''Leader Board'' (sometimes ''Leaderboard'') is a series of

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

simulation

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

s that was developed by Bruce Carver and Roger Carver, and published by

Access Software Access Software, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Founded in November 1982 by Bruce Carver and Chris Jones, the company created the '' Beach Head'', '' Links'' and ''Tex Murphy'' series, as well as '' R ...

Summary

left, Teeing off on the first hole (Atari ST). ''Leader Board'', the first game in the series, was released in 1986 and included four different water-based courses. It was well received, being rated as 97% overall by ''

Zzap!64 ''Zzap!64'' was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazine ...

'' magazine and being prized with their "Gold Award". It was also highly rated by other magazines, with ''

Your Sinclair ''Your Sinclair'', or ''YS'' as it was commonly abbreviated, was a commercially published and printed British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum. It was in circulation between 1984 and 1993. History The ...

'' rating it 9 out of 10, ''

Sinclair User ''Sinclair User'' was a magazine dedicated to the Sinclair Research range of home computers, most specifically the ZX Spectrum (while also occasionally covering arcade games). Initially published by ECC Publications, and later EMAP, it was publi ...

'' giving it five stars, and ''

Crash Crash or CRASH may refer to: Common meanings * Collision, an impact between two or more objects * Crash (computing), a condition where a program ceases to respond * Cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating * Couch su ...

'' rating it 80%. ''Leaderboard Tournament'', released the same year, was a series of expansion disks each containing four new courses. The second game in the series was ''Leader Board: Executive Edition'', which was released in 1987 and contained new landscape and course features, such as trees and

bunkers A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. T ...

. Despite these additions, the game was less well received than its predecessor, being given an overall rating of 72% by ''Zzap!64'' magazine. '' World Class Leader Board'' was the last game in the series and included four courses; Cypress Creek, Doral Country Club,

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

, and the fictional Gauntlet Country Club. Three course expansion disks were later released. Special features in this final version included a course overview (overhead view), the punch shot, a printable score card, the use of

RealSound RealSound is a patented (US US5054086 A) technology for the PC created by Steve Witzel of Access Software during the late 1980s. RealSound enables 6-bit digitized pulse-code modulation (PCM)-audio playback on the PC speaker by means of pulse-w ...

, and a course editor which allowed changes to be made to the existing courses. It was considered a vast improvement on Executive, being given a 94% overall rating by ''Zzap!64'' magazine, and 9 out of 10 by ''Your Sinclair''.

Reception

''Leaderboard'' was the best-selling

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

game of 1986 in the United Kingdom. ''Leader Board'' was Access' third best-selling Commodore game as of late 1987. Rick Teverbaugh reviewed the game for ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'', and stated that "Leader Board has the most realistic putting feel of any golf game I've ever tried. When the ball finally makes it into the cup, the sound of that success is also amazingly realistic." ''

Compute!'s Gazette ''Compute!'s Gazette'' (), stylized as ''COMPUTE!'s Gazette'', was a computer magazine of the 1980s, directed at users of Commodore's 8-bit home computers. Announced as ''The Commodore Gazette'', it was a Commodore-only daughter magazine of the ...

'' praised the Commodore 64 version's realism and amazing ("there is no other word for it") graphics. While noting ''Leader Board''s use of only

water hazard A hazard is an area of a golf course in the sport of golf which provides a difficult obstacle, which may be of two types: (1) water hazards such as lakes and rivers; and (2) man-made hazards such as bunkers. The governing body for the game of ...

s, and no difference in color between the fairway and

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

, the magazine concluded that it "is fun, a lot of fun, and as addicting as the real game". ''

'' stated that ''Leader Board'' for the Amiga improved on the Commodore 64 version, and praised the graphics, but preferred the also-outstanding ''

Mean 18 ''Mean 18'' is a golf video game designed by Rex Bradford with graphics by George Karalias, both of Microsmiths, and released by Accolade (company), Accolade for MS-DOS compatible operating systems in 1986. It was ported to the Commodore 64, Am ...

''. ''

Info Info is shorthand for "information". It may also refer to: Computing * .info, a generic top-level domain * info:, a URI scheme for information assets with identifiers in public namespaces * info (Unix), a command used to view documentation produc ...

'' gave the Amiga version four stars out of five, liking the gameplay and "nicely done graphics" but noting the absence of a practice green or course construction. The magazine concluded, "It's tough to choose between this and Mean 18". ''

Antic Alphanumeric Television Interface Controller (ANTIC) is an LSI ASIC dedicated to generating 2D computer graphics to be shown on a television screen or computer display. Under the direction of Jay Miner, the chip was designed in 1977-1978 by ...

'' wrote that the Atari ST version "will keep you happy for hours", praising its graphics. While noting deviations from the

rules of golf The rules of golf consist of a standard set of regulations and procedures by which the sport of golf should be played. They are jointly written and administered by The R&A (spun off from The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in 2004) and th ...

, the reviewer concluded recommending ''Leader Board'' "as an entertaining game for anyone, regardless of skill and knowledge of golf".

References

External links

''Leader Board''
at

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''Leader Board''
at Atari Mania * *
''Leader Board''
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