Please login to submit a screenshot

Having invented the athletics arcade game with Track and Field, Konami released the follow-up just at a time when Ocean Software were buying up their licenses and releasing conversions under their newly-acquired Imagine label. If there was one type of game that you could count on Ocean doing a good job of, it was sports simulations and Hypersports is no exception. It builds on the traditional running, jumping and throwing events by including activities such as shooting and swimming. The graphics are superb and it is probably the most accomplished multi-event sports game ever made for the Spectrum, even if all that keyboard bashing does wear you out.

HYPER SPORTS
Konami / £9.95
Rick: Now, I always thought that Hypersports was skiving off cross country with the lovely Sharon to share a No.6 but this classy sporting simulation takes you through swimming, skeet shooting, (C'mon, get your skeets on. Ed), vaulting, archery, triple jump and weight lifting. Not even Daley Thompson combines that little lot so you can class yourself quite a little hexathlete (calm down, I said hex!) if you make it to the end. You'll be just about ready for Seoul by then.
You start off with the swimming that's guaranteed to work you up into a quick frenzy - all that joystick wagglin' and fire button breathin'. Sort of underwater DTs, if you see what I mean. But while the swimming's all brawn the skeet's all reflex - the nice computer aims the gun for you so you only have to shoot. Only in the later sections do the old hand/eye co-ordinates require any grey matter. The vaulting and the triple jump are the hardest to master at the outset, but here the graphics are especially eye-catching. Watch out as well, for the wink of success when you qualify in the shooting and the rude noise when the vaulter comes a cropper. My only gripe is that it's a bit of a bore having to go back to the beginning if you fail to qualify at any of the rounds.
This is about the only way I'll do a triple jump in my bedroom! 4/5

Ross: What a sports simulation. The events have mostly done away with the key bashin', joystick thrashin' of previous games of this ilk, and I don't like to boast but I bet there's not many of you on your third time round already. Huh? 4/5

Roger: All this exercise is doing me in ... I told the Ed, the old wrists'll pack in again but he won't listen. I dunno he'll want me to start reviewing out of bed soon. 4/5

Imagine continue their comeback with what could be called the real follow-up to Daley Thompson's Decathlon. Hyper Sports is the official Spectrum version of Konami's arcade game which followed in the footsteps of the highly original Hyper Olympics (or Track and Field as the Taitel/Konami version was called).

To Track and Field fanatics this scenario will seem very similar, but don't worry! Hyper Sports isn't just a test of brute strength like its predecessor, but involves timing and skill too. Each event has a qualifying time, distance or target, and to go onto the next event you have to qualify in the preceding one - failure to do so results in the termination of your game. There are six of the original events; swimming, skeet shooting, horse vaulting, archery, triple jump and weight lifting.

When you start a game you are given the familiar letter 'star' and you use this to enter your initials. Once you've identified yourself, you move onto the events, which commence with swimming. Smash the keyboard (or your joystick) to bits to get speed and when given the prompt, press the jump button to let your man breathe. If you don't he'll slow down, and if you press breathe at the wrong time your man will cough and splutter and REALLY slow down.

The swimming is reasonably simple and so is the next event, the skeet (or clay pigeon) shooting. Your man stands at the bottom of the screen with a shotgun while two boxes move up and down the screen, acting as sights. Shoot as many of the skeets that fly over by pressing either the left or right key as one passes through the corresponding sight. If you time your shot correctly then you hit the skeet. You have three separate attempts to qualify, and when you're successful your man turns, winks and gives you a big grin!

Next, into the gym and onto (or over) the wooden horse. Your man automatically runs up to the horse but you must time his jump onto the springboard correctly, using the jump button, for him to vault. Too soon and you won't get much of a jump; too late and he will trip up. Time the jump correctly and he will be launched through the air, to land hands first on the horse. When his body is horizontal press fire again and hit the speed buttons as fast as you can to make him somersault. Time the somersault so he lands on his feet otherwise he'll cartwheel along the floor or bounce on his head, both of which lose points.

After this comes the archery - one of the most difficult of the events. Pressing fire determines wind speed and then a target is winched down the screen which you have to hit. To do this allow for wind speed and let go of the arrow by pressing the jump button. Make sure your angle is as near to five degrees as possible and if you have timed right you will get a bullseye (worth 400 points).

Onto the triple jump now and it's all hands on the speed buttons. Zoom up to the line and press the jump button, trying to get as near to 45 degrees as possible. Repeat twice for the step and the jump and then wait for the measuring. After three jumps you can progress to the final and the most strenuous round, the weight lifting.

This is a pound-your-Spectrum-keyboard-through-the-floor screen. First select the weight you want to tackle then it's off on a merry pound that'll bring tears to your eyes and quite possibly a nasty mess oozing from your Spectrum. Once you start the weightlifting you have to pound away until your man lifts the weight to his chest. When he has done this press jump to 'snatch' the weights and pummel away at the key board to keep them above his head. Once that is over you can go to hospital to get an organ transplant and come back to start the series of events again, only this time it's a lot harder with all the qualifying times upped.

