How did you play track and field?

[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.