Golf Games

[gone fishin]

4 hours ago, Clipper said:

as you often say in political threads - you are free to disagree with my opinion but that is my opinion

 

EDIT - Sorry I couldn't resist.. here is my own subjective reasons for my opinion. I play leaderboard for something I don't get from other golf games since. To me it is part puzzle game part golf game. the lack of club length and pin distance and the "islands" type courses alongside the wind and use of hook/slice hit makes it feel more like a puzzle in places. Later games had more realism etc put in and user-friendliness of pin distance etc added. To me that changed the game from what Leaderboard was and made it more complex in some ways and lost things in other ways. And not much I have played since comes close to that simpler approach of puzzle/golf. Sometimes simpler is better and isn't bettered.

 

See, I just took up golf in the summer and I (try to) play it like I'm playing Leaderboard (despite loving golf games, I never played it in "real life")!

 

You're right, golf is just a puzzle/strategy game. When I started playing, I spent a bit of time working out the average distances for each club. Yes, they don't go very far but I know that a driver will hit about 200-220 yards and a 9 iron will hit about 105 yards (and the distances for the clubs in between).Then I use an app called Hole 19 that gives you a map view of each hole, using the phone's GPS in order to track distances. Then you think "right, I want the ball to land here on the map, so I should use this club and this type of shot". Just like Leaderboard with the little course map (if you had the instructions and it wasn't ahem, pirated ;-) )So in a way, it's like playing Leaderboard but with the club guide and the little maps! ;-)

 

I think that strategy is missing from newer golf games and it might be why I liked Leaderboard so much. The courses were designed for strategic thinking. "I need the ball to go here, however if I hit it with a driver, I'm going to end up in the water/bunker/rough. So I'll try the 3 wood instead." Instead of later golf games being "I'm playing off the tee, therefore I hit it with a driver and I'll be safe". Didn't help when the game would choose the club for you, meaning not so much strategic thinking about it.  I mean, take a look at the hole guide for Leaderboard Tournament (from the Par 4 compilation). You're not going to see a golf course like that in real life!

 

 

And the fade/draw on the snap in Leaderboard (and PGA Tour too) added a bit of a random factor to it - although now that I'm middle-aged, I can see why it might be geared towards punishing the slower reflexes of an old fart (and so might be a more of a challenge to the older gamer). Probably why dads liked it back in the 80s, if you're old then you can easily miss hit - just like real life golf (and likely causing much muttering of swear words). I remember playing it when I was younger and it was easy to always hit a perfect shot. Hmm.. not so much now! 

 

And when I'm getting ready to tee up on the golf course, I always like to have this, courtesy of Rob Hubbard, playing in my head.

 

 

Or this....

 

 

 

[jonathanhoey]

5 hours ago, PeteBrant said:

Fair enough  

 

Not gonna lie I spent hours with Leader board, and following that World class leader board. And it was king until the original PGA tour Golf came out on PC (which I found far more accessible than Links, which was arguably the better golf game).

 

Leaderboard actually made my Dad, who had no interest in videogames, go out and buy himself a C64 after I showed it to him , as a massive golfer he was absolutely enraptured by it.

 

I had Leaderboard for Amstrad CPC when I was a kid, and I remember thinking it was brilliant.

 

We got our first modern PC in 1994 (a 486 DX2/66) and it came with a CD-ROM of ten EA games including that PGA Tour Golf. It was tremendous. My big sister and I spent many, many hours on it.

 

I've recently been playing the SNES version. I'm not sure how similar it actually is to the old PC version, but to me it feels like how I remember the PC one, if you see what I mean.

[Camel]

On 26/11/2018 at 10:48, gone fishin' said:

 

Thanks for this, it looks like a brilliant release

https://csdb.dk/release/?id=110009

- All Extra Courses are included (Famous Courses of the World #1-#3)
- All Courses are on the B Side of the disk - no more disk swapping even if played on 1541 drive!
- Before the game is started you can select with which course you want to begin playing. Courses are mapped to keys A-P now.
- The currently selected course name is visible in the menus (on the bottom).

 

From memory that brings World Class Leaderboard to 16 courses in total!