Producer: Imagine
Memory required: 48K
Price: £7.95
Language: machine code



CRITICISM
'A superb arcade clone with Imagine getting as close to the original as possible within the limits of the Spectrum. All the events represented here are very close to the original, as fans of the game w

Imagine continue their comeback with what could be called the real follow-up to Daley Thompson's Decathlon. Hyper Sports is the official Spectrum version of Konami's arcade game which followed in the footsteps of the highly original Hyper Olympics (or Track and Field as the Taitel/Konami version was called).

To Track and Field fanatics this scenario will seem very similar, but don't worry! Hyper Sports isn't just a test of brute strength like its predecessor, but involves timing and skill too. Each event has a qualifying time, distance or target, and to go onto the next event you have to qualify in the preceding one - failure to do so results in the termination of your game. There are six of the original events; swimming, skeet shooting, horse vaulting, archery, triple jump and weight lifting.

When you start a game you are given the familiar letter 'star' and you use this to enter your initials. Once you've identified yourself, you move onto the events, which commence with swimming. Smash the keyboard (or your joystick) to bits to get speed and when given the prompt, press the jump button to let your man breathe. If you don't he'll slow down, and if you press breathe at the wrong time your man will cough and splutter and REALLY slow down.

The swimming is reasonably simple and so is the next event, the skeet (or clay pigeon) shooting. Your man stands at the bottom of the screen with a shotgun while two boxes move up and down the screen, acting as sights. Shoot as many of the skeets that fly over by pressing either the left or right key as one passes through the corresponding sight. If you time your shot correctly then you hit the skeet. You have three separate attempts to qualify, and when you're successful your man turns, winks and gives you a big grin!

Next, into the gym and onto (or over) the wooden horse. Your man automatically runs up to the horse but you must time his jump onto the springboard correctly, using the jump button, for him to vault. Too soon and you won't get much of a jump; too late and he will trip up. Time the jump correctly and he will be launched through the air, to land hands first on the horse. When his body is horizontal press fire again and hit the speed buttons as fast as you can to make him somersault. Time the somersault so he lands on his feet otherwise he'll cartwheel along the floor or bounce on his head, both of which lose points.

After this comes the archery - one of the most difficult of the events. Pressing fire determines wind speed and then a target is winched down the screen which you have to hit. To do this allow for wind speed and let go of the arrow by pressing the jump button. Make sure your angle is as near to five degrees as possible and if you have timed right you will get a bullseye (worth 400 points).

Onto the triple jump now and it's all hands on the speed buttons. Zoom up to the line and press the jump button, trying to get as near to 45 degrees as possible. Repeat twice for the step and the jump and then wait for the measuring. After three jumps you can progress to the final and the most strenuous round, the weight lifting.

This is a pound-your-Spectrum-keyboard-through-the-floor screen. First select the weight you want to tackle then it's off on a merry pound that'll bring tears to your eyes and quite possibly a nasty mess oozing from your Spectrum. Once you start the weightlifting you have to pound away until your man lifts the weight to his chest. When he has done this press jump to 'snatch' the weights and pummel away at the key board to keep them above his head. Once that is over you can go to hospital to get an organ transplant and come back to start the series of events again, only this time it's a lot harder with all the qualifying times upped.

Producer: Imagine
Memory required: 48K
Price: £7.95
Language: machine code



CRITICISM
'A superb arcade clone with Imagine getting as close to the original as possible within the limits of the Spectrum. All the events represented here are very close to the original, as fans of the game w

GET INTO training, sports fans, for a compilation of sporting simulations from Imagine '84.


Hypersports is licensed from the Japanese amusement arcade game of the same name, and should not be confused with Daley Thompson's Supertest, about to be released by sister company Ocean. On the other hand, it does the same sort of thing, and will test your biceps to the utmost as you pump the joystick in agony.

Swim two lengths of the pool, remembering to breathe. The graphics on this event are the poorest of the six. There are three other swimmers, and the end of the pool moves towards the swimmers rather than the swimmers moving at different speeds.

The game gets its feet on firmer ground with the clay pigeon shooting. The twin sights move up automatically, and you must time your shots to hit the clay pigeons, or skeets.

The vault has the athlete trying to somersault as far as he can from a gymnasium horse, and an archery contest involves shooting at a moving target, taking wind and elevation into account.


The triple jump will be familiar to Decathlon players as a more complex version of the long jump, but the real killer is the weightlifting. A hilariously musclebound, moustached klutz creaks and groans in his efforts to raise the dumb-bell, and you must choose the weight at which you want to compete. This is the event which really taxes your joystick wrist, and risks terminal damage to the keyboard.

The graphics are more varied and generally better than Daley Thompson's Decathlon, with much more humour. You play through the sequence until you fail to qualify three times, and each new round raises the qualifying level. There are tables for the three best results at each event, and the game certainly presents a challenging experience.

Hypersports is almost assured of success in the shops, but whether it is better than Daley Thompson's Decathlon is another matter. The programming is certainly of similar excellence, except for the swimming event, but the sports themselves do not form a coherent