Released in Japan only on Boxing Day (December 26th) 1997, this is one of T&E
Soft’s last games in their 9 year long series of golf games. The series began on
the PC-9801 in 1989, and they even published a golf game for the virtual boy!
Founded in 1982, T&E Soft are more infamous for the Hydlide series of RPGs. The
company is still functioning, but it seems that they are no longer producing
video games. This was the second golf game on the N64 and was followed by T&E
Soft’s other game Waialae Country Club: True Golf Classics. Waialae Country club
uses the same engine as Masters ’98 but features courses licensed from Augusta
National Golf Club. This was part of series by T&E Soft, Augusta games were also
released on the PC-9801, the 3DO, the Playstation, and Windows.
This game features commentary from the TBS announcer Matsushita Kenji and
Japanese pro Nobumitsu Yuhara. Yuhara also provided motion capture support for
the game. This commentary is one of the best things about the game. Since it has
two commentators, unlike most sports games, they have a conversation about your
play. It really lends a sense of realism to the game, and it is cool to have a
pro player commentate on how you should take your next shot. Of course you need
to be able to understand Japanese to enjoy this aspect of the game.
It also uses the controller pak to save your golfer and championship data. On
September 30th, 2020 the game was fully translated into English by Zoinkity. The
British publication, N64 Magazine laughed at the games Mortal Kombat style
golfer graphics and awarded it 40%, saying “Your N64 could run this with the
power off. A very poor conversion of a dated game design. Avoid at all costs.
Augusta National Golf Club is a golf club in Augusta Georgia which was first
opened in 1932. It is home to one of the four world professional golf
tournaments. It is often ranked as one of the best golf courses in the world. It
has a total par of 72, the course record of 63 is held by Nick Price and Greg
Norman. As a for profit golf course it is maintained at an extremely high degree
of care. The course features imported North Carolina spruce pine sand, under
green ventilation systems, speakers which produce bird sounds, and ponds that
were dyed blue to make them look more appealing. No running, loud talking, or
mobile phones are allowed on the course. These rules are strictly enforced by
security guards with permanent bans and sometimes prosecutions.
Only about 300 people belong to the club, and it is through strict invitation
only. It is believed to cost up to three hundred thousand dollars a year to
belong to the club. In 2012, the club finally admitted its first female members.
Notable members include Bill Gate, Warren Buffett, and Condoleezza Rice and
President Dwight D Eisenhower. Eisenhower even held secret goverment meetings at
the course, including a meeting concerning the first successful hydrogen bomb
test.
Eisenhower hit the so called “Eisenhower Tree” near the 17th hole so many times
that he proposed it be cut down. Despite him being the president at the time the
club managers did not want to cut the tree down so immediately ended the club
meeting to avoid the proposal. In 2011, Tiger Woods was playing a shot
underneath the tree when he slipped and damaged his left knee and Achilles
tendon. As a result his world ranking dropped to 58th.
For decades the club blocked black membership requests, co-founder Clifford
Roberts said "As long as I'm alive, all the golfers will be white and all the
caddies will be black." This is actually somewhat reflected in the game. While
the crowd and golfers are white or asian, the only African Americans in the game
are caddies. In 1977 after suffering from cancer and a debilitating stroke,
Roberts committed suicide with a firearm at Augusta, on the banks of Ike’s pond.
As the club is a private company it is unknown exactly how much profit they make
each year from the course. But from 1999 to 2019 it spent more than 200 million
dollars on buying 270 acres to add to the club grounds.
As someone famously said "Golf is a good walk spoiled." By this they meant that
the game was getting in the way of enjoying a walk. However, I have always took
this to mean that the sport of golf has been spoiling the countryside by turning
nature into an artificial playground for dull middle class men with more money
than sense. I can think of no more fitting insult to the wealthy nitwits at
Augusta, than being featured in a game so dull it makes you wish for the sweet
release of death.
