''Virtual Pool Hall'' is a

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 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 ...

developed Celeris and published 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 ...

as an entry in the ''

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 ...

'' franchise, an improvement and sequel to ''

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 ...

'' and PC sequel to '' Virtual Pool 64''. The game was initially released on PC in December 1999. ''Pool Hall'' is the first game in the Virtual Pool series to have playable

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 ...

in addition to the regular

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 ...

gamemodes.

Gameplay

''Virtual Pool Hall'' boasts 128 computer AI opponents to play against, with various different game modes.

8-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 played on a billiard table with six pocket ...

and

9-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 of e ...

pool returns, as well as the choice of 4 different tables to play on. The game also features new gameplay modes, including other table based games, such as

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 ...

, and

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 ...

, as well as other

mini-games A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements and is often smaller or more simplistic than th ...

, such as

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 ...

, Honalulu and bowliards; which are all games based on billiards. The game also offers instructional videos with professional player Mike Sigel, with the option to pause the video to play the shot being attempted by the professional.

Reception

Critical Reception for ''Virtual Pool Hall'' was generally high, with review aggregator website Game Rankings scoring the game 77.50%.

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 ...

scored the game at 8.2/10 saying that the graphical quality was very good, saying "the balls and table look top-notch", and the gameplay was "as fast and enjoyable as ever". However, the review also suggested that the multiplayer support was poor, as the game had no built in multiplayer mode, but simply 3rd party support for multiplayer.

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

also gave the game an 8.2 out of 10, stating that the game has "startling precision" when it came to realism of the physics. They also cited the "impressive visuals" on display, and finished off saying "basically, Virtual Pool Hall has everything you've been looking for in a PC billiards simulation."

References

External links

*
Developer Celeris official website
{{Snooker Video Games 1999 video games Interplay Entertainment games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in the United States Virtual Pool Windows games Windows-only games