Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker | Sports | SEGA | 1991

GAME INFO

About Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker

Jimmy White's 'Whirlwind' Snooker is a video game by Archer MacLean, released by Virgin Games in 1991 for the Amiga, Atari ST, and IBM PC compatibles (later for the Mega Drive). A port for the Atari Lynx was planned but never released. 'Whirlwind' Snooker is a realistic snooker simulator.

Although the game was not the first to simulate snooker (or pool) in 3D, it used the processing power and graphics capabilities of 16-bit home computers and was praised for its then ground-breaking realism and easy-to-use interface. ACE said that the game was the closest thing to being on a real snooker table which existed at the time. Also, that it could be used by a player to refine real-life snooker skills

Gameplay

Despite being an accurate and serious simulation of the sport, MacLean's irreverent sense of humour was prominent throughout. The sound effect used for a successful pot was a resounding "pop". This was regardless of the speed at which the ball reached the pocket. Numerous animations provided comic relief should a player take more than a few seconds to shoot. Balls would sprout eyeballs and arms, making faces at the player or holding up signs that read "Get on with it!".

Also present is an extensive trick shot editor, featuring a number of pre-set table arrangements with instructions on how they should be played. An easter egg enabled the option to watch the computer player complete a maximum break. The game's title music was similar to (and probably intended to pay homage to) that of snooker TV programme Pot Black.

The game uses a copy protection mechanism. The user is prompted to enter a word from the manual corresponding to a certain page, paragraph and word number. Getting this word wrong three times caused the word FAIL to appear over the screen many times. In the MS-DOS version, the computer was rebooted.

Additionally, source and more information can be found at Wikipedia.