Best bet
Links LS 1999Access Software (www.accesssoft.com)
Platforms: PC, Mac
Minimum system requirements: Pentium, 150 CPU, Windows 95, 4X CD-ROM, 32MB RAM
Street price: $44.95
What separates Salt Lake-based Access Software's Links LS 1999 from the pack of golf clones is its niggling attention to detail.
Access has long been a leader in golfing simulations. Without fail, each year's version has been a quantum leap over the previous one. And Links LS 1999, featuring Arnold Palmer, is no exception.
While it taxes the hardware of any system more than several years old and is a hard drive hog (60 MB), it's worth it. The game, which comes on four CD-ROMs, is a terrific blend of graphics (incredibly lush in their detail) and playability (now featuring three swing methods). There's really so little to knock about Links LS 1999, except that older machines may prove frustratingly slow redrawing scenes.
Worth noting is that Links LS 1999 comes with four complete courses -- St. Andrews Links Old Course, Bay Hill Club and Lodge, Latrobe Country Club and in what will certainly be a treat for Utahns, Johnny Miller's Entrada at Snow Canyon near Escalante.
This is especially cool for Utahns because of the close proximity of Entrada and the opportunity it presents to actually compare notes. Or perhaps bone up on some course knowledge before making a playing pilgrimage.
Besides, how can you not love a computer golf game where southern Utah's rugged red-rock vistas act as backdrop?
To borrow from the golfing vernacular: Links LS 1999 knocks it stiff at the pin. --Chuck Gates
Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour Golf
EA Sports (www.ea.com/easports.html)
Platforms: PC, PlayStation (limited Nintendo 64)
Minimum system requirements: Windows 95 or 98; 133 MHz Pentium; 32 MB RAM; quad-speed CD-ROM)
Street price: $39.95
EA must have flashed some serious cash to cage Tiger with a four-year licensing agreement. Can you say, "All Tiger, all the time?"
Yes, this is the computer golf game that brings you Tiger Tips, Tiger Shots, Tiger Zones and Tiger Vision -- all taking computer golf to a higher level.
Packaged courses include Pebble Beach, Sawgrass and Summerlin, with additional course disks available and compatible with past PGA Tour Pro courses offered by EA.
Tiger can compete against peers such as O'Meara, Jantzen, Love, Faxon, Jacobsen, Kite and Stadler. T99-PGA offers nine different play modes, and users can log 18 holes in 30 minutes or less.
Players can also go online and compete against and chat with other players through easy-to-use Internet play options. In fact, EA Sports used Tiger Woods 99 as the vehicle to sponsor a five-week Internet tournament this fall, with a combined purse of $65,000 available to computer hackers of a golfing sort.
Certainly, T99-PGA's speed and the novelty of playing with or as Tiger Woods is more than enough to separate it from also-ran status. --Scott Taylor
Microsoft Golf 1999
Microsoft (www.microsoft.com)
Platforms: PC (minimum system requirements: Pentium, 150 CPU, Windows 95, 4X CD-ROM, 32MB RAM)
Street price: $44.95
Speaking of also-rans . . . Microsoft's Golf 1999 is, well, just that. A well-conceived enjoyable computer golf game that does everything well but unfortunately nothing exceptional.
The graphics for the MG 1999, while good, seem half a notch behind those of leader Links 1999. And on the other end of the computer golf spectrum, the generic golfers you can choose from seem droll compared to the star power that Tiger Woods provides to EA Sports' game.
One advantage, however, is that players will find the game engine used by Microsoft allows for faster play and quicker redraws than those offered by some of the competition.
Players will find seven course layouts -- Donald Ross Memorial, Eagle Heights, Medalits, Teeth of the Dog, Links at Casa de campo, Bay Harbor and the Preserve 9. The games also allow for several types of play, match, skins, scramble and even Bingo, Bango, Bongo, as well as choosing between three different types of balls. MG 1999 also features online multiplayer capability. --Chuck Gates