Daley Thompsons Decathlon

Copyright : Ocean Software | Reviewed by : Ritchardo

Before Dame Kelly Holmes and Sir Steve Redgrave stole his thunder, Britain had a very different Olympic Hero – Eddie ‘the EagleÂ' Edwards. But before we had resigned ourselves to being rubbish at sport, we had Daley Thompson: the controversial Decathlete who took gold in Moscow Â'80 and became the face of Los Angeles Â'84.

Daley ThompsonÂ's Decathlon is your chance to emulate his achievements in the finals of the Los Angeles games, to see if you can also break the world record and take home the gold.

A real nostalgia-fest for anyone who owned the game at the time, the sight of Daley jogging along with the accompanying bars of ‘Chariots of FireÂ' in the title music take you right back to your younger days.

ItÂ's only when you see the full stadium and the game starts in earnest that you remember the sheer horror of what this game involves.

Responsible for shattering more joysticks and forearms than any other game in the history of mankind, Daley ThompsonÂ's Decathlon may not be the original waggler but it most certainly took it to a whole new level.

Each event requires you to belt the joystick back and forth as quickly as possible to build up a head of steam for DaleyÂ's attack on the qualifying time. Failure to meet the target and you lose one of your precious lives. Some of the events, such as the long jump, shot putt and pole vault, give you three attempts to get it right while the running events result in an instant life lost if you donÂ't make it in time.

It isnÂ't all down to frantic waggling though, thereÂ's a strong element of timing as well as you have to hold the fire button down at the appropriate moment to get the correct angle for your throws and jumps.

And thatÂ's all there really is to it. If you have arms like Popeye then you shouldnÂ't have too many problems coping with Daley, if you are of slightly less than super-human strength and you can really only hope to have one go every couple of hours.

Graphically the game is pleasing on the eye with lots of vibrant colours and it has a very comfortable feel. Sound effects and music do their job well without being truly outstanding and the overall package is pleasing. Part of the joy of the game is finally qualifying for the next event and getting to see the job that Ocean has made of it.

Unfortunately, once you do begin to progress and get to see all of the events, thereÂ's precious little else to do, because whatever way you cut it, the process can hardly be described as fun. The main reason for this is the lack of any kind of two player game. The Commodore 64 version managed to squeeze two player action in but the Amstrad has been short changed and it drastically reduces the amount of fun that could have been had. You donÂ't even get the chance to race against the computer and this lack of a marker opponent does hurt proceedings.

Another disappointment is the lack of a keyboard option for the CPC version. This can be fixed nowadays thanks to emulation but the Amstrad keyboard was a big and robust beast able to take a real pounding, this couldÂ've saved the nation a fortune in joysticks and ultimately made the game unplayable for a number of people who literally just couldnÂ't get to grips with wrestling with a joystick.

A classic title that demands respect and to be played at least once by everyone: if only to see what all of the fuss is about. If truth be told, however, itÂ's not the experience that it could or shouldÂ've been.