Basketball Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]
37Developed by Andrew Spencer and published by Commodore in 1983.
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Sports games have always been one of the most popular subjects for video games and the Commodore 64 was no exception. Andrew Spencer contributed a number of titles for the C64 upon release, one of which being Basketball - probably the first sports game I ever played.
Despite looking rather basic, Basketball is actually a surprisingly accomplished recreation of the real-world sport and is actually very playable; not something you'd really expect for a sports game released so early in the C64's life-cycle.
From the title scree the player is able to select kit colours for each team, as well as choose the level of difficulty of the CPU opponent. Although the best experience will be had playing against another human, the artificial intelligence is capable of passing the ball to other players in it's team, as well as moving to/shooting at the correct basket.
The CPU will allocate one player on your team as the active and will change the colour of the player's kit to reflect the change. It's reasonably intelligent in selecting a player, so there aren't too many frustrating occasions where it picks a player at the back of the pack.
All other players on the court are controlled by the CPU and, again, the behaviour is quite impressive. Other players attempt to mark the one in possession of the ball and will generally try to intercept the ball when a pass is made. However, the CPU will occasionally make mistakes by throwing the ball outside of the court, or standing still while it has a good 'ol think about what it should do next.
Although I'm not very familiar with the rules of the game, I can at least recognise that certain rules, such three-pointers, the shot-clock and goaltending being included with a certain degree of accuracy.
I suspect that the game also tried to implement fouls whereby players with the ball coming into contact with another player triggers a series of penalty shots. This is probably my one complaint with the game since the CPU will get right up behind the player carrying the ball so that a change in direction is almost guaranteed to result in the players colliding and penalties given.
Although the graphics are quite basic, there's some really nice attention to detail. The shadow underneath the ball changes depending on it's height from the floor and the advertising boards show logos for real-world products (undoubtedly included WITHOUT the knowledge or consent of the manufacturer...).
All things considered, this is a great little basketball simulator that would receive an updated version called International Basketball later that year, which was even better!
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