Links: The Challenge of Golf

Links: The Challenge of Golf pushed golf on computers from a simple arcade game into something that wanted to be a genuine simulation. The player chooses a club, sets stance and swing plane, and takes aim, then commits to the classic three-click swing, where the power meter must be stopped at the right moment and the second press determines accuracy. Wind, terrain slope, surface type and the chosen shot shape all affect the ball's flight, so a shot from a bunker or the rough behaves differently than one from the tee. Putting on the green is its own discipline, where reading the slope is decisive, and this is where the game can trouble even patient players.

For its time, it was a visually extraordinary title. The courses weren't drawn schematically but built from digitized imagery of real golf courses, rendered by the game in high resolution with a rich palette. The price of that beauty was speed: on a period PC, the view of the next shot was drawn piece by piece and the player had time for a sip of something. Whoever had a stronger machine got one of the most impressive images that could be seen on a monitor of that era. The sound is understated, mainly strikes, birdsong and muted applause, which suits the atmosphere of a calm afternoon on the course perfectly.

The game was very well received and launched a long series, for which individual courses were sold separately as expansions, turning it into a whole platform for golf enthusiasts. Its combination of digitized backgrounds and honest ballistics set the direction computer golf followed throughout the nineties. Today Links is above all a reminder of what luxury software looked like at the dawn of the VGA era. It plays slowly and deliberately, but anyone who likes a sport where you think longer than you move will find a surprisingly modern-feeling contest of player versus course here. The swing, the wait, and the quiet satisfaction after a well-read green work just as they did thirty years ago.