SENSIBLE GOLF
=============
TYPED BY SHARD - N&B
Epilepsy Notice
---------------
A very small percentage of individuals may experience epileptic seizures
when exposed to certain light patterns or flashing lights. Exposure to
certain light patterns on backgrounds on a television screen or while
playing computer games may induce an epileptic seizure in these
individuals. Certain conditions may induce undetected epileptic
symptoms in persons who have no history of prior seizures of epilepsy.
If you, or anyone in your family, has an epileptic condition, consult
your doctor prior to playing. If you experience any of the following
symptoms while playing a computer game: dizziness, altered vision, eye
or muscle twitches, loss of awareness, disorientation, any involuntary
movement, or convulsions, immediately discontinue use and consult your
doctor before resuming play.
This product is exempt from classification under UK Law. In accordance
with The Video Standards Council Code of Practice it is considered
suitable for viewing by the age range(s) indicated.
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Useless Golf Fact
An American (well it would be wouldn't it) managed to balance seven golf
balls vertically on his head without the use of adhesive.
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Loading Sensible Golf
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Amiga
-----
Firstly, set up your Amiga according to the manufacturers instructions.
You should be pretty adept at this by now. I mean, they haven't sold
any Amigas for about a year now, so the odds are that you're a
long-standing owner. Not that I'm getting at you or anything. You have
a perfect and inalienable right to be an Amiga owner. Where was I? Oh
yes.
Insert Disk 1 into your Amiga's internal disk drive - and disk two into
your external drive, if you have one that is. Let's face it, you'd be
hard pushed to insert a disk into a drive you haven't got.
Now for the tough bit. Switch on your Amiga.
Wait a short while.
Groove on down to the funky music.
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Useless Golf Fact
The youngest player to ever get a hole in-one is Coby Orr who managed
the feat at the age of five.
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Golf - A Quick Explanation For Aliens
-------------------------------------
The game of golf is played over a series of 18 "holes". Each hole
consists of a tee area (from which the first shot is taken), a fairway
(a long stretch of grass) and a putting green (a very smooth area of
grass where the hole is).
The idea of the game is to get around the 18 holes in as few shots as
possible. Shots are taken by hitting a dimpled ball towards a hole with
a flag in it.
The game is played with a selection of large hitting sticks called
"clubs". There are three sorts of club: the iron, the wood and the
putter. A wood is a powerful club traditionally used for the tee shot.
An iron is a mid range club used out on the fairway. A putter is a flat
headed hitting stick which is used on the putting green.
Each hole is graded according to the number of shots you can reasonably
expect to sink the ball in - this is called Par. Thus on a Par 4 hole,
you should expect to sink the ball in four shots or less.
Sensible Golf - A Quick Explanation for the Welsh
-------------------------------------------------
Sensible Golf is Sensible Software's homage to the game of golf.
Some 25 golf courses are at your disposal, none of which are based on
real courses, although one of them looks a bit like Basingstoke Pitch
and Putt.
The are no secret moves, hidden levels or power-ups in this game.
Similarly, you cannot 'be' Chun Li.
Playing this game will not make you a better golfer in real life. It
might, however convince you to take up a more stimulating hobby.
As you play Sensible Golf, you will not feel the-urge to say things like
Never before has golf been so accurately simulated'. Those have got to
be the most impressve SVGA graphics I've ever seen. Finally a computer
golf game that takes you beyond the boundaries of your desktop or Golf
action so real that you can almost smell the grass'.
Life's like a box of chocolates - some sod always eats the soft centres
and leaves you the nougat, walnut and praline.
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Useless Golf Fact
The fastest round of professionlf ever recorded was at the 1977 Heritage
Classic at Hilton Head. Two players completed their fourth round in 1hr
27 minutes.
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Quickstart - For Impatient Punters
----------------------------------
If you're itching to have a go of Sensible Golf right away, you should
choose the Play Round option from the main menu. Click the joystick
button to bypass the Player Select screen and pick a course (Romes a
good place to start).
Once you're out on the course use up and down to choose a club, left and
right to choose a direction and the fire button to call up the
Welly-o-meter. Now press the fire button again to start your back
swing. When the indicator is at the appropriate strength setting, hit
the fire button again to start the down-swing. Finally press the fire
button a third time in the middle of the red area to hit a shot straight
down the fairway.
Some Buttons That Do Things
---------------------------
Hitting the ball: Press the fire button once to start the back swing.
