Over the past three weeks the Paris Olympics have provided some spectacular sporting moments, from incredible victories to heartbreaking defeats to Snoop Dogg standing about in full equestrian regalia. For most of us, such sporting brilliance is way beyond reach – unless, that is, you have access to video games.
Although there was no official tie-in this year, there have been many well-loved Olympic-inspired games over the past four decades. If you have an old Commodore 64, PlayStation or Wii, or a suitable emulator on your PC, here’s how you can relive this summer’s immortal sporting memories in the safety of your own home.
The cool sharpshooters: Hyper Sports
The stars of the shooting competition were, without a doubt, South Korea’s Kim Yeji and Turkey’s Yusuf Dikeç, who enlivened the pistol competition with their icy-cool detachment, standing with hands in pockets like anime assassins. The closest you can get in video games is the classic skeet shooting event in Konami’s 1984 arcade hit Hyper Sports. OK, so it’s a shotgun, and you’re aiming at flying skeets rather than a fixed target, but you do have a cool little sharpshooter guy in a baseball cap who turns and winks at the camera at the end of the event.
Pole vault record: International Track & Field
Armand “Mondo” Duplantis broke the pole vault world record with his awesome 6.25-metre leap, and to experience it for yourself, head to International Track & Field, the wonderful 1996 PlayStation sports sim. Bash alternate buttons to run down the track, then hit X to jump before throwing the pole clear. It sounds easy, but it’s one of the toughest events in the game. However, if you qualify on your first jump and improve on your second, a space shuttle will fly past on your third. Even Duplantis couldn’t manage that.
Sky Brown takes bronze: California Games
Team GB’s youngest athlete claimed her second bronze in the skateboarding park event, despite suffering a dislocated shoulder in the heats just days before. There’s only one way to relive this achievement: the half-pipe event in the excellent 1987 title California Games, which gives players a minute to pull off as many handplants and aerial turns as they can. Skating games were rare at the time, with only Atari’s 720 and Skate Or Die from Electronic Arts for company, so you’re revisiting a key moment in games – plus you have no chance of dislocating anything.
Pommel horse guy: Summer Games
Stephen Nedoroscik caught the imagination of the world with his unassuming demeanour, slightly nerdy glasses and astonishing performances on the pommel horse. You can sort of recreate his physical prowess in the gymnastics event in Summer Games – although the event in the game is actually the vault rather than the pommel horse: you hit the fire button to run, hit it again to jump, then carefully use up, down, left and right to perform mid-air somersaults. Timing is crucial, but the animation is genuinely beautiful when you get it right.
The epic men’s 400m final: Athlete Kings
Ah, the heartbreak of Matthew Hudson-Smith missing out by mere hundredths of a second on his own Chariots of Fire moment. What a race. The 400m is quite a common event in games, cropping up in Activision Decathlon, Daley Thompson’s Decathlon and my personal fave Athlete Kings, the glorious 1995 title for the Sega Saturn. This version of the event wasn’t just a savage joystick-waggling challenge; it also featured a stamina meter that allowed you to pace yourself against the pack – a tactic employed by Quincy Hall to devastating effect.
Léon Marchand and Katie Ledecky’s swimming heroics: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
In the first week of the Olympics, spectators were glued to the aquatic brilliance of Marchand and Ledecky, who each won four medals, smashing records in the process. Now that’s over, I’m heading to the pool with Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games on the Wii, which allowed you to use the motion-sensitive Wii remote and nunchuck controllers to simulate a range of strokes, most of which involved you flapping your arms up and down at an exhausting rate. After 10 minutes of this, you will have newfound respect for swimming athletes.
Rave horse: Summer Games II
The undisputed star of the USA’s equestrian team was Suppenkasper (AKA Mopsie), the EDM-loving horse who strutted through an incredible dance music set in the dressage competition. Although Rave Horse clearly deserves his own game, the closest we can get is the equestrian event in Summer Games II, where you gallop along leaping over fences and water hazards – you could maybe make it more rave by playing Calabria by Rune RK in the background. Over the years there have been more detailed sims, such as Lucinda Green’s Equestrian Challenge. Alternatively, it’s possible to unlock dressage moves for your horse in the western adventure Red Dead Redemption. I’m not kidding.
