Matt Chat 18: Summer Games

[JuntMonkey]

Were you serious about the more nimble avatar if you choose China?

[kohan69]

BJORK?!?! are you serious!??! I couldnt find any info on that anywhere! Was that just a joke? :(

[CaseofGlass]

Heh, I play Track & Field on arcades, spending all my allowance. Still, it was time well spent. Only other sport game (if you can call it so) I liked was Aquatic Games on Amiga, which in a way was very similar

[TinyTank2]

This was back when Olympics games weren't just cheap cash-ins.

[fififamiliya]

Asian wives waiting # lushfmlk.info #

[DOSBoxMom]

Back in late 1987 Commodore ran magazine ads for a "buy a C64, get 5 free Epyx games" promo, which decided us to buy a C64 (our 2nd gaming platform after the Atari 5200, and our very first computer) at an after Christmas sale that year. Once we got the 5 free Epyx games, though, we quickly learned that sports games weren't to our taste (even though we had very few games then), and sold them at the next GenCon. (Saved the copy of Oregon Trail I that came with the C64, though.:))

[blacklily8]

@DOSBoxMom I don't typically like sports games either, but the Epyx ones tended to be abstract enough to be enjoyable. I don't watch or care about television sports, so many sports games are based on them.

[R2daE01]

just awesome.... i played this so much back in the days. In the 80`s c64 was huge here in the netherlands. And not only for gaming. Even a lot of elementry schools here used the c-64.

whooohoo netherlands wins gold.. ( finally)

[vintagevideogamegeek]

7:49 "Jerk your joystick back and forth as fast as you can..." BWHAHAAHAHAHA!

[vintagevideogamegeek]

The running animation in this was either copied from or the model for Impossible Mission. I'm not sure which one was made first.

[vintagevideogamegeek]

LOL at the Bjork joke!

[vanarve]

I like these series, you should do Zelda a link to the past for Snes :)

Good job.

[nascarbr]

Commodore 64 had a great sound board.

[JackiePaquito]

Watching all your videos now! They are great! I think im going to buy the book too.

[JackiePaquito]

When i get money :)

[Simon0]

brazil is the best music!

[princessfala14]

ok ok one min this 9:59 is the game sims

[THISBEANAWESOMENAME]

I had California Games and loved it as a kid.

[wrestletube1]

One really crap one is Aqutic Games.

[PurePlombon]

I'm a big fan of Konami's Track and Field. From what I can remember of the NES ports, Epyx's games stressed rhythm, as opposed to Track and Field, which was a straight-forward button-masher (except for the skeet shooting event which required timing).

I think Summer Games was one of the few in the series that wasn't given the NES treatment (maybe because of its similarity to T&F). Acclaim published Winter Games; Milton Bradley released World Games, California Games.

[turnkit]

An historical comparison and time showing Olympic Decathlon on the TRS-80 Model 1 and later under MS-DOS as well as with the similar coin-op titles would be fascinating. Like many game ideas I don't think Summer Games will be seen as revolution as it is evolutionary in light of other similar titles of this era (and published before Summer Games).

[blacklily8]

Ah, yes. I'm not too familiar with OD, but my friend has some screenshots up at Armchair Arcade. If you make a video response with the game in question I'll happily accept it. :)

[blacklily8]

You're welcome, Richard!

[RichardEllwood]

Yes I agree with you -- this is a great game, and I also spent many hours playing it on my old C64. These reviews are a treat, and well put together. Thanks!

[tgaskill]

Stumbled upon your old game reviews. It really brings back the memories. Keep up the good work. Would like to buy your books.

[blacklily8]

Thanks, tgaskill. Really appreciate it! Don't forget to tell your friends about me. :)

[jakdin]

Matt Chats are a highlight each week that I really look forward to. Keep them coming, Matt!

[blacklily8]

Thanks, Jakdin! What a nice comment. Made my morning!

[Daytona400f]

There were many-a-champion crowned in my house by this game when I was a kid!

