''Virtual Pool'' is a 3D, first-person

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

simulation A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...

video game series This is a list of video game franchises, organized alphabetically. All entries include multiple video games, not counting ports or altered re-releases. 0–9 *''1080° Snowboarding'' *''1942'' *'' 3D Ultra Minigolf'' *'' 3-D Ultra Pinball'' *'' ...

with

computer simulation Computer simulation is the running of a mathematical model on a computer, the model being designed to represent the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be determin ...

s of

cue sports Cue sports are a wide variety of Game of skill, games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a Baize, cloth-covered billiards table, table bounded by elastic bumpers known a ...

which was developed by Celeris. The games in the series simulate

pool Pool may refer to: Bodies of water * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a roc ...

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...

and

carom billiards Carom billiards, also called French billiards and sometimes carambole billiards, is the overarching title of a family of cue sports generally played on cloth-covered, billiard tables. In its simplest form, the object of the game is to score ...

. The ''Virtual Pool'' series focuses on accurate simulation and improving the player's ability to play the sport in real life. ''Virtual Pool'' releases are sold with a

money back guarantee A money-back guarantee, also known as a satisfaction guarantee, is essentially a simple guarantee that, if a buyer is not satisfied with a product or service, a refund will be made. The 18th century entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood pioneered many of ...

to improve a player's external game.

Overview

The main selling point of the ''Virtual Pool''-series games is that they were designed and tested by

programmers A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles ''software developer'' and ''software engineer'' are used for jobs that require a program ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

s and professional players. According to the game box, its simulation was "guaranteed to improve your actual pool play or your money back". The series was endorsed by professional players

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 was dominant during the 1980s in 9-Ball and Straight P ...

and

Jeanette Lee Jeanette Lee (born Lee Jin-Hee, , July 9, 1971) is an American professional pool player. She was nicknamed the Black Widow because, in spite of her sweet demeanor, she would "eat people alive" when she got to a pool table and always wear blac ...

and equipment manufacturers Viking Cues, Imperial International, Schön Custom Cues, Creative Innovations and Joss Cues. The games' graphics capabilities vary by platform to platform, but their environmental realism (such as a

pool hall A billiard hall, also known as a pool hall, snooker hall, pool room or pool parlour, is a place where people get together for playing cue sports such as pool, snooker or carom billiards. Such establishments commonly serve alcohol and often ...

) is on par with the graphics in other contemporary rendered games (like

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

s). The games' use of first-person perspective, rather than using an overhead view, contributed to the series' success. The complexity of the games increased over time, from ''

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'' series f ...

'' four game types to ''Virtual Pool 4'' 18 pool games on championship and bar tables,

English billiards English billiards, called simply billiards in the UK and in many former British colonies, is a cue sport that combines the aspects of carom billiards and pool. Two (one white and one yellow) and a red are used. Each player or team uses a diffe ...

, four carom games and four pub pool

eight-ball Eight-ball (also spelled 8-ball or eightball, and sometimes called solids and stripes, spots and stripes, bigs and smalls, big ones and little ones, or rarely highs and lows) is a discipline of Pool (cue sports), pool played on a billiard tabl ...

games. Other improvements included more venues and computerized opponents, equipment-upgrade purchases, customizable tables, video tutorials, two career-play modes and a trick-shot library. Online capability includes pool rooms with multiple players and spectators, tournaments, ladders, a social network with player profiles, friends, statistics and shot uploads.

Series

Celeris, creators of the ''Virtual Pool'' franchise, created their first title ('' FlixMix'', a

DOS DOS (, ) is a family of disk-based operating systems for IBM PC compatible computers. The DOS family primarily consists of IBM PC DOS and a rebranded version, Microsoft's MS-DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible syste ...

jigsaw puzzle A jigsaw puzzle (with context, sometimes just jigsaw or just puzzle) is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaicked pieces. Typically each piece has a portion of a picture, which is comple ...

game) in 1993. After this release, Celeris published their first 3D game (''

'') in 1995. The game had four pool modes:

straight pool Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a Cue sports, cue sport in which two competing players attempt to as many s as possible without playing a . The game was the primary version of Pool (cue sports), pool play ...

nine-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 o ...

and

rotation pool Rotation, sometimes called rotation pool, 15-ball rotation, or 61, is a pool game, played with a billiards table, , and triangular rack of fifteen billiard balls, in which the lowest-numbered on the table must be always struck by the cue ball f ...

. With pool world champion

Lou Butera Lou Butera (May 15, 1937 – June 25, 2015) was an American professional pool player (then retired and operated a pool hall) and an inductee into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 1986. His nickname, "Machine Gun Lou", derives f ...

, it guaranteed to improve the player's pool game (a guarantee which continued through the main-series ''Virtual Pool'' titles). The game was successful, and ''

Virtual Pool 2 ''Virtual Pool 2'' (acronymed to VP2) is a 3D computer graphics, 3D, First person (video games), first-person Sports game, sports Simulation game, simulation video game developed by Celeris and released by VR Sports on behalf of Interplay Product ...

