A thorough options menu customizes everything from camera angles, stick handling, and shooting the cue ball. Impressive BD graphics create a real-time, degree environment that lets you move around and view the table from any angle. The controls are exact and enable you to plan each shot using actual pool-table physics.
Mixed tunes and good background sound effects complete the experience. Detailed instructions and a clear interface also make this pool game accessible to all skill levels. Virtual Pool is the definitive pool simulation game -- from teaching novice players the rudiments of the game to improving the skills of the seasoned pool shark.
Interplay worked with a team of physicists and professional pool players to bring Virtual Pool to life and provide the highest degree of accuracy. Balls roll, skid, collide and move on a beautifully rendered pool table that mirrors reality.
Players can "walk" around the table to check out their next shot, take a close-up look, zoom out for the overall picture and line up the shot as they would in a real game with a real table. Virtual Pool also allows players to view the shot from overhead, something unavailable in a real pool game.
World Champion pool player "Machine Gun" Lou Butera is available to teach new players the tricks of the game. In addition to the library of lessons, there are over 30 video clips that show famous trick shots the player can practice. This top-notch pool simulation is so good that Interplay guarantees it will improve your actual pool game -- or your money back. I've always enjoyed the game of pool, the feel of a good break, the clunk of the ball dropping into the pocket, and the anguish of the cue ball following along for yet another scratch.
My biggest problem with pool is that I don't have room for a table at home, so I never get much practice. Virtual Pool takes a full-size pool table and packs it into your computer, providing an extremely accurate simulation of the real game. In addition, Virtual Pool is an amazing tutorial in the finer points of the game for the novice player.
Virtual Pool starts in practice mode -- you're lined up for a simple break shot and ready to go. Starting play is simple, almost as easy as the first time I tried the real game.
But the simple interface contains a lot of power. You can move around the table and view it from any angle, even views you can't get in a real game of pool, making it easy to plot your shot. You also have full control of the cue. You can raise or lower it, add some english to the cue ball, control the speed of your shot, and more.
You can try any shot you want, and if it goes awry it's simple to reset the table position and do it again. If you're like me, you probably have no idea what changing the english, spin or angle of the cue shot will actually do. Virtual Pool makes it easy to learn the secrets that can turn you into a pool shark. A selection of video lessons with "Machine Gun" Lou Butera, combined with a tutorial in the manual, teach the basic shots all good pool players should have at their command.
In addition to these lessons, there are video clips of Lou making some spectacular trick shots. Watching this master pull off shots that appear to defy the laws of physics is fascinating, and you can set up the trick shots Lou demonstrates and practice them yourself. After practicing some of the trick shots in Virtual Pool , I was amazed to find I could duplicate them on a real table. If this still doesn't get you to the point where you can line up spectacular shots, Virtual Pool includes a tracking mode.
Turn it on and the projected paths of all the balls will be displayed. Changing any parameter of the shot immediately updates the projection, making it easy to learn to shoot like a pro. Once you're through practicing, you can start an actual game of eight-ball, nine-ball, straight pool or rotation -- each game is played according to professional rules. If you don't know how to play, Virtual Pool includes detailed on-line rulebooks for each game. You can select one of nine computer players, play against another person on the same machine, or hook up with a remote player.
However, the Windows 95 version also includes support for head-to-head play over the Internet. Now you can play anyone, anywhere in the world -- an addition that makes the upgrade well worth it to owners of the DOS version.
The graphics and gameplay are essentially the same; the game physics have been slightly improved in the new version, but it's not very noticeable. Aside from Internet play, the biggest improvement is in the ease of installation -- on many systems it was difficult, if not impossible, to get the higher-resolution display modes working under the DOS version.
DirectX support in the Windows 95 version has made configuration a breeze. The graphics in the Windows 95 version of Virtual Pool are identical to those in the DOS release; you get the same quality 3D rendering of the table. The cue and balls move smoothly -- you even see the spin on each ball. Some texture smoothing could improve the look of the game, but overall the graphics are fantastic.
The sound in Virtual Pool is amazing. Everything, from the clatter of balls caroming off each other to the sound of a pocketed ball, is realistic enough that you'll swear you're in an actual pool hall. The intensity of sounds -- the balls ricocheting, the cue tip hitting a ball -- change depending on the strength of the contact.
If you don't like the music included with the game, you can listen to your own CDs during game play. Another reason is that the 3Dfx only really beefs up the backgrounds in the game, of which there are three rooms to choose from. Yes, it does look good at x in 3Dfx mode with the backgrounds on, but I prefer to play at x in blackness, perhaps because that's the way I'm used to playing snooker in good old "real life".
