Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
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Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
How can we have never had a really good golf game? There are hardly any moving objects, you can pretty much do it all in green and white and the main graphic is a dot. There are all sorts of ways to make it good within the limitations of the hardware. You can do it in overhead view with minimal/no scrolling like Sensible Golf, or you can do it sideways like the excellent Stickman Golf games on iOS and Android. But nobody did.
The Leaderboard games are decent with multiple courses, but they're not amazing - uggo graphics (quite often you can't even really tell where the flag is), having to watch every hole painstakingly drawn in front of you, and incredibly finicky control that'll see you start off recording a lot of 15s and 20s. But after that things plummet downhill at a rate of knots.
Konami's Golf plays kind of okay - the controls are super-simplifed but fast and you're never really sure how far the ball's going to go - but it's almost totally silent and you don't even get one full course - only nine holes.
Nick Faldo Plays The Open is just about the only other major full-price golf title and it's hilariously bad - shocking graphics and a mess of an interface that takes up most of the screen so you can't really see where you're shooting on the tiny play area.
(Let's just pretend Royal Birkdale Championship Golf doesn't exist, as clearly 90% of the development time was spent on the lovely title screen.)
Then we're down to two pretty rotten Atlantis budget games - Pro Golf, in which you may die of old age before you get to actually hit a ball, and Pro Golf II - and the sort-of-okay Codemasters effort with a very similar name, which is zippy and has a course editor and is probably the pick of the bunch overall so long as you can remember where the hole is (you only get one chance at an overview) and don't mind the comedy scrolling.
Of 87 games revealed by the database, the majority - 51 - are either crazy golf games, ZX81 titles, magazine type-ins, Crap Game Compo entries or MIAs that may never have been released, and a bunch more are just the same game but with different courses. And even some of the professional commercial releases look like this:
The Speccy's performance in this field really was sub-par, and not in the good way.
The Leaderboard games are decent with multiple courses, but they're not amazing - uggo graphics (quite often you can't even really tell where the flag is), having to watch every hole painstakingly drawn in front of you, and incredibly finicky control that'll see you start off recording a lot of 15s and 20s. But after that things plummet downhill at a rate of knots.
Konami's Golf plays kind of okay - the controls are super-simplifed but fast and you're never really sure how far the ball's going to go - but it's almost totally silent and you don't even get one full course - only nine holes.
Nick Faldo Plays The Open is just about the only other major full-price golf title and it's hilariously bad - shocking graphics and a mess of an interface that takes up most of the screen so you can't really see where you're shooting on the tiny play area.
(Let's just pretend Royal Birkdale Championship Golf doesn't exist, as clearly 90% of the development time was spent on the lovely title screen.)
Then we're down to two pretty rotten Atlantis budget games - Pro Golf, in which you may die of old age before you get to actually hit a ball, and Pro Golf II - and the sort-of-okay Codemasters effort with a very similar name, which is zippy and has a course editor and is probably the pick of the bunch overall so long as you can remember where the hole is (you only get one chance at an overview) and don't mind the comedy scrolling.
Of 87 games revealed by the database, the majority - 51 - are either crazy golf games, ZX81 titles, magazine type-ins, Crap Game Compo entries or MIAs that may never have been released, and a bunch more are just the same game but with different courses. And even some of the professional commercial releases look like this:
The Speccy's performance in this field really was sub-par, and not in the good way.
Last edited by StanVanman on Sat Dec 16, 2023 3:48 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
(btw, can anyone get Leaderboard - Famous Courses Of The World to run in any emulator?)
Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
My fave golf game was rge Amiga version of PGA European Golf. I've only played Leaderboard on the speccy but found it tooslow.
We must perform a quirkafleeg
Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
It runs in Eighty One and the NO$ZX emulators providing you load the second TZX in the package first.StanVanman wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2023 3:24 pm (btw, can anyone get Leaderboard - Famous Courses Of The World to run in any emulator?)
Didn't hang around to try all the courses but it seemed to be ok. Just a black screen then lockup in Fuse after the loading screen.
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Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
Something like Planet Golf would definitely be doable on the Speccy:
Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
Proud owner of Didaktik M
Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
Leaderboard is probably the only one I can find bearable.
Maybe there are others out there.
Maybe there are others out there.
