump – Running (speed set by computer) and then action button must be held down to determine angle of jump. Once in the air, the run button can be rapidly pressed for additional height.

I'm not sure if this game is the reason the term "button basher" was invented, but it's certainly the game that introduced me to it. Nonetheless, as well as frantic button bashing the game did require considerable skill when it came to timing jumps and throws and actually getting through all six events is not easy.

Often when I'm working on a Classic of the Month feature I'm going on sheer nostalgia, but for this month, I've been putting in a lot of time playing the game, courtesy of the elegant Xbox Live Arcade port. In fact, I've played it so much, I've got all completed all of the events and got the best times and distances I've ever achieved on the game. Don't say I don't do the background work for these articles.

MTW