How to play Summer Games online
- Move, run, swim and steer your athlete: arrow keys (each event uses them differently, see below)
- Action button: Z – start, jump, push off or make a power stroke, depending on the event
- Restart: F3 (Reset)
- Pause: F4
Only the USA (NTSC) release of the 7800 game is on this page.
Gameplay
Summer Games is built like a small Olympics. One to eight players each pick one of 18 countries, the games open with a ceremony in which a runner lights the flame and doves fly over the stadium, and then the events begin. The game keeps score, provides the judges and hands out medals. From the main menu you can compete in all events, in some of them or in just one, practise an event without medals, set the number of joysticks, or watch the opening ceremony again.
The 7800 version has six events:
- 100-meter dash: once the race starts, waggle the joystick as fast as you can, either left and right or up and down. On a keyboard, that means rapidly alternating two arrow keys.
- 4×400-meter relay: a longer race where pacing matters. Watch the energy gauge at the bottom of the screen so your runner does not tire too soon.
- Diving: the joystick sets your body position in the air. Right gives a full tuck and the fastest spin, back a pike, left a half pike and forward a straight layout with the slowest spin. The judges’ highest and lowest marks are dropped, and the rest are multiplied by the dive’s difficulty.
- Gymnastics (vault): hold the button to get set, release it to start your run, press it again to hit the springboard and once more to push off the horse. The strongest push comes when your body is almost vertical, and a perfect landing is fully upright on your feet.
- Freestyle relay: press the button each time your swimmer’s arm enters the water for a power stroke.
- 100-meter freestyle: the start, the turn and the power stroke work the same way as in the relay.
Tips
- Practise first. The practice option lets you learn an event’s timing without wasting a medal attempt.
- Find a rhythm in the pool. Swimming rewards steady timing, not frantic button presses. Watch the arm and press as it enters the water.
- Don’t sprint the whole relay. In the 4×400, keep an eye on the energy gauge and save some strength for the finish.
- Learn the four diving positions. Each joystick direction gives a different spin speed, so practise which one you need at each moment of the dive.
- For parties, choose “some events”. Pick the events everyone enjoys and take turns on the keyboard.
The story behind Summer Games
Epyx created Summer Games for the Commodore 64 in 1984, the year of the Los Angeles Olympics. It had no official Olympic licence, so the competition was presented as the “Epyx Games”. The original included events such as pole vault and skeet shooting that the 7800 version leaves out. The game was ported to many systems, including the Atari 2600, the Atari 7800, the Atari 8-bit computers and the Sega Master System, and Epyx had sold more than 250,000 copies by November 1989. It started a long series that went on with Summer Games II, Winter Games, World Games and California Games.
