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).

[ChadTower]

Yes, but not long enough to make a real difference.  Taking away the ability to get anywhere would hurt it more than people playing a couple more rounds on one quarter.

[leapinlew]

I just don't think using the trackball had anything to do with maintenance. I've never seen a panel busted up from track & field and I've never seen a track & field game out of order or busted buttons.

To me, the trackball was more fun. I'm not sure why they would've switched them out, but I'm glad they did.

[ChadTower]

I just don't think using the trackball had anything to do with maintenance. I've never seen a panel busted up from track & field and I've never seen a track & field game out of order or busted buttons.

I've seen quite a few of them.

Think about it = a few cheap buttons vs an expensive and much higher maintenance trackball.  Which would you use as an op? 

It's conceivable that later versions of the game had a trackball option and some games were easier to convert that way. 

[ahofle]

So how exactly did you run with the trackball?  Just spin it hard in any direction?  I am now officially obsessed with trying to run fast in this game. 
I tried last night messing around with joystick mappings and the best I can get is still two bars short of max.  I'll never be able to qualify on the 2nd round long jump at this rate.

[leapinlew]

I just don't think using the trackball had anything to do with maintenance. I've never seen a panel busted up from track & field and I've never seen a track & field game out of order or busted buttons.

I've seen quite a few of them.

Think about it = a few cheap buttons vs an expensive and much higher maintenance trackball.  Which would you use as an op? 

It's conceivable that later versions of the game had a trackball option and some games were easier to convert that way. 

Bah. Your confusing. First you say they put in trackballs for maintenance reasons and then it seems like your saying they would use buttons because the trackballs were too much maintenance.

All I know is that both Track & Field and Hyper Sports used buttons on every version I saw. This was in 84 and 85. Konami '88 looks like it also used buttons.

[leapinlew]

So how exactly did you run with the trackball?  Just spin it hard in any direction?  I am now officially obsessed with trying to run fast in this game. 
I tried last night messing around with joystick mappings and the best I can get is still two bars short of max.  I'll never be able to qualify on the 2nd round long jump at this rate.

Yes! Spin real fast = run real fast.

I'm not near my machine, but is there a F2 service menu?

[Chris]

I used just my right hand, middle finger on the button.  I would tense up the muscles in my arm until my hand was shaking rapidly.  I could never do two buttons well and I refused to "cheat".  I was good at the game but not great.

On my cab now I use the same method but I can't do as well as I remember.. I don't know if it's because I have microswitch buttons instead of leafs, or if I'm limited by my keyboard hack encoder, or if I just can't get my hand shaking as fast as I used to.

[ChadTower]

Bah. Your confusing. First you say they put in trackballs for maintenance reasons and then it seems like your saying they would use buttons because the trackballs were too much maintenance. 

Yep.  It's all guesswork into the minds of people who don't always make logical decisions.  Sometimes it's as simple as "I don't have a red button today."

[loadman]

I used just my right hand, middle finger on the button.  I would tense up the muscles in my arm until my hand was shaking rapidly. 

That is what I do 

In Australia this game was released as 'Hyper Olympics' as the 'Track & Field' (but I'm sure you all knew that) did not much meaning here at the time. Such events are referred to as athletics I think.

Anyway..

When I was a kid in the '80's I saw other kids using a coin swiping the flat buttons back and forth and it seemed to work well but they scratched the cr*p out of the machine at the Ice Rink.

[jfh2112]

In my local arcade, they had a Track & Field with three buttons per player. Later on, the op swapped out control panels for the trackball version. I believe I've seen a flyer or something somewhere advertising that control panel as a third-party add-on.

There were several techniques people used to hit the buttons faster. I used two fingers on each Run button. I saw the pencil trick and the comb trick being used. Instead of a coin, though, I saw people using those nylon Velcro wallets to slide back & forth across the buttons. The operator (he actually *played* his games!) would use his right hand - thumb & middle finger - for the Run buttons and the left hand for Jump. He'd always play the right side because he had to stand sideways across the game.

I think using microswitch buttons instead of leaf buttons will slow you down. I can't make the dude run quite as fast as I used to be able to back in the day. Of course, I *am* twenty years older... 

[tommyinajar]

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...

This was brought up not too long ago..
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=32349.msg609127#msg609127

I wish there was some way to do this, I've never played it with a trackball and wanted to try it. I can't come close to the speed I used to have.

 I just crossed my fingers and tensed up my whole arm...

