''Virtual Pool'' is a 3D, first-person

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...

video game series with

computer simulation Computer simulation is the process of mathematical modelling, performed on a computer, which is designed to predict the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be dete ...

s of

cue sports Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions of ...

which was developed by Celeris. The games in the series simulate pool,

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

and carom billiards. The ''Virtual Pool'' series focuses on accurate simulation and improving the player's ability to play the sport in real life. ''Virtual Pool'' releases are sold with a

money back guarantee A money-back guarantee, also known as a satisfaction guarantee, is essentially a simple guarantee that, if a buyer is not satisfied with a product or service, a refund will be made. The 18th century entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood pioneered many of ...

to improve a player's external game.

Overview

The main selling point of the ''Virtual Pool''-series games is that they were designed and tested by

programmers A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

s and professional players. According to the game box, its simulation was "guaranteed to improve your actual pool play or your money back". The series was endorsed by professional players

Mike Sigel Michael Sigel (born July 11, 1953) is an American professional pool player nicknamed "Captain Hook." He earned the nickname from his ability to hook his opponents with safety plays. Sigel has the ability to shoot pool both left-handed and righ ...

and

Jeanette Lee Jeanette Lee (born Lee Jin-Hee, Hangul: 이진희, July 9, 1971, in Brooklyn, New York) is a Korean-American professional pool player. She was nicknamed the Black Widow by her friends because, in spite of her sweet demeanor, she would "eat peop ...

and equipment manufacturers Viking Cues, Imperial International, Schön Custom Cues, Creative Innovations and Joss Cues. The games' graphics capabilities vary by platform to platform, but their environmental realism (such as a pool hall) is on par with the graphics in other contemporary rendered games (like

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

s). The games' use of first-person perspective, rather than using an overhead view, contributed to the series' success. The complexity of the games increased over time, from '' Virtual Pool'' four game types to '' Virtual Pool 4'' 18 pool games on championship and bar tables,

, English billiards, four

carom Carom may refer to: * Ajwain (''Trachyspermum ammi''), an herb in Indian cuisine * Carom billiards (also known as Carambole) * Ricochet, a rebound, bounce or skip off a surface, particularly in the case of a projectile * Carrom, a family of South ...

games and four pub pool

eight-ball Eight-ball (also spelled 8-ball or eightball, and sometimes called solids and stripes, spots and stripes or rarely highs and lows) is a discipline of pool played on a billiard table with six pockets, cue sticks, and sixteen billiard balls (a ...

games. Other improvements included more venues and computerized opponents, equipment-upgrade purchases, customizable tables, video tutorials, two career-play modes and a trick-shot library. Online capability includes pool rooms with multiple players and spectators, tournaments, ladders, a social network with player profiles, friends, statistics and shot uploads.

Series

Celeris, creators of the ''Virtual Pool'' franchise, created their first title ('' FlixMix'', a DOS

jigsaw puzzle A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaiced pieces, each of which typically has a portion of a picture. When assembled, the puzzle pieces produce a complete picture. In th ...

game) in 1993. After this release, Celeris published their first 3D game ('' Virtual Pool'') in 1995. The game had four pool modes:

straight pool Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a cue sport in which two competing players attempt to as many billiard balls as possible without playing a . The game was the primary version of pool played in professional ...

nine-ball Nine-ball (sometimes written 9-ball) is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable to the 1920s in the United States. It is played on a rectangular billiard table with at each of the four corners and in the middle of e ...

and

rotation pool Rotation, sometimes called rotation pool or 61, is a pool game, played with a billiards table, , and triangular rack of fifteen billiard balls, in which the lowest-numbered on the table must be always struck by the cue ball first, to attempt to ...

. With pool world champion Lou Butera, it guaranteed to improve the player's pool game (a guarantee which continued through the main-series ''Virtual Pool'' titles). The game was successful, and '' Virtual Pool 2'' (with a wider range of pool games, including three-ball and

bank pool Bank pool is a pool game that has as its most fundamental requirement that all scoring shots in the game must be made by a called ball off a and into a called pocket. While the game has multiple variations, the predominant version through much ...

) was produced in 1997. ''Virtual Pool 2'', with improved graphics, was released exclusively for PC. Over 120 AI opponents and online multiplayer capability were introduced, with Mike Sigil joining Butera for this game. The following year's ''

Virtual Pool Hall ''Virtual Pool Hall'' is a sports simulation video game developed Celeris and published by Interplay Productions as an entry in the '' Virtual Pool'' franchise, an improvement and sequel to '' Virtual Pool 2'' and PC sequel to '' Virtual Pool 64' ...

