| smbhax [sys=PC; cat=Sports; reg=UC] |
| | | It's another Digital Eclipse Atari collection but miraculously this one from 2025 isn't overly elaborate and DOESN'T put mandatory filtering on the games that leaves them always blurry, so they're nice and sharp and you can set them to full screen.
If they've finally seen the light here I'm suddenly looking forward to their future endeavors again.
Found out about this collection as I was lazily searching up the PS1 Golden Tee game--which I stumbled across searching for PS1 golf games on YouTube--on MobyGames. Moby's or somebody's note on the PS1 game says it adds 3 courses and anyway it's PRETTY weird control, menus, and graphics-wise, so I suppose it'll still be relevant but jeez, this is quite a collection. The 2000 PS1 game and its 1998 predecessor is derived supposedly derived from Golden Tee '97; from Moby, this collection includes:
Golden Tee 3D Golf
Peter Jacobsen's Golden Tee '97
Peter Jacobsen's Golden Tee '98
Peter Jacobsen's Golden Tee '99
Peter Jacobsen's Golden Tee 2K
Peter Jacobsen's Golden Tee Classic
Shuffleshot
World Class Bowling
Classic 2001. Weirdly looking forward to the Bowling. By default the golf games and huh probably the others dunno yet use a "virtual trackball" control where you move the mouse to roll the on-screen trackball, simulating the physical arcade control. I'm switching it to analog gamepad control (left analog stick to swing; there's control remapping so if I can map that to the right stick I'll probably do it so it's like PS3 Sega Golf Club) which it calls by the oddly derisive-sounding name "Aim Assist."
The other slightly odd thing is that it keeps showing me PC pad button icons even though I don't have the pad plugged in.
Keyboard control scheme defaults to swing control on the mouse and at a glance that doesn't suggest you can remap it to like just digital keys or something like the weird PS1 version but I haven't tried yet so hope springs eternal. |
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| | | | "1998 WINDOWS predecessor" (of the PS1 game) and "Classic IS FROM 2001" sheesh the brain skips. |
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| | | | Encouraged by this, I reinstalled the 13 GB of Digital Eclipse's 2022 "Atari 50" to see if they patched in an option to turn off the blur filter--I seem to do this every 9 months or so maybe--but no. 'p' |
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| | | On Golden Tee maker Incredible Technologies' site, the 2026 iteration has PGA Tour branding in the title and all over it. Wikipedia's article on the Golden Tee series shows PGA branding in the titles since the 2022 edition. 'p'
Wikipedia only has "Peter Jacobsen" in the third title, "Peter Jacobsen's Golden Tee 3D Golf"--ironically enough the one NOT Peter-Jacobsen-branded in the collection.
Wikipedia's Peter Jacobsen article: "an American professional golfer and commentator on Golf Channel and NBC. He has played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. He has won seven events on the PGA Tour and two events on the Champions Tour, both majors." "Jacobsen provided video and audio commentary for Golden Tee Golf, a video game from Incredible Technologies, including Peter Jacobson's Golden Tee 3D Golf."
MobyGames has Incredible Technologies as the developer, but that doesn't seem to be correct and they don't list any credits (neither does the collection itself); Moby's credits for Incredible Technologies generally does not include non-arcade/handheld/Wii platforms--this would be their first wide console/PC release--if it was accurate. GameFAQs, Steam etc have Digital Eclipse as dev (Atari as pub, which Moby also has). Official "Atari Podcast" episode 57 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SXT-VZ_D8g has Atari "producer" Calvin Vu (Digital Eclipse, per LinkedIn) and Atari "engineer and artist" Jason Cirillo (Digital Eclipse, per his https://bsky.app/profile/robotube.bsky.social and https://www.videogameschronicle.com/people/jason-cirillo/ ). |
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| | | | (Okay I'm not interested in Digital Eclipse's latest collections which are MK and Rayman. ; D And just before this one they did a Yu-Gi-Oh! collection. ; DDD) |
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| | | | I submitted those two as credits to MobyGames--although Moby seems to want a filmed credit scroll as proof, whereas I just have description text in a video by the publisher--and submitted a correction that would put Digital Eclipse (who lists the game as one of their games on their web site) as the developer, not Incredible Technologies. |
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| | | Have to sit through a long and overly elaborate Incredible Technologies animated logo at every start of the collection. : P
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jacobsen%27s_Golden_Tee_3D_Golf
"The PSX and PC games (which happen to be one of the only home ports of the Golden Tee series), simply called Peter Jacobsen's Golden Tee Golf are based on Golden Tee '97, sharing some of the menu assets (which are already shared on most revisions of the game) and the courses on it, but also include 3 new extra courses. The PSX version includes some extra modes and hole overviews on the start of each hole, but as there isn't any analog controller for PSX (by default), the trackball controls were replaced, as you hold Down in the D-Pad to adjust the power of your backswing (The game also seems to have support for Dualshock)."