 

There's also an EasyFlash cart release of all the Leaderboard games

 

https://csdb.dk/release/?id=110010

 

EasyFlash Collection of all three Leaderboard games:
- Leaderboard Golf + Tournament Courses
- Leaderboard Executive Edition
- World Class Leaderboard
What is included:
- All Extra Courses are included for all three games (26 courses with 468 holes!)
- Before the World Class game is started you can select with which course you want to begin playing. World Class Courses are mapped to keys A-P now.
- The currently selected course is visible in the menus (on the bottom).

 

You can download the Nostaligia D64 versions of Leaderboard Executive and Leaderboard Golf+Tournament Courses.

 

That easyflash release is excellent.

[Riven]

Never was a huge fan of Golf games, so never really owned that many or played the talked about Neo Turf Master

 

From the few I have play Ribbit King was always good fun on Gamecube & PS2:

 

Links 2004 was one of the best realistic golf games I played on Xbox:

 

 

Major Title by Irem two arcade games and one SNES console release this is the SNES one decent arcade style golf game:

 

 

[Couch Corpse]

Plus one on Major Title, played a lot of MT2 in the arcades.

 

 

[gone fishin]

On 04/12/2018 at 15:25, beenabadbunny said:

 

 

I've recently been playing the SNES version. I'm not sure how similar it actually is to the old PC version, but to me it feels like how I remember the PC one, if you see what I mean.

 

The SNES version is almost like a different game! 

 

 

The Megadrive one was based on the DOS and Amiga versions, meaning it had a bit of a strange control system in that you used a mouse style pointer (but used a controller). The SNES one is pretty much a console golf game. It's good, but it's a very different game to the Megadrive/DOS/Amiga one. The SNES version is still a good game, it's just very different after you've played the other ones!

 

I came across this video on YouTube, just shows you how many golf games were made back in the 90s! Super Birdie Rush looks pretty good and the St Andrews game has some nice isometric graphics, very different to other golf games.

 

 

 

[merman]

There's loads of Japanese golf games on Super Famicom.

There's even one with motion controls, years before the Wii. It came with a golf club controller and infrared sensor.

[gone fishin]

So I picked up a copy of Tiger Woods 10 for the Wii, from a local charity shop for the princely sum of...£2.50

 

I’ve been loooing out on eBay for 12/The Masters as I did use to have it (let my father in law borrow it, he gave it to a charity shop in Newcastle, turns out it goes for about £15 online).

 

Tiger Woods 10 was the first to use motion plus, so you can fade/draw your shot by changing the direction the wii controller is facing. But the strange thing is (and it reminded me why I gave 12 away) is that compared to 2004, the atmosphere in the game is really lacking.

 

Its quite hard to describe, but everything is there - the courses, the commentary, more bonus content and games but it feels lacking compared to 2004. It’s almost like 2004 feels like a natural progression of Leaderboard/PGA Tour where they finally have the hardware to deliver what they originally intended. The commentary is also pretty good in 2004 and really compliments the overall game.

 

In 10, the commentary feels really flat, so far it looks like there’s no crowds or even a crowd noise (the noise might be an option). Yet the presentation is very slick, but there’s something that makes you think “this has been designed by people who’ve never played golf, don’t understand what a golfer would like in a game (ie a bit of fantasy playing in championships or on famous courses) but have read a lot about it (and maybe watched it on TV). 

 

The motion controls don’t quite work because the controller is too big and it doesn’t really feel the same as swinging a real club, but that’s fine. It did make me think that it’s surprising EA didn’t jump on the whole “plastic peripheral” bandwagon era (like Guitat Hero, Tony Hawks Ride etc) by making a realistic golf club with motion controls built in.  

 

It’s also clear by 2010 that they were running out of ideas, but had a wealth of course information that had been built up over the years. It’s a pity that course info has now effectively disappeared, meaning any new golf games are going to have to build it all up from scratch.

 

So overall it’s still a good game, but it’s not a PGA Tour game, you can tell it’s a different development team that have had way too much influence from EA. It also highlights how EA really arsed up their succesful games, by taking something succesful more “in-house”, making it more slick but seemingly do design by committee by people who don’t understand what makes the game series fun and enjoyable.

