Reviews

1985 - Imagine
by Jonathan Smith (R.I.P.)

One of the best sports games ever.

Excelent graphics, excelent gameplay, great sound, everything in it even down to its humour is simply brilliant.

Swimming, Skeet shooting, long Horse Jump, Archery, Tripple Jump and WeightLifting.

A Classic.

Thoroughly agree with the last reviewer - a Spectrum game I come back to time and time again.

Every event was perfectly replicated within the confines of our beloved black beermat; the sound was spot-on and the graphics some of the finest in any sports game of the era. 'Joffa' Smith wrote some classics, but this is pretty much top of the list. Easiest 5/5 you'll see on this website!

Another classic from the late great Joffa Smith! It's a arcade conversion of the sequel to Track and Field by Konami and it's fantastic! I absolutely love this game! Thanks Joff!

(My review from PSJ's Speccy Years (1985) book and dedicated to the memory of Joffa)

The Spectrum over its lifetime played host to many fine arcade conversions, and Hypersports is arguably the best of the lot.

Released in 1985 its only real competitor was the excellent Daley Thompson's Decathlon (released by Ocean the previous year to much critical acclaim (and sales)). Hypersports made many improvements.

Firstly, the graphics, colour and animation were vastly superior. Sound was also up to the authors usual high standard, but the biggest difference was the variety and quality of each event. Hypersports was truly a testament to the programming skills of Jonathan Smith - it must have been no mean feat converting very distinct events from a vastly superior piece of hardware.

In fact, the only complaint that can be levelled is that the pole vault event of the arcade machine is missing. According to the author this was entirely due to the memory constraints of the Spectrum (which is understandable). Anyone who has got to this event on the arcade machine would explain that this is a very difficult event so its omission is moot. Contrarily, some of the events on the Spectrum were overly easy (skeet-shooting) which had little challenge no matter how many times you clocked the events. The triple jump could prove troublesome if mistimed, and getting the wind direction of the archery wrong could make life very difficult.

Coming back to Hypersports twenty three years on very little has changed. The graphics and sound may look a little rough around the edges but they serve their purpose admirably. Events like the pommel-horse are still well-animated, although the less said about the "crowd roar" at the end of a successful skeet-shooting run the better! Hypersports has stood the test of time remarkably well and is still very playable, it's certainly up there with the likes of Bombjack and Commando.

I must mention before finishing the world record for Swimming. Over twenty years I've attempted to beat it, first on a real Spectrum, later on emulators and have not managed it once. I eventually managed to ask the author, Jonathan Smith, on the World of Spectrum forums if it was possible. I'm sad to say, Jonathan didn't know. When coding the game he entered some times but due to time restrictions didn't test whether it could be beaten! (It has now been proved that it's possible, although it requires a slowed-down emulator).

Magazine Reviews: http://zxspectrumreviews.co.uk/search.aspx?wosid=0002414

Magnificent simulator with excelent graphics .

Beating a record is truly a challenge and the bso and fxs are also excellent !!

You can spend long hours playing this one and you´ll never get tired of it .

The skeet shooting is , by far , my favorite event .

Alongside Bomb Jack and Commando , i would rate this as the best that the spectrum has to offer in terms of arcade conversions.

I remember playing this (and nodes of yesod) day in , day out for weeks in the summer of 85 !

Swimming , Skeet shooting , Horse Vaulting , Archery , Triple Jump and the agonising weightlifting events , are all really well done , my favourite being the archery !

Extremely addictive , graphically perfect and it still plays great today.

Another top quality keyboard wrecker. The presentation in this game is excellent. I never really got into this though, I prefer the Daley Thompson games.

This has always been one of my favourite games. In the arcade and the Spectrum. It still plays fantastically well today and it will always be a favourite it my eyes. It deserves to be considered a cult classic.

An excellent game, one of my all-time favourite games. It's one game that I don't see a real weakness in it's that great a game. The one thing that annoyed me at the time was there was no two-player option but nowadays I don't mind anymore, none of the Daley Thompson games had a two-player option either. It's definitely one of the best games ever made and this version I prefer at lot more than the arcade version.

One of the classics sporting games for the Spectrum. A superb conversion by Joffa Smith of the original arcade. Compete in six exciting events: swimming, skeet shooting, long horse, archery, triple jump and weight lifting.

The game is as good as the arcade, with the same brilliant graphics and great sounds and music. It’s very addictive and it becomes a knightmare for the keyboard membrane!

A sure top ten for the Spectrum.

This is one of those game I criminally missed when I had my Spectrum and I really wish I didn't. This is just excellent. It's great fun and looks fantastic too. I prefer this to the arcade game it's that brilliant.

6 simple sport games. Full of adiction.

I consider this probably the most playable game in the spectrum, and for sure in my TOP 10

How can I give this game anything other than a 5? It is simply perfection and easily among my favourite Speccy games ever. Yes there was no two-player option but I was the only boy in the family and the only one interested in games, so it wasn’t a problem to me. :) I am pleased that this is currently number one in this site, well deserved.