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| | | I thought I'd seen screenshots of horrible-looking trees in this version of the game and my magical golden memories of World Class Leader Board on C64--see entry 2030--couldn't bear it. But actually they look fine so maybe I just wasn't paying attention--not magical, but fine.
Swing meter is a round thing, not the old tall rectangular thing, so I guess this port got a modernizing evolution (GG version which does have weird bubbly trees is still the ol' rectangle).
Can't find a clear scan of the manual and complete versions of the game aren't pricey so I got one with manual, I guess I'll scan it and put it on archive--like this I guess: https://help.archive.org/help/how-to-upload-scanned-images-to-make-a-book/ . Found a really low-res scan today--https://www.video-games-museum.com/en/manual/Megadrive/4224_us-World-Class-Leaderboard-Golf.pdf--but it's almost unreadable.
Not sure if it's this way in the C64 version--the C64 manual https://archive.org/details/World_Class_Leaderboard_1987_Access_Software/page/n3/mode/2up doesn't say anything about it--but in this version, if you set your golfer to the easiest of the 3 skill levels--Novice--your caddie auto-selects your club for you. Really handy. (You can see their suggested club and rough power setting from Caddy Advice or whatever option on the pause menu, which also shows club max ranges.) Kinda makes me just want to play Novice--especially since it doesn't do the incredible hooking/slicing higher skill settings do, also I think the swing meter moves slower; the faster meter at the higher settings just compounds the hooking/slicing as it's harder to swing accurately. ; D
Ah and this version has PUNCH or CHIP you can add to your swing with the other two non-swinging buttons for any non-wood club; these PUNCH does a low drive meant to blast out from under trees, and CHIP is a high hit (I think; Google overview says chip shots are "low" but I've never seen them anything but high in a game) for approach shots to the green and probably getting out of a heavy lie.
OH although the manual recommends using a "longer" club and lower power swing to get out of a heavy lie. Interesting. Guess I'll have to try that. ; D
There are four courses here but I almost don't want to play the first, St. Andrews, because it doesn't have any trees and feels naked! Google overview says actual St. Andrews is almost free of trees but Google Images shows like nothin' but trees around the course from all but that one angle I saw in 2K25 with the big mansion or whatever. Without trees here it's freaky, just a big flat plain with polygons on it. |
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| | | First Genesis / Mega Drive cart I've dumped with the Sanni (entry 1526)--worked fine first try! It recognizes the cart immediately, then reports some kind of CRC error or something, then dumps it and confirms the dump, so... Dunno what that error is (and it did it again on subsequent tries) but the dumped ROM works so hey.
Also the spinning Earth golf ball on the title screen was useful for discovering Mednafen's (entry 1537) aspect ratio was off--turned out I had to disable its aspect correction to get the ball round (same with ares--entry 1758). |
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| | | | Scanned the manual and uploaded to archive: https://archive.org/details/world-class-leaderboard-golf-genesis-manual-us |
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| | | | Tried uploading archive's auto-generated pdf of the manual to Sega Retro but it times out. 'p' |
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| | | | I guess that's normal there because the pdf (I ended up recompiling a pdf using Photoshop CS2 (~23 MB) instead of archive's derived pdf (~3.5 MB) 'cause it came out sharper) showed up there six or so hours later. ; ) |
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| | | | Oh right the URL: https://segaretro.org/File:World_Class_Leaderboard_Golf_Genesis_Manual_US.pdf |
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| | | Editor confirmed that's how it goes:
https://segaretro.org/File_talk:World_Class_Leaderboard_Golf_Genesis_Manual_US.pdf
"Sadly sometimes it does that (it's on the list of bugs to fix), but yes, file is uploaded and usable, and thanks :) -Black Squirrel (talk) 10:00, 4 May 2026 (EDT)" |
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| | | I suppose it's an example of the general server issues they posted about in 2025: https://retrocdn.net/State_of_the_Retro:_2025
'You may be seeing error codes like "502" or "504", and we may have had to temporarily turn off image thumbnails to claw back some performance - these are common symptoms of a when a server that's overloaded. Likewise there are also many long-standing bugs we're also aware of, and yes, they're on the to-do list as well. It's a big list.' |
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| | | | Archive had an explanatory supplement to their uploading a "book" help page linked above: https://blog.archive.org/2012/05/24/uploading-images-for-text-items/ |
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| | | | Globe at start is 1:1 or eh whatever md.correct_aspect 0 is anyway. |
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| | | In Mednafen:
0:00 - level? (reading manuals 'p')
15:42 - driving range
24:11 - St. Andrews (Novice)
40:10 - St. Andrews (Pro)
58:00 - St. Andrews (Amateur)
1:21:57 - Cypress Creek playthrough (Novice)
2:13:36 - (Novice) vs Mr. Chip (Pro) (Matchplay)
2:14:19 - we both hit the water hazard!
