''Virtual Pool Hall'' is a

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 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 ...

developed Celeris and published by

Interplay Productions Interplay Entertainment Corp. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by developers Brian Fargo, Jay Patel, Troy Worrell, and Rebecca ...

as an entry in the ''

Virtual Pool ''Virtual Pool'' is a 3D, first-person sports simulation video game series with computer simulations of cue sports which was developed by Celeris. The games in the series simulate pool, snooker and carom billiards. The ''Virtual Pool'' serie ...

'' franchise, an improvement and sequel to '' Virtual Pool 2'' and PC sequel to '' Virtual Pool 64''. The game was initially released on PC in December 1999. ''Pool Hall'' is the first game in the Virtual Pool series to have playable

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 ...

in addition to the regular pool gamemodes.

Gameplay

''Virtual Pool Hall'' boasts 128 computer AI opponents to play against, with various different game modes.

8-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 ...

and

9-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 ...

pool returns, as well as the choice of 4 different tables to play on. The game also features new gameplay modes, including other table based games, such as billiards, and

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 ...

, as well as other

mini-games A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements, and is often smaller or more simplistic, than th ...

, such as

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 ...

, Honalulu and bowliards; which are all games based on billiards. The game also offers instructional videos with professional player

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 ...

, with the option to pause the video to play the shot being attempted by the professional.

Reception

Critical Reception for ''Virtual Pool Hall'' was generally high, with review aggregator website

Game Rankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

scoring the game 77.50%.

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 ...

scored the game at 8.2/10 saying that the graphical quality was very good, saying "the balls and table look top-notch", and the gameplay was "as fast and enjoyable as ever". However, the review also suggested that the multiplayer support was poor, as the game had no built in multiplayer mode, but simply 3rd party support for multiplayer.

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

also gave the game an 8.2 out of 10, stating that the game has "startling precision" when it came to realism of the physics. They also cited the "impressive visuals" on display, and finished off saying "basically, Virtual Pool Hall has everything you've been looking for in a PC billiards simulation."

References

External links

*
Developer Celeris official website
{{Snooker Video Games 1999 video games Interplay Entertainment games Virtual Pool Windows games Windows-only games Video games developed in the United States