World Games

Moby ID: 1217
PC Booter Specs
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Description official descriptions

World Games is an Olympics-style sports game with arcade-oriented gameplay. The events players can compete in include:

  • Barrel jumping
  • Bull riding
  • Caber toss
  • Cliff diving
  • Log rolling
  • Skiing
  • Sumo wrestling
  • Weightlifting

In the Sega Master System version, there is only four events:

  • Barrel jumping
  • Bull riding
  • Caber toss
  • Pole vault

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Credits (PC Booter version)

4 People

Design
Cover Artwork

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Critics

Average score: 71% (based on 25 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.1 out of 5 (based on 79 ratings with 0 reviews)

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Trivia

1001 Video Games

World Games appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Development

Planning for another episode in Epyx’ "Games" series began in the middle of December 1985, after the production of Winter Games. World Games was picked from a pool of ideas that included Sci-fi Games, Ancient Greek Games and Medieval Games. Among the disciplines discussed (and dismissed) were surfing, BMX biking, wood logging and pistol duels.

The German national discipline was supposed to be soccer, or more precisely: penalty kicks. However, Epyx deemed this too difficult to implement, and chose Barrel Jumping instead. Allegedly, they got the idea from an American book which extensively described it as a German national sport. For the record: barrel jumping is unknown in Germany.

Near the end of production, some Epyx members went to a Scottish Week in a nearby city. When they witnessed the caber tossing contest there, they were shocked to see that the object of the discipline is not to throw the log as far as possible, as depicted in World Games, but to throw the log so that it lands on one end, stands straight, and then falls directly away from the thrower. This was not changed in the game since "nobody in the US understands this discipline anyway".

Epyx did the design and graphics for World Games, but not the sound and programming. Jeff Webb, a freelance composer, contributed the music. Programming was outsourced to an external team in Chicago, K-Byte. There, eight programmers focused on the eight disciplines; the routines for the menus and the score boards were taken from Summer Games 2. Programming took from March to September 1986. World Games was released in the US in early October.

Epyx had to produce a European C64 version of World Games. Two disciplines, Cliff Diving and Slalom, caused European C64s to crash. The problem: European C64s are built with a different graphics chip than US machines, adapted to the PAL TV standard rather than the American NTSC. The European version of World Games was released two weeks after the US version.

Source: Happy Computer magazine #4/87

Awards

  • ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment)
    • March 1991 (issue #42) - Included in the list Greatest Games of all Time in category Sports Simulations (editorial staff choice)
  • Commodore Format
    • July 1991 (Issue 10) - listed in the A to Z of Classic Games article (Great)
  • Happy Computer
    • 1986 - Runner-up as Sports Game of the Year
    • Issue 04/1987 - Best Game in 1986 (Readers' Vote)

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  • MobyGames ID: 1217
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by jeff leyda.

Amstrad CPC added by B.L. Stryker. Commodore 64 added by Quapil. SEGA Master System added by Tibes80. Amiga added by necronom. ZX Spectrum, Atari ST added by Martin Smith. Apple IIgs added by ZenicReverie. Wii added by gamewarrior. Apple II added by Terok Nor. MSX added by koffiepad. NES added by Unicorn Lynx.

Additional contributors: -Chris, Patrick Bregger, Jo ST, FatherJack.

Game added March 28, 2000. Last modified February 13, 2024.