Game Review: Angle Ball (Commodore 64, Mastertronic / MAD)

Angle Ball (or as the title screen and instructions seem to refer to it, Angleball) is effectively a new spin on the game pool. Instead of being played on rectangular table with six pockets, the table is instead hexagonal with six pockets. This will mean of course a slightly different style of play can be utilised, with the cushions being at angles to hit off (hence the name) and also, rather than the straight forward triangle of pool balls, the balls are set differently on each frame layout, meaning you need to work out a way to pot all the balls each time. That sounds promising, but how does that actually play out?

The Commodore 64 version was released a couple months after the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and MSX versions. At the time, On Cue had been released and those who had played that will know its limitations on bringing snooker and pool to the Commodore 64. The main criticism would be that the balls would slow down on collision, and therefore grind to a halt. So it was with some trepidation that I loaded the game, had a very quick blast of Invade-a-Load (as the game loads very quickly indeed) and then saw the title screen.

Breaking Off

The game loads but there is no music whatsoever, just silence. You would think that there was plenty of memory to get a nice SID tune to get you in the mood before play, but clearly not. You have multiple options for one player solo mode, two players, player versus computer, a frame designer where you can make your own setups, and to start the game. There is no option to use the keyboard at all, as it is fully joystick controlled, unlike the other versions. Thankfully this is not a major issue, but worth noting for those who may prefer keys for this type of game.

In one player mode, you can choose which frame number to start at, which can be frame 1, 5, 9, 13 or 17 in this version. Each of the frames represents a different layout of the balls. Ideally to score the most points, you should pot the balls in sequence, with the 8 ball being last. Depending on the frame layout, the balls will be numbered from 1 to 5, 1 to 6, or 1 to 7 as well as the 8 ball. Fouls are committed by either potting the 8 ball out of sequence (ie: not the final ball of the frame) or if the cue balls go in. Both of these as well as missing a pot means your number of misses goes up by one. Miss three times, and in single player mode, it is game over. You do at least get the number of misses reset to zero if you do complete a frame and go on to the next one though. In two player mode, or one player against the computer, the frames are selected randomly, and each player has three misses. Whoever scores the most points wins the frame, and it is first to five frames.

That’s a Great Shot There

When taking a shot, this is in three parts. First of all, position the cursor where you wish the cue ball to go. This can be directly to a ball at any angle you wish, or off a cushion if you want to play a different shot. However, here on this version, it can be quite awkward as the more you move the cursor in one direction, it can speed up inertially and be a little difficult to get quite right. You can then select the spin you wish to have, either top or back, left or right, by moving the control in the direction. You can then select the power by pulling down for more power or up for less. If you have made a mistake in the position or spin and want to abandon the shot, leave the power at zero and press fire, and that will take you back to go through the process. In theory the process does at least work reasonably well.

The shot happens, and this is where the game falls down, even more so than on other systems. It is the polar opposite of slow on the MSX version if just hitting one ball with the cue ball, as here if you hit the ball at full power you can go up, down and around the table around ten times before it stops, or inevitably, the cue ball goes in-off to another pocket, which is not ideal. The spin also does not work either – back spin on a straight shot should go back a little bit, not top spin to the top right of the ball. Any power you have put on over half way careers into the other balls, and once you get two or three balls on the move, then everything can slow down a little. If there are four or more moving, then the slowdown is very noticeable. There is also a sound effect when the balls collide, and if the cue ball gets stuck to that ball, that effect plays constantly and is headache inducing.

And That’s a Bad Miss

The pockets also seem really loose on this version as well, with anything getting close to the pocket being drawn in – including the cue ball for an obvious foul and especially in player versus computer mode, handing the computer a massive advantage. The balls tend to also rebound off the cushions, sometimes unfairly, with the ball physics being rather suspect all round. In the other modes, it is the same for both players, so misses can accumulate quickly and means that frames are often well over before all the balls are potted or there are multiple fouls committed because the cue ball has gone in off yet again.

The balls are of course coloured the same as the spots would be on a standard pool table, and these at least are easily visible. As with other versions, albeit laid out slightly differently, the right-hand side as well as having the shot spin and power also has the frame score and total score as well as misses taken, with each player score being shown in two player mode, or player versus computer mode. The bottom left shows the frame number and name, in most cases after letters of the Greek alphabet. All at least does not obscure the table in any way so at least you are able to work out your shots. Here, when the computer opponent (always called C-64 in this version) is at the table this information appears to the middle right of the table. One other thing to note: if you enter your name in one player mode, and get a high score, you have to enter your name again for a second time instead of the name automatically being entered.

Design a Frame

One option which is quite nice to have is the frame designer. This means you can set up your own frame layouts with the balls positioned differently. Once you have selected the frame number (from 1 to 24) to amend, you can only amend the ball positions and not the name. Then, starting with the cue ball, move the ball to its location, press fire and then move to the next one, until all balls are selected. You can then store the new frame in memory or exit without any changes. The designer menu also has an option to save or load the frames that you have amended, and in this version to tape or disk. meaning you can play those instead of the default ones. If the game was better, the frame designer would have been a much more useful addition to set up different layouts when playing friends.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics of Angle Ball are functional, but not very good. The multicolour font used on the title screen, high score table and entering your name screens may have looked appealing initially, but just becomes a bit of a mess. And whilst the hexagonal table looks okay, the movement of the balls either goes much too fast if one ball, powering round at pace, or slows when colliding with the other balls. There is just one sound effect when a ball is hit, and if one ball sticks to another, as often happens, that sound effect will grate on the ears, badly.

Final Thoughts

Angle Ball does try to be a genuinely different cue sports game, with the hexagonal table meaning different shots are possible. Unfortunately, this Commodore 64 conversion feels like it was just ticking a box to get a version out there. The perceived lack of control of the ball, especially with the spin failing very badly, and the fact that it can rebound randomly off a cushion at times, complete with the fact that you can go in-off much too often due to the width of the pockets being a little unfair at certain angles, makes it a much less enjoyable experience. The lack of playability and control ultimately kills what would have been a good idea, and even though other versions do have their own faults, they are not as bad as this one. For completists and collectors only – everyone else, stay well clear.

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