How did you play track and field?

[leapinlew]

Reading the thread about left handed control panel got me thinking. I wonder how people played Track & Field. I debated making a poll, but I realized I'd probably miss a method.

When this game hit the arcade at the bowling alley, it turned the normal beeps and boops of the arcade into periods of loud slamming cussing and yelling. The way I played was to use both hands to hit the buttons as hard as possible (when I was a kid, hitting a button harder meant it worked better) and with my right hand I would hit the run/jump button.

Later I saw some older kids (junior high school kids) using pencils to run fast.

How did you play?

[spacies]

Classic game.

And a goody to capture some 'game faces' on camera.

Mash the 2 run buttons as fast as you can, in turns, left, right , left, right etc. Hitting them both together will cause you to slow down. The when you need to, hit the jump/throw button.

We had flat buttons called 'rocket' buttons cos you could push them like a rocket, FAST!!!

And you could rub coin over them. The control panle would get trashed.

With MAME you can change the settings and 'wiggle' the joystick instead of hitting the run buttons.

Great game!

[mrserv0n]

The arcade track and field wasn't demanding enough to have to scrape a coin across the surface of the buttons. You can just hit the button fast and get full bar, I mean you don't have to be brutally fast and I only use the one run button

[ahofle]

I was never very good at that game.
But regarding the button mashing, most of the T&Fs I saw had these little plastic cuffs around the buttons to prevent the leapinlews of the world from destroying the game haha.  Hurt like hell when you hit the button with your hand.  Most of the people that rule that game used the comb trick I thought.

And yeah in MAME once at a party I remapped the run buttons to the joystick, accidentally mapping to up and down.  I haven't laughed that hard since at the wank fest that ensued.

[AE35]

So, any tips for this game??

I usually use both run-buttons in sprint, but only one at 110m hurdles.

I would really like some great advice. No matter what, I'm always three
blocks shy of full speed. I use Happ comp. with cherry MS.

Thanks,

Nicholas

[shock_]

I have a mate who swears by the Coke can technique; viz. you hold a can of coke between the two buttons, then shake/rock it quickly so the bottom of the can alternately taps the two buttons .  Looking at the T&F control panel though, I'm guessing our local 'Hyper Olympic' cabs had closer spacing!  The last time I can remember playing a real one must have been about 1985 though, and I was all into mashing and smashing it then.  Made a change from the joystick waggle technique of "Summer Games" on my C64

[MYX]

How did you play?

Didn't. Hated the game. But, my brother loves it. He told me once that he played it with a trackball. Me in my infinite arcade knowledge demanded he was crazy and needed to be locked up. I do not remember what we were doing but came acrossed a Track and field machine one day and the dammd thing had a track ball. No, crow does not taste good if you need to eat it. 

BTW, Klov had this for cheats or suggestions

Cheats, Tricks and Bugs
TRICKS:

    * Javelin: Throw the javelin off the top of the screen to bring down a bird for a 1000 bonus.
    * High Jump: Fail the first two jumps and then clear it. A mole burrows up for a 1000 bonus.
    * Long jump: Three jumps with same result will get a (cannot remember what) to scroll from right to left and award a 1000 bonus.
    * 100m dash: same time for player one and two will award a 1000 bonus.

BUG: In Javelin, throwing over 100m will cause a counter wraparound, so a 100m12 throw will be logged as 0m12 (and will not qualify you)!

[clockwork]

Reading the thread about left handed control panel got me thinking. I wonder how people played Track & Field.

Man, I forgot all about this game until you mentioned it. Never played it at the arcade, but did on my C64. If I recall correctly, I used to wiggle the joystick back and forth.

when I was a kid, hitting a button harder meant it worked better

That is sooo true. And it still works today! 

Later I saw some older kids (junior high school kids) using pencils to run fast.

Pencils? How would that work? Once pencil across both buttons?

[emerica]

The pencil trick was the way we would play in the arcade until they changed the buttons with the ones that ahofle metioned with the plastic cuffs. After that, no one really played anymore until Gold Medalist hit the arcade then it was back to more button mashing.

[FrizzleFried]

I've never played the trackball version,  but I know it is out there (I too have seen it).   My guess is that it's not nearly as fun as the button version.

On my MAME cabinet,  I use one hand (forefinger and ring finger) to push the two buttons and my other hand to press jump when necessary.

The pencil trick worked for me back in the arcade....