When the appropriate strength is reached press the fire button again to
start the down swing. Finally, press the fire button a third time in
the red zone at the bottom of the Welly-o-meter.
Changing your Club: To change club, move the joystick up or down.
Changing shot direction: To change the direction of your shot, simply
move the joystick left and right. Note: if you heart after you've
called up the Welly-o-meter, simply move the joystick down to
reposition.
Looking at the map: To view the map, hold down the fire button for one
second. Pretty isn't it
To quit a round: Hit the escape button and select Yes by moving the
joystick right. Kind of obvious that one.
Some Options
------------
Menu Music: Toggle this on and off if you want plinky new age music
playing whilst you navigate the menus.
In-Game Speech: Toggles the sampled speech on and off.
Background Ambience: If the birds are getting to you, switch them off.
Auto-Concede: If there's no way you can win a game, this function will
automatically concede the match for you.
Computer Difficulty: Toggle between Easy, Medium, Hard and Wicked.
Some More Options
-----------------
Save: If you're right in the middle of an amazing round and you suddenly
realise that the pubs shut in half an hour save your game and come back
to it later.
Load: Fresh from the pub, load up your game again.
Format Save Disk: Click on this option, insert a blank disk and click on
continue to format a save game disk.
Delete File: Use this to trash old games from your save game disk -
avoid accessing this option when you're just back from the pub.
Slightly Slower Start - For the Sort of Punter Who Reads The Manual
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Before Playing
--------------
Welcome to Sensible Golf, a Sensible Software game which simulates the
joys, trials, tribulations, and ups and downs of golf. Where other golf
games go to extraordinary lengths to try and bring you the experience of
'being there' we realise that if you wanted to 'be there' then you'd 'go
there'.
So instead of offering you pixel perfect golf simulations of real golf
courses, we bring you the real joy of golf. This game isn't about
chucking bits of grass into the air to check for wind speed. It isn't
about resting your putter down on the grass to check out that green. It
is'nt about minute alterations in foot stance. This is about real golf.
Real golf involves hacking a ball about a tricky course that's riddled
with hazards. It's about aiming the ball way off to the left and then
violently slicing it around a tree clump. It's about fun - not lawns.
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Useless Golf Fact
The highest golf course in the world is the Tuctu Golf Club in Morocoha
in Peru - its 14,335ft above sea level.
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The Game Screen
---------------
As you can see, the Sensible Golf in-game screen is a perfect example of
uncluttered game design. Notice the clever use of shades of green, the
dappled effect on the trees and those little clumps of flowers.
This is the scoreboard. You'll always find it in the upper left hand
portion of the screen (assuming that you've got your TV the right way
up). It tells you (from the top down):
Where you're playing
Which hole you're on
What the par for the present hole is
Whose turn it is
What their score is (so far for the round)
How many shots they've taken so far on this hole
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Useless Golf Fact
Robert Mitera holds the record for the longest ever recorded hole
in-one. Thanks to a 50mph gust which carried his shot over a 290 yard
drop-off, he managed to hole out in one shot over 447 yards.
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It's always worth keeping an eye on this ball indicator. The position
of the ball indicates what sort of 'lie' you've got. If the ball is
sitting proud of the grass then you'll be able to make clean contact
with the ball and hit a solid straight shot. If, however, the ball is
recessed in the grass then you won't be able to hit it as far.
Beneath the ball lie indicator you can see the distance left to play to
the hole (in yards) the club or iron that's currently selected and the
maximum distance that the club can send the ball (again, in yards).
And here's the most important meter of them all, the Welly o-meter.
This enables you to hit the ball with the appropriate amount of
strength. By hitting the ball in the power zone (at the top of the semi
circle) you hit the ball at that club's maximum power. So for instance,
if you're using a one wood then hitting the ball in the red zone will
send it 240 yards.
The area at the bottonm of the arc enables you to select draw (also
known as hook) and fade (also known as slice). Hitting the ball right
in the middle of the red zone at the very bottom will send the ball on a
straight line down the fairway. Hitting it to the left of the red zone
will send it to the left and (surprisingly) hitting it to the right of
the red zone will send it to the right.
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Useless Golf Fact
No matter how crap you are at golf you'll be hard pushed to match the
record set by a lady player in the 1912, Shawnee Invitational. Her tee
shot wound up in the Binniekill River and the ball floated. Being a
practical sort of chap, her husband they put to sea and carry on. They
eventually caught up with the ball one and a half miles downstream. She
eventually putted down in a very reasonable 166 - not bad on a 130 yard
hole.
