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How many times have you wanted to be Daley Thompson when he steps up to receive his gold medal? Here is your chance.

The first screen presents you with two men racing down a track, an unimpressive piece of music and a message scrolling down the screen telling you that it's not the winning that's important but the taking part. I would prefer a little gold medal to make me feel better.

You are offered the option of up to four competitors and in the track events two people may race against each other.

After choosing the number of players and entering your initials, you can choose from ten events in a scrolling window.

The events - 100, 400 and 1500 metres, long jump, high jump, shot putt, discus, javelin, pole vault and 110 metre hurdles - are all in their own way nice to play but I found the 400 and 1500 metre events a little tough on the hand as you try to pull your joystick apart.

Your time and distance are displayed as a digital clock. I made a 88 metre throw and the javelin moved a very short distance - and the clock whizzed up far too fast! If this had been slowed down and the javelin allowed to hang in the air longer, the event would have had more atmosphere.

The graphics are reasonable but with poor sound, though the animation is quite well done. You can choose which event you want to play and not have to follow a set order of events. This is a saving grace.

The pole vault is let down by poor animation, but as a budget game the good points far exceed the bad. The major drawback is the fact that it is one of those games where you have to rattle the joystick from left to right in a mad fashion to get the little man to run his socks off. So if you don't mind the risk of ruining your joystick you're all right to buy this one.