Archer Maclean's Pool

You pick up this game and immediately see that pool had a problem — or rather, getting it to play properly on a computer. Archer Maclean's Pool from 1992 is an attempt to simulate billiards on a floppy disk, and while you can't call it easy, at least it doesn't shy away and doesn't tipoe around it.

It's a classic pool game that everyone understands: you break the balls, try to sink them into pockets, and rack up points. The game offers you single or two-player modes, and you either play against the computer or duke it out with someone at the same keyboard. For the nineties, it's actually pretty well put together — it's neither arcade nonsense nor a embodiment of physics. It's something in between.

You control the cue by aiming — you set the angle, the power of the shot, and then the balls roll according to how you imagined it. The mechanics are simple but require finesse — precision and patience. The graphics are in a drab 256-color VGA palette, which looks ancient by today's standards, but back then it was absolutely eye-catching. The table is drawn from a bird's-eye view and the balls wobble and roll just as you'd expect from a simple physics model.

Where it slowly falls apart is playing against the computer — the AI isn't particularly smart and playing with it soon becomes tedious. There's a strange stillness to it — you play, but that real spark is missing. The game is honest, but it's less an experience and more a way to pass the hours. The sound is minimal, the music droning on in the background without any particular drama.

Archer Maclean was known in the magazines as one of the better game developers of the era, and you see it here — it's carefully crafted, without cheap tricks. But pool is a game that demands something more than just correct clicking. It needs the presence of a real opponent. A computer alone won't cut it. For the times, it was an interesting alternative; today you'll play it mostly if you remember it from the nineties and want to take a trip back.

You can find it in archives of old DOS games. It's nothing shocking, but if you want to know what pool looked like in the nineties in truly sober execution, without effects and without flourishes — here you have it. The game isn't bad, just lacking the obsession it needs to make you want to keep playing.