The History of Track and Field - Arcade documentary

this video was requested by Christopher M one of my loyal patreon supporters if you would like to support me on patreon please check the link below thank you in 1983 an epidemic was sweeping the nation never before in the history of competitive gaming would a title reach into the heart of America and make us proud countrymen no I'm not talking about crackhead racing I'm talking about track and field which was released just in time for the 1984 Olympics what was the technique that would give you high scores beyond your wildest dreams so put on those stingers and get ready to run because this is the history of track and field the year is 1983 and Konami is on a roll with their successful string of arcade machines some of their successful arcade games included Frogger scramble time pilot and gyros konami designer akira watanabe was reading the paper when an idea struck him the Olympics were coming to the USA in 1984 and he realized there hadn't been any good decathlon style games this would be the perfect time to introduce such a concept and boy oh boy what a concept it was track and field was released in late 1983 into the arcades the original title in Japan and Europe was hyper Olympic and carried the official endorsement of the 1984 Olympics this was changed when it was released in North America because the license did not apply in the USA the game supports up to four players with each group of two running in pairs the games comprised of six events of varying difficulty rather than use a standard joystick the game uses 3d buttons - for running and an action button right in the middle most events involve alternately pressing the Run buttons as fast as you can to increase your speed the events in order are the 100-meter dash long jump javelin throw [Music] 110 meter hurdles cameras roll [Music] and the high jump in each event there's a qualifying time or level you have to reach before you can advance with each failure to qualify you lose a life once all three lives are gone the game is over this was one of the first arcade games to feature multiple Easter eggs and the 100-meter dash and also the hurdles if you tie your opponent in terms of time a man walks along the back and throws at the key which is worth 1000 points and the long jump if you manage to jump just the very edge a Alamo will pop up and award you 1000 points on the javelin if you're running fast enough and hold the angle all the way up you'll knock a hidden bird down and be awarded 1000 points the game brought multiplayer competitive gaming to the forefront I have fond memories of playing this with my nephew's that always having a good time laughing and screaming there were a lot of innovative players at the time who came up with tips and tricks for making their little guy run just a little bit faster one was a pencil or ruler trick another one was a double tap method which was also used in joust and finally the last one as certain people could use an electric fishing knife people were posting Recker scores with these techniques due to the mashing of the buttons repeatedly the game would constantly break down due to all the button failures the following year konami released a version they used a trackball instead of buttons the theme song from the 1980 movie Chariots of Fire plays in the high score screen the game was a huge success and sold close to 85 thousand units they were a bunch of conversions by the first one I'm going to talk about is the Atari 2600 this one is notable for having its own 2600 track-and-field pad included with the game if you did not have the pad but wanted to play the game anyway you could always waggle the joystick back and forth to increase your speed and then press the fire button to jump I was not a fan of this technique because I broke many joysticks trying to play the game the character sprites really don't resemble the arcade game but they are nicely and the speed is very good the sound effects are adequate but it doesn't enter the gameplay too much next up is the Apple 2 version the first thing you notice is the look of the runners they are either running to a q-ball convention or are there all candidates for the hare Club for Men there is nice parallax scrolling which is always a treat to see in early titles such as this one the game plays pretty well and all the events are represented the problem comes from the speed which is just a tiny bit slower than the arcade game there is virtually no sound but I guess that could be a good thing the spectrum port is not very good everything has a nice cabbage or green being glow to it making it somewhat hard to distinguish things the speed is adequate but there is a lot of flicker on the screen there is no sound and the playability is dismal the game was so bad that it did not see the light of day for a full five years and only then was available in the game set and match to compilation the Amstrad version looks pretty good but as soon as you start to move it all falls apart loads of flicker and I render probably 75% speed of the arcade game there is absolutely no sound the playability is also not very good similar to the spectrum version this did not see the light of day until 1988 on the game set and match to compilation up next is the Atari 800 version the characters price don't look as close to the arcade as other home computer versions such as the Commodore 64 the game has decent speed but the animation is too slow and choppy which makes it difficult to land those precision jumps the sound effects are truly awful so if you're going to play this version better have those earplugs handy the gold commodore 64 version probably is the best version on all of the 8-bit computers the graphics are really good considering this is an early Commodore 64 title large detailed sprites and silky smooth animation there is very nice parallax scrolling as well the sound effects and music are really well done a plus the MSX version is quite the master B's considering the system the game features the Chariots of Fire theme you have to start which doesn't sound too bad the sprites are nice and large and closely resembled the arcade game this version also has the winning and losing animations after each event the speed is just a tiny bit slower but the playability makes up for it yo you killed Omid I can do expecially godo fight on Cimino technically like aikido communicator - pika in 1987 konami released it for the NES in north america this is a combination of both track and field and hyper sports but it's missing the hammer throw event the graphics are nice and colorful but everything looks like shrinky dinks the speed and animation are very smooth allowing for those precision jumps the sound effects are pretty good with a faithful rendition of the chairs of fire theme being played there were a bunch of clones and sequels but there's no way I could list every single one so instead I am just going to cherry pick my favorites hyper Olympics or hyper Olympic 84 as it was known in Japan and Europe was released in 1984 the graphics and control scheme remains the same but seven new events were introduced including swimming cutie archery triple-jump weightlifting employers the game was extremely in 1988 konami released the third game in the track and field series released as konami 88 in japan it was retitled 88 games for North America what a difference five years makes in terms of technology the game is essentially a remake of the original track of feel and hike reports but with vastly improved graphics and sound there's a lot of digitized speech all throughout the game which sounds great the graphics are a sight to behold especially if you're a fan of the original game parallax scrolling by itself is very smooth with nine or ten layers thanks to the new scaling and rotation function the viewpoints change all throughout the game the sprites are large and detailed and they look fabulous the gameplay remains the same with up to four players just like the original the game was not a very big hit to the arcade cabinets are very very fun to play and once again offered the same competitive multiplayer madness [Music] international track and field brings the track-and-field franchise into the third dimension released in the arcades and the PlayStation in 1996 this was the first track-and-field game to offer four players simultaneous action the game bolts the 11 events with all six of the original games returning this is an excellent 3d remake and is very entertaining especially in groups of four this was one of the best multiplayer games on the original PlayStation and that about wraps up this episode track-and-field was a monster hit in the arcades it was one of the first competitive multiplayer arcade games if you have a chance to see it in the wild be sure and give it a go it's loads of fun especially with your friends remember you can always support me on patreon by clicking the link below every dollar helps and I really appreciate it also make sure you like share and subscribe to my channel it's the only way it can grow thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: PatmanQC - History of arcade game documentaries

Views: 42,541

Keywords: NES, arcade, SNES, amputee, Xbox, PlayStation, Sony, Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft, retro, video, gamesAtari, Colecovision, Intellivision, Jaguar, entertainment, system, Game, Boy, Genesis, Mega, drive, CD, X68000, Amstrad, spectrum, MSX, 2600, 5200, 7800, 400, 800, 1200, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, 360, one, switch, GameCube, wii, wii-u, Olympics, chariots of fire, hyper sports, track and field, 88 games, frogGER, gyrusS, scramble, Arcade, 1983, 1984, Retro, classic

Id: AUh2EeLIv4I

Length: 11min 37sec (697 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 22 2019