|
Jonah Barrington's Squash |
Copyright/Publisher: New Generation Software, Release Year: 1985,
Genre: Mixed Sports, Number Of Players: 0 to 2
Tennis has moved from the early days of Pong to the realism of Matchpoint and On-Court
Tennis and now squash has done the same.
The game gives you the view a spectator would have from behind and above the court
where the two players are. You can play against the computer or another player or
even put the game into demo.
The players are animated quite well with even the sweaty creases in the shirts moving
around. However they don't run too convincingly and don't respond to diagonals on the
joystick.
The ball can be put on one of four speeds with red being the easiest. At this speed
the computer gives a good game while on a yellow fast ball it is incredibly mean.
You hit the ball just by pressing fire and if you're close enough to it, it is
automatically hit. The timing of the stroke can determine the speed and angle of the
ball, there being six angles possible.
All the usual rules of squash apply with obstructions and outs. You can play one,
three or five game matches with the winner of each having to reach nine points.
The score is constantly called by Jonah Barrington's and the quality of the speech
is pretty good too, although it does sound a little muffled. Just like he's speaking
through a pane of glass, which he is of course.
There isn't much colour with the players wearing white and yellow but the ball is
black and big enough to see easily.
|
B.W. |
I enjoyed this new sports simulation and once I got the hang of the timing and getting
to the ball, fluent rallies were possible. The speech isn't as good as Impossible
Mission or Ghostbusters and it seems superfluous. I think this may well be a hit with
sports players, my only disappointment being the lack of diagonal movement.
|
Julian Rignall |
The speech got rather grating after a while and your man falling on his burn every time
he was hit by a squash ball, was annoying.
Control was rather fiddly and the graphics weren't particularly amazing but
nevertheless this is bound to appeal to 64 owning squash players.
|
Gary Penn |
The excellent speech and realistic ball movement gave me some initial interest. Umpteen
games later I wasn't so impressed: I didn't feel as if I were truly controlling the
shots (especially when going for a ball coming from the left the raquet stays to
the right!). This made Squash an unrealistic and annoying simulation for me to play,
and I think I'll stick with the liquid variety.
|
