Game Review: Angle Ball (Spectrum, Mastertronic / MAD)

The first thing you’ll notice about Angle Ball is that it is played on a hexagonal table (rather than a traditional rectangular table.)

The screenshots on the back of the inlay card make this very clear and if you look carefully at the front cover, you can also see that the table is differently shaped (with two androids playing the game).

There are 8 balls to pot (numbered 1 to 8) plus the cue ball for you to hit.

Chalking Up

Once you begin the game, the players are asked to chalk up.  This effectively means typing your name(s) in.  This obviously proves useful so you can tell which players turn it is.

In addition, a few moments after the opening tune finishes, a high-score table (known on screen as Top-Ten Breakers) appears rather fairly briefly.  You could almost say blink and you’ll miss it, but it’s there even for a few seconds before disappearing and going back to the main menu screen.

Ready, Aim, Fire!

When it comes to being your go, it is split into three stages.  Firstly, you need to move the cyan crosshair where you wish to aim at (ideally the next ball!)

The next step is to choose whether you want spin added to your shot.  To select the spin, you’ll see in the top-right-hand corner, a large cue ball with a black dot on it.  You can position the black dot across eight different positions to play top, back, left, right or diagonal spins too.  This gives you more control over the cue ball and where you want it to go, follow through or spin back.  The black dot moves very smoothly across the surface of the ball and looks good.

Once that is done, the next step is the power to shoot the cue ball.   To do this, press up and down and you’ll see the cue stick move backwards and forwards.  There is a scale divided up from 0, half and F (full).  The more your cue stick is moved backwards, the more powerful your shot will be when you press the fire button.

Graphics

The tables main strength is also its biggest weakness. What I’m referring to here is the inevitable colour clash.  Just moving the crosshair across the table (before even hitting the ball) is very apparent.  With some games, this isn’t always a problem but here, Angle Ball does suffer.  It goes without saying (but I will) that the crosshair is a very important part of the game so when it blends in and looks corrupted, it’s more awkward to play.

Besides this, the screen does look rather busy (but well defined). The left-hand side  is mainly the table, with the words more centrally to the right side of the table.  Although there are plenty of words around the table, fortunately this doesn’t distract from what you are looking at on the table.  The right-hand part of the screen dedicated to the cue ball’s spin and power.

The balls do also flicker a bit when they travel around the table.  Although it’s not drastic, it is somewhat noticeable at times.

Playability

As I’ve already mentioned, the aiming is somewhat marred by the crosshair changing colour and looking corrupted on the table.  On the other-hand, adding any side or power is extremely easy and does work as expected.  With the table shaped as it is though, it is rather awkward to play a shot as planned, giving a bit of is it going in or staying out (the drama!)  With a bit of practice, a few goes and some perseverance, you will see yourself improve.  What I’d like to have seen more in Angle Ball though is the ability to make your shots go further.  Even on the highest power, it is fairly unlikely that the ball will bounce back of the cushion if you play the shot from the other side of the table.

When playing against the computer, there are three skill levels.  These are Novice, Average or Expert (so sharpen up your skills and give yourself more of a challenge).  In expert mode sometimes though, I didn’t even get a chance at a shot.  It’s like watching someone play a 147 break in snooker but a lot quicker!  Anyway, the lower levels give more longevity to the game, as you do notice the difference between each skill level.  When playing against the computer, the table layout starts off differently too.

Fortunately,  when the computer is planning a shot, it doesn’t move the crosshair pixel by pixel to the destination point being considered at that time.  Instead, it places the crosshair instantly where it’s considering shooting at.  This is done logically from the lowest number ball upwards).  The crosshair moves position every couple of seconds, speeding up the gameplay a few notches and giving you an insight into what could potentially be played.  You could also see it as a useful guide in some ways to help you improve your gameplay too.

Three Strikes and You’re Out

During each frame, you get three chances to pot a ball successfully, without missing or potting your own cue ball.  Each time you do miss, an X appears next to the word misses and three X’s is game over.

The one exception to the three-strike rule though is that each player must have taken the same number of shots (or it’d be unfair to player 1), so you can end up with a tie.

As an allergy, think of it like a penalty shootout where the first team scores all 5 of its penalties taken and the second team scoring the 4th.  It wouldn’t be fair to say the game ends without them getting a go.  So, three strikes each is a tie.

Music and Sound Effects

Once the game has loaded, there is a beeper tune which plays for just under 100 seconds.  It’s quite good and get a thumbs up for adding that into the main menu section.

Sound effects range from chinking type style noises when a ball is hit, bounces of a cushion or any ball is potted.  If you cue ball runs along the side of another ball, you will hear a lot of small noises (as well as adding a bit of friction to the motion of the cue ball.)  Strangely though, I did notice that when you hit the first ball before hitting another, it didn’t make a clicking sound effect.

When it’s game over, you’ll hear a few notes before going back to the main menu.

Customisation

Angle Ball also features its own Frame Designer.  This is a real a bonus, as you can also save these to tape and re-load them back in.

There are 24 frames and each can also be named.  I called my one M8BRK is great.  If you’re a HAM radio enthusiast, you’ll get it.

A Message For Hackers!

Without being too technical, you may may know, that if you type Merge “” rather than Load “” it stops a basic programme from being executed and running automatically.  You can therefore usually to view the listing in most cases.  In this case it’s the first part before the main game loads.

On line 70 that there is a short message to hackers.  The more games I review, the more I’m noticing these nowadays!

Whilst I’m here writing about this. the spelling of “is” has been misspelt as “us”; although ironically when the game loads, you don’t see the message flashing on the screen (of which there isn’t a loading screen.)

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