Thanks for the recharging my memory cells!

[blacklily8]

Hehe, no problem, Daytona. Thanks for watching! Don't forget to let those fellow champs know about the show. :)

[Daytona400f]

I just added Mattchat to my Facebook, with a personal favorites plug. :)

[blacklily8]

Thanks so much!

[marcusmalone]

I'd never thought about the enormity of the programming task here. Funny how everything looks inevitable in hindsight! Also, there's a new site I'm a member of called therealretromaniacs. A place for lovers of all things retro. Gaming especially. You can post videos there. You may want to check it out. I'm sure you'll find a captive audience!

[laffer35]

Awesome review. I really like these Matt Chats.

I always liked California and World Games better, though... I think the events there are more fun and they have more humor in there.

[blacklily8]

Yes, I could tell they were more humorous and even slapstick. Maybe the Summer Games were trying to take themselves more seriously.

[rowdyrob3d]

Great video! I had a lot of fun with Summer Games back in the day on the Atari 8-bit. I was always jealous that the C-64 guys got to play "Winter Games" and the other "Games" series, but we Atari owners were stuck with just Summer Games. I still have my "Epyx" joystick, though. :-)

This was a great, fun video about an often overlooked game in the "classic games" genre. We still see the legacy of the "sports minigame" in games such as "Wii Sports."

[blacklily8]

Thanks, Rob. I was wondering how similar Wii Sports is to something like this. One of these days I'll have to get a Wii and see what all the fuss is about. ;)

[Yakumo9275]

Really nice matt, I distinctly remember the opening scene and music. man I filled the hours on the c64 with this. wintergames was ok but the follow ups were kinda dry (I did like world games tho)

[blacklily8]

I guess it's a matter of taste. :) I am also more of a Summer Games fan, though some of the events in the later games are certainly interesting and fun.

[NickPaidaros]

Good morning Matt, good work as always....we miss you guys ! !

[blacklily8]

Ahoy, Captain! We miss you, too.

[MaximumRD]

Great as always Matt. May I sugest, I would like to see your perspective on HORROR themed games.....

[blacklily8]

Thanks! What particular horror game do you have in mind?

[MaximumRD]

Well, I guess something early on, seems Alone in the Dark and the like have been done to death, maybe the early point and click horror game Shivers (1995 -- Sierra On-line)? I am sure there where text based ones but I would not be likely to go back and revisit those.

[blacklily8]

I used to get scared playing Alien on the C-64, as well as Forbidden Forest. Darkseed was pretty hectic, too. None of that compares to Doom 3, though. That was nightmarish. Heard a lot about Resident Evil but haven't played it much.

[thejoyofsticks]

I was a big fan of these multi-event sports titles when I was a kid, and Epyx were undoubtedly the kings of this particular genre on the home computers. My favourites were California Games and The Games: Summer Edition for the Atari ST, the latter featuring some hilarious animation should you fail at any of the events.

[blacklily8]

There is certainly a lot here for fans of these games--I didn't even get into all the differences between ports and so on. It would be interesting to see what sort of thing could be cooked up today if someone really took an "Epyx" approach to the Olympics.

[CCrossfan]

Hahaha that part during the gymnastics game made me laugh :P Another entertaining video, it never ceases to amaze me how much extra effort was put into these games. I can't remember off the top of my head any that played the national anthems for countries for example.

[blacklily8]

Yes, it's those small touches that really set these games apart. I'm sure that those flags and anthems ate up a lot of memory and took time to program, but somebody thought it was important and he or she was right! :)

[dcruze]

Hehe, joystick braking games (the frantic back and forth motion)... Think I had them all, played Winter Games and World Games the most though. :-)

[blacklily8]

Heh, yeah, and apparently Epyx joysticks wore out the fastest. :) I wonder if my X-Arcade could withstand the pummeling of enthusiastic kids racing and swimming. ;) I'll never forget the log rolling in World Games. What fun!