Micro Olympics

I tried out this game for one very simple reason -- the name. I was a huge fan of the original Apple II Olympic Decathlon, and the thought of a series of events, cleverly miniaturized, appealed to me greatly. You can imagine my disappointment when I discovered just how inaccurate this name was. This is a few events short of an Olympics, or even a decathlon. In fact, it's only one event. So apparently "micro" applies to the size of the Olympics, not the size of the competitors.

As for the event itself, it's pretty straightforward. You fire yourself out of a cannon (using the old "click to set angle, click to set power" interface) and try to go as far as possible. Going longer distances earns you money, which you can use to buy a variety of upgrades, which you can use to go longer distances, which earns you more money, which... etc.

The graphics are cute; there's no music, and the sounds can get a little annoying. As far as the strategy itself, once you've gotten the hang of just how the different components work (it's not as obvious as you might think), it's not a terribly difficult game, although you probably will be frustrated your first few tries, when you are trying to figure things out and you have to start over at the beginning when you don't make the right choice. It's worth playing through once, but after that there's not that much of a compelling reason to keep playing.