''Leader Board'' (sometimes ''Leaderboard'') is a series of

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

simulation

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

s that was developed by Bruce Carver and Roger Carver, and published by

Access Software Access Software, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Founded in November 1982 by Bruce Carver and Chris Jones (Access Software), Chris Jones, the company created the ''Beach Head (video game), Beach Head'', ...

Summary

left, Teeing off on the first hole (Atari ST) ''Leader Board'', the first game in the series, was released in 1986 and included four different water-based

courses Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...

. It was well received, being rated as 97% overall by ''

Zzap!64 ''Zzap!64'' is a computer games magazine covering games for computers manufactured by Commodore International, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazi ...

'' magazine and being prized with their "Gold Award". It was also highly rated by other magazines, with ''

Your Sinclair ''Your Sinclair'', originally ''Your Spectrum'' or ''YS'', is a discontinued British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum. It was commercially published between 1984 and 1993. History The magazine was la ...

'' rating it 9 out of 10, ''

Sinclair User The ''Sinclair User'' was a magazine dedicated to the Sinclair Research range of home computers, most specifically the ZX Spectrum (while also occasionally covering arcade games). Initially published by ECC Publications, and later EMAP, it was pub ...

'' giving it five stars, and '' Crash'' rating it 80%. ''Leaderboard Tournament'', released the same year, was a series of expansion disks each containing four new courses. The second game in the series was ''Leader Board: Executive Edition'', which was released in 1987 and contained new landscape and course features, such as trees and

bunkers A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. T ...

. Despite these additions, the game was less well received than its predecessor, being given an overall rating of 72% by ''Zzap!64'' magazine. '' World Class Leader Board'' was the last game in the series and included four courses; Cypress Creek,

Doral Country Club Trump National Doral Miami, also known as Doral Resort and Spa, is a golf resort in Doral in South Florida in the United States. It was founded by real estate pioneer Alfred Kaskel in 1962, with the name "Doral" coming from an amalgamation of th ...

St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...

, and the fictional Gauntlet Country Club. Three course expansion disks were later released. Special features in this final version included a course overview (overhead view), the punch shot, a printable score card, the use of RealSound, and a course editor which allowed changes to be made to the existing courses. It was considered a vast improvement on Executive, being given a 94% overall rating by ''Zzap!64'' magazine, and 9 out of 10 by ''Your Sinclair''.

Reception

''Leaderboard'' was the best-selling

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

game of 1986 in the United Kingdom. ''Leader Board'' was Access' third best-selling Commodore game as of late 1987. Rick Teverbaugh reviewed the game for ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...

'', and stated that "Leader Board has the most realistic putting feel of any golf game I've ever tried. When the ball finally makes it into the cup, the sound of that success is also amazingly realistic." '' Compute!'s Gazette'' praised the Commodore 64 version's realism and amazing ("there is no other word for it") graphics. While noting ''Leader Board''s use of only

water hazard A hazard is an area of a golf course in the sport of golf which provides a difficult obstacle, which may be of two types: (1) penalty areas such as lakes and rivers; and (2) bunkers. A penalty area was previously referred to as a water hazard ...

s, and no difference in color between the fairway and

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

, the magazine concluded that it "is fun, a lot of fun, and as addicting as the real game". ''

'' stated that ''Leader Board'' for the Amiga improved on the Commodore 64 version, and praised the graphics, but preferred the also-outstanding '' Mean 18''. ''

Info Info is shorthand for "information Information is an Abstraction, abstract concept that refers to something which has the power Communication, to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the Interpretation (philosophy), interpr ...

'' gave the Amiga version four stars out of five, liking the gameplay and "nicely done graphics" but noting the absence of a practice green or course construction. The magazine concluded, "It's tough to choose between this and Mean 18". ''

Antic Alphanumeric Television Interface Controller (ANTIC) is an LSI ASIC dedicated to generating 2D computer graphics to be shown on a television screen or computer display. Under the direction of Jay Miner, the chip was designed in 1977–1978 b ...

'' wrote that the Atari ST version "will keep you happy for hours", praising its graphics. While noting deviations from the rules of golf, the reviewer concluded recommending ''Leader Board'' "as an entertaining game for anyone, regardless of skill and knowledge of golf".

References

External links

''Leader Board''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

* * * * {{Access Software 1986 video games Amiga games Amstrad CPC games Amstrad PCW games Apple II games Atari 8-bit computer games Atari ST games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games Commodore 64 games Commodore 128 games Game Gear games Golf video games Classic Mac OS games Master System games Sega Genesis games Tiertex Design Studios games U.S. Gold games Video game franchises Video games developed in the United States ZX Spectrum games