Someone once said that Golf is a good walk spoiled. And they are right, have you ever tried playing it? It requires tons of practice on your swing to get the ball to go where you want it to go. Worst still have you ever tried watching it?
Sorry Golf fans but I think it’s sucks!
However, computer golf is a lot better and more fun. Which brings me on to a classic game which I think deserves a mention due to its technical brilliance on the Commodore 64 and Spectrum 48K which is Leaderboard.
Released in 1986 and developed by 2 brothers called Bruce and Roger Caver, this was a game-changer as golf had never looked so immersive before. The game was simple to play, there were 4 different courses and the idea as in golf was to put the ball in the hole in a few shots as possible. Each course as a par which is the number of shots it should take to put the golf ball into the hole and if you can do it in less, you were under par. The person who completes the course with the most under par or at least over par wins.
As I thought and still think golf is shit, I didn’t understand any of the concepts of golf or understand the difference between the golf clubs. But I learned so much from playing Leaderboard about Golf, so even though I think it’s a shit sport, I have a full appreciation for the skill that is needed.
What amazed me at the time was the 3D graphics which represented the golf course and the beautifully animated player which was done via something called Rotoscoping. The idea is that you take video footage of a golfer taking a swing with the golf club, then you would have to take photos of every single frame on the monitor. Then a grid was placed on every single photo frame that had to be translated into a colour image which was then programmed into the memory of the computer. This might sound like a long-winded way of animating a golfer, but this was long before digital photography, powerful enough PC’s, photography and animation software. Rotoscoping gives the animation a realistic and fluid look that hand animation wasn’t capable of doing at the time, although it’s wasn't the first game to use rotoscoping, it made the game look unique.
As for the 3D graphics, the Carver brothers used simulation equations to create a mathematical 3D world which was then translated into a 2D space. Every time the player takes a shot, the screen would have to do all the calculations to work out where you were on the course in relation to the hole. You could see this being drawn on the screen and you have to remember that this is being done a machine with 64K of memory.
Although none of these techniques was new at the time, it was the combination of both which created a great golfing game. It was easy to play, you just choose your club, move the pointer to the direction you want to hit it, remembering to counter the wind and avoid the obstacles, press and hold the button for the power and press it again in the middle of the snap for a straight shot.
Mastering the game though wasn’t easy, do you try and send the ball over the trees to cut the corner of the greenway at the risk of being stuck in the rough and woods, which might cost you in the long run, or do you play it safe. The risk/reward of playing Leaderboard was truly brilliant. On top of that, you could play it with up to 4 players, so I and my friends loved it. In fact, during the last year at school, I chose to play golf because you could do a hole or two, take your clubs back and skive off school, which I used to do to every week, to go off and play Leaderboard with my friends over real golf.
Leaderboard was ported to many systems and it sold very well, all the magazines at the time gave it a high score and sold well enough to spawn Leaderboard 2 and then a whole heap of Link Golf games for the PC, Amiga and Atari ST which were based on a real course.
Even playing it now, it still holds up well and plays a mean game of golf. Yes, there is no background music and very little sound FX and it’s slower-paced than a lot of current golf games which now all rendered in real-time 3D but it’s the simplicity of learning and mastering Golf which makes Leaderboard a classic game. I’ve not played it for over 30 years and it’s still got a certain charm about it. So if you've got a Raspberry Pi, or have invested in the new Commodore 64, you should get Leaderboard, you'll thank me for it after playing it.
Hybrid Rules
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