Olympic video games

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Olympic Gold was the first officially licensed game
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Olympic Gold was the first officially licensed game

"Olympic" video games is the usual name given to sports video games including more than one event of several sports. They are one of the older video game genres, having its first hit with the 1983 arcade classic Track & Field. Since then, several titles were released, usually in a six-month time before the Olympic Games the game was expected to cather. Official IOC licenses became a norm since the first official game, Olympic Gold, released in time for the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Companies like Epyx, Accolade, U.S. Gold and Konami developed many of the games in this genre, that is usually sidelooked by the gaming industry and considered few more than novelty or memorabilia. Gameplay is the common target for detractors, since it usually consists of the button mashing formula used in Track & Field or the joystick waggling as used in Daley Thompson's Decathlon.

However, since they are released at regular intervals, they can be used as a way to compare how graphics evolved: from the CGA graphics of the first Epyx titles to the 3D graphics of Athens 2004.

[edit] Official games

[edit] Not official

[edit] Games on other genres with another Olympic related license

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