'' for Windows contained graphics and game modes similar to ''Virtual Pool 2'' and features which would be retained in ''Virtual Pool 3'', including a

mode (adapted from ''Virtual Snooker'') and the series' first carom billiards mode. The game contained instructional videos similar to ''VP2'', performed by world champion

. ''

Virtual Pool 3 ''Virtual Pool 3'' is a 3D, first-person sports simulation video game, developed and released for Windows and PlayStation by Celeris. Overview The Virtual Pool series made its debut in 1995 with the release of Virtual Pool. From there, Inter ...

'' was released in 2000 for PC, but was later ported to the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

and

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

. ''VP3'' featured

, carom and billiards games in addition to pool. The game, endorsed by women's world champion

, was released and distributed by Interplay Entertainment and

Global Star Software Global Star Software was a Canadian video game publisher based in Mississauga. It was founded in 1995 by Craig McGauley and Damian Cristiani and operated alongside their Triad Distributors, which had been founded in 1993. Both companies were acqu ...

. It received the highest

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

score of any main-series title . More than eleven years after ''VP3'', '' Virtual Pool 4'' was released; in the interim, many patches were released for ''VP3''. ''Virtual Pool 4'' had two releases: a single-player and offline multiplayer version in 2012 and an online multiplayer variant, ''Virtual Pool 4 Multiplayer'', in 2015. ''Virtual Pool 4'' (in both versions) was later released on

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

after a period on

Steam Greenlight Steam is a video game digital distribution service and storefront by Valve. It was launched as a software client in September 2003 as a way for Valve to provide automatic updates for their games, and expanded to distributing and offering third ...

. ''Virtual Pool 4'' has mode and graphical upgrades from its previous incarnation (including snooker, billiards and pool modes) and the ability to change table size and handicaps for certain players. The game also has a trick shot mode, with standard trick shots and the ability to set up new ones. The game is set to introduce

Russian billiards Russian pyramid, also known as Russian billiards (russian: ру́сский билья́рд, ), is a form of billiards played on a large billiard table with narrow pockets. It is popular across Eastern Europe as well as countries of the form ...

where players can use any ball as cue ball after a break, as well as Kaisa on a Russian pyramid table alongside a three-player cutthroat in an upcoming update for VP4.

Spin-off and ported games

Although it is primarily a PC game, console versions have been released. Celeris released ''

Virtual Snooker ''Virtual Snooker'' is a sports simulation video game developed by Celeris and published by Interplay Productions as an entry in the '' Virtual Pool'' franchise, the second in the series after '' Virtual Pool'' and the first spin-off from pool ga ...

'', a

game with the same engine as ''Virtual Pool'', in 1996. It contained only snooker games (no pool). After the release of ''Virtual Pool 2'', Celeris worked with VR Sports to produce a game for the Nintendo 64. The game was released in 1998 as '' Virtual Pool 64'', using the same naming convention as ''

Super Mario 64 is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan and North America in 1996 and PAL regions in 1997. It is the first ''Super Mario'' game to feature 3D gameplay, combining traditional ''Su ...

'', and '' Goldeneye 64''. With gameplay and modes similar to ''Virtual Pool 2'', it was condensed to fit on a cartridge. The series' first

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

console version, '' Virtual Pool: Tournament Edition'' ( ported by Ingram Entertainment), was released in 2006. It contained a career mode which would later develop into the hustle-tour mode in ''Virtual Pool 4'', the

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...

and iPhone game ''Virtual Pool Online HD'' (ported by Fried Green Apps in 2010) and''Virtual Pool Mobile'', an

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

2.2+ version released in 2012 by Celeris.

Releases

Reception

The ''Virtual Pool'' series has received a moderate-to-good reception from critics, with ''

'' the highest-rated game. A ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' review of ''Virtual Pool Hall'' praised its game mechanics, particularly the ball-collision physics. ''Virtual Pool 2'' received a perfect score (100) from the German '' PC Player'' magazine. However, some reviews of the series called the games "boring" due to the nature of pool simulation.

Awards

''Virtual Pool'' was voted the Best Sports Game of 1995 by '' PC Gamer US'' and the 1995 Game of the Year by ''Games'' magazine. ''Virtual Pool 2'' was a finalist for the

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...

' 1997 Personal Computer Sports Game of the Year award, which was won by '' FIFA: Road to World Cup 98''.

Notes

References

External links

Virtual Pool franchise on MobyGames
{{Virtual Pool Video game franchises introduced in 1995 Video game franchises