Beach volleyball the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) was founded. At the professional level, the sport remained fairly obscure until the 1980s when beach volleyball experienced a surge in popularity with high-profile players such as Sinjin Smith, Randy Stoklos, and Karch Kiraly. Kiraly won an Olympic gold medal in beach volleyball in its first Olympic appearance in 1996, adding that to the two Olympic golds he won as part of the USA men's indoor team, and has won 142 titles. In the 1980s, the sport gained popularity on the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 1986, the
Summer Heat Beach Volleyball were experiencing a period of renewed popularity for the first time in many years, although it received considerably less hype and critical praise than its contemporaries "Beach Spikers", "Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball", and "Outlaw Volleyball". It currently has a score of 68.09% on GameRankings and 65 out of 100 on Metacritic. The game was one of several poor-selling titles that would lead to Acclaim's bankruptcy in 2004. In 2006, Canadian game publisher Throwback Entertainment acquired the property rights for "Summer Heat Beach Volleyball" from Acclaim. Throwback had planned on developing another "Summer Heat" volleyball game for release on