 

unfortunately by the end of PGA Tour, EA had effectively wiped out the competition through stranglehold licensing, meaning when they stop developing the game, there’s nobody else out there making something similar. Kind of what they’ve done with every other sport game series.

[Vimster]

3 hours ago, gone fishin' said:

unfortunately by the end of PGA Tour, EA had effectively wiped out the competition through stranglehold licensing, meaning when they stop developing the game, there’s nobody else out there making something similar. Kind of what they’ve done with every other sport game series.

Thankfully The Golf Club 2019 now has fully-licensed courses. It really is going back to the great days of the PGA tour games, with no faff or gimmicks, just pure golf.

 

Also I seem to recall that the PC versions of PGA Tour Golf were vastly different up until about the mid 00s, they were less console-y, more of a simulation. Not sure why EA stopped doing them for PC.

[Wonderm]

I have been playing Everybody's Golf 2 on the ps classic lately. Would agree with the general sentiment about Tiger peaking 04-05, but I think grinding through the earlier stages on this with "Mel," the bald and fat one, is in terms of atmosphere remarkably close to what golf is actually like on most English courses. 

 

Overweight bloke with a combover struggling through seemingly unforgiving greens, ending up +6 out of nowhere. Its just like playing with the blokes from work. 

 

Actually think this is my favourite Everybody's Golf now. 

 

 

Need to see if Redream can speed up the loading times on Tee Off, as it seems pretty good but running dodgy on the Reicast core in retroarch. 

[Camel]

8 minutes ago, Wonderm said:

 

Actually think this is my favourite Everybody's Golf now. 

 

 

Is it better than the Vita one? For me that's the pinnacle thanks to the crown challenges. I've not played enough of any other versions to know whether they have something similar. I was disappointed with the PS4 version not having them.

[Wonderm]

The vita one is great but often think it's a bit too cute for me. Physics probably better in the vita one but this has a lot of charm I think. 

[Camel]

Any crown challenges?

[Wonderm]

Nah afraid not. 

[Skull Commander]

I'd agree with Tiger Woods 2004 being the peak of that series. Absolutely loved it, but each one after seemed to get progressively worse. Interestingly (on a non retro theme) The Golf Club 2019 on the Xbox One is the game that has felt most like TW 2004. 

 

Another shout out for Everybody's Golf as well with my favorite version being on the PSP. Many hours playing it and just reading about it is making me want to dig mine out and have another shot. 

[Vimster]

I'm either doing it very wrong or the Vita one is really really hard. In fact the one I had a go on on PS2 was hard too, consistently at or near the bottom of the leaderboard. Will definitely be having another go, although as has been said I find it just that little bit too cute. It doesn't quite chime iwith the more involved nature of the actual golf.

 

Now if there was something like TW2004 on PSP/Vita...

[MatOfTheDead]

loved the tiger woods series on ps2 and xbox esp 2004 but pc wise i remember putting a ton of hours in on links 99

[Camel]

4 hours ago, Vimster said:

I'm either doing it very wrong or the Vita one is really really hard. In fact the one I had a go on on PS2 was hard too, consistently at or near the bottom of the leaderboard. Will definitely be having another go, although as has been said I find it just that little bit too cute. It doesn't quite chime iwith the more involved nature of the actual golf.

 

Now if there was something like TW2004 on PSP/Vita...

 

Worth persevering with. It's the king of golf games.

[Wonderm]

Deciding that PlayStation 3 is retro now, thought I'd update the thread. Been playing sega golf club a couple of evenings this week

 

 

Don't really like the stream too much but very few good videos of it on YouTube there. It's a bit clunky in places but still pretty chilled out, and got some nice challenging holes in places. Doesn't seem like there's a huge amount to it but not bad at all

 

Not sure how I didn't know about this one but I've forgotten a lot of things. just playing through emulators at the moment now I have a better pc.

[RastanSaga]

Is there a good golf game on the master system... 

[Sureshot]

Golfamania?

 

http://www.defunctgames.com/review/1222/golfamania

[RastanSaga]

49 minutes ago, Sureshot said:

Golfamania?

 

http://www.defunctgames.com/review/1222/golfamania

Thank you.