Track and Field (Nintendo Video Game)

Track & Field is the name of a series of Olympic themed video games developed by Konami for several platforms since 1982.

The first title, simply called Track & Field (Hyper Olympic outside the United States) was released in 1983 as an arcade game. The simple gameplay, based on quick, repeating, button presses set the basics for sequels and similar games in the genre for the next decades. It would be later released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985, and became one of the most popular NES games of its time.

[edit] Gameplay

In the original arcade game, the player uses two "run" buttons (or a trackball in some early units) and one "action" button to control an athlete competing in following six events:

• 100 Meter Dash – Running by button mashing
• Long jump - Running and correct timing for jumnp
• Javelin throw - Running and then using action button correct timing for angle (~42 degrees is optimal).
• 110m Hurdles - Running and using action button to time hurdles
• Hammer throw - Spinning by button mashing and then correctly timing press of action button to choose angle (45 is optimal).
• High jump - Running 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.

In each event, there is a qualifying time or level that the player must achieve to advance to the next event; failing to qualify (in one heat for running events or three tries in the other events) ends the game.

The game can accommodate up to four players, who compete in pairs for the running events, and individually for the others. If there are fewer than four players, the remaining slots are played by the computer (or player "CPU"). In all multiplayer heats, though, the relative performance of the players has no effect on the game, and advancing is based solely on qualifying times.

If a player completes all six events, after a brief medal ceremony he is sent back to the field for another round, with higher qualifying levels.

In the follow-up Hyper Sports, there were seven events: 100-meter crawl, skeet shooting, vault, archery, triple jump, weight lifting and pole vault.

[edit] Legacy

Konami continued releasing games on the series for the arcade:

• Hyper Sports (1984)
• Konami '88 (1988)
• Track & Field II (1988) NES)
• Hyper Athlete (1996)
• Nagano Winter Olympics '98 (1998)
• International Track & Field 2000 (2000, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo 64)
• International Track & Field Summer Games (2000, Nintendo 64)

Home versions also continued to appear, Track & Field II (1988) and Track & Field in Barcelona (1992) would also be released for the NES. Although there wasn't any title released for

Track & Field helped to popularize the button-mashing style of gameplay, in which a player must hit a button on their controller as fast and as many times as possible in order to make their in-game athlete move quicker. This design rapidly incorporated into clones like Epyx's Summer Games. Many contemporary athletics games still use this form of control as a part of their gameplay.

[edit] Annual Competition

In April 2006, a competition was held in Boise, Idaho. Players went heads-up through four rounds of play. The player with the highest average score was declared winner. A player known only as "TAC" captured gold with steady button control. The silver went to "JOE" & bronze went to "KWA." Surprisingly, at least one participant was injured in the competition.