Big K


Micro Olympics
By Database
BBC Model B

 
Published in Big K #11

Micro Olympics

This amazing piece which supposedly stretches the limits of the BBC to new boundaries turns out to be a prehistoric version of Decathlon, with the unfortunate athlete reduced to a spindly creature with knock knees and a weird ability to run in slow motion.

The eleven track events shouted about with such pride turn out to be variations on three; running, choose-anything-from-a-short-distance-to-an-insane-distance, throwing a plate, a stick, or a stick with a lump on it and, finally, jumping up, along, or up with the help of another stick.

A friend and I used to get a great deal of fun from the original. Two complete morons containing an outrageous level of alcohol, pounding the hell out of a video game machine at four in the morning is not something to be missed, but this fails to generate any interest whatsoever.

The graphics are slow and not very convincing, the loading system from tape is lunacy, ploughing ahead through several programs before finding the selected event. Worst of all are the keyboard controls. As in the original, one key controls each leg, each pressed alternately to make the man run.

Getting anywhere at all means hammering at the keyboard like a berserk piledriver, the net result being a mangled pile of plastic and a very wealthy repairman before half an hour has passed. It might also be useful to put the instructions on paper instead of in a separate program where you can't see them when they're really needed.