What is Links LS 2000?

Not only did the Scots invent radar, television, tarmac, and penicillin, but they also invented the game of golf. Alternately called the ruination of a good walk and a giant waste of real estate, the latter invention is nevertheless one of the most relaxing and least taxing “sports” around. Links golf is perhaps the most Scottish kind of golf, given that the very word links is Scots for “relatively flat or undulating sandy turf-covered ground usually along a seashore.” This is exactly the type of terrain you can expect in Links LS 2000.

2000 is an update of Access’s classic Links series and consists largely of new courses and an updated interfece — if you’re looking for a dramatic graphical improvement, then look elsewhere. Saint Andrews, the Royal and Ancient, golf course of legend and lore, is most prominent here, Also included are two Hawaiian courses and the somewhat less exotic Covered Bridge in Indiana — all fine venues, of course.

The game’s strongest point is its intuitive and screen-friendly interface. The things you need, such as aim, stance, and club selection, only display when you need them, thanks to a cute rollover feature. This means the crisp representations of the golf courses and your chosen golfer fill most of the screen. Everything shown onscreen is digitized, so the graphics have a richly detailed but somewhat flat photo-realistic appearance.

The game eschews the current trend of texture-mapped 3D real-time polygons for a simpler rendering system that calculates your position on the course and, almost as an afterthought, maps the graphics. Unfortunately, a byproduct of this system is that the draw times, even on a fast computer, are less than impressive. The upside is that Links 2000 will run on older, non-G3 computers.

Like any modern golf game. Links 2000 is packed with features and options — including adjustable weather, a built-in golf coach to improve your skills, and — most important — a very distinctive difficulty setting. The latter feature comes with one caveat — if you select the easy level, the game becomes absurdly simple, making almost every process from swinging to club selection largely automatic and far too forgiving. Anything above the lowest setting makes for a much more involved and enjoyable game.

The actual gameplay varies little, if at all, from that of other games in the genre. You can select a club, adjust your aim for wind and strategy, change the angle of the club face, and even adjust your stance. After that, if s a simple timing challenge to stop the bar representing your golfef s swing at the correct moment. That will determine how much, if any, hook or slice you apply to the ball. Such play may sound repetitive, but it is in fact involving and relatively stress free.

Add to this solid, satisfying fare simple online play features (although finding a quick partner for a game of skins might be harder than finding, say, a Quake deathmatch) and you have the steak-and-garlic-mashed- potatoes of video games. Setting up online matches is a wee bit convoluted, but once you save your settings, matches are quite straightforward. Luckily, multiplayer games are enjoyable even with your partner sitting in the next cube.

Almost everyone can enjoy Links LS 2000, but if s hardly the most advanced form of entertainment on the planet. Maybe next year we’ll get a fancy polygon engine for smooth flybys of the course and polygonal golfers rather than paper cutouts. Until then, it’s hearty and fine, just not amazing.

O’Connor, Frank. (February 2001). Links LS 2000. MacAddict. (pgs. 58-59).

Download Links LS 2000 for Mac

Architecture

IBM PowerPC

System Requirements

From Mac OS 8.5 up to Mac OS 9.2

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: SheepShaver