Hyper Sports - Doing the Dirty on Daley
We all have that one game that as a kid we would have done anything (well nearly anything ) to get our hands on. Mine was Hyper Sports. My parents were not impressed with my insistent pleeeease, pleeeeease, pleease .
Now don't me wrong, I had both Daley Thompson's Decathlon and also Daley Thompson's Supertest and I was grateful for those. They gave me many happy hours of joystick abuse, but...well...I needed more. I wanted a game where you played a sport that I actually did in the real world, that is a sport done for enjoyment not part of the ritualistic torture that was classed as PE lessons in the 80's in the UK!
Now don't me wrong, I had both Daley Thompson's Decathlon and also Daley Thompson's Supertest and I was grateful for those. They gave me many happy hours of joystick abuse, but...well...I needed more. I wanted a game where you played a sport that I actually did in the real world, that is a sport done for enjoyment not part of the ritualistic torture that was classed as PE lessons in the 80's in the UK!
Eventually after what seemed to be a whole year's worth of odd jobs, general groveling, yet more pleeeeease dad and eventually a school report that was deemed worthy of reward I obtained Hyper Sports. Now, dear reader, you know when you have desperately wanted something for so long and you finally get it and you wonder will it live up to what I expect? Well....this one did...and in fact still does even now. Now before we start let's be very clear, just like Daley Thompson, Hyper Bill will destroy your joystick , wrists, arms, tables and any stray cups that are in the vicinity .
The swimming event was one of the two reasons I wanted this game . Although Daley had done diving he hadn't swum in the game and I was an avid swimmer (racing , stamina , water polo and synchronised swimming ). I loved the way the swimming event played, the way you had to time taking a breath, take a breath in the wrong place and out goes your rhythm. It was a little touch of realism that I loved. The other piece of jeopardy in this game was failing to qualify stops the game straight away , there is no safety net of extra lives. You HAVE to be good enough at each event to pass onto the next.
Onto skeet shooting , hitting left and right to shoot those little clay targets . It's an acquired skill, but once you have got your eye in, it's easier enough qualify. It also comes with the added bonus that hitting all the targets gets you a little rubber duck to shoot as well. But the next event is what I really wanted, the reason for all those pleeeeease dads.
It was the vault , run up to the horse, handstand onto horse then forward somersault and stick the landing, chest out bum in the air. It was pretty much how I spent most Saturday mornings in the real world, I was a budding gymnast. The vault , along with tumbling in the floor exercises is what I loved, so Hyper Bill and I faced the same struggle. This event was difficult, it took me a few weeks of practise to be able to qualify, but it was still quicker to learn the skill in the game than it was in real life! Plus I could claim the 'educational' card with this event, I was of course practising to gain tips....no, I don't think my parents bought that excuse either!
Onto archery, with the added bonus of being able to try and pick a nice easy wind amount ( as in the wind on the archery screen , not the wind of the player ...just making that clear!) This was another event that was tricky, but I was more than willing to put in the effort. My father had made me a wooden bow and arrows at an early age and I loved charging round the garden firing at butterflies, wasps and the occasional parent. Again with a few hours practise I could qualify in this. Remember the joy of childhood , being able to spend hours playing a computer game!
Let's keep going, onto the Triple Jump. A completely new event for me and it showed for the first few tries. Trying to come off the fire button at just the right angle was a challenge, to do it several times in a row was a bigger challenge. But , and this is one of the reasons I love this game, there was no event that was impossible. No event that stopped you playing as you knew you would never get the hang of it. With a little practise Hyper Bill could possibly out Daley Daley!
The final event was weight lifting, again more joystick punishment but again an event that was easy enough to manage , in fact it felt easier than Daley Thompson's Tug of War. To my mind this was a near perfect game, no unachievable events, lovely bright Spectrum colours. The question is was it truly worth those months of flower pot washing, manure collecting, firewood collecting, elderflower collecting and potato digging?
The answer is a big yes.
To this day I still love this game. It reminds me of those wonderful childhood Saturday mornings when I seemed to have endless energy, when the normal style of my movement was cartwheeling , tumbling, or splashing around in a swimming pool. I can still remember the excitement of unwrapping the cassette for the first time and seeing that loading screen appear.
So I'm sorry Daley, I will always remember you for the sheer amount of destruction that your games could create, but it was Hyper Bill that became my sporting buddy and still is.
We still swim, shoot, tumble and jump along together through life's little ups and downs.
To this day I still love this game. It reminds me of those wonderful childhood Saturday mornings when I seemed to have endless energy, when the normal style of my movement was cartwheeling , tumbling, or splashing around in a swimming pool. I can still remember the excitement of unwrapping the cassette for the first time and seeing that loading screen appear.
So I'm sorry Daley, I will always remember you for the sheer amount of destruction that your games could create, but it was Hyper Bill that became my sporting buddy and still is.
We still swim, shoot, tumble and jump along together through life's little ups and downs.