Pix’s Golfing Grand Tour

[Pix]

#10317

Against my better judgement, I’m going to attempt to play every single one of these games this month and post about them in one very long thread. Don’t expect in depth reviews. It will likely be a couple of holes on most of these games.

So to get started:-

1. Golf (1982) – International PC Owners
This one is essentially Golf – the text adventure. Pick a club while approaching the hole and it tells you how far you hit it. Enter a number between 1 and 10 on the green for how hard to putt the ball. It’s surprisingly generous and I got under par on both the first 2 holes, including a chip in from 50 yards away. Written in BASIC and it shows – this wouldn’t have amused anyone for long even in 82. I do like the response if you enter an unrecognised command (e.g. forget to use upper case!) as it suggests you’ve spent too long at the 19th hole.

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   basica_000.png
   

[Pix]

#10319

2. 9-Hole Miniature Golf (1983) – Softside Magazine
Another written in basic but we get graphics of a sort this time. You move a little purple block around to one of 16 positions around the ball to aim, press 1-9 to select a power. The ball still moves at the same speed of course, just for longer at a higher power. Technically, we’re still in text mode by the looks of it but it’s better than the last effort at least. Offers up to 9 player games!

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   basica_001.png
   

[Pix]

#10321

3. PC Pro-Golf (1989) – CMA Software
This was supposed to be 1983’s Pro Golf Challenge. I didn’t find that (and suspect it never made it off the Apple II) but did find this entry from 1989 which was missing off the Mobygames list.

You would hope for a big step forward skipping all those years. It looks a little nicer but is essentially a combination of the first two games. We’re still on an overhead view. Type a club, pick a direction by moving a clock hand round a circle and choose how hard to hit until you get it in the hole. Every green is identical (looking rather like an old alarm clock to me). None of these games have any randomness at all so far from what I can tell which wouldn’t exactly have offered much longevity. I’m yet to see wind or sloping greens for that matter either.

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   pcpgv4_001-1.png
   

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   pcpgv4_002.png
   

[Evil Taco]

#10325

Ahaha, this is awesome.

Planetfall and the first game makes me wonder if there’s an interactive fiction with a robust golf element built into it.

[Evil Taco]

#10326

Looks like there’s several! 😀 https://ifdb.org/search?searchbar=golf

[Pix]

#10327

Those IF games look a bit late to qualify as DOS games thankfully. The list is plenty long enough as is.

4. Golf’s Best (1985)
This started off recreating Pinehurst and then a year later got a second release with St. Andrews which is the version I ended up playing.

It’s another one typing in all the commands and are there ever a lot of them. It’s like the inerface of an Ultima game except here even the function keys all do something. Thank god for the included instructions. I’m wondering when the first game to have the usual swing interface is going to show up.

Interface aside, this one has a bit more going for it with sloping greens and much more accurate aiming. The downside is that you literally enter a clock time in to aim, right down to the individual minute. It’s kind enough to draw a line showing where that is but if you want to change it, type a whole new time again. It has a nice little animation when you hit the ball at the bottom of the screen and a few little beepy sound effects. It also zooms in when you are nearer to the hole. It’s the first game that actually feels like something someone might have paid money for.

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   golf4n_000.png
   

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   golf4n_001.png
   

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   golf4n_002.png
   

[Pix]

#10331

5. World Tour Golf (1985) – EA
This may be the first golf game to use the mechanics we all know from later games where you have to time each aspect of the stroke. Pretty much everything I’d expect to see in a golf game is already there with one. It even has weather and wind conditions. The greens only appear to slope in one direction (unless that’s just the course I was playing). Also aiming moves way more than I’d expect so it seems like you are best off ignoring it prior to the green. The magenta trees are a bit offputting but this is a nice little game for 85.

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   golf_001.png
   

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   golf_000.png
   

[Pix]

#10335

6. PC-Golf (1985) – Unknown Freeware
Another one missing from Mobygames but known to Tigerquoll. Text mode game where you type in your club and swing strength with no aiming required. The quirk with this is you are supposed to model the in-game player after yourself entering a handicap + your game weakness so it can model the shots after you. Not a great game but better than 1982 golf at least.

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   golf2_000.png
   

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   golf2_002.png