Winter Games
- This article refers to the Epyx video game series. You may be looking for the Winter Olympic Games or Winter sport.
| Winter Games | |
|---|---|
|
Amiga cover art | |
| Developer(s) |
Epyx Atelier Double (NES) |
| Publisher(s) |
Epyx (US), U.S. Gold (EU) Acclaim (NES) |
| Series | Epyx Games |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Apple IIGS, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, PC, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, C64, NES, Famicom Disk System, Virtual Console, Apple Macintosh |
| Release date(s) |
1985
|
| Genre(s) | Sports game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Winter Games is a sports video game developed by Epyx (and released in Europe by U.S. Gold), based on sports featured in the Winter Olympic Games.
A snow-and-ice themed follow-up to the highly successful Summer Games, Winter Games was released in 1985 for the Commodore 64 and later ported to several popular home computers and video game consoles of the 1980s.
The game was presented as a virtual multi-sport carnival called the "Epyx Winter Games" (there was no official IOC licensing in place) with up to 8 players each choosing a country to represent, and then taking turns competing in various events to try for a medal.
Events
The events available vary slightly depending on the platform, but include some or all of the following:
- Alpine skiing
- Ski jumping
- Biathlon
- Bobsled
- Figure skating
- Speed skating
- Luge
- Freestyle skiing; more precisely, the aerial skiing discipline, called "Hot Dog Aerials" in the game
The game allowed you to compete in all of the events sequentially, choose a few events, choose just one event, or practice an event.
Ports
Winter Games was ported to the Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Apple Macintosh, Apple IIGS, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, and DOS computer platforms, and to the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Family Computer Disk System video game consoles. In 2004, it was featured as one of the games on the C64 Direct-to-TV.
Reception
Winter Games was Epyx's best-selling Commodore game as of late 1987.[1] In 1985 Zzap!64 gave 94% for the game calling it "another classic sport simulation from Epyx". Lemon64 website users have given average vote of 8.6 which places the game on top 20 list on the site. The game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon #132 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 3½ out of 5 stars.[2] The Spectrum version topped the charts for the month of April.[3] The NES and Famicom Disk System versions were critically panned for unresponsive controls, abysmal music and poor graphics.
| Achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Commando |
UK number-one Spectrum game April 1986 |
Succeeded by "M.O.V.I.E." |
References
- ↑ Ferrell, Keith (December 1987). "The Commodore Games That Live On And On". Compute's Gazette. pp. 18–22. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
- ↑ Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia; Lesser, Kirk (April 1988). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (132): 80–85.
- ↑ "The YS Rock'n'Roll Years - Issue 4". Ysrnry.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-12-06.
External links
- Winter Games at MobyGames
- Winter Games: Package and Manual Scans Images of Winter Games box, manual and screen shots at c64sets.com
- Winter Games at World of Spectrum
- The Atari 2600 version of Winter Games can be played for free in the browser at the Internet Archive
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