2.Translation Guide
Controls
A button – Confirm
B button – Cancel
C buttons – Rotates and changes the camera mode
Start Button – Brings up the menu
3D Stick – Move the cursor
Press the A Button to start the power meter moving. You then need to hit A again
when the bar touches the center of the red line at the bottom of the power
meter to determine your accuracy.
If you have "easy shot" (イージーショット) on then you only need to press the A button
to set the power. With this setting, the game always assumes you hit the ball
perfectly. So I recommend setting it on in the options menu to save you hassle.
Additionally the game will sometimes display a yellow marker on your power
meter. If you press the A button when the meter is in the exact middle of that
marker the ball will fly the exact right distance in that situation. For
example, you are in a bunker and you want to hit the ball out onto the green but
you don't want to hit the ball too far. In the case the yellow mark might be
shown, so make sure you use it!
The game normally gives you the exact right club to use and points you in the
exact right angle. This makes playing the game a matter of pressing A to skip
through 5 messages at the start of every hole and then pressing A to set the
right amount of power. Whether this is a result of using Easy Shot, I'm not
sure, but it makes the game much more enjoyable to play. I doubt even golfers
enjoy trying to imagine exactly how much an ambigious virtual power bar
conresponds to a real golf swing and how much they should adjust their virtual
feet to compensate for the virtual wind direction and wind speed.
The main menus is laid out as follows
Quick Start – Play a quick game against the computer
Continue – Load a save
Game Mode
Save/Load
Setup Data
Check Records – Look at personal records
Course Guide – Look at 3D videos of each hole
Option
Game Mode
This is second main menu which lists the types of golf available
Match Play – A four day tournament with 80 golfers, you must finish within the
top 40 by the second day in order to progress.
Tournament – Only players which make it to the last day can enter the Masters
Stroke Play – An 18 hole round to test your abilities
Match Play – An 18 hole round for 2 players
Training – Play a single hole
Setup Data
In this mode you can make your own golfer for use in Championship mode. You are
first shown these three options.
Register Player
Delete Player
Initialize Data – This means delete all of your created players.
After choosing Register Player you can choose to edit one of the previously
created players. Then you can enter a name and then choose one of four character
sprites. Next you will decide your characters stats. You have various golfing
“classes” to choose from. These classes are defined by the following stats
Characters
Average Player – Average in all stats
Power Hitter – Can hit the ball far and hard
Technical Type – Good at technical shots
Recovery Type – High recovery stats
Putt Type – Good at putting
Wind Type – Effective against the wind
Customize – Decide your own stats
No Change – Keeps the random stats
I personally picked the Average Player, and it worked out well.
After deciding your stats you can choose a caddy from one of four sprites.
Finally you can select your preferred clubs from the ones available in the game.
Here is a list of all the clubs. Each club is made of either Titanium, Persimmon
or Metal, all of which have different Flight and Control stats. If you don't
select any clubs the game will just give you the full set, so don't worry.
Personal Records – See below
Course Records – The records for each course
Hole Average – The putting average for each hole
Miracle Shot – The top 5 miracle shots
Replay – Watch replays of shots you have saved
Personal records.
This screen lists the following records.
