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Links Golf (Documentation)
Links Golf Documentation (DV)
To start Links enter the command Links. This will give show you some nice
graphics and play music for you to enjoy. If you tire of this at a later time
you can always start the game by entering the command Golf. This will bypass
the song and dance routine and take you directly to game start up.
After all this you are at what I would call the main menu. It includes
boxes all of which are described below.
Start Box = Starts up the game.
Practice = Takes you to the practice area.
Resume = Resumes a previously saved game.
Players = The saved player configuration selector/editor.
Info = View and/or change system configuration.
Exit = Quit the game.
Start = Start The game.
Selecting the Start Box........
The first thing you will have to do is select a course to play. Links
currently comes with only one course so you will have to play Torrey Pines
South. Once you select it,it will become highlighted. You will then need
to click on OK to continue to the next screen.
This screen will ask you to select players. You have three options
here. Either select a player, use the default player or add a player
Adding a player will be covered later).
When you select either a player or the default player you will be taken
to a new screen. On this screen you can change several things by clicking
the appropriate box. You can select to play the front 9, back 9 holes or
18 holes. You can select the level you would like to play at Pro,
Amateur or Beginner. If you play at the beginner level an automatic caddy
will select clubs for you throughout the game. Lastly you can select your
tee off point Black, Blue White or Red. Red is the Women's Tee, White is the
Men's Tee, Blue is the Pro Tees and Black is the Tournament Level Tees.
After everything looks good click on OK. The game will load and show you
some info about the course. Then you will be taken to the first Tee.
On The First Tee......
Top Box = Clicking on this shows you the top view of where you are at.
The blinking white dot is your ball.
Drop Box = This is the box to click on if you feel you are in an
unplayable lie situation. This will automatically be invoked if you hit
out of bounds or in to a hazard. The next box you see will give you
several options.
Hit from this = hit from the spot the computer has automatically
selected for you.
Select = Select the spot yourself. You can move your ball to a
point you feel is good. The computer will not let you select an
illegal spot. For example one that is closer to the hole.
Back up 50 = This will back you up 50 feet from the current spot
you are at.
Cancel = You can cancel this operation if you decide to invoke it.
However if you are in water for example you will have to drop your
ball at an acceptable spot before you will be able to continue.
Remember!!! When you drop a stroke is added to your score!!!!
Options Box = Allows several system options.
Quit Game = Quits the current game.
Save Game = Allows saving of the current game. You will have to
specify a name for the game to be saved under. The name will
appear in the options box when you select Resume from the main
menu.
Exit = This will take you back to the swing screen.
Sound Toggles = these allow you to toggle the various sound
options on and off. Note that if even if a sound option is
toggled on it still may not work. This is do to lack of system
memory. If you have this symptom you will need to free up more
memory to use the particular sound feature.
Drawing Detail = Allows you to toggle the drawing complexities
of the images at close, medium and far ranges. The Max, Med
and Min options are toggled . Max obviously will take more
time than Min but will not look as detailed.
Lie Box = Shows the lie of your ball. Fairway, Rough, Water or Sand.
Setup Box = Tailoring your shot....
Clicking setup brings you to another box which shows your feet
and club ball/club position. Clicking on the various arrows
will allow you to do many things.
You can move the ball up or back in your stance. Moving it up
causes it to fly higher but not as far. It will also get up in
the air faster ( good for clearing bushes and things). Moving
the ball back seems to lessen the effect of wind on your ball.
It also keeps it down in case you wish to try and go under a
tree. However, placing the ball to far back will cause you to
drive it into the ground and it will go nowhere.
Stance.. You can open or close your stance. The effects of
this will be just as they are on a real golf course. Opening
you stance causes the ball to fly from left to right. Closing
the stance causes a right to left motion on the ball.
Swing Plane... You may also modify the plane of your swing.
Out to in causes a left to right ball flight. In to out
causes the opposite.
Club Face ... You can open or close the clubface. Opening it
causes left to right ball flight. Closing it causes the
opposite.
Cancel.... cancels the operation including all changes you have
made.
Continue.... Continues to the swing screen. You can now take
your shot using the setup you have created.
NOTE... We now come to a point which I feel is a bad design move in
the game. After you take your shot the new setup remains in effect.
You must go back in to setup and return things to normal. For example..
if you needed to get over a tree in a hurry and moved the ball up in
your stance it would stay that way. On the next tee you might pop
the ball up a mile in the air with your driver and get no distance.
Then you will remember that you changed the setup. Fortunately you can
always take a mulligan, return the setup to normal and shoot over again.
D,S,F Box.... This will draw , fade or hit your ball straight. You
should experiment with this at the driving range to see
exactly how much of a predefined draw or fade you will
get. You can accomplish the same effect but with
greater detail in the setup box.
Grid Box.... This turns on a grid which shows hills and slopes that
you are on or that are in front of you. This is most
useful when putting or approaching the green. This is
the only way you can read breaks when putting.
Club Box.... Clicking on the right arrow increments your club selection
up. The left increments it down. The clubs go up and down
according to what is in your bag. Remember you selected
these clubs when you added yourself as a Links Player.
1 + 2 Boxes... These will be described later since it is a rather
lengthy explanation.
Address box..... Allows a practice swing at any time.
