A hole in one

In the wake of the current craze for golf games, US Gold has developed its World Class Leaderboard - available on most other types of micro - for the Archimedes.

Booting the game results in the usual auto-configuring plus an horrendous grinding of the disc drive - an onscreen message tells you that the disc is just being checked to ensure it's an original.

The title screen is of a high quality but the menu system leaves a lot to be desired on a mouse-driven system. You get four options: Play game, putting green, driving range and course editor, selected by pressing an appropriate key, the mouse being defunct at this point.

Play game takes you through questions regarding number of players their names and relative skills - kids, amateur and professional. Next you specify the number of holes in multiples of 18 and finally the course selection A-D - supplied and based on real ones - or E-Z for your own.

The playing area occupies only a little over half the screen horizontally and the colours and sprite design are very hard on the eyes.

Now you get to use the mouse. The Adjust button is used to alter the direction of the shot, Menu cycles through the available clubs and Select is used to make the stroke.

First hold down the button and watch the strength build up, release it at the desired position then click it again to select the levels of hook or slice. The ball then shoots off into the distance.

This process continues until you reach the green, at which point you are limited to the putter and only strength and direction is controllable.

The putting green simply allows you to practise getting the ball down the hole, while the driving range lets you improve your swings. I couldn't get the course designer to work as it wouldn't recognise any disc.

Obviously Leaderboard is a rival to Holed Out, and while it has the advantage of genuine courses and a course designer it fails to match up in many respects.

The graphics are not full screen and although the Holed Out trees are stylised and unrealistic it is much easier to see what's going on. Club selection is very tedious on Leaderboard, although the actual stroke technique is better.

However, the most important factor is realism. In Holed Out, the ball's movement is so realistic that a poor putt can result in the ball rolling back down a slope beyond the point you hit it from.

And it's very common to hear cries of anguish from players as the ball bounces off the edge of the cup.

But in the Archimedes Leaderboard there's no such atmosphere. On the green, the ball moves at the same speed regardless of slope and striking power from its start point to its finish and then stops abruptly.

The only deviation occurs when the ball hits the cup and bounces, have played this game on other machines and they were far superior to this implementation.

World Class Leaderboard on the Archimedes just doesn't make the grade.

Steve Turnbull