MEAN 18 Ultimate Golf INTRODUCTION Mean 18 allows 1 to 4 people to play a round of golf at a variety of famous and user designated golf courses. This is a great simulation of a classic game, combining a challenging blend of strategy and skill development. Mean 18 requires 512K memory, KickStart (v.1.1 or later) and Workbench be loaded prior to inserting the Mean 18 "Program and FamousCourse" disk. Because of the Amiga's higher disk capacity, the "Program" and "Famous Course Disk: Vol. I" have been combined onto one disk. COURSES The "Program and Famouscourse disk"contains St. Andrews, Augusta, Pebble Beach, and Bush Hill country club. All courses were designed using the COURSE ARCHITECT. PLAYING MEAN 18 GOLF To select course, click on the name of the course you wish to play. Selecting the game options is done by moving the mouse pointer over your selection and clicking the left button. SELECTING OPTIONS At the bottom of the screen, you will be prompted to start a new game or resume a saved game. If you resume a saved game, it will be restored and play will continue where you left off. For a new game you will select the number of players (from 1 to 4). Select Scoring: Stroke (Medal) - normal play for 1 to 4 players Match - 2 player - player who scores the best on holes wins Best Ball - 2 teams - 4 players - lowest score for team wins For each player - Enter initials, professional/regulation tees, beginner/experienced. Pro/reg tees: Each hole has 2 tees; pro is set further back. Beg/exp player: A beginner gets perfect aim and the caddy recommends the best club based on distance to the pin (you can change this club selection if desired). The experienced player must choose his own club and make more accurate shots. Beginning Play: 1. Practice tee - develop shot making skills with each club 2. Practice green - improve putting accuracy 3. Practice a hole - play any hole. 4. Begin Game - start playing a round of 18 holes. 5. Quit - ends the game ORDER OF PLAY: At the beginning of each hole, order of play is determined by honors, that is, which player or team won the previous hole. Once all players have tted off, the player farthest from the hole is always next. MAKING A SHOT Use the ESC key anytime to view available options. Up and down arrow keys are used to change club selection. Use left and right arrows to scroll the aim (a full 360 degree rotation if possible). "O" gives you an Overhead view, "C" displays the scorecard, and "Q" quits the game. Note: At any time use ALT-S to alternatively toggle the sound effects on or off. A complete shot requires three taps on the mouse button as follows: !-----! 1. Tap once to start backswing. Each line on the !-----! power guage (on the left side of the screen) =- -100% incrementally increases the power of your swing Top of !-----! by 10% of the club's rated potential distance swing !-----! (see club distance table below). Dark area at -90% top (over 100%) indicates overswing which !-----! significantly reduces ball control and results P !-----! in a longer (but wilder) shot. O -80% 2. Press the mouse button a second time to start W !-----! downswing at the desired point on the power E !-----! guage. An arrow will mark the point where this R -70% occurred. Stopping your backswing part way up !-----! will result in a shorter shot (useful for !-----! chipping). G -60% 3. The third (and final) tap will snap your wrists A !-----! at the bottom of the swing (line where swing U ! ! began). Snapping the wrists early (above the G !-----! line) will result in a hook (ball curves to the E -50% left). Snapping the wrists late below the line !-----! results in a slice (ball curves to the right). ! ! An arrow will mark this point. !-----! -40% To select an option, position the pointer over the !-----! icon and click. ! ! !-----! When hitting the ball, move the pointer anywhere -30% above the icon portion of the screen. !-----! ! ! Use the volume control on your monitor to adjust ! ! sound. !-----! -20% !-----! SHOTMAKING TIPS ! ! ! ! From deep rough and sandtraps, a wood will result !-----! in a poor shot. Use an iron, and even them make -10% sure not to overswing, which will almost certainly !-----! result in a poor shot. Each shot's trajectory is a ! ! combination of your swing and a little bit of luck. ! ! When the ball hits the gound, it randomly bounces ! ! left or right. Also, when hitting from different Hook !-----! terrains, you need to use a bigger club than normal Straight - -0 to achieve the same distance. From light rough, Slice !-----! this difference is about one club up. From deep ! !