[QuixoteQuest]

Love this game. On an aside: Ours does not keep track of world records on the races events--the 1st round dash and 4th round hurdles. Is this a known bug or is there a fix? (I'm using MAME v.111.)

[ahofle]

You have to enable save states.  They removed high score support a versions ago.  They do save fine via save states.

[QuixoteQuest]

You have to enable save states.  They removed high score support a versions ago.  They do save fine via save states.

I do have save states enabled. It is just odd that some of the events remember the world records while others (like the running events) do not. Therefore was wondering if it's a bug or if there's anything I can do.

[ahofle]

Hmmm sorry I misunderstood your question.  I'll check again tonight, but I thought they were all saving. 

[awesome1]

I haven't played this in years, but I used to be pretty good......

Here's a tip:

On the javelin throw, long jump and high jump, keep hitting the run buttons after you have stopped running and made your throw or jump, it will get you a nice improvement!

[spacies]

Love this game. On an aside: Ours does not keep track of world records on the races events--the 1st round dash and 4th round hurdles. Is this a known bug or is there a fix? (I'm using MAME v.111.)

Mine wasn't saving high scores either until I created a folder in Mame called 'hi'

Problem solved.

 

[ahofle]

It's saving all the event highs for me too with v111, including sprint and hurdles.  Maybe try deleting any nvram and hi files. 

[QuixoteQuest]

It's saving all the event highs for me too with v111, including sprint and hurdles.  Maybe try deleting any nvram and hi files. 

Yep, I do have a "hi" folder already created, and this odd some-events-work-and-some-do-not score keeping problem is happening. But I will try tonight deleting the specific NVRAM and hiscore files and re-run. (My wife is gonna kill me since she has most of the world records  )

[Chris Goodwin]

I remember seeing the pencil trick.  I was never great at the game, but I did discover a rhythm that would work.  3-4 times per second got me going a whole lot faster than just beating hell out of them as fast as possible. 

[QuixoteQuest]

It's saving all the event highs for me too with v111, including sprint and hurdles.  Maybe try deleting any nvram and hi files. 

So I deleted the NVRAM file. It did erase our previous records, and did get all events to working. It wrote all events in with high records (where they were all blank the very first time we ran the game) under initials EEE, FFF and GGG. I tried playing around with the config file to see if I can reset the world records to blank again, but I can't figure how to do it. Am I am doing something wrong? Or is it intended upon reset to have EEE, FFF and GGG hold our high records till we can beat them?

[falkensmaze]

Combs , coins , pencils , coke cans , karate chops  lol if only the original game designers could read this thread

As for me loved this game but my brother was better but he wasnt as good as Clive!! Clive was god. I think clive was at one with track and field. Clive was a ledgend in Stranraer. All hail Clive

[ahofle]

It's saving all the event highs for me too with v111, including sprint and hurdles.  Maybe try deleting any nvram and hi files. 

Or is it intended upon reset to have EEE, FFF and GGG hold our high records till we can beat them?

I remember having those initials in there too (still have them for events I suck at hehe).  I'm guessing they are just the default records.

[MiKman]

I did and still do roll my ring finger, middle finger, and then index finger on the button on the right side getting 3 taps then do the same on the left side alternating back and forth.  I can get 9 meters in the long jump quite regularly.  Hurdles I just use one hand to run and the other to jump...  One of my favorite games, I spent all my allowance on it every weekend  

I never really understood the pencil, comb trick everyone talks about.  I gather you pinch it under your middle finger of one hand and tap one side of it on one button and as it springs back up it taps the other button for you?

[damageinc86]

This is a subject that I'm interested in mostly to figure out exactly how everyone figured the pencil/comb trick out.  It looks like for most of you so far it had just been through direct observation of someone else.  I wonder who was the first to try it out?  Obviously impossible to find that out, but would be interesting to be able to.  So other than direct observation, was it just word of mouth?

[Loafmeister]

I didn't necro the thread so don't blame me for posting!

on that note, I read through the entire thread and came across that there's another "Olympics" type of game called: "Gold Medalist".  I've never heard of this one, will have to try it BUT my main point was, it's never a totally bad thing to revive some older threads, as sometimes we get a chance to come across something unexpected and with this site, game trying worthy .  Thanks for the revival!

[Titchgamer]

After watching go 8 bit last night I have decided the only way to play this game is with Rachel Riley by my side and giant buttons!!

[EvilNuff]

I used the pencil trick as so many others did.