Pool Master Review
Copyright (c) 1995, Joe DeRouen
All rights reserved



Pool Master                
by Joe DeRouen


I remember as a kid how envious I was of the neighbors with the pool
table in their den.  "We just can't afford it," said Dad, with a sad
shake of his head.  "No pool table for you, Joe."  Envious of the
neighbors, and sans pool table, I was forced to visit pool halls around
the town playing for loose bits of change and a little glory. 

Well, okay, so my life as a child wasn't quite that tragic.  The point
was, though, I wanted a pool table and couldn't have one.  Now I do,
albeit in the form of a Windows CD-ROM for my 486.  POOLMASTER, by Micro
Amusement Corporation, is about as real as billiards gets without
actually having a table.

Poolmaster renders the long green pool table almost flawlessly.  You can
almost smell the cigar smoke and hear the bad country and western music
as you boot up the game, watch the balls being racked, and get ready to
take your first shot.

If Eight Ball is your game, Poolmaster has that.  If Nine Ball,
Billiards, or Rotation is more to your taste, it has that too.  Options
can be set to allow you to add english to your shot (via "chalking" the
pool cue) and, to savor those really good shots, instant replay fits the
bill.  Undo can also be used to forget those really bad shots, which I
seem to somehow have a lot more of. 

Bank shots, combination shots, straight shots - you can do anything
that's possible with a real pool cue, all with the click of a mouse.  Of
course, you can also scratch (knock the cue ball into one of the six
pockets) but that just adds to the realism of the simulation. 

The game offers play versus a computer (which doesn't work; it claims it
will, though, in a later version), play via a network (again, next
version) or play against another human.  There doesn't seem to be a
scoring mechanism, however, so if you wanted to play against someone
else you'd have to keep track of your own score as well as whose turn it
is. 

Despite these drawbacks, I've spent literally hours aiming my cue and
sinking ball after ball into the side pocket.  You can click on an
option to tell you how hard you're going to hit with the cue, an option
I've found I simply can't do without.  

The ball movement is just like being in a real pool hall.  The balls
make a satisfying "click" as they bounce off one another, adding the
further illusion that you're really there playing pool.  On my 50Mhz
486DX, the ball movement is something a little jerky.  Micro Amusement
Corp. recommends a windows accelerator, so maybe the jerkiness would
clear up with that hardware addition. 

All in all, Poolmaster is a worthy addition to your Windows CD-ROM
collection.  I'm hoping it might even help me to improve my real life
pool game.  I'm not sure if that's possible (I'm not sure if anything
could help that!) but I'm sure going to have fun trying. 

Poolmaster requires Windows 3.1 on a minimum of a 386SX 33Mhz (486DX
40Mhz with windows accelerator recommended) with a minimum of 4
megabytes (8 recommended) of RAM.  For the diskette version, a hard disk
with at least 3.8 Megabytes of free space is required.  Poolmaster also
requires a Microsoft-compatible mouse, a 640x480 VGA graphics adapter,
and a MPC-compatible CD-ROM drive. (CD version only)  If you want sound,
you'll also need a multimedia sound card.  

Poolmaster should be available at your better computer and software
stores around the country.  Manufacturer's suggested retail price is
$39.95.  (street price $24.99)  For more information, call 800 77-AMUSE
or write to: Micro Amusement Corporation, 9161 La Tuna Canyon Road, Sun
Valley, Ca 91352.