Originally Released: January 11th, 2014 ------------------------------------------ Yet another game from Access Software demonstrating the technical prowess those guys had when it came to making the backbones for games to run off of. This particular golf game was one of the best for its time with a wealth of extra content available for those who wanted more. It hasn't stood the test of time very well though, although it definitely fared better than Echelon did. ------------------------------------------ Additional Information and Corrections: * Err... the DOS version of this game originally came out in 1988. A few other versions for different computer systems came out the year prior in 1987. Whoops. :P * I'm aware that many computerized golf games require extreme precision to get straight shots, but I want you all to consider that a single pixel on the snap/power gauge passes every 50th of a second. This means being off by 0.02 seconds is enough to cause a major difference in where your ball goes and being off by 0.04 seconds is enough to completely screw up your positioning. When I eventually get to other golf games I own like Mean-18 and Links 386, you'll get a better idea of how ridiculous this timing is. :P * Admittedly, the Professional level's putting mechanics do get easier with practice, but I could never really get it completely down and was still missing shots more often than not. Part of the problem is that, because the gauge doesn't need to render, the timing actually changes since the bar moves faster when invisible since no CPU power is burned rendering it! * Let's talk irony: I've been meaning to cover this game much sooner, all the way back in Season 1. However, for the longest time I couldn't figure out why the putting bar wasn't working in DOSBox, yet worked perfectly fine on my Tandy 1000, and I thought maybe it was something screwy in terms of copy protection. Funny thing though, Access Software wasn't big on copy protection at all and encouraged users to make backups! By EXTREME coincidence, every time I tested the game using DOSBox, I was testing on Professional, and every time I tested on my Tandy 1000 computer, I was testing on Amateur. Ultimately, I had some help in solving this riddle, but not long before making this episode... I found my instruction manual for the game and it actually tells you this happens! * The courses without trees tend to be a million times easier since punch shots aren't properly processed. :P * The game's multiplayer modes come with a bit of a catch, since they're designed for particular styles of golf scoring, but the game doesn't score as such. To that end, only the Medal Play mode scores properly. Match Play and Best Ball requires players to keep score on a separate sheet of paper. Even the MANUAL tells you to do this. :/ ------------------------------------------ Pixelmusement Website: http://www.pixelships.com ADG on Pixelmusement: http://www.pixelships.com/adg Alphabetical Index of ADG Episodes: http://www.pixelships.com/adg/index2.html