The best of the best? The Virtual Pool series is still going strong today. My favorite is VP3 with Jeanette Lee (not the lame license-expired version with “Curly”), but it is a booger to try and get it running in W10/11. I just play the current VP4, and occasionally watch the Jeanette intro/tutorial videos from 3 for old times’ sake.
Anyway, here’s the one that started it all. The system requirements are interesting – it specifies the rare “386SX-40” as the minimum CPU. In Dosbox I’m running it at the wiki’s recommended speed for 386DX-33 (7800 cycles) and it was a little slow. Probably best to run it at at least 486-66 speed (26800).
Setup was a real issue. The only video modes I could get running on stock Dosbox settings (machine=SVGA_S3) were 320×240 (which looks terrible) and the three VESA options. None of the S3 options worked for me. Sound is set to None by default, you have to set it to SB16 and then detect the addresses.
Now the hard part. Upon starting the game, if I let the videos run, it always crashed right after. I had to hit Esc to skip the videos – then the game ran fine. Your mileage may vary.
Once I got in, it’s Virtual Pool alright. Solid physics and fun to play. This one only has 8/9 ball and straight/rotation pool. The fancier stuff came later – non-pocket billiards, hitting balls off the table, Jeanette’s beach house etc. What I like is, the core keyboard controls have stayed the same throughout the series, making it easy to transition from one title to another. I still like 3 the best, but this is a great foundation. Lastly, as someone has already mentioned, the ragtime soundtrack (including Chopin’s “Butterfly”) is great.
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