the cutting room mirror

Track & Field (Arcade)

To do:
Arcade Archives release changes.

Originally released in Japan as the official video game of the Games of the XXIII Olympiad Los Angeles 1984, Track & Field features 6 playable games, up to 4 players, and up to 3 smashable buttons. Welcome to the 1983 Button-Mashing Games!

Unused Graphics#

A fairly standard spacecraft that could have been used in one of the game's many easter eggs.

These hearts would appear on the Commendation screen when the woman's planting smooches on the champion.

Early

Final

I can't tell what it is anymore, and thus I am relieved

In the Javelin game, if the player throws the javelin at an 80 degree angle, the javelin will hit some kind of animal that falls down dead. The game uses some kind of nebulous white alien thing as the target, but a more realistic bird is in the ROM. This was likely changed because killing a real bird with a javelin is a bit much.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Regional Differences#

Three distinct versions exist: The Japanese Hyper Olympic, the World version, and the USA version distributed by Centuri. The international versions lack any Olympic-related elements since that version wasn't licensed or endorsed by the IOC and the LAOC outside of Japan which was possibly the main reason why Konami changed it into Track & Field. Atari was one of the Olympic Games Los Angeles 1984 sponsors so their versions had the LA 1984 references restored in the boxes.

Title Screen#

Japan

US

World

The US version adds a "KONAMI/CENTURI" above the game title and shifts the copyright on the bottom of the screen. It also adds text reading "Licenced to Centuri" (using the Commonwealth spelling, strangely).

Graphics#

Japan

International

The buttes on the title screen in Hyper Olympic were touched up in Track & Field.

Japan

International

The line between the scoreboard and the stadium was changed from pink to blue.

Text#

Japan

International

"Player 1 Player" is redundant
"Player 1". Classic!

"PlayerXP" was changed to "Player X", because "Player 1 Player" is redundant.

Japan

International

It's height's fault

In the High Jump event, the incorrect "Hight" was fixed in all other versions.

Difficulty#

The Centuri game changes the initial qualifying times and distances to make the game more difficult. This applies to all games but the High Jump.

Changed qualifiers are in bold.

Konami

Easy

Normal

Hard

100 Meter Dash

16.00 Sec

14.00 Sec

13.00 Sec

Long Jump

6m00

6m50

7m50

Javelin Throw

65m00

70m00

75m00

Hurdles

14.50 Sec

14.00 Sec

13.50 Sec

Hammer Throw

73m00

75m00

77m00

(Source: Original TCRF research)

References#


  1. Domestic and Overseas Arcade Game List 1971-2005↩︎