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Hyper Sports is the first of the Konami arcade machines to be licensed by Ocean under the Imagine label.

Anybody who has played the arcade game will immediately recognise the six events represented in this version. They are swimming, skeet shoot, horse jump, archery, triple jump and weight lifting. The pole vault has had to be omitted from the computer versions because of memory constraints; however, this doesn't detract from the game.

Each event is performed in the standard Decathlon style by pressing user-defined keys to build up speed before pressing another to jump or breathe in the swimming.

Correct breathing is essential for a good time in the swimming event for taking a breath underwater can have predictable effects.

If you finish within the set time you qualify for the next event.

This is true of all events and is my only criticism of the game. The fact that you have to perfect one event before you even get a chance in the next one. Obviously this is true in the original arcade game where they want the maximum games, and therefore 10ps in a day, but it would have been sporting to allow home users to practise individual events.

The game's graphics are excellent, a lot better than in Daley's Decathlon, with faultless scrolling and no smudging of colours. This I understand is due to a new technique Ocean have developed where they can get four colours into one attribute square where only two are normally feasible.

I was delighted to see that they found room to include all the extra little features that make a game so much more enjoyable. Such as the man winking after he has achieved a perfect score in the skeet shoot and the weightlifters knees wobbling as he struggles to lift the bar. This is probably why the programmers were only left with two spare bytes!

The only question is, where does it leave Daley Thompson's Supertest? This is Ocean's own sequel to Daley's Decathlon and features events that are covered by this and Durell's Brian Jacks Superstar Challenge. Development of it was well on its way when the Konami deal was signed. Either way, it will do well if it matches the quality of Hyper Sports which is destined for number one.