(Start) rough and sand it is more like 2 to 3 clubs. Both ! ! beginners and experienced players must make this ! ! adjustment. !-----! PUTTING Use the up/down arrows to aim your put. The arrows on the green will indicate the direction of the undulations (breaks) which will cuase the ball to move in their direction. Therefore you must anticipate the correct "line" the ball should travel in order to sink your putt. CLUB DISTANCE TABLE With a good full swing, each club averages the following distance and loft. Loft is the angle of the club face. The more loft, the higher the ball will go in the air. DISTANCE LOFT (degrees) Driver - 250 yards 15 3 Wood - 230 yards 22 4 Wood - 215 yards 25 2 Iron - 207 yards 18 3 Iron - 197 yards 22 4 Iron - 184 yards 25 5 Iron - 172 yards 30 6 Iron - 159 yards 34 7 Iron - 148 yards 38 8 Iron - 136 yards 42 9 Iron - 124 yards 46 P-wedge- 112 yards (pitching wedge) S-wedge- 100 yards (sand wedge) Putter - Each mark on the power guage is approximately 8 feet. Make allowances for breaks on the greens. TERRAIN The following are types of terrain: 1. Fairway 2. Light rough 3. Deep rough 4. Sandtraps 5. Water hazards 6 Putting greens 7. Out of Bounds Note: In "COURSE ARCHITECT" see samples of terrain color and shading when designing or modifying a hole. When landing in rough, or using short irons (ie., 9 iron) the ball will come to a stop more quickly than normal. When landing on a green, it will "bite" more quickly than in the fairway. When landing in sand, it will come to a stop very quickly (although it may still skip out of the trap). When using a wood or long iron (ie., 3 wood, 3 iron) the ball will continue to roll farther unless it lands in the rough or a trap. If the ball comes to rest out of bounds, a penalty stroke is taken (in addition to the stroke played), and the shot must be replayed. If a ball lands in the water, a penalty stroke is taken (in addition to the stroke played). The ball must then be replayed or dropped somewhere along an imaginary line between the hole and the point where the ball last crossed water. The player is taken to the overhead view to make this decision. TREES When a ball hits a tree, it will either ricochet back towards you along a random angle (if you hit a solid brown or black part of the tree), or go through the tree (slowed down and exit sideways along a random angle). GREENS When all players have reached the green, the screen switches to an overhead view of the green with all balls lying on it. The player furthest from the hole putts first, and play proceeds normally, except that a player has the option of finishing their putt (like real golf etiquette). SCORECARD The scorecard shows the current score of each player. Dots indicate the player (match play) or team (best ball) which won the hole. At the end of 18 holes of play, you will have the option of printing the scorecard for a permanent record. QUITTING Players may quit at any time. However, the game only saves information on completed holes. When a game is "quit" while playing a hole, players will resume on the tee of that hole. Quitting also allows the option of restarting the game. HALL OF FAME The Mean 18 Hall of Fame is reserved for the top 10 scores for each course. It records the players initials, score (for both front and back nine), skill level, which tees were used, and the date (input by the user). only scores under 100 will be recorded. If you score over 100, a trip to the practice tee is probably in order! COURSE ARCHITECT THIS FEATURE ALLOWS YOU TO DESIGN OR MODIFY AN ENTIRE GOLF COURSE. Note: Remember to make a backup copy of your course disk prior to using the COURSE ARCHITECT. This preserves the original courses supplied with the game. CONTROL Mouse (refer to the manual supplied with your mouse for proper installation. Joystick Keyboard (directional arrow keys and space bar as action button) SELECTION SCREEN By using the appropriate control, move the cursor over the corresponding area of the screen (until the corner brackets around the item are displayed) to select one of the following options: 1. Change or enter course name (by typing up to 17 characters from the keyboard when prompted to do so). 2. Design or modify skyline background. 3. Modify trees and bushes. 