'' (with a wider range of pool games, including

three-ball Three-ball (or "3-ball", colloquially) is a folk game of pool played with any three standard pool s and . The game is frequently gambled upon. The goal is to () the three object balls in as few shots as possible.bank pool Bank pool is a pool game that has as its most fundamental requirement that all scoring shots in the game must be made by a called ball off a and into a called pocket. While the game has multiple variations, the predominant version through much ...

) was produced in 1997. ''Virtual Pool 2'', with improved graphics, was released exclusively for PC. Over 120 AI opponents and online multiplayer capability were introduced, with Mike Sigil joining Butera for this game. The following year's ''

Virtual Pool Hall ''Virtual Pool Hall'' is a sports simulation video game developed Celeris and published by Interplay Entertainment as an entry in the ''Virtual Pool'' franchise, an improvement and sequel to ''Virtual Pool 2'' and PC sequel to '' Virtual Pool 64 ...

'' for Windows contained graphics and game modes similar to ''Virtual Pool 2'' and features which would be retained in ''Virtual Pool 3'', including a

mode (adapted from ''Virtual Snooker'') and the series' first

mode. The game contained instructional videos similar to ''VP2'', performed by world champion

. '' Virtual Pool 3'' was released in 2000 for PC, but was later ported to the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

and

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

. ''VP3'' featured

, carom and

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...

games in addition to pool. The game, endorsed by women's world champion

, was released and distributed by

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

and

Global Star Software Global Star Software was a Canadian video game publisher based in Mississauga. It was founded in 1995 by Craig McGauley and Damian Cristiani and operated alongside their Triad Distributors, which had been founded in 1993. Both companies were acqu ...

. It received the highest

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

score of any main-series title . More than eleven years after ''VP3'', ''Virtual Pool 4'' was released; in the interim, many patches were released for ''VP3''. ''Virtual Pool 4'' had two releases: a single-player and offline multiplayer version in 2012 and an online multiplayer variant, ''Virtual Pool 4 Multiplayer'', in 2015. ''Virtual Pool 4'' (in both versions) was later released on

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

after a period on

Steam Greenlight Steam is a digital distribution service and storefront developed by Valve. It was launched as a software client in September 2003 to provide video game updates automatically for Valve's games and expanded to distributing third-party titles in l ...

. An

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

version was released in December 2015. ''Virtual Pool 4'' has mode and graphical upgrades from its previous incarnation (including snooker, billiards and pool modes) and the ability to change table size and handicaps for certain players. The game also has a

trick shot A trick shot (also trickshot or trick-shot) is a shot played on a billiards table (most often a pool table, though snooker tables are also used) which seems unlikely or impossible or requires significant skill. Trick shots frequently involve ...

mode, with standard trick shots and the ability to set up new ones.

Spin-off and ported games

Although it is primarily a PC game,

console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...

versions have been released. Celeris released '' Virtual Snooker'', a

game with the same engine as ''Virtual Pool'', in 1996. It contained only snooker games (no pool). After the release of ''Virtual Pool 2'', Celeris worked with

VR Sports 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 ...

to produce a game for the

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...

. The game was released in 1998 as '' Virtual Pool 64'', using the same naming convention as ''

Super Mario 64 ''Super Mario 64'' is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan and North America in 1996 and PAL regions in 1997. It is the first ''Super Mario'' game to feature 3D gameplay, combini ...

'', and '' Goldeneye 64''. With gameplay and modes similar to ''Virtual Pool 2'', it was condensed to fit on a cartridge. The series' first

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

console version, '' Virtual Pool: Tournament Edition'' (

ported In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desig ...

by Ingram Entertainment), was released in 2006. It contained a career mode which would later develop into the hustle-tour mode in ''Virtual Pool 4'', the

and

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

game ''Virtual Pool Online HD'' (ported by Fried Green Apps in 2010) and''Virtual Pool Mobile'', an Android 2.2+ version released in 2012 by Celeris.

Releases

Reception

The ''Virtual Pool'' series has received a moderate-to-good reception from critics, with '' Virtual Pool 3'' the highest-rated game. A ''

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 ...

'' review of ''Virtual Pool Hall'' praised its game mechanics, particularly the ball-collision physics. ''Virtual Pool 2'' received a perfect score (100) from the German '' PC Player'' magazine. However, some reviews of the series called the games "boring" due to the nature of pool simulation.

Awards

''Virtual Pool'' was voted the Best Sports Game of 1995 by ''

PC Gamer US ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...

'' and the 1995

Game of the Year Game of the Year (GotY) is an award given to a video game by various award events and media publications that they feel represented the pinnacle of gaming that year. Events and ceremonies British Academy Games Awards (BAFTA Games Awards) ...

by ''Games'' magazine. ''Virtual Pool 2'' was a finalist for the

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain Summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...

' 1997 Personal Computer Sports Game of the Year award, which was won by '' FIFA: Road to World Cup 98''.

Notes

References

External links

Virtual Pool 4 Online

''Virtual Pool'' series
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 ...

{{Snooker Video Games Video game franchises introduced in 1995 Video game franchises