The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics are memorable in so many ways — the jetpack at the opening ceremony, the historic performance of Carl Lewis, the greater focus on female athletes — but for nerds of a certain age, they’ll always be remembered for something very different : broken joysticks. This was the first Olympic tournament in the mass video game era and ushered in a whole new genre of sports simulations designed to replicate the physical exertion of actual sport. I can just about remember watching the real Los Angeles games on TV, but it was the household tournaments I hosted with friends that really brought back memories.
There is some disagreement as to where the multisport sim came from. At burgeoning games studio Activision, pioneering designer David Crane had long considered creating a sports game that simulated physical exertion, and his title The Activision Decathlon was released in late 1983, carrying with it the growing hype surrounding the upcoming LA Olympics . It allowed players to participate in 10 events and move the joystick left and right as fast as possible to run faster and jump higher. Around the same time, Japanese company Konami brought multi-event sports sims to the arcade with its brilliant coin-op track and field. This game allowed up to four players to compete in six athletics events, but instead of wiggling a joystick, players used a two-button interface and pushed (or rather “hit”) everyone as fast as they could.
Clearance…moving a joystick from left to right propels a runner forward in track and field. Photo: Konami
When the LA Olympics began, there was a sudden influx of new entrants. Along with home computer versions of The Activision Decathlon and Track and Field, we got Summer Games from US studio Epyx, which refreshed the formula by adding events like diving and gymnastics that required timing and style, rather than wild joystick swishes; and then there was the famous Decathlon by Daley Thompson of Manchester’s Ocean Software, with its chunky graphics and glorious soundtrack. In a time before mass household Internet, these titles were the original multiplayer games, often involving up to six friends in epic all-day tournaments. I can remember spending entire school holidays in my Commodore 64, surrounded by friends from my street, all trying to beat someone’s latest record in the pole vault or 110m hurdles and set our own world record charts.
I loved how we all discussed and developed our own playing techniques like real sports stars. We argued over the best joysticks to wiggle – the sturdy Competition Pro stick, based on the classic Atari design, was considered the crème de la crème for serious competitors (it was so good we even got banned in our tournaments thought). The flashy but fairly fragile Quickshot 2 could easily snap in two during a particularly competitive 100m sprint. Later, when the excellent International Track and Field came to PlayStation, I was working for the editor of video game magazine Future, and every journalist in the building had their own approach to the button-pressing events. A colleague had a special cloth that he placed over the keys to allow for optimal finger travel and reduce friction. Nobody thought he was taking it too seriously.
Nintendo Switch Sports: Volleyball. Photo: Nintendo
Multisport gaming has also always been about inclusivity (at least for able-bodied players). The simple controls and well-recognized events meant almost anyone could play without having to understand a lot of complicated instructions. With the release of Wii Sports in 2006, Nintendo took this concept to its logical conclusion, allowing the console’s motion-sensitive Wii Remote to provide tactile, gesture-controlled control of events such as boxing, golf and tennis. With more than 80 million copies sold, the game has become a staple of social gatherings, a means of bridging the generational gap between the oldest and youngest members of the family. There’s still a thriving Wii Bowling League running in retirement homes across the US.
I’ve always loved these games, especially the Epyx titles. I loved how they introduced me to new sports – Canadian wooden rolling at the World Games, freestyle roller skating at the California Games – and how the controls have been refined over the years to accommodate new technologies. It’s also hard to overstate the impact Mario and Sonic had at the Olympics on a generation of gamers who grew up to take sides in this momentous rivalry. What a beautiful – but also completely bizarre – symbol for the unifying power of sport.
So it’s nice to see that the newly released Nintendo Switch Sports introduces a new generation of gamers to the joy of multi-event sports games. They continue to challenge the horrid stereotypes about games: that they are antisocial and sedentary pursuits. Even in this era of Fortnite and Fifa Ultimate Team, it’s fun to gather in one place around a screen to beat record scores, discuss techniques and tactics. It’s just that we’re not surrounded by a graveyard of broken joysticks these days.
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