Computer Gamer


Daley Thompson's Super Test
By Ocean
Spectrum 48K/128K

 
Published in Computer Gamer #8

Daley Thompson's Super Test

I am convinced that the people at Ocean have got shares in a company manufacturing joysticks. My trusty Quickshot had barely recovered from the bashing it received whilst playing Decathlon when what happens?! Daley Thompson's Super Test is released, that's what happens.

There are eight events for you to try your hand at, four on each side of the tape. Three of these eight - cycling, rowing and tug-of-war - require nothing more than furious joystick waggling. The other five involve slightly more subtle techniques.

Pistol shooting presents you with six potential targets, one of which turns towards you for a few seconds. Aiming your sights is a very confusing affair at first. This is true especially with a joystick as you can only move up and across - moving your joystick right in order to move your sights left takes some getting used to. It also means that if you go too high originally, you cannot correct things.

Daley Thompson's Super Test

In order to master the diving, you must bounce three times on the springboard, waggle furiously to somersault and then pull out of your dive in order to complete a graceful entry. The main problem with this is in the scoring. Four judges mark you out of ten but their marks vary alarmingly. On one dive two of the judges gave me 1/10 and 8/10. This is the sort of thing that you expect from the Eurovision Song Contest, not an international athletics meeting.

Giant slalom is a straightforward ski down the slope through the marker posts in the fastest time possible type game. Speed is lost if you turn too sharply and you are disqualified if you miss a gate or run out of time.

Taking penalties is an event that I had not come across before on a computer. The action is depicted from above which again takes some getting used to. Your man takes a long run up (so long in fact he starts off not even on the screen) and the timing of the kick and the length of time you keep the fire button depressed determine where the ball goes. In my case, it was usually saved by the goalie or went miles wide but amidst the occasional goal; I did arrange one spectacular shot which rebounded off the crossbar.

Straight from the football pitch onto the ski slope and again, its waggle, waggle to build up speed, then fire to jump and fire to land again.

After playing DTS, I could not help but feel that it's all been seen before and that there was nothing original enough to make me rush back for more. It would have helped considerably to be able to practise one event at a time instead of having to go through the whole thing. That said enough, it plays quite well and I suspect that it won't be long before high scores and pokes start appearing.