Producer: Imagine
Retail Price: £7.95
Author:

Did you thrill to Wimbledon this year? Do you dream that one day you too will beat Boris Becker or thrash Martina Navratilova in three straight sets? Well, Tennis, IMAGINE's conversion of the Konami arcade game might help realise your dreams to some extent.

In this version of tennis, the computer can play singles with one player or doubles against two players fighting for keyboard space. Alternatively, two humans can fight it out, head to head. The scoring and rules are taken from real tennis, except the computer acts as umpire too, flashing decisions onto a central screen at the back of the court. There's no room of argument: if the ball lands on a line then the shot is 'in'; if it lands outside a boundary line the shot is 'out'.

Players take it in turns to serve, with the service changing after each game. To serve, press fire to lob the ball into the air, and fire again to send the ball flying over the net. The timing of the second press of the fire button is crucial as it determines where the ball lands. If the ball lands 'out', the computer flashes a message onto the umpire screen and the server gets a second go. If you muck the second serve up as well then the point goes to your opponent.

The screen shows a tennis court as seen from the stands at one end. The direction keys or joystick control the movement of the player(s) on the court, and a prod of the fire button at the appropriate moment makes a shot - the stroke played depends on the direction in which the volleying player is facing.

During each game the score for each player or team is shown on the right of the court, and at the end of game the score is transferred to the main score board.

The audience watches anxiously from the very top of the screen. You must play your best as they're all rooting for you in amongst the bottles of bubbly and strawberries and cream.

COMMENTS

Control keys: redefinable: up, down, left, right, fire
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour mainly monochromatic
Graphics: not wonderfully detailed
Sound: burbly tunelet and spot beeps
Skill levels: one
Screens: just the court

After the delights of IMAGINE's Ping Pong, I was hoping for an equally great follow up. Being both an avid table tennis player, and a bit of a tennis nut, I find it difficult to get excited about this game, especially as its sister program is so good. Compared to a good, challenging game of the real thing, IMAGINE's version is more of a 'knock the sponge ball over the washing line with a plastic bat' game. Okay, so it scores correctly, follows the rules and has got all the lines in the right place, but the game itself is strongly lacking. Maybe fans of the arcade game (which I haven't seen) will flip over this, but speaking as a fan of the real thing, I don't like it much.

Ping Pong was a bit of a let down for me, so I didn't really expect much from this game and didn't really get much either. As sports simulations go Tennis is about average in most respects - it doesn't really bear much resemblance to the real thing but it is fairly good fun to play in short doses. The graphics are disappointing: the characters are undetailed and the pitch is dull. The sound effects are also a little on the bland side with only a few effects and some very annoying little tunes. I would only recommend this one to hardened sports simulation freaks, as it isn't too compelling.

I'm the self-proclaimed Number One fan of Match Point, and I felt my favourite tennis game could be under threat from IMAGINE - who have come out with loads of good sports simulations on the Spectrum. After playing their conversion of Konami's Tennis for quite some time. I came away feeling that the game was lacking, both in the overall number of shots you can play and in overall realism, found you had very little control, if any, over the type of shot you could play. The game always seemed to be on the move - if the computer player wasn't moving frantically between 8 and 10 pixels to the left and right, it was the constant, uncontrollable tapping of your player's foot on the court. I found this extremely irritating and tiring on the eyes. Tennis didn't play properly: it takes a while to get used to the ball bouncing at different heights at the most unreal moments, and the players seemed to like the idea of running and hitting the ball at the same time. Graphically, this game far outbashes the old PSION game, but as to who gets the Match Point . Need I say more?.

Imagine
£7.95

It takes a lorra bottle to release a game like Tennis onto a market that already has countless versions. But you'd have thought, if anyone could pull it off, Imagine could. And I'm afraid you'd be wrong. Imagine seems to have lost that advantage point.

Where a tennis game succeeds these days is in the 3D views, graphics, sound and use of colour. Second nature to good ol' Imagine you'd have thought, wouldn't you? First off, the play area is green, naturally, but the players are both white. White on green makes it extremely difficult to follow the action, especially when you're desperately trying to keep up with the ball. The graphics themselves aren't so hot either - which makes it thirty love against Imagine. And for a forty love advantage the title screen displays one of the players making a V sign! Hardly good public relations, unless it's supposed to be John 'I know I'm a failure now, but at least I married her' McEnroe.

The big selling point of the game is that it's the first tennis simulation to let you play doubles. A great idea, and a clever bit of programming, if only the graphics were clearer.

All that apart, the speed and authenticity of the game is good. And if your heart is set on a spot of on-court action, this one may offer you that little something that I couldn't get out of it.

Game, set and match...

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Imagine/Konami
PRICE: £8.95

You cannot be serious? Another tennis game? Aren't there enough already?

Well, not quite. Imagine's conversion of the Konami arcade game is rather good, despite not being terribly original.

The players are drawn in a sort of outline cartoon style to avoid the colour clash problem and dash about the forced perspective court pretty quickly. However it's sometimes difficult to tell exactly where and how high the ball is, despite the "shadow" effect the program uses to help you.

