Summer Games

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Summer Games
Studio Epyx
Publisher US gold
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 1984
platform C64 , Apple II , Atari 8-bit (800 / XL / XE ...) , Atari 2600 , Atari 7800 , Amstrad CPC
genre Sports simulation
Game mode Single player , multiplayer ( 8 players )
control joystick
medium diskette
language English

Summer Games is a sports simulation for the Commodore C64 , released in 1984 , in which players compete in various Olympic disciplines. It was developed by Randy Glover at Epyx and distributed by the publisher U.S. Gold . The game has been ported to numerous systems.

development

Summer Games was a further development of a game by the Starpath development studio that had recently been merged with Epyx. The decathlon game Sweat! Developed by Scott Nelson for the Supercharger expansion of the Atari 2600 ! was initially discontinued after the merger. When the Olympic Games in Los Angeles approached and Epyx was under pressure to produce a hit, the idea of ​​the game was taken up again. Instead of the decathlon, there were now Olympic disciplines to choose from.

Under the direction of programmer Stephen Landrum , the game was developed by Randy Glover, Jon Leupp , Brian McGhie , Stephen Murdry, and Scott Nelson in less than six months. The code was written in the system-level assembly language Assembler , for which an adapted assembler was used on an Apple II . For the graphic representation of the game, Epyx brought in Erin Murphy for the first time in the development team.

Game mechanics

Up to eight players for different nations can take part in the following competitions:

Since Epyx did not have a license from the International Olympic Committee at the time, the event was simply called "Epyx Games" in the game.

After selecting a nation, players have the option of either competing in all disciplines one after the other, competing in selected disciplines only, or practicing a single discipline. The high scores are stored separately in all disciplines, which motivates the player to continuously train his skills in the various disciplines in order to surpass the high score.

A joystick is used to control the game . This has to be used in different ways: In some disciplines the player has to move it back and forth with as even movements as possible, in other disciplines it depends on the precise timing of complex movements or the continuous, rapid actuation of the fire button (also called button mashing ) . The quick right-left movements of the joystick, which were particularly necessary for running sports, caused above-average wear on the joysticks.

Summer Games became a best seller for Epyx with approximately 100,000 copies sold. Together with the various ports to other platforms, the number even rose to around a million copies, according to Stephen Landrum.

successor

The sequel Summer Games II , which was also written by Randy Glover, was released for Summer Games in 1985 . The playful implementation of the Olympic Games was later continued with the titles Winter Games , World Games , California Games and California Games II .

1988 followed with The Games: Summer Edition and The Games: Winter Edition, graphically revised new editions of the games.

Ironstone, Magnussoft and System 3 are currently licensed to use the Epyx name. As a result, games are currently appearing again for various platforms, whose name and design are based on the original.

Similar games

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Magnussoft PC game
  2. ↑ PocketPC version of Ironstone ( Memento from July 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive )