Andrew Fisher (697) on 4/24/2023 6:10 AM · Permalink · Report

There was a time when I liked sports simulation games about as much as arcade games though preferably games with varied events like Epyx's "Games" series or Electronic Arts' "or Die" games. I preferred Epyx's World Games, because of the breadth of sports and scenery, also the event theme music, which could of course be a national cliché like the folk-tune sometimes known as "Hail to the Bus Driver" for barrell jumping in Germany.

Summer Games was Epyx's first Games game, released a little before the '84 Summer Olympics and of course within the bounds of Summer Olympic sports, but still with some variety, swimming and running are kind of done twice so a bit of cost-cutting there, but there's also pole vault, diving, gymnastics (vaulting horse) and a big change of scenery last, skeet shooting. So graphically the backgrounds are OK, sometime plain, but the foreground animation e.g. the running figures have a realism rarely seen at that time. This was before Jordan Mechner began using rotoscoped animation in games like Karateka and Prince of Persia and of course Epyx used the same running animation later in '84 in Impossible Mission. As for gameplay, each event can take a lot practice to be successful at, but I think the training phase is quite fun and it's satisfying when you finally get the hang of it. Then you can compete over and over and try to break the records. One thing is missing, the game doesn't announce a new record, you have to check the score table back at the main menu, but Summer Games II, released a year later, added the new world record announcement after each event and I think the sequel was overall better.