The familiar figure of a bronzed muscular athlete strides boldly into the stadium, bearing lighted torch in hand, to the sound of the Olympic theme. He leaps elegantly up the steps to the podium, pauses and sets the Olympic lame burning.

A flock of white doves are released and fly gracefully up and out of the stadium to the skies and freedom. So begins the first day of the Olympic Games, So begins Summer Games II!

This is one of the first of US Gold’s freshly acquired batch of Epyx games to be released in this country and is the long awaited sequel to the highly acclaimed and popular Summer Games, as marketed in Britain by Quicksilva.

Summer Games has been widely accepted as the greatest of the multitude of sports simulations available, since its release nearly a year ago.

Unlike most of the genre, Summer Games didn’t rely on heavy (and sweaty!) joystick waggling sessions (apart from the 1OOm dash, but that’s only one event). Each event had its own original control method that made each of the eight different events challenging and fun to play.

There were a number of options to increase enjoyment of play and up to eight people could compete against each other. Summer Games II takes all of these elements and adds to them.

As with Summer Games there are eight events to compete in for up to eight competitors with improved, and more, options. A menu of eight (9 on the disk version), compared with six on the original, appear on screen and can be selected by joystick or keyboard.

You can compete in either one, some or all of the events or practice. One or two joysticks may be used (for head to head play) and there is a high score table of world records that can be viewed at any time, as any world records achieved are saved to disk for posterity (or to show off to a few people).

When using two joysticks, the program utilises the same ‘intelligence utilised in Pitstop II ie any player can use whichever joystick port they so desire by simply pressing the button of the stick they wish to use.

It is also possible to see the opening ceremonies again or even the spectacular closing ceremonies. Another option, only present on disk, is the ability to merge it with Summer Games so that you can play a mammoth sixteen events in one go!

Each event takes up a large amount of memory and so has to be individually loaded in via disk or cassette. The disk version takes up two sides of a diskette with four events to each side (the computer prompts you as to which side of the disk is to be used).

When practising an event you can play away to your heart’s content and have unlimited goes in a row, but any megarecords achieved won’t be saved to disk. If you compete in events, on the other hand, each game you play is a sort of one-off but at least any cool scores will be saved out (for scoring details, see panel piece). And after all that - onto events...

The whole thing is seen from a spectator's point of view the track and other members of the crowd are visible along with a few bits of sports equipment left lying around and the flags of all countries along the edge of the stadium.

The event starts with your athlete poised for action and swaying with anticipation, his shadow mimicking his lively motions. A piece of music is played as he limbers up, before a press of the fire button sends him on his way, the screen scrolling with the player as he pounds down the track.

As soon as the player hits the line four deft moves of the joystick are needed - one for the hop, the skip and the jump. A further push is required to give extra boost in flight. Critical timing is of the essence and quick judgement and reflexes are necessary.

A successful jump results in a roar of approval from the crowd and an instant replay on a small monitor at the top of the screen.

The judges will declare a fault should you overstep the line or perform a movement too late. In you are given three attempts to prove your worth, in practice mode you can jump as many times as desired.

As with Pitstop II you can select to be either the top or bottom player by pressing the fire button when instructed. After a quick ready, set, GO! countdown the race is on.

The course is 250 metres and must be completed in the quickest time possible. The joystick is used to row, with left/right strokes to raise the oars and to push them through the water. A good rhythm is required throughout the race in order to excel.

Both screens scroll with their way down the course, past each player as he or she makes their way down the course, past the distance markers and buoys (which bob up and down as the boats pass)! Each player’s course time is displayed next to a speedometer which shows the player’s speed.

Your athlete starts in a similar manner to that of the triple jump - poised to go, with a jiggle in his walk and a javelin in his hand and music in the background a press of the fire button sets him in motion and rapid and persistent pressing gets him burning it over the cinders.

As the athlete (complete with shadow) runs to the line the screen scrolls with him and the javelin bounces in time with his stride. The line approaches and a and music in the background.

A well timed tug of the joystick is needed to break his and send the spear on its path through the air. The angle of the launch is determined by how long the joystick is held left.

This the line the screen scrolls with angle is as important as the speed of the throw, if not more so - too high or too low a release will shorten the length of time that the javelin flies.

If you cross the line before throwing then you will have incurred a fault and the throw is void, but after a successful throw, you will find the crowd more than a trifle appreciative. There are three throws in comp-etition and as many as you wish when practising.

