Jimmy White’s Whirlwind Snooker is a three-dimensional simulation of a snooker, or billiards table. It was programmed by classic veteran developer Archer MacLean for release by Virgin Games in the early nineties. It was originally created for the Commodore 64, but was ported to the PC and SEGA formats later on. As a type of promotion, Virgin launched a nation-wide tournament, with heats all around the United Kingdom. The winner challenged the game’s creator for a championship, and Jimmy White (snooker king) served as the commentator.
This game was well-renowned for its great use of graphics and absolutely first rate game play. The three dimensional graphics do an excellent job of simulating a real life snooker table, and many true-to-life players have been said to practice their games on this program. The game, being so realistic, was said to help players see shot possibilities, and practice basic maneuvers, such as banking in order to strengthen their real world play.
While Jimmy White’s Whirlwind Snooker was exceptionally accurate and realistic, it was not without humorous elements to entertain the gamers that were not as hardcore of gamers. Sure, the user could control almost all elements of the ball. The interface is very simple to master, and the user can control the shot’s
angle, speed, and strength. A small dotted line helps the gamer to line up the shots, and is a great tutorial for learning angles and banks. The user could rotate the table to look at the balls from any view, which is very like a real pool shark circling a table looking for the right shot to further his play on the table. There is also a great trick shot editor to improve the player’s entertaining play. There are several preset table to teach various trick shots, as well as the ability to edit one’s own.
This is all fun and cool, but the real fun breaks out when the user starts to dawdle and over thinks a shot. The balls would sprout arms and faces would appear on them. They would stick out their tongues, make other disparaging faces, and hold up signs that would further taunt the shooter: “Get on with it!”
Jimmy White’s Whirlwind Snooker is one of the better billiards games out there. It is very realistic and also features some super comedic elements that will give the user a chuckle as well as a billiards lesson. This one is definitely recommended for download.
