Wordmongers has written a golf program for the Z88!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To start the game, you execute a CLI file called “golf” supplied on the \nEPROM. This fetches all the other files from the EPROM automatically and then \nRUNs the BASIC program. This CLI does not work awfully well – on my Z88 it went \n(for some unknown reason) into the Panel and messed about with the serial port \nbaud rate settings. However a better CLI could easily be written and saved on \nthe EPROM instead (there is enough room for one there).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also the files are all placed in :RAM.-, a potentially suicidal course of action. On the strength of the CLI one would expect the game to be badly thought out and full of bugs. Happily, this is not the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One must appreciate that game designers face a difficult task: if a game is \ntoo easy players soon get bored, too difficult and they become discouraged. I \nthink that Transworld Golf gets the balance about right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Z88 Transworld Golf” uses the best implementation of graphics that I have ever seen on my Z88. The opening screen mixes text and graphics (a golf-ball on a plastic tee) and as you play the game a rather natty plan of each hole is drawn out. These plans are very effective, and are well laid out across the Z88’s long thin screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First you select a course. You may choose from Augusta National, Georgia, and \nKemper Lakes, Illinois (in the U.S.A.), or from Royal Troon and the Belfry (in \nthe U.K.), or a made up course called “Fantasia”. The sixth selection \n(“Shadowlands”) picks holes at random. (A quick bit of maths indicates that \nthere are 90 holes altogether.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you start to play the the graphics get really splendid! First a plan of the hole is drawn out, with a key to the left showing which pattern depicts the tee, green (with little flag), rough, bunkers and water hazards. First you are invited to select a club. A row of little clubs is drawn, with the name below each, and the cursor keys and ENTER are used to make your selection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then you have to take aim (or what ever real golfers call it). An indicator \nmoves briskly up and down the sides of the plan, and pressing the space bar \nstops it. This selects the direction the ball will take. Some practice is \nrequired to get this right. At first the ball usually shoots off into some \nhazard or other, but after a while a more reliable aim is achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally you must select the length of swing. The space to the left of the \ncourse plan shows a swinging golf club. Pressing the ENTER key makes your \nselection, but this demands split-second timing or the club will have swung past \nthe point you want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As soon as the enter key is pressed the ball moves across the screen in the \ndirection you have chosen, straight towards the green (you hope). The length of \nyour shot depends on the length of the swing and the club you have chosen. In \norder to help there is a “lie of the ball” indicator to the right of the screen, \ntogether with distance to the “pin” (i.e. the little hole with the flag stuck \nout of it.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Depending upon the accuracy of your shot the ball sails down the fairway, or lands in the rough, or up a tree, or sinks without trace into a water hazard (in which case the shot must be re-played). If you make an embarrassing mess of a hole the escape key allows you to chicken out and return to the tee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sooner or later your ball will land on the green. The screen is re-drawn to \nshow yourself armed with a putter and a look of earnest concentration. You must \nselect the correct power of putt to propel the ball into the hole. A power \nindicator on the left of the green oscillates up and down and pressing the ENTER \nkey halts it. A nice animated sequence shows the player putt the ball, which \ntrundles across the screen towards the hole. If your judgement was correct the \nball disappears down the hole and the player raises his arm in triumph!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout play the score is displayed either in a window on the right of the screen (or on the bottom line whilst putting). All the scoring and adding up, and how many shots under or over par and how-many-yards-to-the-hole are all automatically calculated and constantly updated – as you would expect where there is a computer involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The game can be played by either one or two players (no foursomes, \nunfortunately). It is easy for the wrong player to play a shot – a small number \nis all that indicates who is to play next. As in “real” golf, after teeing off \nit is the player who is furthest from the hole who plays the next shot and so \nthe game becomes more and more like musical chairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you want to show off you can even play several games simultaneously, like \na chess grand-master.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The graphics can become corrupted if you try this, because the program re-defines some of the graphics characters for different stages of the game, but it is still great fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the Club’s Chief Program Destroying Expert I am pleased to announce that \nthis program is very hard to de-rail. Because it only responds to the cursor \nkeys, plus ENTER, ESCAPE, SPACE, “1” and “2”, it is not possible to crash it \nwith invalid input (it ignores all the other keys).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Details of the various courses are held in appropriately named files. If one is missing the program reports that it cannot find that file. While the program is running the files are marked “In Use” and cannot be deleted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Z88 Golf can be suspended at any time, so if you are amusing yourself at \nwork, and someone inconsiderately interrupts you your Diary or PipeDream are \ninstantly available, and you can resume the game later exactly where you left \noff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One little gripe: the *NAME command is missing, so the ‘Your Ref.’ column in \nthe Index displays the name of the last program to update it. (This could easily \nbe remedied in a revised CLI automatic-loading routine without having to change \nthe BASIC program at all.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A very minor criticism about the overall style is that all the holes are as flat as pancakes. No slopes or hills can be found anywhere. I think I am being rather over-critical here: there is a limit to the realism that can be squeezed out of a Liquid Crystal Display, after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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