With the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am teeing it up this week at Pebble Beach Golf Links, I thought it would be fun to explore the evolution of Pebble Beach in the world of video games.
As with many sports-based video games, the early examples were often a very limited abstraction of the real thing. If you want an example of this, try playing Golf (1980) on Atari 2600. On second thought, if you’re making an effort to play retro Atari games, save your time and stick to the classics like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, or Pitfall.
As I dove into the history of golf video games, I’ve highlighted some of the most notable instances of Pebble Beach in the age of the microprocessor.
Mean 18 (1986) MS-DOS
Personally, I was not aware of Mean 18 until very recently. This was quite surprising to me as I’ve played quite a few other games published by Accolade during the DOS era, as well as a number of games in the Jack Nicklaus video game franchise of the 1990s, to which Mean 18 is the predecessor.
By my account, Mean 18 appears to feature the earliest rendition of Pebble Beach in a video game. Granted the playing field is two-dimensional, but at a time when realistic simulations were in their infancy, this was a revolution in gaming realism. Even with the limitation of 2D, the game does to some degree simulate uphill and downhill shots by adjusting the horizon line. This helps to provide a degree of realism to holes 6 and 7 for example.
The art style is pleasant, which makes up for the very difficult gameplay. Golf is hard in real life, so perhaps the challenge is not a bug but rather a feature.
An interesting footnote is Mean 18 includes a course editor. I can imagine at least a few budding golf course architects (or armchair architects) that got their start not by moving dirt, but rather by moving 0s and 1s. What a great way to spend way too many hours in your parent’s basement dialing up the local BBS and trading user created courses with other video game and architecture enthusiasts. This fandom apparently continued well beyond the initial release date as I’ve come across a user created version of Pebble with the post 1998 edition of the 5th hole perched on the edge of Stillwater Cove.
World Class Leader Board (1988) MS-DOS
I vaguely remember playing this game in its era. What I do recall is being impressed by the smooth golfer animation, realistic sounds (at a time when the PC speaker just went beep or boop) and the ability to customize the colour of your golf ball. It didn’t take much to impress a gamer back then.
At the time, I did not recall playing Pebble Beach, but that must have been due to the fact Pebble (along with a number of other real and imaginary courses) were released in a number of future expansion packs.
Graphics, as one might expect for games of this generation, are limited. It is disappointing how flat the course is rendered, lacking any attempt to model changes of elevation that define a number of holes at Pebble Beach. For example, the 6th green is visible from the tee. Definitely not as Jack Neville and Douglas Grant intended.
Even with shortcomings in the graphics department, game play is quite good. You can see elements that Access Software first established in Leaderboard (1986) and continued to iterate throughout the future Links series.
Jack Nicklaus’ Greatest 18 Holes of Major Championship Golf (1990) Nintendo Entertainment System
Jack’s Greatest 18 (yes, the full title is much too long) is the game where I first experienced playing Pebble Beach. I logged many digital rounds in game. Unbeknown to the little kid me, I also experienced a number of classic golf holes, all hand-picked by The Golden Bear himself. The game only featured Pebble’s short par-3, 7th, challenging par-4, 8th and iconic oceanside par-5 18th, but I would say these are easily the best 3 holes on the property. A version of this game was also released on Super Nintendo, however it is far from one of the best games of the 16-bit era.
True Golf Classics: Pebble Beach Golf Links (1992) SNES
As video game consoles entered the 16-bit era, developers began experimenting with three-dimensional polygon based graphics. Golf was no exception. T&E Soft released a follow-up to their True Golf Classics series, featuring Pebble Beach in a new level of detail. An equivalent version was also released on Sega Genesis in the same year. Both versions are relatively similar in terms of graphics and gameplay. These games are worth playing if you’re interested in experiencing Pebble in its early 90s glory.
Links 386 Pro (1992) MS-DOS
Links 386 Pro is a classic. I spent many hours playing this game. Admittedly, I still play this game on occasion today. Full nostalgia mode kicks in when the screen redraws before each shot.
Taking full advantage of ever-increasing processing power, this game depicted Pebble Beach in an unprecedented level of accuracy in three dimensions, way beyond what any video game console could achieve at that time. I became very familiar with the architecture of Pebble Beach as a direct result of this game. The gameplay, while challenging, has been tuned just right for an enjoyable experience. Pebble is one of my go-to courses when the retro gaming bug takes hold.
Pebble Beach Golf Links (1995) Sega Saturn
When researching this piece, I discovered a version of Pebble Beach on Sega Saturn that I never took much notice of when first released. (Did anyone take notice of Sega Saturn?). T&E Soft made a valiant effort on this next generation release, leveraging the increased capacity of the CD format by including video flyovers and amusing video commentary from Craig Stadler. Seeing the old 5th hole only a few years before being replaced by Jack Nicklaus’ 1998 redesign is a reminder that video games have the potential to serve as historical reference for generations to come.
Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour Golf (1998) Sony Playstation
You can’t talk about video game golf without referencing arguably the most well known golf franchise out there, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf, released by EA Sports. By this time in the evolution of golf video games, including Pebble Beach was standard issue. Honestly, I never really enjoyed these games. Graphics and realism was better on PC (both Links 386 and subsequent releases in the Links franchise). As this franchise evolved (devolved?) the arcade-like game play further detracted from the pure golf experience. Remember the spin control feature that you could manipulate AFTER you hit the ball?
An interesting note, Tiger Woods 99 was the last instalment in the series to feature the old 5th hole.
To close on this exercise I’ll highlight the worst example of Pebble video game golf ever created, Bandai Golf: Challenge Pebble Beach (1989), released on NES. This game is horrible. I tried to play a full round as part of my research but I couldn’t stomach more than a few holes.
What generation of video games do you enjoy playing most when teeing it up at Pebble Beach?