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Following in the wake of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics came a succession of track and field games, most of which were attempting to emulate the incredible success of Konami's Track and Field in the arcades. The Spectrum had already suffered a few poor examples before Ocean dished up Daley Thompson's Decathlon which managed to ride to the top of the Christmas charts on the back of the British athlete's gold medal success. As Daley, you must compete in ten events: the 100 metres, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400 metres, the 110 metre hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500 metres. The ruin of many a rubber keyboard, this is a classic title that is still strongly associated with the Spectrum and its golden era. Try playing it on a PC keyboard and just watch those world records tumble!

Daley takes the gold
OCEAN continues its policy of bringing out amusement arcade games under license with a superb version of the popular Track and Field, entitled Daley Thompson's Decathlon. All ten events are represented, and played with dedication the full game is a gruelling exercise indeed.

The graphics are large and colourful. Each event has a qualifying time, and the 10 are split over two days, one on each side of the cassette. If you fail to qualify three times then you are out for the day. If you successfully complete the first day, you can go round again with higher qualifying times until your three lives are gone.

Some of the events are very tough, particularly the 400m sprint. In order to qualify you must pump the joystick backwards and forwards as fast as you can to maintain speed. After about 200m the wall of pain sets in. By a cruel trick, the 400m is the last event of the first day and the 100m is the first, so if you are still in the game you will immediately have to race the 100m just when your arm is ready to drop off.

The second day is more gentle, winding up with the 1500m which requires strategy and restraint if you are not to run out of energy too soon. All the events are reasonably easy to play, apart from the high jump, which appears next to impossible. Getting a decent score is, of course, another matter.

Arcade conversions do not always work on the small screen. Daley Thompson's Decathlon is an exception, and captures the spirit of the competition.



Chris Bourne


DALEY THOMPSON'S DECATHLON Memory: 48K Price: £6.90 Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair Gilbert Factor: 8

DALEY'S DECATHLON
Ocean / £6.90

Dave Daley's Decathlon is, of course, one of the several attempts to transfer the arcade game Track and Field onto the Spectrum. In fact, it's just about the best attempt so far. The object of the game (in case there's anyone out there who doesn't know!!) is to compete in each of the ten decathlon events scoring points for speed, height jumped and so on.
In the running events movement is accomplished, as usual, by either hitting two keys alternately or wiggling a joystick back and forth; a further key is used to throw or jump in the other events. Graphically, Decathlon is very good, the only problem being the rather stiff running motions of your man. Ocean's logo scrolls past at the top and a crowd applauds when you do well. Although there are a few small bugs (for example, I have it from a reliable source that it's possible to clear over 400 metres in the long jump!) the game simulates all of the events very well, including an energy limit on the 1500m.
For anyone on the look-out for a Track and Field -type game, this is the best buy at the moment. 4/5

Ross: Certainly the best track and field game for the Spectrum, although it doesn't contain some of the nicer touches in other versions. 3.5/5

Roger: Put a few quid in a deserving shamateur's pocket. After all, our boy Daley must've flogged the right to use his name. Good luck to 'im, too, because Decathlon earns its keep in screen time and gave me a lot of much- needed exercise. 3/5

Ross Holman, Roger Willis, Dave Nicholls

The game also won the Crash! Annual Readers Award in 1984.