Game:

Jimmy Connors Pro Tennis Tour (1989)

Category:

Review

Duration: 49:48

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Huge playlist archive with games from 1982-1992: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOanVBhqd3uy0uOIHzPaxfOp53uJLX7-
Many more games from the 80s can be found here:
Racing games: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOanVBhqd3vkkE35mCw6x63QFBnU9Xsi
AY / GFX improved games: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxOanVBhqd3t74YnYAJA9p4vMQYZYCJWX
INSTRUCTIONS:
Pro Tennis Tour lets you enter the world of a professional tennis player. Pack your favourite whites and trusty racket and then travel to the great Grandslam events: Wimbledon, French Open, U.S. Open, and the Australian Open, You enter as a 64th ranked player. Through determination and practice, you can fight your way up the ranks. Like the pros, you work the courts and establish a game style all your own.

SERVING:
When you play against the computer, you always begin by serving. Click on the firing button of your joystick or the space bar. The move the crosshair from left to right (depending on where you're serving from) with either the joystick, the W and E keys or the P and O keys. N.B. In "ADVANCED" and "PROFESSIONAL" modes, be careful to practice before beginning a game. In these modes, you must release the firing button of your joystick at the right moment, otherwise the ball will land in the net or outside the serving lines.

RETURNING THE BALL:
During the exchange, press the firing button on your joystick to swing back and release it to return the ball N.B. The player stops moving when you press the firing button of your joystick. It is possible to choose the side of the court on which the player will play. To do this, choose the Mode option, then PLAY BACK if you want to play at the back of the court or PLAY FRONT if you want to play at the front of the court. It is possible to see a demonstration by choosing the DEMO mode.


REVIEW:
This game has four courts; Melbourne Open (Grass), French Open at Roland Garros (Clay), All England Championship in Wimbledon (Grass), U.S. Open at Flushing Meadow (Cement). You start at Melbourne and the game will loop to this court again when you have played on all four, you can then continue to play to make your ranking better.

When playing a 1 player game you never see your player change sides - for simplicity's sake, your player always appears in the foreground, but when playing a 2 player game you and your friend changes sides after each game.

When serving you control a crosshair and while this is pretty simple to use in Easy mode it is much more challenging in Advanced and Professional mode, because you have to hit the fire button two times instead of one time in the Easy mode.

The characters is well animated and the gameplay is very good, and once you figure out how to return the ball you can have some long fine duels in this game. Just like you control a crosshair when you are serving the opponent is also controlling a crosshair – you have to watch carefully how this moves when the opponent is getting ready to serve, it will most likely go in a circle, and then you have to place your player right beside it where it was the most far to the final side in the rotation – you then hold down fire and release it when the ball comes! When you make a good sharp shot to one of the corners it is also possible to run to the net and smash down the ball when the opponent makes a weak return.

If you are looking for a good tennis game for the Spectrum this is well worth checking out. The controls works great, it is nice looking, and you can play against the computer or against your friends.

The game was published by Ubi Soft Ltd in 1990.

Rating = 94%

Download here (Re-release is without protection): https://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0003891