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Hitting The Ball In The Right Direction
---------------------------------------
Basically, this is'nt as easy as it sounds. Making the ball go where
you want it to takes timing, skill, concentration, precision and a
teensy bit of luck. However, as you've probably figured out for
yourself, it's imperative that you learn how to position the ball in the
right place.
Dont trust the CPU : The computer will automatically point your player
in the direction of the hole. However, there might be a large expanse
of water in between you and the hole and if you simply take your shot
you'll end up in the drink. Therefore, check the lie of the land before
you play and if necessary aim the ball in a different direction.
Master the red zone: The most important skill in this game is learning
how to stop the down swing on the Welly-o-meter in the red zone. The
important thing to know here is that the harder you hit the ball, the
less time you'll have in the red zone.
Learn to swerve: Learn to swerve the ball around nasty obstacles by
pointing the cursor in one direction and drawing or fading in the other.
To putt it another way: The arrows that adorn the putting green arent
there for decoration. Learn to point the ball into slopes and remember
that balls roll faster downhill than up. Note: The previous sentence
was taken from an a GCSE physics text book.
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Useless Golf Fact
Whilst Sensible Golf is going for the record for the largest sand trap
in the world, they'd be hard pushed to match the one in Pine Valley Golf
Course in New Jersey. They have the largest bunker in the world, called
Hell's Half Acre.
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The Map - Use It Or Lose It.
---------------------------
It doesnt take much time and effort to call up the map (hold down the
joystick button) but you can save yourself untold grief if you do. All
the nasty hazards, obstacles and out of bounds areas are depicted in
full colour for your viewing pleasure. Remember you can also aim the
ball from the map screen.
Play Ball - Some Things You Should Know
---------------------------------------
In order to get a good score at Sensible Golf you should learn the
dynamics of the clubs you use and the surfaces from which you play.
Whilst the CPU will automatically select a club for you, this may not be
appropriate for the lie of your ball or the obstructions in front of it.
Club Choice: For instance, let's say that you've played a lousy tee shot
that's fired off to the right and the ball has come to rest in front of
some trees. You've still got 28O yards to play and so the CPU picks out
a 1 Wood for you - not a good choice. The wood is a heavy hitting club
which sends the ball far and low. What you need (to get out of trouble)
is a club which will pitch the ball up over the trees - such as a 7
iron.
Strength Choices: If you're anything like me then you'll a1ways be
tempted to wang the ball as hard as you can. This is not always a good
idea. For starters, the Sensible tean have designed these golf courses
especially for heavy hitters. This means that if you simply welly the
ball down the course you'll undoubtedly end up in either a) water b) a
bunker or c) some trees. In golf, size really isnt important.
Draw and Fade: When you first start playing Sensible Golf you will
undoubtedly hit a fair munber of balls in completely the wrong direction
because you misjudged when to hit the fire button. Now whilst this can
be very annoying under normal circumstances, drawing or fading the ball
is a very useful skill.
When you draw or fade a ball you effectively swerve it. This means that
you can (with a bit of practice) project the ball around nasty looking
obstacles. To see what I mean, try aiming the ball way off to the left
and then hitting it with loads of fade (to the right of the bottom red
zone). Excellent, isn't it.
Hit and hope: Regular golfers may be familiar with this phrase. It
refers to those shots which you take without paying any attention to
club choice, shot strength, ball lie or direction. This usually happens
after you've fluffed a shot five times in a four player match and your
mates are taking the mickey out of you. The hit and hope shot either
ends in complete disaster (in the water) or flukey victory (an obscenely
lucky hole down). Either way if you find that most of your shots are of
the hit and hope variety, you should probably have a bit of lie down and
start a new round.
Reading the Greens: Once you make it onto the putting green your
troubles are just beginning. You see, putting the ball is a completely
different skill to whacking it about with a club. This is mainly
because the ball is always in contact with the grass and therefore any
dips, rises or dimples will affect where the ball goes and how fast it
gets there. So spend a bit of time looking at those funny little arrows
- they tell you which way the green slopes. Learn to curve the ball
around the lips of slopes and you'll soon be putting like a pro. Pro
golfer that is, not a lady of il repute.
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Useless Golf Fact
The longest single hole on a golf course is the sixth at the Koolan
Island course in Australia which is a 948 yard Par 7.
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Competition - Round, Tournament or Matchplay
--------------------------------------------
Once you've learnt the ropes you might like to try and beat a friend or
the computer. Here are your options.
