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Website
design &
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(c) 2000 James Burrows
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OH dear! What's gone
wrong? The graphics are a bit wobbly with the
little stick men standing statically around the
pitch. The bowler looks like an epileptic, and
the batsman is about as mobile as the stumps.
Gameplay is so finicky that it completely ruins
the game; bowling is made hard by the high-speed
cursor, and the timing on the batting is so tight
that it's ridiculous. The gameplay overall is
slow and it's just not as good as the other two
cricket competitors, Tim
Love's and Graham
Gooch's cricket.
Sound is rather minimal too, with the crowd sounding
like a lavvy's just been flushed and few clicks
and clocks. I think Ian Botham's better off on
grass than he is on screen.
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Another cricket game
to be released this month, and it is a sort of
a cross between Tim
Love's and Graham
Gooch's, only
worse than the two of them. There are some nice
attempts at some new play features that don't
really work, as the players are too small. For
one, I like the touch with the duck when a player
is out for no score. I also like the OWZAT! bit
with OWZAT! printed in dirty great letters, with
a cricket ball for an 'O' and a member of the
crowd jumping up with excitement. One of the better
tries at a cricket game that has failed rather
badly, mainly due to over awkward control and
poor on-screen presentation.
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| Welcome
to Game of the Week! Each week there will be a
new featured game on this page. The game may be good,
average or diabolically bad, it really doesn't matter!
Just look at the pics, read the text and enjoy the nostalgia!
:-) Game of the Week! is open to contributions so if you
would like to contribute
a game article for this page you're more than welcome
to! Every article we receive will be considered! |
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Ian
Botham's Test Match
1984 Tynesoft
Programmed
by John McPhee
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| Most
text of the present article comes from the review published
in the fisth issue of the British C64 magazine ZZAP!64
(September 1985). |
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IAN
BOTHAM'S TEST MATCH
Tynesoft,
£9.95 cass, two joysticks
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Being the season, it isn't unreasonable to expect some
cricket simulations, and indeed there are two this month,
both endorsed by famous names.
Ian
Botham's Test Match offers various length games
to 2 players only, controlling either the home side
or the visiting team. The three games available consist
of Limited (sixteen 6 ball overs), One Day (thirty two
6 ball overs) or Test Match (unlimited overs, 2 innings
per player). The computer provides an 'armchair team',
but there is an option to select and name your own team
players to make up your side. Unlike Graham Gooch's
Test Cricket, the bowling player may set the field
(except for the wicket keeper and bowler of course).
This allows for the type of bowling you intend to use
and takes account of the batsmen's styles. Once placed,
the fielder must remain where he is until the end of
the over.
Bowling
comes in four styles, fast, medium, bouncer and spin,
and these are selected before each over for all six
balls, although you can change your mind if you wish,
with a reduced chance of success of getting a wicket.
The four directions of the joystick determine which
of the four types of ball you will bowl. Having selected
a type of ball, the bowler is activated by pressing
fire and the computer takes over.
As
soon as the bowler has delivered a ball, a red cursor
appears on screen below the bowler's wicket. This can
be moved to a fielder, and pressing fire will put that
fielder under joystick control so that the player can
attempt to stop the ball resulting from the batsman's
stroke. To actually collect the ball, the fire button
must be pressed at the exact moment the ball and fielder
'collide'.
Batting
allows for several types of stroke, again by the direction
of joystick movement combined with timing of pressing
fire. Once fire is pressed, the stroke will be taken
and you cannot change your mind, but there is a short
space after the bowler delivers for the batsman to assess
the stroke to be played. A run is taken by pressing
fire after the hit, and each run taken requires a successive
press of the fire button when the batsmen reach the
crease or by holding it pressed all the while.
The
standard means of getting a batsman out are employed,
ie bowled, caught, run out, caught behind, stumped,
or LBW.
Between
overs the screen cuts to the scoreboard and then allows
reselection of fielder placing and bowling type.
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It's inevitable that comparisons
will be drawn between this and Graham
Gooch's Test Cricket.
For a start off it is one pound more to buy . . . The
main difference in the game is visual; here the whole
field as well as the pitch is shown,
which means the characters are much smaller. They are
also even blockier and the animation is very limited,
resulting in an unsatisfactory feeling from the game.
It does offer more control of the various players, especially
in the fielding department, but this is negated by how
finicky it all is
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and
is not helped by
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the
cramped graphics resulting from
fitting
in the whole field on screen. The crowds beyond
the boundary are merely small circular shapes
that sort of flicker and change colour when they
applaud -- very unconvincing, it might have been
better to ignore them altogether. The sound is
okay, usual bonks from bat and ball, a sudden,
unconvincing rush of applause that fades quite
realistically, however, and a strident little
tune between overs. I didn't find the game particularly
enjoyable, and the price drawback makes it a poorer
buy than GGTC, and I think the really serious
drawback is that you do have to have two players,
each with their own joystick.
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Presentation 78%
Some detailed instructions but poor to look at
and difficult controls.
Graphics
34%
Small, indistinct and poorly animated.
Sound
31%
Not a lot to have in cricket but
there are a couple of bits of 'music'.
Hookability
42%
Very finicky to play and get into.
Lastability
36%
Fans of the game will probably
find it boring.
Value
For Money 30%
Overpriced for what it offers.
Overall
32%
Even cricket fanatics probably
won't be impressed.
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Htmlized by Dimitris
Kiminas (12 Jan 2003)
Other
"Games of the Week!"
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