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Tim Love's Cricket |
Copyright/Publisher: Peaksoft, Release Year: 1985,
Genre: Cricket, Number Of Players: 1 or 2
Cricket simulation with unusual features.
Cricket is a difficult game to put onto a micro and this simulation has some
very interesting features to it. You play a 60 over match against either the computer
or another player, although fatigue and lack of concentration ends most games long
before then.
For determining the angle and height of the bat and also the batsman's position on
the wicket. Once the batsman has played his shot, an overhead view of the field is
given showing the eleven stickman fielders.
The player controls any of the eleven fielders if bowling or the runners when
batting. At this stage you can be caught if the ball is between one and eight feet high
when fielded, or run out if the ball is returned while you are out of your ground.
Other features allow you to move fielders around between balls and select village,
county or test match skill levels.
You can choose your own teams or be supplied with World and England elevens containing
six bowlers, four batsmen and a wicketkeeper. Each has a batting or bowling skill,
although these have little effect in a two player game.
If you are bowling you choose one of your six bowlers, who can be fast, medium or
slow. He appears with his back towards you at the base of the screen and runs up to
the crease.
You control his speed with the joystick along with the direction and pitch of the
ball as you release. You also control the spin and swing of slow and medium pacers.
The batsman has more to control and uses the second joystick.
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Look out for the googlies! |
When playing against the computer there are one or two quirks which allow you to
produce some very unlikely scores. Firstly if you concentrate on hitting balls in
one half of the field you can draw fielders out of position, so that they gradually
can be distributed in the other half of the field, leaving a clear area to hit into.
There is also a bug whereby very infrequently two fielders get stuck going for the
same ball and you can pile up an infinite number of runs. The only way out of this is
to load the game again.
When bowling against the computer, if you always pitch the ball short and fast you
will rapidly bowl out the opposition - as long as your aim is good. This, of course,
is an accurate simulation of England's batting against the West Indies.
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Gary Penn |
Tim may well love cricket, but I find it a very dull sport and the thought of playing
the game on a computer struck me as even more depressing. The general presentation
of the game wasn't bad and I did enjoy batting and bowling. The coarse flickery sprites
and spindly fielders were crude and I feel that more could be done with a cricket
simulation.
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B.W. |
This is a fine attempt at cricket on a micro and in a two player game will demand
plenty of skill and hectic activity. Playing against the computer is less of a
challenge once you have sorted out the cheat methods, but it gives you a chance to
knock up some ridiculous scores. The graphic flicker of the bowler as he runs makes
him look like he has a crab in his cricket box. As with all sport simulations, if you
like the real thing you'll probably enjoy the computer game.
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Julian Rignall |
Cricket is s slow game and so is this. Even if you love cricket you could well be
disappointed: flickery, crude graphics, no sound and user unfriendliness contribute
to make a bad game worse.
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