Like the field events, this is from the spectators view, the course scrolling right to left, A sense of depth is created through parallax movement in three sets of background scenery scrolling at different speeds.

The scene is set by the various tents and waving, clap-ping or jumping spectators. The jumps are detailed too, ranging from simple fences to walls, multiples and water jumps.

Pushing forward on the joy-stick increases the horse’s speed and to jump fences you can either press the fire button (medium jump) or push right (longer jump).

Clipping a fence or landing badly will cause the horse to stumble and fall along with your rider. This incurs a minor penalty (your current number of faults is shown at the bottom of the screen along with the time taken so far).

A quick press of the fire button and an increase in speed soon gets you on your way again though. To prevent the horse stumbling on landing you need to pull back on the reins using the joystick. If you attempt to jump a fence too early or far too late the horse will refuse to jump and your score is affected badly.

After which you must turn the horse round and take another stab at the fence. Obviously split-second timing, concentration and a cool head are needed as is the case with all of the events. The course must be complet-ed within the optimum time of fifty seconds since for each second over this time limit you incur one penalty point,

If your time exceeds 100 seconds then you are disqualified. The same happens if your total points from faults exceeds 99.

At the end of the course you are shown exact-ly where you went wrong and course time is shown along with any faults gained along the way and your overall score (faults). The lower your score, the better as this means that you incurred minimal faults and completed the course quickly.

The high jump presents you with the usual view of the stadium and your athlete poised eagerly and raring to go once you have selected the height at which you wish to attempt.

The bar is initially set to 1 .5m and you can accept it or go for something higher up to a maximum of 2.5m. Again the fire button sets your player in action but this time continual pushes right with the joystick are required to get him sprinting.

As you pound down the track you can move nearer to, or further away from, the bar. When you actually reach the bar, a press of the button gets your athlete jumping and a further push on the stick gets him sail-ing over. As you may have gathered, timing is crucial.

Pressing the button too late means that you just run past the bar and get the chance to jump again (you aren’t penalised for this, though). On clearing a height you receive due appraisal from crowd and the bar is raised to the next height.

You have three attempts at clearing a height and knocking the bar off from jumping too early, too late or too low results in a fault (no DT bugs in this game, John). Practice mode, on the other hand, allows you attempt any height for as many times as you wish.

Either one or two players may take part, a droid taking the part of the second player in the one player option. When practising this droid can be taken on at one of five skill levels - skill levels one to four (increasing in skill) and a random skill when the droid becomes slightly unpredictable.

The bout takes place on the ‘fencing piste’. A timer in the bottom right of the screen counts down from three minutes and the first player to score five hits against their opponent within this limit is declared the winner.

There are a wide range of manoeuvres at your disposal and all must be used to their full to become proficient at this event. You can move towards or away from the other player, thrust, parry (block) and perform defensive sweeping motions.

Attacking moves are easily per-formed by holding down the fire button and moving the joystick. Defensive moves are obtained without the aid of the button. If two players hit each other simultaneously then the hits are nullified.

When a player retreats too close to the edge of the piste, a hit is scored against them. The number of hits scored against each player are shown on the referee’s computer screen in the form of a mini table along with the player’s name and nationality.

If both players have tied at the end of the allotted time limit then a sudden death fence-off takes place - the first player to score a hit is declared the winner.

If neither player should accomplish this then both are assessed a 'loss'. Strategy plays an important role as well as the essential speed of thought and quick reactions.

The two cyclists appear in both displays (one red, one blue) while a fitting rendition of Flight of the Bumble-Bee buzzes merrily along. After deciding which player is which (by pressing the respective fire button) you are given a ready, set, GO! countdown.

At the bottom of each display is the player’s name, a speed bar and an arrow that spins round representing the movement of the peddles. This is where the real skill comes in as you have to rotate the joystick in time with the arrow to get your rider’s leggies pounding furiously.

Simply keeping up with the arrow gives you a constant speed, but to attain high speeds and good times you have to 'lead' the arrow by rotating the stick just ahead of it. 'leading' or 'lagging' too much may cause the cyclist to stop pedaling altogether!

This is easily done if you’re not careful and so the utmost concentration is requir-ed to maintain steady high speeds. Each view of the track scrolls along with the respective cyclist who both bob up and down convincingly as they zip along the course, passing build-ings, distance markers, running tracks and other such things. The first person to cross the line in the shortest time is the winner.

