Zany Golf
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Zany Golf, also known as Will Harvey's Zany Golf, is an off-the-wall, whimsical fantasy take on a miniature golf computer game, developed by Sandcastle Productions and published by Electronic Arts. The game originated on the Apple IIGS computer platform in 1988 and was so successful, it became the first Apple IIGS game title to attract the mainstream gaming market and be ported to other platforms. Consequently ports were written and released for the Amiga, Atari ST and DOS machines. It wasn't long before it had even been ported to the gaming console world, appearing for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1990. The original version however stood out from later ports as it was designed to fully exploit the 15-voice Ensoniq music synthesizer found in the Apple IIGS, producing one of the most unique, creative and ear-filling musical soundtrack scores found in a video game, possibly to date.
The game is played in via a 3D isometric viewpoint. It is unusual in allowing up to 8 players.
The game was developed by Will Harvey, Ian Gooding, Jim Nitchals, and Douglas Fulton. This game was developed while Harvey was pursuing his advanced degrees at Stanford University.
Zany Golf is a version of mini golf with some features that are impossible in real, physical mini golf. Zany Golf only consists of half a golf course, i.e. 9 holes. The holes are as follows:
- Windmill Hole: The ball has to be shot into a windmill, or slide down the ramp below, to enter the second area.
- Hamburger Hole: The hole is covered by a bouncing hamburger. You can bounce off a ketchup bottle that squirts.
- Walls: Several walls continuously rise from the ground and fall back down. Depending on the timing, these can deflect the ball in unusual ways.
- Pinball: The level begins as a game of pinball, where you can hit the ball with the flippers after shooting it.
- Fans: Fans positioned along the level allow blowing the ball in a different direction.
- Magic Carpet: A special "magic" surface covering most of the level allows direct mouse control over the ball.
- Castle: The ball has to be shot up a hill, to enter into a castle or holes outside it, to enter the second area.
- Ant Hill: The hole itself moves.
- Energy: Consists of various devilish contraptions all over the place, with buttons that activate deadly laser beams, energy blasters, teleporters and suction tubes. Widely regarded as the most difficult hole by far.
A secret tenth hole is accessed by shooting the ball into the mouse hole in the "Energy" hole (bottom right) when the mouse's eyes turn red. Or automatically, by completing all levels on par.
Due to the lack of a mouse or similar pointing device, the Sega Genesis edition of the game omitted the 'Magic Carpet' hole. Instead, another hole, 'Knockout Nightmare', appears after 'Ant Hill'. This involved a Breakout-style scenario, followed by a challenge where the ball must be putted across a checkerboard square, where alternate squares when rolled over teleport the ball back to the start.
