O ver the past three weeks the Paris Olympics have provided some spectacular sporting moments, from incredible victories to heartbreaking defeats to Snoop Dogg standing about in full equestrian regalia. For most of us, such sporting brilliance is way beyond reach – unless, that is, you have access to video games. Although there was no official tie-in this year, there have been many well-loved Olympic-inspired games over the past four decades.
If you have an old Commodore 64, PlayStation or Wii, or a suitable emulator on your PC, here’s how you can relive this summer’s immortal sporting memories in the safety of your own home. The cool sharpshooters: Hyper Sports The stars of the shooting competition were, without a doubt, South Korea’s Kim Yeji and Turkey’s Yusuf Dikeç, who enlivened the pistol competition with their icy-cool detachment, standing with hands in pockets like anime assassins. The closest you can get in video games is the classic skeet shooting event in Konami’s 1984 arcade hit Hyper Sports.
OK, so it’s a shotgun, and you’re aiming at flying skeets rather than a fixed target, but you do have a cool little sharpshooter guy in a baseball cap who turns and winks at the camera at the end of the event. Pole vault record: International Track & Field Armand “Mondo” Duplantis broke the pole vault world record with his awesome 6.25-metre leap, and to experience it for yourself, head to International Track & Field, the wonderful 1996 PlayStation sport.