Round
This is a good choice if you want to play a round yourself or against up
to three friends. The advantage of this option is that you can choose
which golf course you'd like to play on.
From the main options screen choose Play Round screen and you'll be
presented with the player choice screen. This is initially set to just
one player to add others, click on the Type box and cycle through the
control methods (joystick 1, joystick 2, joystich 1/2) or the CPU player
mode (Easy, Medium, Hard, Wicked).
Once you've chosen the appropriate number of players, you can change
their names by hitting RETURN (surprisingly enough) on the Name box.
Enter a new name from the keyboard and hit return to store it.
Finally, you can modify each player's appearance by clicking on the
little man icon at the right of the screen. Click on Hair, Skin, Shirt
and Trousers to cycle through all the possible options.
Once you've entered all the players you can choose whether to play
Strokeplay, Matchplay, (two players only) or Skins (two, three or four
players) tournaments.
Now decide which course you'd like to play on and you can start your
game.
At any time you can hit the Esc key to return to the main menu and save
or quit your game.
Tournament
The tournament option is perfect if you'd like to play a game against
friends in a tense knock-out style game.
First of all, decide how many players you'd like to be involved in the
tournament - remember you don't determine which of them are CPU
controlled.
Now move the cursor up to the I hold down the fire button and move the
joystick left or right to select the number of players.
Modify each player's characteristics as described in the Play Round
section.
You'll now see the main tournament options screen.
Decide how many rounds (series of 18 holes) you'd like to play - either
1,2 or 4.
Toggle Cut on or off. If the cuts turned off then all players will
qualify for every round.
Choose the number of competitors - hold down the fire button and move
the joystick left or right to select the number of players.
Decide on the order of play - Seeded, Human Parties or Arcade.
Determine the maximum number of players you'd like included in each
party - between one and four.
Finally decide whether on not you'd like to watch the CPU controlled
competitors - it might get a bit boring if you're playing on your own
against 71 CPU controlled players, so choose wisely Luke.
Now you can pick a course to play the tournament at and tee off.
Season
------
If you fancy playing at each of the courses in Sensible Golf and
clocking up some prize money then have a crack at the tournament season.
From the main menu choose season and then decide how many players you'd
like to be involved. At this point you should decide how many of them
you'd like to be human controlled and how many you'd like to be CPU
controlled.
You should now select the season options as detailed in the Tournament
section above
The computer will then take you to the first tournament of the season,
the Madeira Championship which has a total prize purse of $375.000
Some Golfing Words
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Birdie: When you sink the ball in one shot fewer than par you're said to
have got a birdie. Not to be confused with Bizet who was a French
composer.
Bogey: When you sink the ball in one shot over par.
Bunker: Sand pit for grown ups.
Draw: To swerve the ball to the left.
Eagle: When you sink the ball in two shots fewer than par.
Fade: To swerve the ball to the right.
Fairway: The long smooth stretch of grass that connects the tee to the
green. Also, what comes out of a lisper's mouth when they attempt to
say the word fairy.
Fore: What you're meant to shout when it looks like your ball is going
to land on someones head.
Green: The very smooth area of grass immediately surrounding the hole.
Gulf: Essex slang for the game of golf.
Hole: The crevice where the ball is supposed to end up. Also the name
of Courtney Loves tedious band.
Lie: The ball's position in terms of terrain. For instance, a good lie
is on the Fairway - a bad lie is up a tree.
Matchplay: Competition in which players try to win individual holes,
irrelevant of the number of shots it takes them to do it in. If player
one has won three holes and player two has won none then player one is
said to be three up.
Obstacle: Once upon a time this referred to trees, bunkers and water
hazards that might get in the way of a shot. These days its more likely
to refer to the 'travellers' who are camped out on the 14th.
Par: The number of shots you can realistically expect to get the ball
down in. Also, what Americans called their fathers.
Skins: Competition in which each individual hole on the course has a
prize attached to it. The player who wins the hole, takes the prize.
If there is a draw then the prize money is carried over to the next
hole.
Stroke: A shot.
Strokeplay: Competition in which the deciding factor is the number of
shots over or under par that you've played the course in. For instance,
a good strokeplay score would be -2 (two under par for the round) a bad
score would be +4 (4 over par for the course). Most competitions are
based around strokeplay.
Tee: The area from which the first shot of a hole is played. Also, the
surname of a famous American rapper whose first name is Ice.
Yard: Pre-decimal unit of distance. One yard (pronounced yar'd) is
equivalent to 0.9144 metres.
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