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Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
Ooh, will definitely give that a try, although it looks like it veers maybe a bit far over the fuzzy line between "golf" and "crazy golf"catmeows wrote: ↑Sun Dec 17, 2023 9:00 am What about https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2 ... batrossity
[EDIT] Yeah, that's good fun, but the different ball types make it more of a puzzle game with some golfy mechanics than any sort of actual golf game.
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Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
Hmm, didn't work in EightyOne (v1.39) for me. The second, third and fourth files all load and work, but the first just black-screens even if you load the second one up first. Any chance you can make an .SZX or .Z80 snap of the first?
Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
I used to enjoy this one.
I don't have anything cool to put here, so i'll just be off now to see a priest with yeast stuck between his teeth and his friend called Keith who's a hairpiece thief...
Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
Sorry about this I explained badly. What I should have made clear is that I couldn't get the first file to run in any emulator, apologies.StanVanman wrote: ↑Sun Dec 17, 2023 2:17 pm Hmm, didn't work in EightyOne (v1.39) for me. The second, third and fourth files all load and work, but the first just black-screens even if you load the second one up first. Any chance you can make an .SZX or .Z80 snap of the first?
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- Alessandro
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Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
Hi, I made a TZX file out of both for my personal archive that loads the first course (didn't check the other, honest) with Spectaculator and SpecEmu.
Maybe you could try it and see if it works for you.
http://www.alessandrogrussu.it/zx/Lbfcotwv1.zip
Maybe you could try it and see if it works for you.
http://www.alessandrogrussu.it/zx/Lbfcotwv1.zip
Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
This was a quite well received golf game in the arcades:
Probably sets the bar quite high but could be worth a try on a Speccy 128K ?
Probably sets the bar quite high but could be worth a try on a Speccy 128K ?
POKE 23614,10: STOP 1..0 hold, SS/m/n colors, b/spc toggle
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Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
Yup, that seems to work, in so far as Volumes 2, 3 and 4 do (which is to say that Fuse still hates it, but other emus don't), so now we at least have a full set. Nice oneAlessandro wrote: ↑Sun Dec 17, 2023 3:52 pm Hi, I made a TZX file out of both for my personal archive that loads the first course (didn't check the other, honest) with Spectaculator and SpecEmu.
Maybe you could try it and see if it works for you.
http://www.alessandrogrussu.it/zx/Lbfcotwv1.zip
I wonder what Fuse is bitching about?
Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
Not played this one, but seems pretty impressive
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Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
I've always liked the look of this for the CPC. Hard to do on the spectrum
Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
I liked Leaderboard. It very obviously wasn't designed around the Spectrum's graphics though and they went for faithful gameplay over fixing any of that when porting. Access Software went on to develop the legendary Microsoft Golf for the PC, which is basically the same game but prettier and you don't have to wait ages for the course to draw every shot.
Turf Masters is a very different kind of game. The controls are very basic but and the difficulty comes from the insane design of the courses. Before too long you're hitting postage stamp-sized patches of grass in the middle of a river practically every shot. It's still got a cult following largely because nobody ever did anything like it.
Turf Masters is a very different kind of game. The controls are very basic but and the difficulty comes from the insane design of the courses. Before too long you're hitting postage stamp-sized patches of grass in the middle of a river practically every shot. It's still got a cult following largely because nobody ever did anything like it.
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Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
“Welcome to Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge. I am Carvallo.
Now, choose a club.
(Beep) You have chosen a three wood. May I suggest a putter?
(Beep) Three wood. Now enter the force of your swing. I suggest feather touch.
(Beep, beep, beep) You have entered "power drive". Now, push seven eight seven to swing."
(Beep beep beep) "Ball is in...parking lot. Would you like to play again?
(Beep) You have selected, "No.”
Now, choose a club.
(Beep) You have chosen a three wood. May I suggest a putter?
(Beep) Three wood. Now enter the force of your swing. I suggest feather touch.
(Beep, beep, beep) You have entered "power drive". Now, push seven eight seven to swing."
(Beep beep beep) "Ball is in...parking lot. Would you like to play again?
(Beep) You have selected, "No.”
My Speccy site: thirdharmoniser.com
Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
I only ever played World Class Leaderboard and thought it was great! A little slow to build the landscape may be but there were a lot of trees to render on those courses.
Written by Jim Bagley so gets extra points for that surely?
Written by Jim Bagley so gets extra points for that surely?
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Re: Speccy golf - a good computer spoiled
Just awesome. Love the music
LOL you beat me to this. Note that it's a real game now!