It’s one of the perennial
INTRODUCTION
games on your PC and your PPC – golf. It seems to appeal
to a wide variety of folk. Is it because of the serene
scenes on the greens? Maybe it’s because golf games
are often excellent programs for showing off the graphics
capabilities of a device. 3D Nine Hole Golf from OmniG
Software claims to be "The most realistic golf
simulation running on handheld devices". Is it
up to par? Read on!
Program installation is
SETUP
simple. Launching the GOLF10vFull_PPC.EXE file starts
a standard Activesync installation. As is common with
most newer applications, you can even choose where
the application will be installed (yes – it runs pretty
well from the storage card, too!). No big surprises
during installation – good news so far!
The program is easy to
PROGRAM FEATURES
start up and use. You are greeted with a bright title
screen and opening menu which has a little bit of a
grainy appearance to it. The grainy appearance is due
to the shadowing behind some of the menu lettering.
It gives the text a ragged look that, in my opinion,
it gives the game a bit of an unfinished appearance.
At first, I thought the problem might be related to
the fact that I was running the game on a PPC with
VGA support, so I installed it on an older PPC (with
only QVGA support), but didn’t improve the way the
lettering looked. The good news is that not all aspects
of the program share that appearance. So let’s start
the game!
If
you’re happy with all the settings, then you start
the game by choosing "Enter Game" form
the main program menu. (If not, don’t worry, we’ll
talk about your options in just a bit).
When
you first start a game, you begin by choosing a
player and then choosing the course you’d like
to play. OmniG has created 3 unique courses (none
based on real courses). I was a bit disappointed
that, true to it’s name, each of the three available
courses is only nine holes long. This, of course,
means shorter game play. It is a design decision
that was made by OmniG Software and mentioned in
their FAQ. They say "Since finishing 18 holes
is time consuming, playing 9 holes is more practical
for mobile gaming." I’m not sure I personally
agree, but it is the choice they made.
Many
things about the game are automatic (or can be
if you choose). Club and swing selection are limited,
making your choices easier. Across the bottom of
the screen are (from left to right) the menu button,
your lie indicator, distance/elevation from the
hole indicator, club selection button, and swing
selection button.
WHen
you make your club selection, you will find there
are limitations. You can only choose Wood, Iron,
Wedge, or Putter for you club (no sub-selections)
And you can only choose Full swing, Punch, Flop,
Chip, or Putt for you swing selection. I believe
this was again part of the design choice made to
simplify game play and make for a nice quick game
without a lot of detail to agonize over.
To
play, simply tap and hold down on the power bar
(just below the animated golfer) and wait as the
power increases. When it reaches the point you
want, let go and then quickly tap the power bar
again to actually take the swing. This brings up
the single biggest problem I had with the game
– when should I tap the power bar to get the highest
accuracy? Does it matter? For the answers, I consulted
the help screens (available from the left-hand
pop-up menu or from the main game menu). More on
what I found in a minute.
For
now, let’s continue looking at the actual game
play. Once you take your swing, the animated golfer
takes the swing, and, if you did it right, the
ball takes off into the air. This is where the
game shines. The graphics are fast, very nice,
and when you hit the ball you see one of the nicest
things about the program – it follows the ball
and then reverses perspective as the ball lands
(at or near the green). It’s very smooth and very
nicely executed!
The
game play continues, you choose your club type
and swing type at each stroke, or use the ones
selected for you until you reach the green. Once
you reach the green, a grid appears to help you
guide the ball to the hole.
Once
you get the ball in the hole, you are told how
you did on the hole. At this point I ran into another
disappointment. When the game moves from one hole
to the next (or from the main menu to the game)
it performs sort of a window-blind effect to black.
Before the next screen appears, you briefly see
the Today screen. It kind of looks like you are
leaving and restarting the program. Again, it gives
the program a bit of a rough, unfinished feel and
probably should have been cleaned up.
Game
play continues until you are done with all 9 holes
or until you quit at which point you see the scorecard
and you are free to quit or start another round!
