Mean 18

Title           Mean 18
Game Type       Sport
Players         1-4
Company		Accolade (1986 )
Compatibility   All?
Submission      Blake E. Griffin

Review
Mean 18 By Accolade, written by Rex Bradford and George Karalias of
Microsmith and C. Heath who tuned it for the Amiga.  This game was released
in 1986 and was better than any other golf game on the market at the time.
The game included four golf courses, Pebble Beach CC,  BushHill CC, Augusta
National CC, and St Andrew CC.
These four courses were good for learning this game and playing the game is
touchy, but once you figure out how to use the mouse to play golf, the game
is fun.  The game has sound effects thst were very good for the time of
release.  There is a barking dog, and a splash sound would happen when you
ball went into water.  Out of bounds was shown in red and if the ball went
there, shattering glass was the sound that played.  To play, the player had
two sets of opposing arrows at the bottom of the screen.  The set on the
left was used to choose the club and the set on the right would adjust the
direction that the player is shooting to.  This was a good way to set up
shots and if you felt really comfortable you could use this to your
advantage and hook the ball around doglegs.  On the left side of the screen
is a power strip that has graduations showing ten power levels and they
signified power percentage and not distance.  What this means is that you
play by clicking the left mouse button once and allowing the power indicator
to climb until it reaches the line you choose.  This would start the
indicator back down and the next click was the tricky one.  To get the ball
to go straight you had to stop dead on the bottom line. If you stopped above
the line, the ball would shank to the left.  If you stopped below the line
the ball would hook to the right.  If you wanted to swing the club at full
power, the power click was not needed.

This game also gave the players the choice of playing from the regular tees
or the  professional tees.   The only things that change by choosing pro tee
is the distance to the green is farther and the game does not automatically
default to the desired club as it does for beginner.  It also gave the
option of beginner or expert. This option would change the sensitivity level
of the power strip.  If you choose beginner, the ball will not hook nearly
as bad as it would if you choose expert.  This game also had a practice
green and a practice tee as well as a practice hole so the players could
learn how to use the mouse before actually playing for score.   This was an
added bonus because as I said earlier, this game is touchy.

Mean 18 also included a course architect utility that was easy to use and
allowed the user to design his own golf courses.   This feature alone made
this golf game stand head and shoulders above the rest.
not only did I attempt to recreate all of the local golf course, but I also
tried my hand at designing my own courses.  Today, the quality of golf games
on the market are much improved over Mean 18, but even now this game is fun
to play.

This game is a real winner.

Alphabetical list.