Rotate and Redraw Box.... Allows you to rotate your view left or
right and then redraw the screen.
Aiming..... You aim with the cursor arrow on your screen. Hold
the right mouse button and a red and white stick will
pop up. Move it to where you want to aim taking wind
in to account. In the lower right hand corner of the
scenery window you will see the distance you have to
that marker. If you let go that is where your aim is
set. The left button will keep this stick on for your
convenience.
Putting..... Putting works in the same aiming way as described
above. Turn on the grid to see the contour of the
green.
Now you can take your shot!!!!!
You do this by clicking the right mouse button once to start
your backswing , again to stop your backswing and once more to
control fade or slice. Hitting it right on the line will put
it right down the fairway. Early will cause a hook and loss of
distance. Late will cause a slice and loss of distance.
1st click.... Starts Backswing.
2nd click.... Stops Backswing
3rd click ... Determines straightness of shot.
If you fail to click a second time you will overswing and duff
the ball. The 12 o'clock position is maximum normal swing and
will give you the best distance and control combination.
Once you go over the 12 o'clock position the third click becomes
more critical and missing the 6 o'clock line will become more
critical because the hook and slice effect will be magnified.
I only overswing when I am trying to reach the corner of a
dogleg or when going for a par 5 in two. Remember it is a
gamble to overswing!!!
After Shot Window...
After taking a shot the after shot window will pop up. This
allows several choices described below.
Instant Replay = You can watch a forward or reverse angle
replay of your shot by clicking on the forward or reverse box.
Mulligan Box = Allows you to take your shot over with no
penalty. The mulligans are totaled up on your
scorecard. You can disable the mulligan feature
by clicking outside of this box. The mulligan box
will turn red to reflect that it is off. You
can re-enable the option by clicking outside the
box again.
Stats..... This box will also give you some information on
your last shot. How far it flew in the air, how
far it rolled and how far you are from the pin.
Continue Box = Continue to your next shot.
Scorecard..... After sinking your put you will be shown a scorecard.
Boxes here allow you to view the front or back nine
card or to continue. Select continue to proceed to the
next hole.
Hazards.... If you hit your ball in to a hazard the hazard box will
pop up. You basically have two choices here.
Rehit = Rehit your shot and take a one stroke penalty.
Drop = This will invoke the drop routine that was
explained above.
1 + 2 Boxes... The 1 + 2 boxes are a powerful tool when playing links.
These are basically two custom shots per club.
Pressing the one box will tell Links that you want to
set up a custom shot for the currently selected club.
After highlighting the 1 box and selecting the club go
to the setup menu. From here you can make all
adjustments to your stance, clubface, swing plane etc..
These settings will then be saved as custom shot 1 for
the selected club. You may have two custom shots
per club. I find that you must keep extensive notes on
what each club and custom shot can do for you.
Otherwise it is tough to remember
what you designed a custom shot for. Notes such as
3 wood out of the rough can be very helpful.
That is basically how to play the game. Below starts the section
on options.
Main Menu Options
Resume Box = Clicking this presents you with a list of your saved
Links games. Select a game and click OK to resume a
saved game. All parameters such as score and player
options are saved.
Players = Your facility to build player profiles.
You start by typing in your name or the name of a
player to add. Then pick your tee off points and the
level you want this player to play Links at. You then
need to pick your clubs. You simply click to select
or deselect them. Remember you can only take 13 with
you because the 14th is your putter.
Info Box = Shows sound and memory set ups. You can toggle
expanded and extended memory on and off from here.
Using additional memory dramatically increases the
performance of screen redraws. I have only tested
QEMM ( Quarter Deck Expanded Memory Manager) and
the Microsoft Windows 3.0 drivers. Both work fine
and speed up the game.
You can also pick what type of sound board you have
from here.
Practice Box = Takes you to the practice area for Driving or
chipping and putting.
Upon opening this window you must first select a
player. This gives you the proper bag of clubs.
You can also add a player as described above. If
finished click OK. You then decide if you want to
chip and putt or practice driving.
Driving... You are taken to a driving range. You
aim and swing in the same manner described above.
The colored barriers represent 50 yd. increments.
Notice the practice greens you can shoot at.
After each shot the status window will show
you how well you did.
This is also a good place to change your setups
and see the results. The setup box will work in the
same way as the one described above.
Chip & Putt... The chip area will allow you to
place your ball and then to practice chipping
from that position. You also have a move to last
ball option which will basically allow you to
finish the hole out. Remember you can place your
ball anywhere so watch and try different setups.
Practice those bunker shots too.
Exit = Leave the game and return to DOS.
Notes.... The game seems to have a flaw in this example. If you
200 yds or so away from your target it is hard to determine what you
are hitting in to. If for example the green is guarded by a slope
you may hit into the slope and not get a lot of roll. This is known
as a bad kick. I have found no way to zoom in or look at a close up
of approach areas. You can see this only by doing an instant reverse
angle replay. If you have to drive in to a tight landing area this
also becomes a problem.
Despite the few shortcomings of Links I find it to be a
very good and complete golf game. Unless you are really on your
game you will find it hard to break par.
Though one course ( Torrey Pines ) is the only one available
the folks at Access promise more are on the way.