4. Design or modify all or any one of 18 holes. Note: Use the action button (mouse or joystick) or spacebar to activate option. NOTE: Only the mouse is used on the Amiga for course design. DESIGN AND MODIFICATION When designing or modifying skyline, trees or specific holes, some or all of the following features may apply (note: some features may not be displayed on all option screens): You can select the view marker under and/or to the left of the wide angle (panoramic) display. These markers may be moved right/left or up/down to scroll the zoomed detail window displayed on the left of the screen. The white directional arrows on the screen may be used for fine scrolling of these images. You may select one of the following !! "paint brush" sizes: . + = = !! You may select a color or terrain type with which to paint or fill. PAINTING - place the cursor over the specific area on the detail (or panoramic) view and press the action button to change that spot (corresponding to current "paint brush" size) to the selected color. Note: While painting or scrolling you may hold the action button down and the activity will continue until released. Using the mouse button, the first press "locks" it down and the second press releases it. FILLING - select "FILL", then move to the specific area (as with PAINTING above) and press the mouse button. This will change that spot and all adjoining spots of the same color to the currently selected color. The adjoining spots effected must be horizontally or vertically touching (not on a diagonal) and corresponding spots adjoining them will also be effected. CANCEL - undoes any immediate (unsaved) changes you have made on this screen. SAVE - permanently saves your design changes to the disk. When designing a specific hole, there are several other options in addition to the ones listed above. CLR - (Clear) erases all terrain features except hole and tees. TREES - select TREES box on the right. The new screen will allow you to select one of six types of trees or brushes and (while holding mouse button down) move it into the desired position on the course (then release the mouse button). Use a similar procedure to remove trees from the course. There can be a maximum of 28 trees on any hole. You can also move the flag and hole (cup) any place on the green using a similar procedure. Select DONE to exit from this screen. PAR - move cursor over PAR number and click mouse button to change value from 3,4 or 5. TEES - select P or R to move the position of the Pro or Regular tee. Move the cursor to the new position on the upper panoramic screen and click the mouse button to position it (indicated by the block dot). The old tee position will be "erased" to fairway color and must be painted out manually if another type of terrain is desired. Yards to hole are indicated on lower left of the screen and will vary as the cursor is moved in relation to the hole. This number indicated "line of sight" distance from the Tee to the hole. Note: When actually playing a hole this number may be larger since the distance is then calculated along the fairway. GREEN (positioning) - click on G move cursor to the position where you want the upper left hand corner of the new position of the green (on the upper panoramic screen). The new green (of the same shape) will be drawn at this position. The old green will be "erased" to fairway similar to the "Tees" above. GREEN (design) - select the GREEN box on the right of the screen to design the size, shape and undulations of the green. Then select a "paint brush" size and FWY to make the green smaller by painting in (adding) fairway. To increase the size of the green and to define !-- /\ --! the slope (undulations) select a slope or ! / \ ! flat direction (center section) from Diagram as indicated. Use this to paint the desired areas. Select DONE to exit this / Flat \ screen. \ / Note: Although cup position is indicated on ! \ / ! this screen it can only be moved on the !--- \/ --! TREES screen as described above. MODIFYING TREES - You may design/modify a tree to better suit the course environment using the Course Architect. Pick any one of the six available trees from the "selection screen". You will then be taken to the "tree design/edit" screen. You will see bothe the "course tree" (on left) "overhead tree" (on right) represented in both "actual" and "zoomed" windows. You may edit both windows of each tree except for the "overhead tree". Only the "zoomed window" may be edited. MODIFYING SKYLINE - You may design/modify the skyline in much the same manner as trees. The skyline will be represented in the "course" depiction only snce it is not seen from the "overhead" view. The skyline in the game is made up of eight 45° screens spliced together to provide a full 360° panoramic view when playing Mean 18. When editing a skyline, the left side and right side should "connect" to provide a sense of continuity. ============================================================================= Mean 18 docs brought to you by The Southern Star.