Decathlon is a game based on the real-world athletic event of the same name developed by V-Tac Technology Co., Ltd. for dedicated plug and play systems using 16-bit Sunplus SPG hardware. This game would be published by multiple companies in various parts of the world, including Advance Bright Limited in the United Kingdom and Simba Toys in Germany, the latter releasing it as TV Sports 10 in 1. The game itself is a direct rip-off of the licensed Europe-exclusive Game Boy Advance game FILA Decathlon, originally released in 2002, with a number of the graphics and the general gameplay in V-Tac's game being copied from that game.
System[]
The system that this game is included on is an integrated softpad, with the main buttons used to control the game being directional buttons on the softpad that the player presses on with their feet. The ABL release of the game has up, down, left, and right directions on the softpad, while the TV Sports 10 in 1 release from Simba lacks the down direction. Two player support is also handled differently between the ABL and Simba releases, with the ABL version having two sets of the directional controls on one unit, while the Simba version only has one set on the main unit, with the second player controls being relegated to a separate, removable mat peripheral.
Gameplay[]
The game simulates each of the ten events from the real-world decathlon event ("100 Metres", "Long Jump", "Shot Put", "High Jump", "400 Metres", "110 Metres Hurdles", "Discus Throw", "Pole Vault", "Javelin Throw", "1500 Metres"), which can be played in order or individually in a practice mode. The gameplay mechanics in each of the events, as well as the icons for the events and the human sprites used in-game, are directly copied from FILA Decathlon.
Revisions[]
Three total revisions of the game are known to exist, with two being major revisions. Two of these revisions were released by Advance Bright Limited, and the only notable difference between them is the text for the first option on the title screen being changed, with one revision having this option labeled "Decathlon Championship" and the other revision labeling it as "Arcade Mode". The last known revision was released on the Simba "TV Sports 10 in 1" unit and is majorly different from the ABL revisions in its presentation, with the main menus and in-game events being completely different visually compared to them. The revision on the Simba unit still uses the event icons and human sprites from FILA Decathlon despite this, however, and the strength meters in the in-game events more closely resemble the ones in that game as well. All three revisions are dumped and emulated in MAME.
Trivia[]
The "Diagnostic Mode" screen seen on V-Tac's 16-bit Sunplus SPG systems.
- This game features the standard Diagnostic Mode function seen in other V-Tac plug and play systems, which can be activated by holding down the player 1 Up and Left buttons on the main unit's softpad while powering it on.[1] This works on all known revisions of the game.
- In MAME, the checksum routine fails on all dumped versions of this game. It is unknown if this is expected behavior on real hardware.
- The box for the Simba "TV Sports 10 in 1" release of the game feature screenshots from FILA Decathlon, the game that V-Tac's Decathlon game rips off. Screenshots from the game are also used on the box for Excalibur Electronics' World Class Decathlon plug and play; whether this means that their plug and play unit also contains the V-Tac game is unknown.
Gallery[]
Advance Bright Limited release[]
TV Sports 10 in 1 (Simba)[]
Athletics 2008[]
