Personal Computer Games


Athlete

Categories: Review: Software
Author: BW
Publisher: Buffer Micro Limited
Machine: Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Personal Computer Games #10

Athlete

Another in the spate of Track and Field copies, but this doesn't measure up to the arcade original or Micro Olympics.

Five events have to be completed, the 100 metres, 400 metres, 110 metres hurdles and 400 metres hurdles against two opponents, and a hammer throw, the aim being to score as many points as possible.

There is none of the adrenalin pumping thumping of keyboards or joysticks. Your speed in the races is determined by your chosen effort between one and nine. However you only have so much power to cover the distance and therefore have to ration your effort carefully. It makes the game less harsh on the hardware and more dependent on skill rather than on wrist power. But this also means it is far less exciting.

Athlete

The program runs through the title screens for every event and you can spend almost as much time waiting for these as you can playing the game.

The limitations of power mean you spend most of the running races just watching three badly animated men jogging across a white picture with two lines across it. No grass, no crowd, no distance markers, no sound. Nothing to get even my Grandad's pacemaker beating faster.

The hurdles involve rather more skill - you have to time jumps carefully to clear them. But your character gets hidden by the hurdles when leaping them and disappears completely if he falls over one.

You also collapse in a heap if you run out of power, which is all too easy to do with your apparently feeble resources.

The hammer throw is the most enjoyable event. It's fun carefully timing the release of the weight - but one good event can't make up for the inadequacies of the rest of the program.

BW

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