I remember the first time I hit the bird with the javelin...i'd not expected it to happen and it sorta scared the crap out of me somehow.

[leapinlew]

I use one hand (forefinger and ring finger) to push the two buttons

Eh? How you do that?

We had a guy at our arcade who used just his middle finger and index finger on one hand and using just 1 button and he could get halfway into the last block. His name was Les and he was a track & Field legend with all the records.

Did anyone here play the version that continued after the high jump (as in it would start at the 100m dash again)?

[Unholyknight]

Last time I played that game was when I was small, and I just used my fists to beat the buttons.

[ChadTower]

I was never very good at that game.
But regarding the button mashing, most of the T&Fs I saw had these little plastic cuffs around the buttons to prevent the leapinlews of the world from destroying the game haha.  Hurt like hell when you hit the button with your hand.

The ones I saw back in the day were all like that too.  You couldn't use the side of your hand or anything because of that shroud thing that went around the top half of the button.  Well, you could, but you'd break your hand.

[Glaine]

Never could get the pencil/comb trick to work for me.

Me and the brothers do a "karate-chop" like motion to go really fast, shaking your wrist to mash the buttons.

There are 2 bad parts to this: sometimes you hit the jump button on accident, and when you are done playing your hands usually hurt pretty bad.

I remember we all used to think spinning the joystick in circles made you go faster on the hammer throw. Turns out, it goes the same speed everytime, regardless of what you are doing.

[FrizzleFried]

I remember we all used to think spinning the joystick in circles made you go faster on the hammer throw. Turns out, it goes the same speed everytime, regardless of what you are doing.

Joystick?

[ChadTower]

There were about a billion different conversions of that game... all with odd controller setups.

[ark_ader]

Had to be the Bic Pen for me.  We even had a trophy for the highest score from the arcade owner. 

If anyone went to Golf N Stuff in Downey CA and you are pushing 40 then you were probably there or remember it.  That place had 3 Track N Field machines with prizes like free Crazy Golf and rides on the water slide and the go carts.

Better than the Sega Center any day.

[More Cowbell]

I loved that game and Hyper Sports when I was a kid. I tried all of the methods in hopes of world records but I found that using 2 fingers on each button worked best for me. It was most effective when the machine had very soft leaf switch buttons because it gets really tiring on your fingers.  

[Xam]

I've never played the trackball version,  but I know it is out there (I too have seen it).   My guess is that it's not nearly as fun as the button version.

On my MAME cabinet,  I use one hand (forefinger and ring finger) to push the two buttons and my other hand to press jump when necessary.

The pencil trick worked for me back in the arcade....

I remember the first time I hit the bird with the javelin...i'd not expected it to happen and it sorta scared the crap out of me somehow.

This is the same method I use.

Xam

[leapinlew]

does anyone know where I could get some of those button shrouds? Did they make those especially for Track & Field? Were they they to prevent cheaters or something? I'd buy some just so I could smash them to bits for all the pain and suffering they caused me.

I guess using a pencil or a comb was one of the first hacks I remember seeing.

[Texasmame]

Another great game.  Two hands, mashing 'em.  Using the right hand to go up and hit the jump button. 

I'm a drummer.  My favorite event was the hurdles.  All rhythm on that one.  

How the hell did people end up getting those maxed out scores per event - I mean the scores that seemed imposible to get?  Is that the pencil trick at work?  Can someone explain how to do that one?

Yeah, the "button guards" sucked but I still mashed - just used my middle fingers then.  The tracball version was lame. 

[spacies]

BUG: In Javelin, throwing over 100m will cause a counter wraparound, so a 100m12 throw will be logged as 0m12 (and will not qualify you)!

I remember doing this. The javelin would come back on screen behind you.
 
On my machine at the moment my:

100 sprint is : 8.47sec
Long Jump is: 9.66 mtrs
Javelin is: 97.33 mtrs.
Hurdles is: 10.2 secs
Hammer throw is: 92.86 mtrs. (funny as hell)
High jump: 2.50 mtrs. (get bored of that one)

[DarkBubble]

I never played it much in the arcade.  Played the NES version a bit.  Those smash-em-fast games never were my thing, which makes it strange that I played the hell out of Newman Athletics in the local arcade when they had it.

[GoPodular.com]

I did the comb trick too.  We had a Snyders Drug store that had T&F and Tron.  I spent a lot of money there...

