Breakout: How Atari 8-Bit Computers Defined a Generation by Jamie Lendino

Author:Jamie Lendino [Lendino, Jamie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: History, Videogames, Atari, 80s, Computing: General
ISBN: 9780692851272
Google: sh7BAQAACAAJ
Amazon: 0692851275
Goodreads: 34656393
Publisher: Ziff Davis
Published: 2017-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

Decathlon (Activision, 1984)

Olympic-style video games were a running theme around the 1984 Olympics, and I’d argue that Decathlon was a lot better (if harder) than Atari’s Track & Field conversion. Unfortunately, this game is an example where the Commodore 64 version was better. For whatever reason, the 800 port didn’t take much advantage of the more powerful hardware. The result was a near-VCS-version clone with (still silent) crowds in the stands and more descriptive on-screen text, but that lacked the extra player detail and sound design of the C64 conversion.

The game features 10 events: the 100-meter dash, 400-meter race, 1,500-meter race, long jump, high jump, shot put, hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, and javelin throw. You can race against another player simultaneously when applicable, or take turns otherwise. In any of the versions, my biggest memory about the game, aside from the addictive gameplay, is how destructive it was for Atari joysticks. You had to move them back and forth so hard and so fast to score high, it’s a wonder any CX40s still survive in the wild today. I remember trying to figure out how to take care I didn’t push the joysticks too hard, while simultaneously working the living heck out of them; it was a tricky balance to get right if you didn’t want to ask your parents to buy new joysticks every few weeks.

Based on the insane control scheme, and how most people today are playing emulators with gamepads or the computer keyboard, playing Decathlon the way it was originally intended is nearly impossible. And if you are using a real Atari computer—I’ll get to all of this later in the book, about the best ways to play Atari games today—you may not want to shred your joysticks for this purpose.

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