Appearing hot on the heels of Track & Field, Hyper Sports hit the arcades in 1984 and was an instant smash! These two games were the most highly competitive, playable and addictive games I've ever known. Hyper Sports contained 7 different events which included swimming, skeet shooting, vaulting, archery, triple jump, weightlifting and pole vaulting. The controls were the same as Track And Field, there was two run buttons and a jump/angle button. The faster you rapped the buttons the faster you went, there was no taking it easy in this game. The extra competitiveness was probably due to this "physical" element of the game which didn't appear in too many games of the day. You could never quite be certain if you would beat your friends or even qualify for the next event.

There was a home computer version of Hyper Sports released but this didn't seem to recreate the magic of the arcade. You see half the fun was competing against 30 or 40 of your fellow arcade players for the kudos of getting that elusive World Record(s). You never knew if your record would still be there in a weeks time or even the next day! The ultimate Hyper Sports games were the one's you found in travelling fairs. Before the days of the Internet this was the way we found out how good we were against other players across the country. It was always a suprise when the fair returned in a few months time and some of your scores were still there. And of course the ones that got beat gave you something to aim for. That's one of the things that made the arcade game great, but on home computer even with a couple of friends it just wasn't the same.

There was an offical sequel released in 1988 which called "Track & Field - Konami '88". This featured events from both of the first two games but had a 3D look.

This page might not look correct unless viewed on 800 x 600 with 16 bit colour.

The Hyper Sports playing guide is part of Arcade Forever
and is copyright (c) 1999/2000 S.House.

Links: If you're looking for more here's a page devoted to the first in the series - Dith's Track & Field Page.