Arcade Pool
| Arcade Pool | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Team17 |
| Publisher(s) | Team17 |
| Designer(s) | Mario Savoia |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, Amiga CD32, MS-DOS |
| Release date(s) | 1994 (snooker version, 1995) |
| Genre(s) | Sports simulation – pool |
| Mode(s) | Single player, two player |
Arcade Pool is a pool simulation game developed and published in 1994 by Team17, initially for the Amiga home computer system. The game was later ported to the PC, and a special CD32 release soon followed.
The game is essentially a simple top-down pool simulator. Although simple, the physics were surprisingly accurate. The game featured many UK and United States variations of pool as well as two variations of ball set (standard UK red and yellow, and standard US circles and stripes).
The game doesn't feature any popular names from the world of pool. Instead, computer-controlled players are named after members of Team17 Staff (with Creative Director Martyn Brown being the most difficult computer-controlled player). The computer-controlled players with the lowest difficulty are all named after staff of Future Publishing-owned Amiga gaming magazine Amiga Power, adding more fuel to the fierce rivalry between the two companies (see Team17; The Amiga Power Dispute).
A particular point of humour in the game stems from an Illegal Move message that appears, stating that you have "pocketed your opponent's ball(s)". This, of course, refers to pocketing balls which do not belong to you.
Format variations
The three formats the game was released on differed significantly.
Amiga version
The original version of the game. Fit onto one floppy disk. Essentially the "vanilla" version of the game.
PC version
The MS-DOS version was not ported in-house. Most likely the game was ported to the PC by either East Point Software, who had previously ported Alien Breed: Tower Assault and Ultimate Body Blows to the PC as well as assisting with the PC version of Worms; or by MicroLeague, who ported the original Alien Breed. The ball physics for the PC version was known to be occasionally bizarre, with balls moving in strange ways.
Amiga CD32 version
Almost a direct port of the original Amiga version, but with various enhancements. The most noticeable is the background ambience, which can be toggled between a Bar background, a Bar background with Blues music, a Pool Hall, and two different Blues tracks. The game also takes advantage of some of the enhanced CD32 hardware.
Arcade Snooker
In 1995 the game engine was adapted and modified to snooker rules. The resulting game, Arcade Snooker, was given away as a freebie with CU Amiga Magazine, an Amiga magazine with whom Team17 had a good relationship (CU Amiga would later include exclusive additions and upgrades for Team17's Worms: The Directors Cut as part of one of their cover-mounted CDs, although a bug in the game would prevent users from taking advantage of these enhancements).
Arcade Pool II
| Arcade Pool II | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Team17 |
| Publisher(s) | Hasbro Interactive |
| Designer(s) | Mario Savoia |
| Platform(s) | PC |
| Release date(s) | 1999 |
| Genre(s) | Sports simulation – pool |
| Mode(s) | Single player, two player (either hotseat or via Internet IP play/LAN) |
A sequel, Arcade Pool II, was published in 1999 by Hasbro Interactive. The game went straight to Hasbro's "Best of" budget label, priced at UK£9.99. It was essentially an updated and overhauled version of the original, albeit with Internet play and additional play modes.