Hello and welcome to another episode of retro gaming with Ricardo today's game
is Dane Thompson's decathlon day one on the ZX Spectrum 48k this is a fantastic
game I really enjoyed playing this back in the day it was unprecedented as well
as it got you away of just the normal button pression pressing the insert
button bashing or joystick waggling and the method of control of this was very
akin to what was going on in the arcades with track and field so Daley Thompson's
/ Catherine is a computer game developed and released under licence by ocean
software in 1984 it was released in the wake of Daley Thompson's popularity
following his gold medal success in the de cast on the 1980 and 1984 Olympic
Games a sequel to Daley Thompson's decathlon Daley Thompson super test was
released in 1985 as in the sport of its same name the player takes part in ten
events of the modern decathlon in day one a hundred meters the long jump the
shop foot the high jump and the grueling 400 meters in day two four hundred and
ten meter hurdles the pole vault discus javelin and 1500 meters the player
starts the game with three lives failure to reach the minimum standard or
qualifier in an event results from the loss of one life success in the 1500
meters event results from the game returning to day one to repeat the event
more difficult qualification criteria depending on the computer running is
simulated by hitting two keys representing the left and right leg
alternatively as quickly as possible or by moving the joystick from side to side
as quickly as possible the game rapidly gained reputation amongst players a
killer joystick game because of the contiguous vigorous waggling of the
joystick required during many of ten events I myself had a Kempson
constant producing that managed to stand up to the pressure as opposed to the
button pressing on the keyboard which given the spectrums River keyboard
didn't tend to get you very far Sinclair user gave the game a score of 8
out of 10 it went on to become the biggest-selling spectrum game in the
fourth quarter or q4 of 1984 the game won the award for best overall arcade
game in crash magazine's readers Awards in 1984 and was the best arcade style
game of the year at the golden joysticks award the game was included on the 1985
compilation they sold a million along with beachhead saberwolf and Jet Set
Willy in 2017 the game placed on eurogamer's 10 games that defined an
annexe spectrum list and has been recently released on Android and iOS
with much upgraded graphics so the year of release was 1984 and that the game
was published by ocean software it was then re-released by Eidos the hit
squad and a few others in different countries around the world the authors
were Paul Owens Christine Everhart and F David Thorpe the tie-in license of the
course with Daley Thompson and the machine-type that we're looking at today
was as an expectant though it was ported to several other computers of day and
age it was a single-player game and controls involved the Kempson joystick
the interface to the cursor and you could also redefine the keys on the
keyboard now way back in 1984 a game as this would have originally cost you six
pounds 90 pence though when was a relatable on budget price it came down
considerably to two pounds 99
addition follow-ons to this game in the same ilk as i mentioned was not only the
sequel to this daily Thompson's super test but then in the future
daily Thompson's Olympic challenges brought out as mentioned this games also
available on the Amstrad CPC and commodore 64 now in my opinion one of
the hardest events to do was indeed the high jump and I was quite impressed that
I've managed to get it on this occasion well 2.25 metres means I have indeed
qualified and the crowd has gone wild
some of the more grueling games has to be the sport simulations international
track and field on the PlayStation again the other games in the same ilk as this
the Daley Thompson games very much joystick intensive should we say lots of
joystick waggling I can imagine an awful lot of teenagers and people over the day
on this spectrum Commodore and Amstrad it being that's the only sort of
physical workout they actually got so now here we've got the 400 meters now if
you're using the keyboard two fingers tapping those keys alternatively to get
those legs movement moving is a killer now I didn't get round to doing the day
2 event as it takes you through day one twice on this version of the spectrum
game however if the 400 meters nearly kills me I can guarantee you the 1500
meters really good and to achieve a qualifying time would be quite intensive
indeed
as you can see here I am just over 300 meters in there now my fingers are
tiring the way probably will qualify and there's the finish align and we're over
thirty nine point zero two seconds and the crowd goes wild and here we go we've
got the rendition of Chariots of Fire to the end of day one
so the game then repeated a worm before taking you on then on today too so I'm
going to be quiet now and let you sit back and enjoy the nostalgia in the
knowledge that I've worn my fingers now to the bone but I haven't Michael Denny
joysticks I've been Ricardo and this is the retro
gaming this has been daily Thompson's decathlon day one please look out for
more videos in the series and I'll see you soon