Power Golf (TG16)

Power Golf

Platform: TurboGrafx-16 Year: 1989 Developer: Hudson Soft

Power Golf is a golf simulation game developed and published by Hudson Soft and published by NEC Home Electronics in North America.

The game offers a variety of modes to choose from. The first option is Stroke Play, which is a single player exhibition game. The Match Play mode allows you to play with one other player or computer player, and the Competition option requires two human players to play. The player must get their ball in all 18 holes in the shortest amount of strokes possible. Each course has a Par; the number of strokes to beat. You can choose from the usual range of clubs such as woods, irons, sand wedge, and the putter. Swinging the ball has similar functionality to NES Open Tournament Golf (NES), where two arrows quickly descend/ascend a line, and the player must press a button to stop the arrows in the right places to get the ball to swing. Also like most other golf simulators at the time, there is a wind and distance meter to help you out.

The game received mixed reviews from critics. Aktueller Software Markt praised the graphics, but criticized the playability, user-friendliness, and rated both fun and value for money 8 out of 12. GameSpot rated it a 6/10; again, they praised the graphics, audio, and overall presentation, but complained about certain quirks about the game, like for instance, requiring a second controller to play against a computer player. They did compliment how watching computers play is a good way to study how the game and clubs work.

Screenshots

The title screen. The main menu. The first hole. Not too bad... The 18th hole is completed. The results.

Music

Power Golf was composed by Daisuke Inoue, who had been composing music for Hudson for a few years at this point. He also previously composed their earlier title in the same series, World Class Baseball (TG16) (called Power League in Japan.) The music resembles Inoue's usual style; rock tracks with some funk elements thrown in. The title and menu themes in particular resemble his work in China Warrior (TG16). There are also several jingles that play depending on your score when your ball goes into the hole. The HES file contains a version of the title screen with its intro stripped, but this is never used in the game.

To compose the music, Inoue wrote the music in SMF format in Performer for the Macintosh. He then sent his music to Hudson Soft, and their audio team implemented it into code. It was most likely arranged to the TurboGrafx-16 by Toshiaki Takimoto.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Listen	Download
01	Title Screen	Daisuke Inoue	Unknown	1:15		Download
02	Menu	Daisuke Inoue	Unknown	1:26		Download
03	Main Theme	Daisuke Inoue	Unknown	2:18		Download
04	Hole In One	Daisuke Inoue	Unknown	0:05		Download
05	Albatross, Eagle, Birdie	Daisuke Inoue	Unknown	0:02		Download
06	Par	Daisuke Inoue	Unknown	0:02		Download
07	Bogey, Double Bogey, Triple Bogey	Daisuke Inoue	Unknown	0:02		Download
08	7~12 Strokes	Daisuke Inoue	Unknown	0:05		Download
09	Hole Out	Daisuke Inoue	Unknown	0:05		Download
10	Result	Daisuke Inoue	Unknown	1:14		Download
11	Title Screen (Alternate)	Daisuke Inoue	Unknown	1:10		Download

Credits

• Ripper: MusicFox (VGZ)
• Recorder: Doommaster1994
• Game Credits:
  • Uncredited Composer: Daisuke Inoue
  • Uncredited Sound Driver: Takayuki Iwabuchi
  • Unknown Arranger: Unknown

(Source: Verification from composer; Game lacks credits.)

The game does not have any credits. We have contacted Daisuke Inoue who confirmed composing the game's music. Toshiaki Takimoto most likely was the game's arranger; the other games that use the same version of Iwabuchi's sound driver used in this game credit Takimoto as a sound programmer; Hudson's way of crediting the arranger who converted the composers' music into the sound driver. These games include Break In, Sadakichi Seven: Hideyoshi no Ougon, and Yuuyuu Jinsei.

Game Rip

Format	Download

Ripping TurboGrafx-16 music is an arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site. The music was recorded using in_vgm for Winamp.

Audio Devices

The game uses the TurboGrafx-16's HuC6280. It uses Takayuki Iwabuchi's sound driver.

Releases

Japan Title: パワーゴルフ (Power Golf) Platform: PC Engine Released: 1989-05-25 Publisher: Hudson Soft     USA Title: Power Golf Platform: TurboGrafx-16 Released: 1989-??-?? Publisher: NEC

Links

• gamefaqs.gamespot.com/tg16/589075-power-golf - GameFAQs.
• mobygames.com/game/turbo-grafx/power-golf - MobyGames.