Holed Out

The 4th Dimension was a publisher that appeared on the scene surprisingly late in the BBCs life. They started out as Impact Software releasing budget games such as Zenon and cheat sheets before changing their name to The 4th Dimension and focussing on full price games. One of the best titles they released was Holed Out which appeared on both the BBC and Archimedes. Not only was it a solid golf game but it has the distinction of being the only game I ever recall my mum playing!

Golf by Yes Software Holed Out is a videogame version of Golf - a genre that has since become very popular, with famous golfers lending their names to various titles over the years, moving on from crude approximations of golf to games that now feature realistic graphics and ball physics. Fundamentally however little has changed since the better titles of the 8-bit age such as this. Previously on the BBC the only golf games had been truly abysmal. Firstly there was Golf released by Yes Software in 1986. This was written in Basic, featured random courses, hideous overhead graphics and manual entry of direction and power - you actually type in a number between 0 and 12 to determine the direction and 1 and 100 for the power. ProGolf by Atlantis Software in 1988 was similar but with even uglier graphics however in its defence it featured wind and allowed the player to control the hook and slice of the ball using a reflex based swing meter adding a bit more skill into the gameplay mix. Then there was SuperGolf by Squirrel Software which showed the hole from a side on view in an effort to show hills.

Hardly inspiring stuff and fortunately games I only came across while researching this piece. Something I am occasionally guilty of is viewing the 8-bit era with rose tinted spectacles where every game was a schorching hit. Its occasionally worth experiencing travesties like these just to remind myself that there was some truly awful dross out there.

In contrast to the earlier abominations Holed Out is an excellent representation of the game and one instantly recognisable as an early entrant into the now familiar golf genre. On starting a new game you choose how many players you want and which course to play. Each player can choose an individual skill level and this effects how strong and variable the wind will be, how sloping the greens are and how badly the ball will be effected by obstacles like bunkers and rough. The original game featured two fictional courses for you to choose from (Cone Links and Pine Isles) but sadly the game did not let you play against a computer opponent. The game supports two styles of play: match and stroke. With match play you make your way through the course scoring per hole: you win, lose or draw a hole and the person who wins the most holes wins the match. With stroke play the winner is the person to make it all the way round the 18 holes in the least, errr, strokes of the ball.

After making the various gameplay choices the course loads up and you are presented with your first view of a hole and unlike earlier BBC efforts this view is in 3d complete with perspective and quite striking draw depth. Considering the BBCs very limited palette options (shown in a picture on this page) its quite remarkable just how good Holed Out looks. It extends the BBCs palette to include dark and light shades of colours and show new colours such as brown. It does this by using a technique called dithering in which objects are filled with pixels of alternating colour. Look closely at the trees and they are actually red, green and black. However this beautiful view did come at a price with holes taking a little time to draw but it would be unfair to level this complaint solely at Holed Out as just about every golf game since has been plagued by the same problem as a balance has been struck between pushing the hardware to get realistic graphics and the draw time.

Taking a shot is a simple matter of choosing a club and then picking a direction remembering to take into account the wind speed and direction which is shown in a meter at the right of the screen. To select the power of your shot you need to hit the return key once to set the power meter moving (it moves quite quickly) and then once again to stop it as close to your target power as you can with the power being represented as a percentage of the clubs maximum range. To make things a little tirckier on powerful shots the power meter moves up an almost exponential scale. The first 25% of the power is spread over around 40% of the bar, the next 25% over a smaller amount and so on. As you make your way towards the green there are numerous hazards to work your way round including trees to hit and bunkers, water and rough for the ball to land in. Importantly having struck the ball it moves predictably and realistically given the wind conditions - if you landed in a bunker you will know it is no ones fault but your own.

By mordern standards the gameplay is extremely simple however Holed Out managed to blend its various gameplay elements into an enjoyable and engaging whole. I've filled several lunch breaks playing the game when I should have been writing this review. In addition to the original game two further Holed Out's were released providing two more courses each some of which presented quite a stiff challenge.