Although there isn’t any frantic waggling involved, paddling your kayak efficiently demands a high degree of men-tal and physical strain. The course, viewed from above, is several screens length, the banks being littered with waving spectators, various buildings and other befitting scenery.

The kayaks (a sort of canoe) are steered through fif-teen sets of ‘gates’ spread along the course, in as quick a time as possible. This isn’t as easy as it may appear since the river is very fast flowing and it’s very easy to get drawn off course. There are also several little islets that get in the way and must be avoided.

Three different types of gate are used, each composed of two flags, one of which is always red. The red flags must be kept to the player’s left otherwise a twenty second penalty is incurred in conjunction with a little beep. Penalties are also given if a player goes through the same gate twice.

Most of the gates are of the DOWNSTREAM NORMAL variety, ie the player goes through them facing down-stream, but there are DOWN. STREAM REVERSE gates (steer-ed through facing backwards) and UPSTREAM gates (pass the gate, turn and go through facing 5 upstream).

You paddle the kayak throughpushes of the joystick. Forward paddles you in a forward direction, back, backwards and soon and each stroke is accompanied by a splash or two to complement the fast flowing sounds of the river.

This sort of control proves very realistic and effective as a single push for each stroke is required - holding the joystick in any one direction doesn’t get you anywhere). Once you cross the finish line you are shown a mini map of the course along with a comment on how you fared at each gate.

Any penalties picked up along the way are shown against the respective gate and are totted up at the bottom of the screen. The total points gained through penalties are added to the overall course time to give your final score at the bottom of the screen.

I thouroughly agree with what Gary has said and this really is a sports simulation to end all sports simulations. The graphics are photographics and the sounds are excellent with more tunes contained within the game than I've ever heard - and they're all superb too!

The only other thing I can say is that if you don't have this in your collection than you're wasting your 64. This piece of software reaches the very pinnacle of 64 programming to date.

In fact the only rason why I was dragged away is because Lloyd trotted in and told me that I'de be sacked if i didn't write this. What happened then? Lloyed parked himself infront of it and played it until I had to go home.

We've all been playing this solidly for days and days and there's been much hassle and aggression over who has the current records. Julian has been in a foul mood ever since I broke his kayaking record and I though Gary was going to kill him when he smasjed his triple jump record. mind you Gary got his revenge when he beat Julian's equestrian record with a clean sheet. All I can say is that seeing is believing and disbelief is profanity.

The multitude of nifty little tunes seems never-ending and the sound effects are first class. Each of the eight excellent events stand up well on their own, but together...!

This superb combination of outstanding graphics, wonderful sounds and enthralling and addictive gameplay put Summer Games II in a class of it's own. ZZAP! has given a number of worthy Gold Medals so far, but never has there been a game quite like this - it almost deserves TWO!!

There isn't a single superlative throughout the Complete Oxford Dictionary that can do justice in describing it. Summer Games II doesn't LOOK set to become a classic - it IS!

Amongst the flags are good old GB, some European countries and a special Epyx flag (complete with national anthem). At the end of each event an awards ceremony is held where the names, countries and scores of all competitors are listed in order of merit and are awarded medals and points accordingly (Gold, Silver and Bronze medals worth five, three and one point(s) respectively for the first three places, assuming enough people took part).

The Gold Medal winner's national anthem is then played before moving on to further events or the Champion Ceremony. This ceremony comes once all the events have been completed.

The total number of points for each player are added up and the results of the competition are announced in true Olympic fashion - the runners-up are displayed first through to the overall champion (along with their respective scores), backed with the sounds of some suitable music.

Once the winner has been declared, their national anthem is played again taking their ego trip to its final dizzy heights. Once all this is out of the way, the Closing Ceremony takes place - a crowd full of anticipation looks across the stadium to a darkening skyline and the distant figure of an approaching jet-man, to the sound of Ride of the Valkyries.

The figure nears as the sky turns black, floodlights flicker into action as the Olympic Flame flickers for the last time and slowly dies away, traces of smoke marking its once prominent position. The figure waves goodbye, saluting the end to an exciting day of spectacular games (play) and the Epyx blimp passes over an amazed crowd.

The music departs with the blimp to give way to a stunning display of fireworks and a fitting rendition of Tschaikovsky's 1812 Overture. So ends the Olympic Games...So ends Summer Games II.