Left column
Championships
Handicap
Longest Drive
Nearest to Pin
Longest Putt
Furthest Chip in
Fairway Hit Rate
On Par Rate
Average Score
Average Putt Rate
Right column
Rounds
Holes in One
Albatrosses
Eagle percentage
Birdie percentage
Par percentage
Bogey percentage
D. Bogey percentage
Other percentage
Course Guide
Course guide lists the stats of the 18 holes and also has a video explanation of
each hole.The holes at Augusta are named after plants due to the fact that the
course was a former plant nursery. Note that the stats in game differ from the
stats of the real course somewhat. Here are the stats of each hole, it also
records your average number of pots for each hole compared to the game average
1st Hole Tea Olive Par 4, 400 yards, Average 4
2nd Hole Pink Dogwood Par 5, 555 yards, Average 5
3 rd Hole Flowing Peach Par 4, 360 yards, Average 4
4th Hole Flowering Crab Apple Par 3, 205 yards, Average 3
5th Hole Magnolia Par 4, 435 yards, Average 4
6th Hole Juniper Par 3, 180 yards, Average 3
7th Hole Pampas Par 4, 360 yards, Average 4
8th Hole Yellow Jasmine Par 5, 535 yards, Average 5
9th Hole Carolina Cherry Par 4, 435 yards, Average 4
10th Hole Camellia Par 4, 485 yards, Average 4
11th Hole White Dogwood Par 4, 455 yards, Average 4
12th Hole Golden Bell Par 3, 155 yards, Average 3
13th Hole Azalea Par 5, 485 yards, Average 5
14th Hole Chinese Fir Par 4, 405 yards, Average 4
15th Hole Firethorn Par 5, 500 yards, Average 5
16th Hole Redbud Par 3, 170 yards, Average 3
17th Hole Nandina Par 4, 400 yards, Average 4
18th Hole Holly Par 4, 405 yards, Average 4
The Eisenhower Tree is on hole 17, while Ike's pond does not feature on any hole
so is presumably not in the game.
Options
Ball Trajectory – on or off
Easy Shot – on or off
BGM – on or off
Stereo – on or off
Camera – Standard, Exciting, Classic
3.Walkthrough
First set "easy shot" (イージーショット) on in the options menu to make the game much
easier. Next you will want to create a player. I recomemend choose the Average
Type golfer so that your stats are well arranged. I also recommend naming your
golfer so they stand out on the leaderboard in game.
To beat this game you need to win the main tournament in the Game Mode option.
The tournament is held over four days, which means you will playthrough all 18
holes four times. If you are not in the top 40 at the end of the second day you
are knocked out. Lucky for you, the credits will still play if this happens, but
it's probably not kosha to call that "beating the game."
If you are playing fast you can finish all 18 holes in about 30 minutes, meaning
that the game could potentially be won in two hours if you play perfectly. Sadly
this is not a perfect world and so some save scumming is going to be necessary.
Before I tell you how to do that, here is how the scoring works in golf, if you
didn't know. (I didn't)
Par is the number of strokes that a good golfer should need to complete a hole.
Obviously par is different on each hole. With that in mind this is how holes are
scored.
Albatross - Three strokes under par (-3) (very rare)
Eagle - Two strokes under par (-2)
Birdie - One stroke under par (-1)
Par - 0
Bogie - One stroke over par (+1)
Double-Bogie - Two strokes over par (+2)
Triple Bogie - Three strokes over par (+3)
For example if par was 5, the number of strokes would be as follows
The AI opponents in this game are very difficult. You need to aim for at least
seven birdies and 11 pars on the first day in order to win. Don't even bother
with Bogies. Once you are doing well the name of your golfer will appear on the
leaderboard. The number of strokes you are behind the winner will be displayed
at the start of each play. The leaderboard is confusing, but basically look at
the furest right number. That number shows you how many strokes below par they
are in total. 7 below par is good enough to take first place in my experience.
To save scum you need to press Start and choose はい to stop playing. Don't worry
you won't lose your progress unless you turn off your console. Then you need to
go to the Save / Load menu and save your game. The exact hole and place on the
course you were on when you stopped playing will be saved. For that reason I
recommend you save at the start of a hole so that you don't save yourself into
an unwinnable position. Another good place to save is when you have an easy
chance of scoring a birdie. Say you are on the green 20 or 10 feet from the
hole. You can then save scum to ensure you get that birdie.
After you have saved the game you can resume playing.
If you make a mistake simply turn off or reset your console and then continue
from the main menu. If you want to make multiple save files you are probably
going to need multiple memory paks, so be very careful. With this method winning
the tournament is just a matter of time. However the time it takes to
playthrough each hole is obviously a lot longer. Taking the length of a day's
tournament from 30 minutes to an hour. This pushes the total time of a
succcessful completion of the game up to about 4 hours.
If you can win all four days, over 72 holes, the Augusta is yours.
