Go for the Gold!

I believe that David Crane created Activision's Decathlon to either:

A.) Give to your grade school enemies since they will break many of their joysticks while trying to play the game.

B.) A worthy punishment from parents to their children since they will end up breaking many of their joysticks while playing the game.

All joking aside, David Crane ended up with an incredibly challenging and innovative title for the Atari 2600. As I recall it was the first time up to four people could play a game, taking turns with the joystick, as they competed in:

1.) Long jump

2.) Shot put

3.)High jump

4.)400 meter dash

5.)110 meter hurdles

6.)100 meter dash

7.)Javelin throwing

8.)Pole vault
9.)1500 meter race
10.)Discus toss

I like the scan from the manual at the top of the post with David Crane mentioning that you don't have to take the Joystick to the left-hand and right-hand limits...he should have known that kids like myself back in the old days didn't have time to read his hints...we had to win the Gold for America!

Click to make the images 1983 sized!

Thanks as always to Atariage for the great pics.