But the real turn-off for 3Dfx is that if you play a foul shot in some of the pool variants the game will drop back out of 3Dfx mode to ask you what you want to do and from there you can't see the table to choose! A bit of an oversight that - how do you choose whether to play from hand or where you are if you can't see the table?
The bottom line though is the game looks superb. I've spotted only two graphic glitches in non-3Dfx mode - one was the cue passing through the top of a ball, the other was the cushion rail graphic appearing under the cushion, but both were very rare, and certainly don't spoil the game at all. The one extra realistic touch I would have liked to have seen added is in the way the balls are pocketed - when over the hole they vanish too quickly; they don't drop but they rather just disappear, albeit with a reassuring sound.
Seeing the balls fall into the pockets, and maybe also hearing them rolling through the under-table tubes to the re-rack area, would be a welcome addition.
A fairly minor point though. Here I have to admit to a language problem. Being from England my pool-speak is different to American pool-speak. I eventually managed to weave my way though the "foreign" game manual which is quite thick for "just" a pool game , but I'm going to write in my one native snooker tongue so here's a quick lingo guide:.
There's no word over here for what Americans call a carom or a kiss shot, simply because in snooker they're invariably very risky shots to play. In pool with the bigger pockets they're shots you need to learn and play to good effect. Anyway, the gameplay is also improved.
In Virtual Pool 1 you could cue through other balls and the cushions. Not anymore. If you're tight against a rail or in a "Chinese snooker" cueing over another ball then you have to adjust for that, and you certainly won't be able to play a screw shot if you're tucked up and can only see the top half of the ball. Controlling the cue is easy enough. To change your view you use the mouse to rotate around the cue ball. If you want to zoom in close or zoom right out you hold down the left mouse button while moving the mouse toward or away from you.
If you want to view from another part of the table, e. A nice feature is 'X' which when pressed gives you a quick overhead view, the virtual equivalent of raising you head for a quick check while down on a shot. To apply side, screw or topspin you use the 'E' key to allow the mouse to select where on the cue ball you want to strike - but get too ambitious and you can miscue! Then to play the shot you hold down 'S' while bringing your mouse back then forward, "simulating" a real pool cue swing.
Very simple, and very effective. To swerve the cue ball you can raise your cue butt and apply some side. If you strike down on the cue ball too hard though it will jump. So you can either deliberately jump a ball, or if you're not careful you can foul by hitting the cue ball or the object ball off the table.
The jumps are very realistic - I had one ball bounce off two cushions before returning to the baize again. Judging jump shots takes a lot of practice, as do swerve shots, but then that's just like the real thing. Perhaps one point Virtual Pool 2 does fall down on is that, just like the original, it's far too easy to play what would be a very hard shot on a real table.
You can play some most amazing screw or side shots, and while the physics seem very good the degree of difficulty isn't "right". Some PC golf games get around this by, for example, fluffing your shot for you should you try to use a wood in heavy rough.
In Virtual Pool 2 if you want to screw twice the length of the table off a ball many feet away you can, every time. You can also get significant screw when very close to the object ball. Whether you think this is a good or bad feature will be a matter of personal taste. At least cueing over other balls is quite tricky now!
If you're a snooker player you have to adjust to the relatively huge pockets on a US pool table. You can afford to hit a cushion some distance from the pocket and still have the ball drop, but rather than using it as a "luxury" you should use it to allow you to get angles onto the next ball that you wouldn't be able to consider on a snooker table. Middle bag shots are still quite tricky, so you'll generally want to play to leave shots into corners.
The tactical side of pool is as strong as the tactical element of snooker, but in different ways, and learning to adjust is fun. You can make things harder by tuning the table parameters - the table size is fixed but you can alter pocket cut and size, cloth speed and cushion speed, or you can simply select preset amateur, professional or championship tables. It would be nice to think you can learn from the computer opponents you face in the game.
While it seems some steps have been taken to reduce the outrageous shot decisions made by Virtual Pool 1 it's still quite obvious that the AI players do not pick the same shots a real player would go for, certainly not most of the time.
Yes, the AI will take opportunities to plant the 9-ball in on a foul, and it will play some snookers, and it will use the push-out rule, but a noticeable slice of the shots it plays are, um, "interesting". The suspension of disbelief in playing AI players is often broken as you think "what the? On Startup menu choose "Command prompt only" Step 3.
Then type "edit autoexec. Remove all the text on the inside. Type all of the text thats on this website that i made. Then save and exit to the command prompt.
Step 6. Type "edit config. Step 9. Then press space. Step IMA" Step Then restart. Press space. Type "N" Step Press space once again. Press any key to restart. On the Startup menu choose "Normal" Step When on the login screen click on "Cancel".
Alll done. Reviewer: kicek - favorite favorite favorite favorite - September 7, Subject: Sharing files Works well, but is there any way to share files between machines? Two way copy-paste is not working, if I input.
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