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Steve Davis Snooker |
Copyright/Publisher: CDS Software, Release Year: 1986,
Genre: Snooker/Pool, Number Of Players: 1 or 2
For a game as immensely popular as snooker, there have been surprisingly
few attempts at bringing it to the 64. To date there is only one other
snooker simulation on the 64 and that was released over a year ago by
Visions.
When Steve Davis Snooker first made its appearance on the Spectrum
and Amstrad in February, it was widely acclaimed as the best of the
genre. Now Commodore owners have the chance to see why for themselves.
The game follows all the rules of snoker closely, with fouls, free
balls and so on. The table is viewed from above with room for scores,
comments etc below but unlike other simulations of this ilk
Steve Davis Snooker makes use of icon driven commands.
By moving the cursor off the side of the screen the player can access
three sets of options, depicted in pictorial form. The first is the Main
menu from where you can select either a one or two player game,
Steve Davis, alias the computer, filling the role of the second player
if required.
There is also a demo mode where Steve plays none other than...
Steve Davis! Steve (sorry, the computer) has nine skill levels ranging
from 'beginner' to 'expert', the latter allowing no room for error as
even a small slip can result in a complete clearance of the table!
Eidt Mode allows you to change the colour of the table and cushions,
and set up the table for trick shots etc. The balls can be moved about
and placed anywhere on the table with the aid of a small hand, and can
even be 'deleted' permanently.
If at any point you should become confused as to what an icon does
you can always access a 'help' screen. This gives a brief summary of
any commands available in the mode. Finally Play Mode gets the ball
rolling, literally!
To play a shot you simple indicate where the ball is to go and
determine its spin and power. When going for a colour though, one needs
to be nominated before going through this routine. Should you attain
a sufficientely high break when playing, then you can enter your name
in the high break table.
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Gary Penn |
This sort of game is a difficult one to bring to the home computer and
perhaps this explains the lack of attempts at doing so. Steve Davis Snooker
is the best version of the sport I have seen on the 64, with its
excellent approach and options helping make it so. If you're snooker
fan or you want to try something different from your everyday shoot em
up, then this makes a worthy and refreshing change.
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Gary Liddon |
One of the biggest problems with a snooker, pool or billiards simulation on a computer,
is getting a realistically smooth movement for all the balls in play and calculating
each collision effect accurately so that the player canb truly believe the game is a fair
one!
It seems odd to me that the Spectrum, which has a bigger problem in this respect than the
64, has been the computer with the most simulations of this game, some of them being
very good indeed. I think CDS have improved on their Spectrum version of Steve Davis in
all respects to make this the best ever simulation of the game. Its ease of use is likely
to make it appeal even to people who are led up of seeing snooker on the telly, and it
doesn't seem overpriced for the hours of fun it offers.
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Julian Rignall |
Preferring to watch snooker rather than play it on a computer I didn't really take to
this program, but I can see that to a true fan of snooker this is the best. The graphics
are pretty good, with everything moving smoothly, and the sound isn't too bad either
(apart from the tune).
Cue ball controlk is excellent and there's a load of options like variable spin and
power so you can gauge your shots to the finest degree. The computer is very challenging
and on top level is practically unbeatable providing a brilliant opponent to even the
most seasoned of video snooker players.
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