Which games?

[butterburp]

#10939

Curious what DOS pool games there are? The only ones I know of are Virtual Pool and some 8-ball shareware demo. There’s also Multimedia Pool, but that’s technically Windows 3.x. (That one’s fun, you can replace all the sound effects with your own nonsense)

Anyhows, this sounds like fun! I still play Virtual Pool 4, mostly to play non-pocket billiards, which I got hooked on after seeing Donald Duck in Mathemagic Land as a kid.

[TigerQuoll]

#10942

I had a really clunky CGA pool game called PC Pool when I was a kid.
But in looking for it just now I stumbled across Sharkey’s 3D Pool which kind of looks like if Virtual Pool had been made in the late 80s by EA!

[dr_st]

#10944

There is also Virtual Snooker for DOS – same engine as Virtual Pool – just snooker rules instead of straight pool/8/9-ball.

[firefyte]

#10964

Can’t forget all the named titles!
Jimmy White’s ‘Whirlwind snooker’ and Archer Maclean’s Pool

[Evil Taco]

#10996

Are there any zany or funky pool/billiards games for DOS? I think that would be an angle that would make me curious about trying out a pool game!

[Evil Taco]

#10998

There’s at least one recent DOS homebrew pool/billiards game: https://www.doshaven.eu/game/pooliard/

(Maybe the author would be an interesting guest on the episode?)

[Tijn]

#10999

This is one I’m definitely looking forward to checking out: https://www.mobygames.com/game/29969/pub-pool/screenshots/

Pub Pool, 1987

[Evil Taco]

#11002

Haha, nice, that’s a decently pleasant use of the infamous CGA palette!

[void]

#11004

I would like to suggest Arcade Pool. It was published by Team17.

[rocky1138]

#11479

Damn. This is one of those times I wish a game I like (Side Pocket) had gotten a DOS port.

[Eulisker]

#11749

I made a list of the games i could find. There is probably lots more but this might be a good start.

PC Pool (1984)

PC Pool Challenges (1984)

The first two games seem to be almost the same. This one was published by IBM and the other one was not. Also this is a booter and PC Pool is a proper DOS game.

Alex Higgins’ World Snooker (1984)

The first branded Pool game for DOS. Or rather Snooker in this case. Alex Higgins was the snooker hotshot in the 80s. He lived wild and died young unfortunately.

Pub Pool (1987)

Pool in a Pub. From the screenshots this seems to have strange hexagonal pool tables.

Rack ‘Em (1988)

This one is an early pool game published by Accolade and made by Artech. Accolade had a lot of Sports games and Simulations back then and Artech did a bunch of them. As usual it has a cool title and great cover art. This Looks to be a competent game and Looks to be the first one with a 3D View of sorts.

Billiards Simulator (1989)

This one also has a nice Looking 3D view of the Pool Table. It was done by ERE Informatique. A French Company mostly known for a bunch of crazy games like Purple Saturn Day or Captain Blood. Most of the Team left in the late 80s and formed Cryo Interactive.

Jim Kobbe’s Pool Game in 3D (1990)

This is a shareware game made by, you will never Guess this, Jim Kobbe! It is also 3D but with non filled wireframes and balls that look more like Hockey Pucks.

Sharkey’s 3D Pool (1990)

Only filled Polygons in this one. Maybe you can rotate the camera freely around? Looks interesting.

Jimmy White’s ‘Whirlwind’ Snooker (1991)

This is another of the branded games. Jimmy White was a big name in Snooker in the 80s and 90s. He still Plays but is mostly a pundit. This one also Looks like it has a free camera.

Archer Maclean’s Pool (1992)

This one is not a game endorsed by some pool personality but it is the pool game by the programmer of Jimmy Whites “Whirlwind” Snooker. It Looks to be the same engine as that one but pool.

Esnuka (1992)

A Freeware pool game. I get some serious MS Paint vibes from these graphics.

4 Balls Billiards (1993)

No idea About this. All i know is the screen shots. 4 is a very low number of balls for any Pool game.

Billiards (1993)

This is a Russian Billiards game where you can Play different Kinds of pool or Snooker. It also Looks like you can Play as a Monkey. Because in Russia they have Monkeys plaing Billiards.
Probably.

Pool Shark (1993)

Another Shareware Pool game.

1994Pool+ (1994)

Anime Dudes with a pool cue standing on the moon, attack helicopters and fireballs on your pool table. You know? Pool!

Arcade Pool (1994)

Pool game made by Team17. I hope for Miniguns and Airstrikes but it just looks like a simple 2D not too simulationey pool game.

Virtual Pool (1995)

This tries to be a serious Simulation with serious physics and serious lines all over the screen. I remember this game being well liked in the german press back in the day.

Another Pool (1995)

This time its not even shareware but freeware. Looks pretty barebones.

Virtual Snooker (1996)

The serious Snooker Variant of Virtual Pool. Even more Lines and physics and stuff. Also a bunch of videos of Steve Davis, a snooker legend, and a very young Ronnie O’Sullivan.

Billiardo 2 (2001)

Another Freeware game. This looks like it has variants without any pockets fot the balls to go into. Also lots of lines!

E: Note to self: If the <b> tag is not listed it probably means it is not supported 😀

[dr_st]

#11751

Easiest for me would be to play the Virtual Pool / Snooker games, since I own them.

I’ll try to improve and see if I can consistently beat some of the medium-to-advanced CPU opponents.

[DJ_HiP]

#11774

All I remember was in Virtual Pool the midi music was a lot of Ragtime scores including ‘The Entertainer’ by Scott Joplin.

So for years I assumed that any professional Pool game was supported by someone playing Ragtime jigs on Piano!

[Evil Taco]

#11780

Hat off to you Eulisker for this nice list!

I really like the look of Jim Kobbe’s Pool Game in 3D!

[Mike]

#11818

I keep forgetting that Virtual Pool was for DOS. For whatever reason this was incredibly impressive looking to me at the time and I never actually owned a copy of it but I would always play it whenever I saw a demo of it in a store, so I’m finally going to give that one a shot.

[Evil Taco]

#11827

Are there any pool, snooker, billiards games on GOG.com ? I couldn’t find any with those search words …

[butterburp]

#11831

Not a one. Of course there’s a bunch on HEEM (incl VP4) but nothing on GOG yet.

[Pix]

#11856

I’m just going through trying all of these out. Pool Shark may just have the worst character art I’ve ever seen. I absolutely love it. I may have to swap out my avatar to Montana Fats for the rest of the month

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[Eulisker]

#11858

Have you seen the portraits in Esnuka?

Chefs kiss!

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[TigerQuoll]

#11860

Those portraits are truly glorious.

Both of those games have, in their own way, that completely unreproducable quality of weird little mid 90s games coded in somebody’s basement which is instantly recognisable but totally indescribable.