The Olympics in 8-bit video game format
Rounding up my favorite Olympics-themed video games
Do you remember playing Epyx's "Summer Games" in your youth? Or did you have an Atari 2600 and rushed out to buy Activision's "Decathlon" when it arrived at the Kay-Bee Toy Store?
If so, you'll get a kick out of this animated video - it doesn't take screen footage from those games, but rather re-imagines the Summer Olympics events as if they were done in the 8-bit video game format.
The 8-Bit Games! from Flikli on Vimeo.
The video was created by the folks at Flikli, who create all sorts of cool animated videos for clients. Check them out!
If you do remember those earlier '80s video games, here are some bonus videos for you: In this one, check out a French commercial for the Activision Decathlon game, featuring a pre-Khardashian, pre-facelift (alleged) Bruce Jenner - remember when he won the event in 1976?
Here's a video for Epyx's Summer Games, which was a big hit on the Commodore 64 (I remember playing this game at Jeff Cook's house a lot):
Finally, if you were an arcade rat, how could you not put some quarters into Konami's Track & Field? Most of the people I saw could never get past the long jump - I usually failed at the high jump or the hammer throw:
Other sports were later added to this model - I LOVED Hyper Sports, which added swimming, shooting and archery (the next three video clips)
They should do a video game Olympics - I'd be there! (although my thumbs would hurt from all of the button-mashing during the running).
Keith Shaw rounds up the best in geek video in his ITworld.tv blog. Follow Keith on Twitter at @shawkeith. For the latest IT news, analysis and how-tos, follow ITworld on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
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