THE Seoul Olympics have been and gone, but despite that Tynesoft is cashing in with another of its sporting simulations. However like many companies, Tynesoft has been criticised of late for converting ST games directly to the Amiga. After all, the two machines share many similarities - with the ST coming second every time. So has Tynesoft's team breathed life into the Amiga version?
This new offering is supplied on a single disk containing a staggering 1.2Mb of programs and data, which seems good value for money. There are five events - skeet shooting, diving, fencing, 100M hurdles and triple jump. The opening ceremony is featured, but surely couldn't be called an event.
As the game boots, the screen opens out requesting the names of the competitors - up to six people can play at once. While selecting your home nation, its flag is displayed waving in the breeze. This doesn't add anything to the game, but it gives the feel of a professional and well designed product - a taste of what is about to unveiled.
The first event is skeet shooting. IN essence, this is a variation on the old duck shoot theme, although there's the option at the start to use a joystick or mouse - it's easier with the mouse. Pressing the fire button selects which is required automatically.
Your marksman stands a full half height inn the screen and as you move the targetting circle his whole body moves aiming the gun - no surprises here.
However, as the circle reaches the left or right hand edge, the screen scrolls sideways - beautifully smoothly. Clouds and other scenery add to the effect.
Press the left button to pull, and a skeet whistles across the screen from one of the catapults, subtending a beautiful arc through the air. Initially, I was so surprised by the graphics, I completely missed the point of what I was up to.
There are seven stations in all with a mixture of singles and doubles. For each skeet launched you get one shot, and two can be in the air at once - although some seem to move rather too slowly.
Next up comes the diving, and memories of poor Greg Louganis bashing his head on the springboard come flooding back. Diving in Olympiad is from the 10 metre board.
Control is by joystick only with four directions used to pike, tuck, roll and straighten up for a good entry. Marks are determined by the number of rolls, pikes and twists you complete and the quality of your entry - sorry folks, belly flops won't do.
When the time came for the triple jump I thought it was my birthday. No problem this. Rattle the joystick like there's no tomorrow, press fire at the right time - and hop-
Needless to say I forgot about the angle control. And while getting the perfect 45 degrees on take off isn't too hard, you've got to keep it near there for the whole sequence or else you won't make the sandpit.
I've always fancied a quick riposte,. So, now was my chance as the curtain raised on Tynesoft's interpretation of fencing.
Launching in with typical Forester charm, I was soon foiled neatly by my computerised opponent. The only way to beat the sucker is with cunning, but you have to go three rounds to qualify and the computer gets better with each.
At long last came the joystick-
Couple this to a nice 3D sequence where the camera drifts into position behind the player and you have an amazing event. As usual, speed is controlled by frantic joystick wiggling, the fire button being used to jump.
Once again Tynesoft has produced a winner, albeit an expensive medalist. Bot the still and moving graphics are very good, the gameplay addictive.
The sound is lacking in places, but the title music makes up for it - play this on your hi-fi and boogie on down. On your marks, get set, go - down to the shop and experience Seoul for yourself.
Yeah! I really enjoyed watching the Olympics so I jumped at the chance of being able to compete in all those fantastic events. Great! You can be dead athletic and still not get out of your chair - just the way I like my sports. The presentation is pretty unusual too - I mean, how many times have you played a hurdles race viewing the action from the back? In fact, it's just this fresh angle on most of the events which makes Summer Olympiad so challenging to play. It doesn't work equally well for all the sports - the fencing seems to come out worst - but when it does, it's great. Personally, I like the skeet (a lot more difficult than Epyx shooting events) and the diving best.
Though Tynesoft haven't actually managed to include a full Olympic repertoire or even an Epyx-style menu of events, I have to throw down my cask of Newcastle Brown Ale and say that what there is of this is pretty, prett-y good. All five events are really unusually presented and not at the expense of playability either. You don't even have to remember as many complicated joystick operations as has been known in other mega-games simulations: you know the sort of thing - all that rotate the joystick while pressing the button and pushing the Commodore key to wiggle your bum at the audience sort of stuff (er... yeah, Paul, yeah - Ed). Anyway, if you're in the slightest bit sporty (or even if you're not, like me) you could do a lot worse than give this a whirl.
