Cricket International
Copyright/Publisher: Alternative Games, Release Year: 1991, Genre: Cricket, Number Of Players: 1

Instructions
If you choose your own teams, no name may be more than 10 letters long. You must pick a wicket-keeper and 6 bowlers, each of whom may bowl up to 10 overs. If you make a mistake, use the BACK ARROW key to delete.

Alternatively, the computer will choose an England and World XI.

Each team may have up to 50 batting skill points and 30 bowling skill points shared among the players, but no player may have a skill rating of more than 9 points.

Type
W for wicket-keeper
F for fast bowler
M for medium-pace bowler
S for slow bowler
B for batsman

After the toss, you can choose Village, Green, County or Test Match skill level. The main factors affected are the speed of bowling, and the degree to which the bowlers can spin or swing the ball.

A damp wicket favours spin bowlers; dry weather allows medium-pace bowlers to move the ball more in the air.

The batting side will use the joystick in port 1, and the bowling side will use the joystick in port 2. If you use a siingle joystick and play against the computer, you must change ports between each innings.

To choose a bowler, use the joystick to move the cursor onto his name, then press fire button. The name of the bowler who has just bowled does not appear. If you continually select the same bowlers, fatigue will set in, and their performance will suffer.

Bowling
Until bowler reaches the crease, the joystick will move him to the left or right. Beware of running into the umpire, or you will be no-balled! Moving the joystick forwards or backwards at the same time alters the speed at which the bowler will release the ball. The speed is shown in mph in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

Once the bowler reaches the crease, the screen scrolls the bring the batsman into view, and a marker appears on the pitch to show where the ball will bounce. At this point, the action freezes, and you can use the joystick to move the marker in any direction. Next, a signal will soind to indicate that the joystick now controls spin (slow bowlers) or swing (medium-pace bowlers). This is achieved by moving the joystick to the left or right At County and Test Match skill levels, you can also make life more difficult for the batmsan by pressing the fire button to erase the marker.

Batting
The batting joystick has no control until the bowler releases the ball. You can then switch as often as you wish between two separate sets of controls. Control 1 operates while the joystick fire button is released and control 2 operates while the button is held down.

1. (Button released). Moving the joystick forwards and backwards will move the batsman towards and away from his wicket. Moving it to right or left will alter the angle of the bat - the effect of this is best judged by watching the shadow on the ground beneath the bat.

2. (Button held down). Moving the joystick forwards or backwards will alter the height of the bat. Moving it to right or left will move the batsman from side-to-side.

Once the ball has been hit (or missed!) the screen switches to bird's eye view, and the batting joystick controls running.

Fielding
If you wish, the computer will set the field for you, but you will be given a chance to set your own field with the bowling joystick before each over. If you hold down the fire button, each fielder will flash in turn. When the fielder you wish to move flashes, release the button, then move him with the joystick. Pressing R will return you to the action. The computer will position the wicket-keeper, the bowler, and any fielder who moves too close.

When the fielding screen appears during play, you control the fielders in the same manner. At first, the joystick will control the wicket-keeper. If you press the fire button, the action will be frozen while you choose a fielder. Move the fielder with the joystick to try to intercept the ball. If the fielder intercepts it before it touches the ground, but while it is less than eight feet high, he will catch it. If the ball is on the ground, he will stop it and return it to the wicket.