I have the PSX version on the way. The Windows port doesn't appear to be available for digital purchase but a 3-hole demo survives and actually runs in Windows 11--see entry 2040. |
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| | | Haha of course MobyGames is owned by Atari so here I am telling Atari that they got the credit wrong on one of their own games. ; D
Then again they didn't list any of the people credits for it so I suppose it is likely the Moby people are just ya know people working more like FOR Atari than as being directly inside. Like there's some interview I think on YouTube with the guy who's been there since before they were picked up by Atari.
Digital Eclipse is listed on the game's title screen along with Incredible Technologies so it does seem odd they wouldn't be listed in any capacity for the game listing on Moby though huh. |
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| | | | Before the first game in this collection (1995), of the arcade series there was Golden Tee Golf (1989) and II (1992); this collection also omits three "Tournament" editions of some of the early yearly titles, and something called "Golden Tee Fore!" from 2000. |
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| | | Oh I'd submitted the info about Digital Eclipse being the developer rather than Incredible Technologies to MobyGames as a "Correction" but I think that's actually just done in the Release info so I'll redo that...
Oh I see Digital Eclipse Entertainment Partners Co. IS in there as "Ported by." Huh. They don't show "Ported bys" on the game entry's Overview (front page) I guess. Okay well it's as good as it's gonna get I guess.
I'll submit a suggestion on their forum to show "Ported by" on the game entry's Overview. ; D (Jeepers Moby's site is slow; c'mon Atari, kick in a little $ for better hosting. 'p')
https://www.mobygames.com/forum/10/thread/276453/overview-suggestion-show-ported-by-on-overview/#post-276453
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Developer and Publisher are shown on a game's Overview page; however, entities credited for a game release as "Ported by" are not shown there, even though for game compilations for instance the porting part can be the main work involved.
For instance, looking at the Overview of *Golden Tee Arcade Classics* https://www.mobygames.com/game/243744/golden-tee-arcade-classics/ , all you see for companies are "Publishers" "Atari Interactive, Inc." and "Developers" "Incredible Technologies, Inc." But if you look at game's Releases page you'll see "Digital Eclipse Entertainment Partners Co." as "Ported by" on the many releases. Digital Eclipse acknowledges on their page about the collection https://www.digitaleclipse.com/games/golden-tee-arcade-classics that Incredible Technologies helped pick which games to include, and Incredible Technologies developed the original arcade versions of the included games, but the new programming, art, etc on the compilation seems to have been all Digital Eclipse, so their absence from the Overview for *Golden Tee Arcade Classics* is glaring--all the more so since Digital Eclipse are widely known and celebrated in the industry for the strength of their compilations.
It might be useful to list any "Ported by" entities on the Overview.
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| | | | Also submitted the producer/engineer&artist credits to GameFAQs--but stuck to just "Calvin Vu" for the producer's name, since that's what's in the Atari video; MobyGames has a different Calvin Vu with just one credit, but the person listed as lots of Digital Eclipse credits is "Bao Calvin Vu" so that's what I went with for MobyGames, but GameFAQs doesn't have Jason Cirillo or any Calvin Vu (and even though GameFAQs Game Credits pages link the names to a dedicated page for that name, their credits entry form doesn't confirm names, you just free-type them in 'p'). |
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| | | | Oh wait, actually the releases info on MobyGames is screwed up, it shouldn't be listing "Ported by" there anyway--it's not a port of an earlier compilation on another platform, which is what that would imply. And per Moby's own "Standards" https://www.mobygames.com/info/standards/ "For game compilations, only the companies that pertain to that compilation should be listed. The developers of the games that are included should not be listed in the release info." And no "Ported by" is given for other Digital Eclipse compilations I checked there, like YGO, MK, Atari 50, TMNT. So I gotta a) delete that suggestion post, b) correct the releases for GTAC, replacing IT with DE as dev, and removing "Ported by." |
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| | | | Oh! I can put Incredible Technologies as "Consulted by." Oh man I gotta redo all the countries listed for some of these... |
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| | | | Oh, no, you have to use the "Clone this release" link, then delete the blank one it puts by default. "Clone" should be the default behavior. Sigh. Gotta redo all these now since Clone is the safer way to edit... |
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| | | Posted a suggestion to make Clone the default behavior 'p'
https://www.mobygames.com/forum/10/thread/276458/release-info-suggestion-make-clone-the-default-behavior-when-edi/#post-276458
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Currently, when you click a game's Contribute link, then "Release Info," and select an existing Release to edit, you are shown an edit page with a summary of the existing information for the release at the top, and a blank release information form below.
