Summer Games II
Description official descriptions
Eight Olympic events feature in this game, and any selection of these can be played at a time. There is no pure sprinting, and only the rowing and cycling can be thought of as pure joystick-waggling. The triple jump involves pressing right to start the hop (before reaching the white line), right again for the step as you land, left as you land for the jump, and then up to propel you through the sand. I high jump, after selecting a height you feel you can clear, you use up and down to control the speed, fire to jump, and then forward to propel you over the bar.
For the javelin even you hold down fire to build up speed, and push left to throw the javelin, holding it left before releasing to change the angle. In the equestrian event, you must use up to increase speed, and fire or right to jump when appropriate to clear the hazards - too many faults will see you disqualified.
Fencing involves moving your foil using the joystick, always staying one step ahead of your opponent, retreating when appropriate. The kayaking event involves navigating a river by controlling the direction, ensuring that all the gates are past correctly even when this requires some precise lining up. You can also load the events from Summer Games 1 in, to play all 16 events in a marathon session.
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Credits (Commodore 64 version)
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 83% (based on 8 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 35 ratings with 1 reviews)
Summer Games II is a great game to play with friends.
The Good
Summer Games II is one of the many athletics games made in 1980s. Most of these games involve brainless joystick abuse. Epyx approaches controlling your athletes a bit more natural way. Triple jumping is about right timing and javelin for example requires player to throw javelin at right angle.
Triple jump and javelin are the two best events from the eight available events. Usually sport games are funnier when competing with friends and Summer Games is not an exception. Up to 8 players can compete against each other and it's also possible to play with original Summer Games events too.
Saveable world records is a nice feature to have in this kind of game. On a plus side are also character animation and graphics overall. Visuals are very pleasing for a Commodore 64 game.
The Bad
Of the eight playable events there are six events which I'd rather not to play. Fencing and kayaking are especially dull events.
Sounds are nothing special, national anthems and some sound effects. Listening to national anthems can be a little annoying after a while because you can't skip listening to them after an event.
The Bottom Line
Summer Games II is a great game for gathering of competitive-minded friends. Controls are easy enough to succeed in events and after some practice world records are also breakable. Highly recommended.
Commodore 64 · by shphhd (427) · 2009
Trivia
1001 Video Games
Summer Games II appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.
Ports
As with the original Summer Games, conversions for Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, ST and Amiga were later made, but only for compilations Gold, Silver, Bronze and Mega Sports.
Technology
Summer Games 2's graphics artist Michael Kosaka used slow-motion video clips of athletes as models for the game's sprites. All C64 sprites are layered, i.e. single-color sprites stacked on top of each other. The track-and-field athlete, for example, consists of seven separate sprites.
Summer Games 2 uses the Vorpal Loader, Epyx' proprietary fastload tool, which loads programs about ten times quicker than usual. The Vorpal Loader was programmed by Scott Nelson, brother of Epyx' technical director Craig Nelson.
Source: Happy Computer magazine #5/86
Awards
- Happy Computer
- Issue 02/1986 - Best Game in 1985 (Readers' Vote)
Information also contributed by Martin Smith
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by jeff leyda.
Wii added by Picard. Commodore 64 added by Quapil. Apple II added by Terok Nor.
Additional contributors: -Chris, Martin Smith, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.
Game added March 28, 2000. Last modified March 1, 2024.