2:17:54 - I sink a 44 ft putt!
Running in 1:1 PAR rather than NTSC 4:3, makes the gold balls actually round--well except for the ones that show the lie briefly after each shot, but those are even skinnier ovals in 4:3! ; )
This golf game is not weird; it is quite, quite insane. The wind whips up to 30 mph and from side to side while you contemplate your shot. The hooking and slicing can quickly get out of hand and take your shot leagues off course. The rendering of distance confounds traditional notions of perspective, rendering space an eternal mystery. The manual, which I painstakingly scanned https://archive.org/details/world-class-leaderboard-golf-genesis-manual-us/ , is infuriatingly vague and scattered on the actual mechanics. It is far and away the most difficult, perplexing golf game I have played, even on the lowest difficulty setting. And so it is curiously satisfying and endearing to see the Pro-ranked CPU players struggling mightily to traverse a course, and the gratification when for instance you hook a shot from the rough around a weird bush and somehow on to the space-warped green, or sink that 45-foot putt against a literal shadow of a stick serving as your only indicator of massive slope, arrives with a unique and memorable intensity.
AH dang it, I had the digitized speech turned off! Reading up on the game afterwards--from https://www.sega-16.com/2015/06/world-class-leaderboard-golf/ for one--I found that it is somewhat notorious for its digitized commentary--but you have to have the setting in the pause menu toggled to say "SPEECH OFF" for the speech to be ON! DOH. So I'll have to have that set that way next time so I can hear static-laden gems such as "No doubt about it, that's deep in the sand trap" or "Looks like he hit the tree, Jim" (not my video:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpTnsIw5Ptg&t=104s .
(As far as I can tell, unlike the description of the difficulty levels in the original and much better written and illustrated C64 manual https://archive.org/details/World_Class_Leaderboard_1987_Access_Software/page/n5/mode/2up , the three selectable Skill Levels in this Genesis version are not cleanly delineated and somewhat arbitrary in their binary rules setting for the mechanics, but rather scale the severity of the effects of wind and hook/slice, and the speed of the swing meter, along a gradient from Novice to Amateur to Pro. So unfortunately the superior clarity of the C64 manual can't quite help to explain many of the Genesis version's mechanics. It's worth adding as well that the C64 version was made by two brothers at Access Software--who would go on to make the Links golf game series with a much expanded team--whereas the Genesis version was handled by Tiertex Ltd. in the UK, 5 years later--according to https://www.mobygames.com/game/448/world-class-leader-board/releases/genesis/ , anyway.)
(GameFAQs on the other hand credits Access Software as the developers of the Genesis version https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/genesis/586613-world-class-leaderboard-golf . Sega Retro credits both companies https://segaretro.org/World_Class_Leader_Board and notes of Tiertex that "the company was highly secretive about game credits and refused to put them in many of their games." The in-depth sega-16 write-up linked above firmly credits Tiertex.)
(Looking at the C64 version again, it is a bit less insane in terms of hooking/slicing and wind velocity, I think. Well, the wind doesn't move around on you, at least, which makes it feel much less crazy. You don't have one of the wedges though and no Chip or Punch shots (Punch shots I think do go right through trees--or maybe I just got lucky...). So there's less going on--except for the way the power meter is masked past 8 feet--enough to get a hint of the timing for the rest of the shot--on Pro putting, that's kinda wild--oh and well there's a lot less going on on the lower difficulties where wind and/or hook/slice may be completely nullified--and its a bit slower waiting for that hypnotic redraw. Gotta love the golden C64 trees though. But aside from those, and having more going on sonically, this Genesis version is surprisingly accurate at capturing the action and vibe of the original.) |
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