One of the early successes for Activision was this sports game which was almost as much of a workout as the real sport.
by Rich Watson
My first home computer was the Commodore 64. Like many kids in the eighties, I used it for playing video games, mostly from a new company called Activision.
Their Decathlon was quite a challenge.
The early years of Activision
Today, Activision is the world’s first independent, third-party console game developer, known for their Call of Duty, Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk series of games, among others. The company was successful from their earliest years.
Disgruntled with Atari at the lack of recognition and financial compensation for their role in the company’s success, four top game programmers left Atari in 1979 and formed their own company.
Activision’s early releases were sports-related and action games such as Kaboom! and Pitfall!, which were big hits, especially the latter. By June 1983, total sales were approximately $157 million.
David Crane and Decathlon
In 1983, co-founder David Crane designed the Activision Decathlon for the Atari 2600, the Commodore 64, and other platforms. Reviews drew favorable comparisons to the Konami arcade game Track & Field.
Crane also created Pitfall!, which was second only to Pac-Man as the biggest-selling game for the Atari 2600. In later years he would co-found Absolute Entertainment, Skyworks Interactive and Audacity Games. Among his subsequent creations include a series of Simpsons-related games. Here’s an interview with him from 2013.
Decathlon is a series of smaller contests within one big one. It emulates its real-life counterpart: contests of skill and endurance, both with the body alone and with physical objects—an Olympic-level event.
The smaller games are:
- 100-meter dash
- Long jump
- Shot put
- High jump
- 400-meter race
- 110-meter hurdles
- Discus throw
- Pole vault
- Javelin throw
- 1500-meter race
The player controls the decathlete’s actions with the joystick, including running, jumping and releasing the object. The computer awards points depending on how well you do. Whoever has the most points wins the overall competition. Activision offered “gold, silver and bronze” Decathlon Club patches for top scorers.
The graphics were quite good. The characters’ movements were convincing, which they needed to be, given the activities they had to do.
Playing Decathlon
Decathlon was like arcade games and not like them. The Commodore 64’s joystick control with button was simple and familiar, a format with which I was already familiar. The game, however, was different from most games I had played in arcades.
To get a high score in each contest, you had to manipulate the joystick hard. The indicator at the bottom of the screen measured the character’s strength level. The faster you jiggled the joystick, the lengthier it went, and the faster your character ran or the farther he jumped or threw his object. Hitting the button to throw or jump required timing. Playing the game was almost like needing a degree of physical skill yourself!
I enjoyed the throwing contests best: the shot put, the discus and the javelin. Seeing how far my character could throw, based on how much strength I put into the indicator, was satisfying.
The long jump, high jump and pole vault were trickier. Crossing the foul line was always a possibility, so you had to be careful.
No contest felt more like an endurance test than the 1500-meter race. You had to sit there in front of your TV screen and do nothing but toggle the joystick, over and over, just to establish and maintain a lead in the race. Like running in a real 1500-meter race, you had to pace yourself and not burn out early, because once you fell behind, it was difficult to catch up.
Regardless, I liked Decathlon and played it often. I don’t remember how often I played my sister. I imagine when I did, every game was a grudge match. I never got a Decathlon Club patch, either.
The Commodore 64 lasted until the mid-90s. August 2022 marked its fortieth anniversary.
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Did you play the Activision Decathlon?
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