Nintendo Gameboy Konami Sports Track and Field SKUGB4

Nintendo Gameboy Konami Sports Track and Field SKUGB4 is a 1992 Olympic-themed sports arcade game developed and published by Konami. In it you can participate in events like the 100-meter dash, triple jump, javelin throw, pole vault, discus throw, long jump, archery, and swimming.  No timeouts, no breathers, no water boys. Just you and your own exhaustion. So get psyched. Pick your level of competition and the opening event. Then block out the roar of the crowd and take a deep breath. Because it’s not whether you win or lose. It’s whether you survive!

In each event, there is a qualifying time or level that the player must achieve to advance to the next event; failing to qualify (in one heat for running events or three tries in the other events) will reduce the player’s number of lives by one, but if none are present in his/her disposal, the game will end.

The game can accommodate up to four players, who compete in pairs for the running events, and individually for the others. If there are fewer than four players, the remaining slots are played by the computer (or player “CPU”). In all multiplayer heats, though, the relative performance of the players has no effect on the game, and advancing is based solely on qualifying times. While most multiplayer arcade games had each set of controls relative to the players going from left to right, this game (which has two sets of controls) had a somewhat different setup. The left set of controls were for players 2 and 4, while the right set was for players 1 and 3. This is one of the few classic arcade games where single player mode was played on the right set of controls rather than the left. If a player completes all six events after a brief medal ceremony, he or she is sent back to the field for another round, with higher qualifying levels, however the game can be configured to conclude after the final event.

Because the game responded to repeatedly pressing the “run” buttons at high frequency, players of the arcade version resorted to various tricks such as rapidly swiping a coin or ping-pong ball over the buttons, or using a metal ruler which was repeated struck such that it would vibrate and press the buttons. As a result, arcade operators reported high rates of damage to the buttons and later versions had modifications to prevent such actions.

Actual item pictured.