New Courses?

[Crusher]

This video is posted in another topic but I think this is another good place for it to live.

I would like the new people here at PGLS to have a chance to view the original Perfect Golf team talking on kickstarter.com . They were sincere about PG but didn't have the budget to pay for Internet advertising. Hence their attempt to get donations through the kickstarter.com projects.


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pe ... erfectgolf

[JMK59]

Lee, this is so cool. The video's origin is back around 2016 when Andrew and Mike Jones put out the first alpha app at the current driving range. A golf ball launch tool that you could change landing physics. Surface compliance, friction, and roll.

What's interesting to note is that the 2 balls in the current game are the metal core Avant and Caliber balls. The designer of these balls is out of Buffalo, NY. Look at the hat the first guy in the video is wearing - an old 1970's Bill's logo. Later in the video, a tournament is shown - the Buffalo Open. I think this guy was one of the original big money backers to the kickstart startup.

Pieces to a puzzle I find intriguing.

And of course, captain obvious (me) didn't notice the text under the video says Buffalo, NY.

John

[gbodave]

The same thing happened when JN6 died. The developer was asked about selling the code and he did reply quickly (that's good manners for you.). Turned out the code was owned by another company and they didn't want to consider the idea. That's probably about 10 years ago. Funny how these companies don't want to let these things go.

[davefv92c]

I am having a hard time believing that some designers are not still working doing courses
and figuring out a way to sell them I know for a good product I would spend maybe 4 bucks a crack
for good designs that play well.

[mwalimu]

This is sounding similar to what happened to Links. The Links series originated from Utah-based Access Software, which was acquired by Microsoft in 1999. In 2004 Microsoft decided to get out of the sports game business and sold the division (which by then had been renamed Indie Built) to Take-Two Interactive. By 2006, Take-Two decided to shut down Indie Built. Once it became evident there would be no further work from them on the Links series, some fans of the series including the Joneses entered into discussions with Take-Two about acquiring the source code in order to further develop the game. Take-Two's response was that they no longer had or couldn't find the source code for the game.

[Crusher]

This is sounding similar to what happened to Links. The Links series originated from Utah-based Access Software, which was acquired by Microsoft in 1999. In 2004 Microsoft decided to get out of the sports game business and sold the division (which by then had been renamed Indie Built) to Take-Two Interactive. By 2006, Take-Two decided to shut down Indie Built. Once it became evident there would be no further work from them on the Links series, some fans of the series including the Joneses entered into discussions with Take-Two about acquiring the source code in order to further develop the game. Take-Two's response was that they no longer had or couldn't find the source code for the game.

...and somehow Mark Hulka, owner of www.lspn.net acquired the source code around 2004. Other 2k3 related sites began to be organized as well. Another owned by MH is www.linkscountryclub.com. There are thousands of courses at www.linkscorner.org .

Links 2003 has the longest activity of all golf games every conceived for Personal Computers.

[mwalimu]

...and somehow Mark Hulka, owner of www.lspn.net acquired the source code around 2004. Other 2k3 related sites began to be organized as well. Another owned by MH is www.linkscountryclub.com. There are thousands of courses at www.linkscorner.org .

Links 2003 has the longest activity of all golf games every conceived for Personal Computers.

In that case my story might be wrong. I was operating from memory after all and I doubt I could locate the discussions where these things were being discussed, if they even still exist. That said, what I saw on those sites was that he's selling Links 2003 as it was in its last official release, and you don't need source code to do that. If he had it, he could do things like put out bug fix releases, add features and enhancements, add support for newer operating systems and graphics adapters, where all I'm seeing is some of the usual "how to run an older application on newer computers" stuff. The guys I remember wanting the source code were serious about making it work better, adding more features, making the physics more realistic, and so forth. Mark might own the rights to Links 2003, but as far as I could tell, all he's doing is selling a legacy product as is.

Bringing it back around to the original topic of this thread... On www.linkscorner.org it was interesting to see that it's still getting new courses released regularly, quite a few more of them than we're seeing here for PG just in the last few months. Then again, at a glance it looks like half or more of them are coming from the same guy, one Sage Vanni. He'd have to be producing one about every two weeks to put them out at that rate. Is it even possible to produce courses at that rate and still have them come out looking nice and playing properly? I'm almost curious enough to try a couple of them but it's been about three computers ago since I last had an install of Links 2003.

When PG was in development, some folks asked if it would be possible to convert Links 2003 courses to play on PG. I doubt it was ever a serious possibility, but wouldn't that be something? 2000+ more courses to add to our libraries? (I miss Rivendell.)

[jspirate]

I enjoy making courses, but I am damn slow at it. This coupled with my available free time results in completion times that are counted in months. At this point, I ask myself "if I start a new build, will PG still be around when I finish it?"

Too many things to do and not enough time to do em...

[Crusher]

...and somehow Mark Hulka, owner of www.lspn.net acquired the source code around 2004. Other 2k3 related sites began to be organized as well. Another owned by MH is www.linkscountryclub.com. There are thousands of courses at www.linkscorner.org .

Links 2003 has the longest activity of all golf games every conceived for Personal Computers.

In that case my story might be wrong.

The patches and the download from linkscountryclub.com have updated the game to have much more difficult putting speeds. I am not sure if one of the patches does include the putting changes. They are referred to as "challenge" putting settings. I bought the download version with a bonus course package years ago. I sold my disks on ebay too.

Putting at "challenge firm/fast" is like putting on ice; as an example. As for courses, High Definition 1920 x 1080 graphics were introduced soon after lspn.net was running. The course designer too for that game was upgraded to allow huge course files to be made. Some of the downloads are larger than PG's courses. I have several over 200 MB in size from linkscorner.org.

The CDL version of Links 2003 is the best way to install the game. It bypasses any Microsoft folders within W7-W10.

I play Links 2003 between PGLS tournaments as well as TW08. Nice to have all three games on one computer. TW08 on W10 is a bear to install. Not the actual installation from the DVD. It takes several other files added to the Bin folder and tweaks made with Voodoo and Wide Screen Patch apps.