To edit the existing information, you have to click the red "Delete" link on the blank form, then click the "Clone this release" button next to the summary of the existing information, which creates a new information form, this time populated with the existing information, allowing you to edit it.
The editing process here would be more efficient and less confusing if the "Clone" behavior was the default, so that when you first entered the edit screen, it presented you with an edit form already populated with the existing info, ready for editing.
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(To delete a post you have to open it, click its Edit link, then click Delete--then it shows the post title but replaces by "~Ooooo" or some nonsense. Gah MobyGames, your UI...) |
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| | | Speaking of Incredible Technologies, they DID make the arcade version of Street Fighter: The Movie which Capcom appear to have regretted giving to them and Okamoto was angry and yelled at them a lot, although that didn't stop Capcom from taking their footage and still making their own PS/SAT versions ("Street Fighter: Real Battle on Film" in Japan):
https://www.polygon.com/2021/3/1/22296705/street-fighter-the-movie-the-game-an-oral-history/ |
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| | | They had previously done fighting games "Time Killers"
and "BloodStorm"
which apparently hadn't done well (and neither would SFTM). Capcom didn't have high hopes for a game based off the movie anyway and didn't really want to do it themselves and were looking for a cash-in like MK and saw Incredible Technologies was right down the road from Midway and that they had done some sports games--under brand name Strata Games--with digitized characters: an unnamed "digitized football game" which I don't think could have been their "Grave Yardage" (C64/DOS)
because those don't look to be digitized characters--but it's the only football game I can find credited to them--and "Rim Rockin' Basketball" (Arcade)
and well also beat-em-up Ninja Clowns although that isn't mentioned in the "oral history" article ; D
BUT also not mentioned is that they had also done Capcom Bowling
so, you know, obvious pick for the Street Fighter movie game. |
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Who knew Digital Eclipse did a 2025 collection of 6 repetitive arcade golf games--plus a shuffleboard and a bowling game--trying clunky control schemes to simulate the original trackball controls? Even publisher Atari themselves didn't really seem to know! ; D And they all run at the wrong aspect ratio! = O
3:45 - Options
4:51 - Credits
8:36 - Practice
11:02 - "Professional" input mode
16:27 - How to Play
30:45 - arcade flyers
33:18 - World Class Bowling--wrong aspect ratio!!
39:43 - "Aim Assist" input mode
41:48 - "Mouse" input mode
43:54 - Golden Tee 3D Golf - Oak Valley playthrough
1:00:20 - I break a window! ; D
1:16:27 - Golden Tee Classic - Mountain Springs
1:17:53 - Golden Tee 3D Golf - Ocean Pointe
1:19:25 - Golden Tee 3D Golf - Cactus Canyon
1:24:13 - Golden Tee '97 - Pine Creek
1:29:04 - Golden Tee 2K - Stone Valley
1:34:20 - Shuffleshot
1:35:26 - Golden Tee '99 - Coconut Cove
1:35:48 - Golden Tee '99 - Aspen Lake
They're probably better with real trackball control--and, like, bar patrons rooting you on/making fun of you. I didn't feel a firm connection with these control schemes. And I kept getting the buttons confused because (w/ DualSense--and of course this doesn't do PS button icons 'p') O is the action button while golfing but X is the confirm button everywhere else.
The aspect ratio is WAY off; they're all at 4:3, but that doesn't seem to be what they were designed for. For instance, MAME says the first game, Golden Tee 3D Golf, has an arcade resolution of 384x240--in square pixels, that's 8:5, lots wider than 4:3--which explains why our golfer looks so skinny. I tried Photoshopping a screen grab of the game from my video to 8:5, and yep, everything except the collection's virtual trackball UI looks better in 8:5. And World Class Bowling arcade res is 384x255, or just over 3:2--compare the 384x255 screenshot of its title screen at https://www.arcade-museum.com/Videogame/world-class-bowling with the 4:3 version at 33.18 in my video, for instance--that bowling ball in my video isn't anywhere near round!