It also seems all too easy to run up to the net and play lots of close in shots to defeat the computer controlled opponent.

But these are minor gripes really, the game is pretty playable and easy to get into right from the first volley. The computer player does seem to have the habit of bashing over a few untouchable aces if he's in trouble. But he's not unbeatable, and this makes the game even more playable.

Scoring follows the normal real life game, you can play advantages and deuces which can add to the tension of a hard fought match. Calls from the judges appear in a little window at the "back" of the court which is also occupied by the scoreboard. Individual scores appear in small boxes superimposed on the right hand side of the screen.

You can't argue with the judges - the computer will put you back on the baseline despite all your protests! A really original touch is the doubles feature which allows two people to play against the computer. Shame the option didn't extend to allowing two players to control two players - if you get my drift. Things can get quite hectic - and lead to real life arguments if your partner misses a crucial shot. Still, it all adds to the excitement.

There is a two player option for the singles, and you can redefine the control keys to suit yourself. The sound effects are pretty good for the Spectrum - despite the compulsory, irritating little tune over the intro screen.

The action flows fast and furious without any irritating delays or glitches. Tennis is a well put together game - it plays well and looks good. If you're a sports fan, check this one out.

Spectrum
Imagine
Simulation
£8.95

Of all the Konami conversions Imagine has undertaken, Tennis must have been the most unrewarding. Unlike many of the other Konami arcade games, there have been plenty of good tennis games for the Spectrum, culminating with the excellent Psion Match Point.

To compete with Match Point, Tennis had to be fast, playable and graphically superb. What is a surprise is that Imagine has taken an obvious amount of care to make sure this is the ultimate simulation of a sport which gave us such stars as John McEnroe, although without the tantrums.

What makes this game so enjoyable is the ease with which you can get into it. Unlike many games, there is no need to be a professional player to give the computer a relatively good run for its money.

The ability to have two-player games is a much-overlooked option but Tennis compensates for that with two differing double-player options. Not only can one player play a friend but two friends can tackle the computer in a demon game of doubles.

The accuracy of the flight of the ball is something of a marvel, especially with the well-defined shadow. Extras such as realistic net-cords and some thrilling net play makes it the definitive tennis simulation for Spectrum owners; the only question is; the only question is if it is not too late.

IMAGINE SERVE UP TOP SEED TENNIS GAME.

Imagine
£7.95

"And that rather weak second service got exactly what it deserved." And out come all the old Dan Maskell slock phrases, not to mention jokes about John McEnroe, Iceborgs, and the like.

Yes, it's tennis conversion time and the old arcade favourite, Konami's Tennis finally lobs its way onto the Spectrum courtesy of Imagine's licensing deal with Konami. To be honest, when this arrived I wasn't exactly seized with raptures of enthusiasm and the general reaction was along the lines of "Ho hum, yet another Imagine arcade conversion." But once the game was loaded up it managed to bring a little jollity to an otherwise cold, wet and dreary morning.

On the two occasions that I'd attempted to play the original arcade game I'd found it completely unplayable but the Spectrum version proved to be much easier and more enjoyable to play and although I haven't come anywhere near winning even a single set I can see myself loading this up quite a lot 'till I get the hang of it.

Imagine's conversion is something of a no-frills job, but with the emphasis on playability. There isn't a great range of different shots that you can play with lots of angles, topspin and so on as has been the case with some tennis and table tennis games (which I generally find far too complicated to play well). The direction that you're running in seems to have some effect on the direction that you hit the ball in and the timing of the shot can affect its length, but on the whole it's just a matter of chasing after the ball and thrashing away like mad in the hope that you'll knock it over the net. I realise that that may not sound terribly sophisticated but it's definitely great fun.

The graphics aren't exactly spectacular - the players are white sprites on a green court, with the scoreboard at the rear of the court - but by keeping things simple you can at least see what's going on the whole time, and there are (virtually) no attribute problems.

The options available allow one or two players to play a singles match against each other. Playing doubles against the computer is just asking for trouble. It's chaos, with players running all over the place and the computer managing to coordinate its two players with an ease that will make most human opponents look pretty daft.

After a while you'll be able to tighten up your game and maybe even win a few points (the computer does seem vulnerable to a fast serve and volley game). The game seems to have just the one skill level, so it might eventually be possible to master the game and perhaps it would have helped ensure that the game has a long life by providing different skill levels. Other than that my only criticism of the game is that using the keyboard controls is a bit fiddly.

The predefined control keys seem to be badly chosen and although you can redefine these keys player two can't choose keys set aside for player one even if player one is using a joystick. This means that if player two wants to redefine the keyboard controls then he or she will probably also have to redefine player one's keyboard first, even though player one isn't using the keyboard (and this isn't explained in the instructions, either, it took a bit of guessing and trial and error before I began to realise why I couldn't get the keys I wanted for player two.)

Still, fiddly bits aside, Konami Tennis has still proved to be the first tennis game on the Spectrum that I've enjoyed playing and is certainly the only one that I'm ever likely to go back to.