INTERNATIONAL CRICKET
Review By Tony Greenwood
Well i am quite a fan of sport’s sims so I enjoyed playing this one. Actually it’s the only cricket game I
have and is in amongst my sports collection and not tucked away with the P.D. games.
It’s SHAREWARE but it’s only four pounds to register, and for that you get an updated version. I can only presume this to mean the names of the players and the teams will be updated to the current season as the game I have is dated 1991. Oh, and send a blank disc.
Right first off it’s by John Cambell, and there’s on screen credits to a couple of others for the graffix and inspiration and testing etc, most of the names are also Cambell oooer!
The first thing that struck me about this game is there’s plenty of on disk instructions and help. There’s a lot of games about that use doc files and if you haven’t a printer it’s a matter of trying to remember everything. Well not so with this one, it’s all easy to get at and easy to follow.
First off you have to pick your teams and 1 or 2 player options, plus there’s three levels of play; beginner, amateur and professional. On this screen you choose cup or limited overs either 10,20,or 30, try 10 to start,a ll this is mouse driven.
The next screen is the toss up screen. Pick heads or tails, and if you win the toss you choose whether to bat or bowl. Then, it’s off to pick your players. Full details of players are available, such as type and averages etc. Pick your opening batsmen, if you’re fielding then when you’ve picked your team, pick two bowlers. These can be changed during the game,
When everything’s set up it’s off to play.
You are greeted by a full view of the pitch, and whoever is fielding is prompted to place his men. There are a couple of default places such as wicket keeper, but you get to position the rest. Then the game starts. The bowler gets to decide which way he’s going to bowl (I don’t mean which end, I mean direction of throw. Those cricket minded will know what i’m on about).
When batting there are various strokes you can play and I strongly suggest you read the on disk instructions under “BATTING”.
The game play is very good. The fielding bowling and batting are all well programmed. You use the mouse to bowl & field and the joystick to bat and it works well.
I played the computer on a 10 overs match and it beat me by five wickets. I just couldn’t get a single one of them out. But, as all games, with practice I probably would manage a couple. I would say the two player mode would make for a really good game.
It’s not compiled so you can easily have a look through the listing if you’re the inquisitive type. There’s a few pictures for if you win the cup etc.
The bad bit is the on screen information while the match is playing, i.e. score , who’s batting bowling etc. Plus the icons for viewing on match info, i.e. who’s got what etc. They could be a lot better. In fact, they look cheap is the only word I can think of the sort of thing you would see on the Spectrum.
The pitch and players are alright it’s just the writing and icons, a score board would have been better.
The above is only a small bad bit and on the whole this is a highly enjoyable game. Well written, easy to use, 8 out of 10. Strongly recommended.