A shocking failure of presentation! How could Digital Eclipse do this so carelessly? At least it isn't blurry like their other recent collections (Atari 50 etc) but wow.
I've complained at https://steamcommunity.com/app/3698680/discussions/0/797842031905877258/ so feel free to help me out there. Maybe I missed an option?
Ended up at 118 minutes of play time so I got this refunded.
I could just stick to that old mouse-controlled Peter Jacobsen's Golden Tee Golf Demo I just played which is WAY sharper in its 1024x768--4:3, but its designers (it's credited to the arcade devs, Incredible Technologies) rearranged the screen layout, so it isn't squished--in my video of the demo from the other day, for instance, at https://youtu.be/LLf_NykyFPE?t=1374 , the balls around my golfer's feet are actually round, the golfer is properly thick, and the 3 Wood at lower right is noticeably wider than the skinny one from Golden Tee '97 (where the PC version came from) in this video at 1.24.22.
At least someone at Digital Eclipse figured out not to blur everything. But I won't be surprised if do in their next full-on collective overproduction (as in Atari 50 etc).
Captured the credits sequence but man I'm NOT gonna type all those names into Atari's own MobyGames because I'm an awful, lazy hypocrite. So if anyone wants to do it--lotsa Moby points there for the taking.
(OH I forgot I have the PSX version on its way hahaha. That version looks actually weird though--and you can swing just by holding like X for a second for backswing and /\ for a second for forward swing ; ) because it's somehow pre-analog...in 2000.) (And THAT'S the one where you can blast putts absolutely full force into the hole. ; D) |
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| | | ^^
11:56 - Stuck in Settings until task-switch |
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| | | ^^^
1:30:56 - 20 yd bunker hole-in |
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| | | | Was asked about the aspect ratio on selectbutton, how to I know they were designed for square pixels. Aside from the non-round balls vs the round ball on klov, the balls in the screenshots in the flyers included in the collection are also round, and the heavily-cropped screenshots for instance in the '97 flyer are much closer to 8:5 (cropped similarly) vs the collection's 4:3 (cropped similarly) (see 09_flyers.jpg). |
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| | | For whatever it's worth, MAME shows Golden Tee 3D Golf for instance in 4:3. And although other "round" things in the game aren't round (pictures of the club heads in the lower right of the HUD, the creepy trackball and hand that come up to show how to work the trackball, etc), the golf balls used as selection indicators on the arcade player select menu ARE round in 4:3.
But then, the actual golfer and in-game HUD were widened for the 1998 PC version to look like what would have been the arcade version running at 8:5.
I dunno. : P |
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| | | Given the ratio in the flyer and in the 1998 PC version though I have a feeling at least some of the designers were designing for 1:1. Maybe they just didn't really know or care about how it would actually come out in the arcade, at least without severe manual monitor tweaking.
But the arcade owner's manual for Golden Tee '97 for instance gives no special notes about the monitor, just recommends using a 25" one. 'p'
https://www.crazykong.com/manuals/GoldenTee97.man.pdf |
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| | | I also have a feeling Digital Eclipse were probably just shooting for making it look like MAME so 4:3.
I guess it's all kinda like how a lotta FC/NES games look like they were designed for the artists' 1:1 computer monitors instead of the customers' 4:3 TVs.
Bah! Bah I say! ; D This could so easily have been "corrected" for the collection. But then I'm just some yutz and the 1:1/4:3 type argument is old and tired so I don't know why I'm kicking that horse now. That bowling ball really ticked me off though. ; D
So hm I suppose Capcom DID "correct" the display with their defaulting to wider-than-4:3 ("Full") setting for the games in Capcom Fighting Collection (entry 1660)–while also providing a 4:3 option if that's what people want.
There's a company who cares. ; D |
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| | | Oh 8:5 is 16:10 which of course IS a widescreen monitor aspect ratio.
I suppose for arcade games it's like the designers get these grand ideas and oh we're gonna have this on widescreen cabinets and its gonna look fantastic and they go and make the game and then reality sets in and the budget and arcade real estate for a widescreen set-up isn't there and it just gets thrown into 4:3 cabs. |
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