Desert Golf game screens 11
Desert Golf is a 32K Extended BASIC cassette only 9 hole Golf game that is mainly text based (although it does let you view a graphic of the current hole layout from both an overhead tee perspective view). The game takes into perspective wind, and also a bit of randomness to your shot (just like real golf does to me). The main gameplay has the player selecting a club (based on it's distance range), and does a real time update to the text screen showing the following in realtime: DIST (Distance from the tee), DIST-HOLE which is the distance to the hole, and POS (which will mention left/right if you hooked or sliced the ball). The randomness is in things like hooking the ball which can be bad enough at times to go out of bounds and cost the player a stroke, and how far the ball travels. It even features some sound effects like a high pitch when the player hits the ball, and quick thud when the ball hits the ground, etc. It also plays brief PLAY command musical bits at the end of each hole with the song differing depending on whether the player got above par, par or below par. There is also a scoreboard of the top 6 players - 5 computer controlled (and named after real golfers).
Given it's limitations of being written in BASIC and mostly being text based, it does surprisingly well. The clubs the player has to choose from are fixed, and the club selection is done somewhat similarly as the earlier Golf by Aardvark (the player types a 1 or 2 character description of the club). Unlike the Aardvark method, there is no specifying a distance/power range; that is strictly based on the club selection, wind and randomness. Putting is done differently; once the player is on the green, the game automatically selects the putter and the player simply picks a number for their "putting potency" from 1-15 (1 being shortest). I believe this is somewhat randomized too. With all of these things combined, it is possible to land in the water, sand traps, etc. based on the layout of the hole and the distance and curve of the player's shots. After the player completes the back 9 holes, they get their final position in the standings and how much money they earned. They then get their scorecard for each of the 9 holes as well as the number of eagles, birdies, pars, bogeys and "others" they throughout the 9 holes.
Two odd things: The Tee view and Overhead view graphics are done with different color sets - not sure why that was done. The other is that while scores are based on 18 holes, the player actually picks up play on the back 9 (starting on hole #10).
Title: Desert Golf
Author: John Zivic
Publisher: Spectral Associates
Released: April 1983. (1st ad in Rainbow April 1983, but it may have been out earlier.) Programming completed June 1982.
Requires: Color Computer 1,2,3, 32K RAM, Extended BASIC, tape ONLY.