[Thenasty]

How about riggin up something for your FOOT (like a DDR). Use the feet to stomp on the buttons and your free hands to push the other button. 

[miles2912]

Had to be the Bic Pen for me.  We even had a trophy for the highest score from the arcade owner. 

If anyone went to Golf N Stuff in Downey CA and you are pushing 40 then you were probably there or remember it.  That place had 3 Track N Field machines with prizes like free Crazy Golf and rides on the water slide and the go carts.

Better than the Sega Center any day.

Spent all kinds of time at the golf and stuff (same place they filmed Karate Kid).  I will be 40 this year (ouch).  Great times there.  Track and Field takes me back.

Don

[ahofle]

How about riggin up something for your FOOT (like a DDR). Use the feet to stomp on the buttons and your free hands to push the other button. 

I actually tried mapping a 4 way stick so that turning it in a round motion would trip the run switches faster than I was capable of doing with two buttons.  I mapped up and down on the stick to the left run button and right and left to the right run button.  But for some reason I wasn't able to get going very fast.  I think my 4 way has a tiny spot where you can hit a diagonal so maybe that was the reason it didn't work.   Someone else with a true 4 way stick should try this. 

[NickG]

How about riggin up something for your FOOT (like a DDR). Use the feet to stomp on the buttons and your free hands to push the other button. 

  

Surprised no one mentioned this until you because I thought the NES Power Pad was the best way to play this game.  My siblings, friends and I used to stomp our feet as fast as we could on the races until our legs got tired, then we would pound the pad with our fists, but hey! that's cheating...

[leapinlew]

Surprised no one mentioned this until you because I thought the NES Power Pad was the best way to play this game.  My siblings, friends and I used to stomp our feet as fast as we could on the races until our legs got tired, then we would pound the pad with our fists, but hey! that's cheating...

My folks owned a trailer growing up. Lets just say that trailers were not built with the NES Power Pad in mind. The whole house shook.

[leapinlew]

The arcade track and field wasn't demanding enough to have to scrape a coin across the surface of the buttons. You can just hit the button fast and get full bar, I mean you don't have to be brutally fast and I only use the one run button

I demand proof! Full bar with 1 button? 

[mvolke1]

How did you play?

Poorly.

[proroc]

Is there anyway to play track and field with a trackball in mame? I remember playing t&f's with trackballs back in the day...

[ChadTower]

My folks owned a trailer growing up. Lets just say that trailers were not built with the NES Power Pad in mind. The whole house shook.

<Removal of sucky trailer park joke.  It's too early for this.>

[FrizzleFried]

Is there anyway to play track and field with a trackball in mame? I remember playing t&f's with trackballs back in the day...

From my understanding...NO...trackball support for this game is not supported in MAME (as of yet).

[mrbones]

Way back when, I can remember people using a comb instead of a pencil to get the two buttons going fast. Then, my local arcade's machine was replaced with the trackball version of the game and that machine was there the longest. You couldn't cheat with the trackballs.

[ChadTower]

Why would the ops care if anyone cheated?  It didn't have a free game concept for succeeding, from what I remember, so it wouldn't have any tangible effect on amount of plays.   Switching to trackballs had to have been done for some maintenance reason.

[leapinlew]

Why would the ops care if anyone cheated?

Beats me, but it seemed like every track & field I played that had buttons had those plastic sleeves on them.

The ones with trackballs were very easy to play. I started playing much more with the trackball - I could max out the run bar. Perhaps they did it to appeal to a broader audience or to get a longer life out of the machine. Seems to me that switching from buttons to a trackball would cause more maintenance, not less.

[ChadTower]

Beats me, but it seemed like every track & field I played that had buttons had those plastic sleeves on them.

That was to prevent people from warping the CP.  That is a maintenance issue.

[leapinlew]

Beats me, but it seemed like every track & field I played that had buttons had those plastic sleeves on them.

That was to prevent people from warping the CP.  That is a maintenance issue.

Ah yes... beating the hell out of the control panel caused it to warp. Good deal - glad I was able to leave my mark on that game. 

[ahofle]

Why would the ops care if anyone cheated?  It didn't have a free game concept for succeeding, from what I remember, so it wouldn't have any tangible effect on amount of plays.   Switching to trackballs had to have been done for some maintenance reason.

Don't you get to continue to the next round each time you qualify?  That would make you play the game longer on one quarter, and thus lose the op money (assuming other people were waiting to play the game).