Mastertronic
Cassette
£2.99
1-2 players
1 joystick
Not one game but two this time from Mastertronic in a
package aimed at all you green baize enthusiasts out there who are
too tired to hazard an expedition to the local snooker hall and
haven't enough room for a real table due to all that precious Atari
equipment!
ON CUE completes the hat-trick of snooker simulations
for the 8-bit Atari and also includes Pool as a separate, though
virtually identical program. No need for me to explain the rules,
suffice to say that all the regular ones apply and Mastertronic have
included a vague outline of these on the inlay. Dealing with Snooker
first, the table is not green as you might expect but black for
reasons of clarity, and as with 'Steve Davis Snooker' by CDS, this
choice of colouring works well and is preferable to the bright green
of the first Atari Snooker simulation by Thorn EMI. In case you're
wondering how the black ball is distinguished from the black table,
this is achieved by a white circle around its circumference. The
yellow and brown balls look suspiciously like different shades of
green to me, but otherwise all are reasonably recognizable (unless
you've got a black and white television of course!). A rather blocky
cushion in bright red has an adverse affect on the visual 'feel'
however.
Playing a shot involves positioning a small
cross-hair cursor over the point at which you intend to aim the cue
ball, setting the desired ball-spin and power level, and finally
hitting the trigger whilst simultaneously crossing your fingers in
expectation that the ball may, unusually, travel in the required
direction. There's no telling really, so you might as well adopt my
own established strategy of hitting the cue ball at full power into
the object ball and hoping that it will end up in a pocket!
Talking of power, the program seems to assume an
exceedingly over-cautious attitude towards its use. Consequently,
even at full blast the cue ball struggles to travel the length of
the table. It also has the annoying habit of suddenly accelerating
after a collision, which doesn't say much for the realism but
admittedly comes in handy on occasions! Nine levels are available at
which to play the computer level one ensures a computer blunder
every time whilst level nine won't give you a look in if you so much
as dare to miss a single pot! At times the computer is a little
long-winded in deciding on its shot, although perhaps this is
intended as a touch of deliberate realism?
You can always choose to play against a human
opponent although you'll have to share one joystick as there is no
provision for a second one to be used or you can watch the computer
battle it out against itself. No prizes for guessing who the winner
will be, but if you can re-create some of the 'impossible' pots the
computer is capable of you should give up arcade games immediately
there's a hefty cheque waiting to be won at the next international
competition! If not, never fear, for there is a chance to get your
own back, as an edit facility enables the setting up of balls in any
desired formation and game continuance from this point. This opens
up all sorts of possibilities, such as re-living famous situations,
practicing your potting technique and of course, setting up the
table in your favour in an attempt to beat the computer! When you
can't beat 'em, cheat 'ern!!
Pool is based around the same program as Snooker,
except of course that the balls are coloured in accordance with the
game requirements, and all of the appropriate rules apply. I
discovered a slight bug whilst messing about in Pool edit mode when
I suddenly found myself with four cue balls on the table, followed
shortly afterwards by an irreversible lock up, although I've tried
this option since without any such drama so it would not appear to
be a major problem.
Having compared ON CUE snooker with 'Steve Davis
Snooker' it is apparent how remarkably similar the two games are.
The CDS game still holds the edge over ON CUE in my opinion, due to
the latter program's cosmetic inferiority and lack of a table-speed
facility, although with the added bonus of Pool and a price one
third that of the CDS game, ON CUE represents excellent value for
money.
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