What are the “must plays” of this genre?

[TigerQuoll]

#9411

Golf is really not my jam, but golf games were a big pillar of the DOS games scene in the early 90s, so I feel like I should give a couple of them a chance.
But Mobygames lists 56 golf games for DOS! No way I’m going to play that many!

At the moment I’m thinking of looking at the following:
* Links 386 because it was lauded for its revolutionary graphics
* Sensible Golf because it looks cartoony and cute
* Fuzzy’s World of Miniature Golf because I mean obviously
* AM’s Mini Golf 3D because it looks like it has a nice “Vitual Pool” vibe

Any others that I should check out?

Oh yeah, I’ll definitely be playing PC Golf (1985) because I had it on my XT when I was a kid. I encourage you to search it! It’s quite… something.

[gregkennedy]

#9412

I think you should also try Fuji Golf – one of the games included in the various Microsoft Entertainment Packs for Windows 3.x. It’s “not DOS” but still… Rather abstract. before “serious” golf game companies figured out how to port their games to Windows, there was this. It used the Windows vector drawing primitives to render a golf course, in a sort of minimalist approach to a simulator of the game.
https://netizen.club/~wildweasel/fuji.html

Also: Gravislizard has deleted their twitter account, but years ago they had a good thread on “PC golf aesthetics” that may be a nice reference
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1099393668929118208.html

[patrick_wd]

#9413

My dad is very into golf, so I have distinct memories of a couple golf games that we had on our 486 and pentium.

The first one is Links: The Challenge of Golf. This is the precursor to Links 386 and the followup to World Class Leaderboard. The line “Looks like I hit the tree, Jim” is permanently etched into our brains and my brother and I would quote it to eachother for years afterward.

The second game was Jack Nicklaus Golf Signature Edition. This one I mostly remember the distinct adlib tune in the menus and the swing power UI that was a solid bar instead of the horseshoe thing that Links used. We played 2 player in this one quite a bit also, but it didn’t have the memorable voice lines of Links.

It’s been far too long for me to recall which one I enjoyed playing more, or if one of them was distinctly better, but I intend to revisit both during the month. These are some of the few DOS games that I played back in the day but have not revisited at any point since.

[TigerQuoll]

#9414

Thanks for the hints guys!
I actually have Fuji Golf, in the very entertainment pack you mention. What struck me about it is that it seems to be a much more serious, fully-fledged offering of a game than the all the other quite small casual titles in the Microsoft Entertainment Packs apart from Chip’s Challenge.

Jack Nicklaus rings a bell. I’m sure I’ve heard the name bandied about in reference to golf games par excellence. Might have to have a look at that one too.

[Greg77]

#9416

Links Golf was brilliant and then links 386 Pro was introduced. This game Was the reason my brother and I paid the extra dollars to get a 386 SX 25 instead of the 286 we had been intending to order. The funny thing is, it computer came with windows 3.1 and with it installed, links 386 pro was so slow, it was unplayable. If however we used a startup disk so that windows was bypassed, it was completely playable. We spent so much time on that game.