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Pub Games |
Copyright/Publisher: Alligata, Written By: John Stevenson, Music By: Ben Dalglish
Release Year: 1986, Genre: Multi Events, Number Of Players: 1 or 2
Let's all go down the pub - 'ave a banana. Ow's the missus? Roll out the barrel... 'ere we
are guvnor, down at the old rub a dub dub, for a nice night out quaffing the Old Flatulence
bitter while having a good round of arrows. Ow about a luvverly game of Bar Billiards? What d'ya
fancy? Well, take yer pick - got the lot 'ere, all you could want for a free night out with
the lads. Mag-nif-i-cent! Tell yo wot, let's start off with a baht of arrer chucking...
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DARTS |
Take to the Oche for a 501 or 301 round, selected by pressing the trusty f1 key. The screen
shows your view of the pub wall, ornately decorated with traditional wallpaper. Looks like
you've been quaffing a mite too many... your view is a particularly wobbly one! As you try
desparately to steady yourself, you must aim the disembodied hand at the board.
When you are happy with the throwing position press fire to release the dart and watch it glide
through the air and land, plunk, in the board. Darts fall to the ground if they hit the wire.
Once you've complated the darts, have a quickl slurp, and onto the...
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BAR BILLIARDS |
Played with eight balls, one of whicj is red and the rest white, the aim of the game is to sink
back into holes in the table. Each hole has a points value, ranging from then to two hundred -
the red ball score double. to make a shot you have to select the position from which the ball is
to be hit, then the strength of the hit, and finally, the angle.
Sit back and watch it wind its merry way up the table. Knocking down a white mushroom
on the table ends a break and costs you the points collected, but felling the black mushroom
removes you total score so far. After ten minutes, balls are not returned to play after
they've been potted.
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DOMINOES |
There's money to be made in this game, yes a pound for the winner of each of the three rounds!
Don't get too excited though, Alligata don't really cough up. Following league rules, the aim
is to place all your dominoes on the table, taking it in turns to add dominoes to the line
building up.
Pressing fire reveals the dominoes in your hand, so your opponent will habe to turn away
while you have a look. No cheating here folks. Once you have selected the domino you wish to
play then you can manoeuvre it around the board, rotating it as you like. Best of three games
decides the winner.
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TABLE FOOTBALL |
This is played on a traditional table which is viewed from above. The objective is to score
more goals than your opponent. Moving the joystick up or down moves the players nearest to the
ball uo or down. To kick the ball you simply move the joystick left or right. Nine footballs
are provided per game and a pound goes to the winner of each game.
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PONTOON |
More money is involved, but from here on you're probablt going to lose it. In pontton the aim is
to make up a hand of cards with a pip value of twenty one, or at least get closer to twenty one
than anyone else playing. After your second card has been dealt you can stick, twist (get
a card for free but everyone sees it) or buy (pay money to receive a card face down). Wimping
out isn't allowed - you can't stick below sixteen. Each player plays ten consecutive hands and
can bet between one pound and a fiver.
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POKER |
Yep, another money down the drain game. Playing a five card game you get one chance to change
up to five cards and then the betting begins. Usual poker rules apply, with full houses,
flushes and runs all appearing....
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SKITTLES |
Nice destructive game, skittles - after losing your loot at cards you get the chance to work
out some physical aggression by knocking over everything in view. With ball in hand, try to
align it with the skittles, then roll it down the alley and kerrrrack, knock em all over - or
maybe not. Never mind it's still ten points for every skittle that's sent down the hole and
best of five games decides who wins the pound prize.
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Julian Rignall |
Alligata's latest release is really a collection of very mediocre programs. None of them stand
out on their won at all, and on the whole they're all very boring and dull to play. The darts
game is slow and cumbersome, so is the bar billiards and I though the table football was
really awful. Even the loading system is bad: I had great trouble in getting it to work and
many times had yo reload the game because it crashed. If pubs were really like this I'd never go.
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Gary Penn |
This was fun for a short while but I found all seven 'events' lacked that certain something to
keep me coming back for more. There are some uncomfortable delays throughout, mainly when scores
are announced, and some of the games prove quite tedious to play, especially the darts which
I found to be the most frustrating game of the lot ('hitting the wire' was a common occurence
when going for doubles or trebles, resulting in one very irate Penn). Pub Games is basically
a collection of barely average budget game, so for then quid it represents reasonanle value
for money.
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R.E. |
I am really in two minds about this. On the one hand the game are quite fun and wekk thought out,
but then again there doesn't really seem all that much to them. Darts began as quite fun, but it
wasn't long before it became too long and drawn out seeming to go on for ever. Surprisingly,
I think I enjoyed the dominoes games best of all. Dunno why, just appealed to me. But I wouldn't
pay ten quid for it.
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