Zany Golf, also known as Will Harvey's Zany Golf, is a fantasy take on miniature golf developed by Sandcastle Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1988. The game was originally written for the Apple II GS and subsequently ported to the Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS compatible operating systems. In 1990, a port was released for the Sega Genesis. The game was developed by Will Harvey, Ian Gooding, Jim Nitchals, and Douglas Fulton. Harvey was pursuing his advanced degrees at Stanford University at the time. The game is played in a 3D isometric viewpoint and allows up to 4 players. Zany Golf consists of half a golf course – nine holes, plus a bonus hole.

Gameplay

At the beginning of the first hole, all players are given five strokes. On completing each hole, the remaining players are given more strokes equal to the par of the next hole. Any player who runs out of strokes is eliminated, and the other players are allowed to continue. The game ends when all players are eliminated or when the last hole is completed, and the scorecard is displayed. On all versions except the Genesis version, the mouse is used to shoot the ball by clicking on it, pulling back in the reverse direction of the eventual shot, and releasing. On occasion, fairies are placed on the course; hitting them awards anywhere from 1 to 5 bonus strokes. Also, a timer bonus may be possible. If the hole is finished quickly, the player may earn up to four bonus strokes. If a fairy is present or a timer bonus is available, it will be announced prior to the first shot. Up to four players can play the game by taking turns, with player 1 having a red ball, player 2 a blue ball, player 3 a black ball, and player 4 a white ball. Once a player's turn is complete, it disappears from the course and is replaced by an X mark of that player's color, which cannot be disrupted by other players' balls. Multiple players can work together to hit the necessary targets on the Pinball and Energy holes. Once the drop targets or computer buttons have been hit, they need not be hit by any other player.

Holes

Ports

Due to the lack of a mouse or similar pointing device, the Sega Genesis edition of the game omitted the "Magic Carpet" hole. Instead, the 'Mystery' bonus hole from the computer game appears after "Ant Hill", although it was renamed "Knockout Nightmare". The DOS version uses a code wheel as a form of copy protection. Before the Hamburger hole, the game gives a prompt which requires the player to rotate the wheel into a certain position. Giving the correct result allows the player to continue the game. The musical score in the original version uses the 32-voice Ensoniq audio chip in the Apple II GS computer, incorporating a wide variety of musical instruments and simultaneous sound effects. Ports considerably scale down the music quality and limit or remove sound effects.

Reception

The game was reviewed in 1989 in Dragon #144 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars. Compute! described Zany Golf as "a moderately challenging game with topnotch graphics and sound".

Reviews