Matt Chat 18: Summer Games

Have you ever dreamed of competing in the Olympics? In 1984, Epyx gave gamers that chance with their celebrated sports title, Summer Games. Who could forget the joys of competing with up to three friends to take home the gold? Originally released for the Commodore 64, Summer Games would be followed by a string of successful sequels and spin-offs, including Winter Games, World Games, and California Games. As always, if you like this video, please rate it, leave a comment, subscribe to the channel, and tell all your friends about me. Spread the retrogaming goodness!

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• summer games
• epyx
• winter games
• world games
• california games
• commodore 64
• commodore
• olympics
• games

[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.

[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!

[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. :)

[vintagevideogamegeek]

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

[vintagevideogamegeek]

LOL at the Bjork joke!

[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 #

[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]

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