Track & Field (video game)
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Track & Field is the name of a series of Olympic themed video games developed by Konami for several platforms since 1982.
The first title, simply called Track & Field (Hyper Olympic outside the United States) was released in 1983 for the then booming arcade market. The simple gameplay, based on quick, repeating, button presses set the basics for the upcoming games in the genre for the next decades. It would also be released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985, and became one of the most popular NES games of its time.
Konami continued releasing games on the series for the arcade, most notably Hyper Olympic '84, '88 Games, Hyper Sports Special and finally Hyper Athlete in 1996. Home versions also continued to appear, Track & Field II (1988) and Track & Field in Barcelona (1992) would also be released for the NES. Although there wasn't any title released for 16-bit consoles, in 1996 International Track And Field, based on the Hyper Athlete arcade was released for the PlayStation.
These series are the longest existing sports videogame series in existence, but titles aren't released on a regular time frame. The next game, International Track & Field 2000 was released for the PlayStation in 1999 and in 2000 for the Nintendo 64. The game would also have a Dreamcast and PS2 version endorsed by sports channel ESPN called ESPN International Track & Field, both released in 2000. Although it seems logic that the games are released in years with Olympic, there wasn't a title released to take advantage of the 2004 Summer Olympics.