Help with this program
HELP SUPPORT
comes in the form of HTML pages. This means that when
you press the help button, Pocket Internet Explorer
starts up. In general, the information was adequate,
but not terribly detailed. I promised earlier that
I’d talk about my search for information about striking
the ball and how to set accuracy. When I performed
this search, I found the "help" to actually
be extremely non-helpful. There were directions describing
the interface and the club selection, but when it came
to "what do I need to do to hit the ball" all
you got in the User Interface area where it says "This
bar is used to indicate your swinging power".
In the Pocket PC controls area it tells you how each
of the buttons can be set up, but when it comes to
describing game play it only says "To strike you
must release button 3 or 4 (whichever you use) and
press it again before your swinging power reaches 0.
But it never tells you where to strike for accuracy.
Does it matter? It never says!
If you’d like, you have
OPTIONS
the option to adjust a number of things about the
program. You do this by choosing "Settings" from
the main program menu, On the settings screen are
a number of options including whether or not to have
sound, how the GAPI graphics routines are handled
(GAPI is a common graphics/hardware handling sub-program
used by a lot of games and graphically-oriented programs
on the PPC). You can also choose from three settings
for wind conditions. Lastly, you can decide to allow
(or not) the use of Mulligans. Mulligans are where
you allow a swing to be "redone" because
you didn’t like how it came out the first time. The
first swing then becomes sort of a practice swing.
There aren’t any detailed options concerning club
selection or or swing selection.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Software web site, the program requires a Pocket PC
with a StrongARM/XScale CPU, 16MB RAM, running Pocket
PC 2000/02/03 (I think they mean Windows Mobile 2003).
No reference is made to WM 2003 SE, but it runs fine
on my WM 2003 SE device. Within the help pages of the
program itself, the listed requirements are different.
There it says the requirements are a Windows Mobile
Pocket PC 2000/2002/2003 with ARM-Compatible Processor.
Memory requirements are listed as 4MB Storage and 4MB
Run-time memory (with support for storage card installation).
I’m inclined to believe the lower requirements listed
within the program since it is running with less than
16MB of available RAM on my handheld!
BUGS AND WISHES
I mentioned earlier, the biggest thing that annoyed
me during game play was the way the window-blind effect
cut to the today screen and then back as next hole
appears. It really looks like a glitch that ought to
be corrected since it makes the game seem unfinished.
I’d
also like to see more total holes of game play
incorporated or at least available as an add-on.
27 total holes just isn’t enough – especially with
a fast-paced version of the game like this one
is. More holes please!
Lastly,
during the course of preparing this review, a minor
revision (from 1.0 to 1.0v) was released adding
VGA support. I was already running it on a VGA
PPC (in the default SE mode) with no problem whatsoever.
I installed this update to see if there were any
change. There were none that I noticed. The screens
are still just fine in the default SE mode, but
wouldn’t display correctly in full VGA mode (using
OZ VGA). Full VGA mode support would be especially
wonderful in a game like this where realistic graphics
really help sell the game. That would be a great
way to impress people!
PURCHASING
9 Hole Golf is available through the OmniG
website for
$19.95.
PROS
Attractive
screens with excellent animation and perspective
shifts during shots
Fast operation
and load time- Easy game
play – many things can operate automatically
like club and swing selection - Comparatively
small storage footprint
CONS
"Window
blind" shift between holes is slow and
disruptive, showing the today screen briefly
No detailed
club selection options – selection by type
of club only- Text in
the main menu (and other menus) looks rough
due to the way it is shadowed - No detailed
instructions on how to actually use power bar
to play – how do you gain accuracy? - No additional
courses are available – only the 3 included
and they are only 9 holes each
| Value |  |
| Ease of Use |
|
| Features |  |
Overall |
 |
Despite my concerns over
OVERALL
IMPRESSION
it’s limitations, I generally liked the game’s quick
and simple approach to golf. There’s less to worry
about when you want a quick game with enough options
to make game play a little less repetitive. But I would
have preferred better instructions, longer (or more)
courses, and smoother graphics. Is it "the most
realistic 3D simulation ever"? Well it might be
stretching things a bit, but the graphics are excellent
and the player animation and ball follow are beautifully
executed. The clunky main menu text and clumsy graphics
during hole-switching leave the game feeling a little
rough, but those are minor complaints about an otherwise
excellent game. If you like golf games and aren’t a
stickler for every detail of the game, like having
every type of club and swing possible, I highly recommend
9 Hole Golf!
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