textfiles/games/REVIEWS/tvsprts.rev

 TV SPORTS: BASKETBALL 
  
 I'm going to open this review with a bold claim: I dislike games
that don't work. With TV SPORTS: BASKETBALL (TVSB) by Cinemaware, I
had trouble even trying to like this game (although for more reasons
than the fact that it wouldn't run). Unfortunately, it is extremely
picky about your computer's setup and will not run with any
RAM-resident programs or drivers that I could find, except for
MS-DOS 4.01's SHARE.EXE and a mouse driver. Even though memory may
not be a problem for most people, the program will still freeze
while loading if almost anything else is resident. So no matter what
you do, you still have to create a separate boot disk to run TVSB, 
assuming you can even get TVSB to run. (This review is based on the
IBM-PC version.) 
  
 After I finally convinced TVSB to start up, I was almost pleased, 
at least at first. Although the program only supports the internal
speaker, it uses something called "ReelSound" to give you a bit more
than loud squeaks. Of course, ReelSound cannot compare to anything
you could get out of a sound card. The graphics were fairly good in
the VGA version, although they were nothing special. For some
reason, the designers refused to use anything close to 256 colors, 
and it was fairly obvious where they cut the proverbial corners. 
  
 TVSB lets you design your own teams and play a 24-game season, with
playoffs. Any number of teams can be managed by human players, 
although all the humans have to play their games (or pass and let
the computer play for them) before the next round of play can
begin. You are given a certain number of points to allocate to each
of your players and to your coach in various skills, such as
shooting and defense, assuming you don't like your team's default
configuration. You can also set the game length to 3-, 6-, 9-, or
12-minute quarters, and put anywhere from two to five players on the
court. Once the season has started, there is no way to make any more
changes; you will have to end the current season and start over
again. There is also an exhibition mode where you can select any
combination of teams. 
  
 Unlike some other sports games, TVSB concentrates almost entirely
on the arcade action. The only way you can coach your team is by
calling time-outs and making substitutions. There is not even the
option to call for a simple play, like a press against the
computer, although the computer has no trouble pressing against a
human team. However, Cinemaware created a fairly simple but nice way
of controlling your players. Unless you choose to play in
"role-playing" mode (where you always control one particular
player), you always control the person with the ball on offense. On
defense, you can switch to the player who is closest to the ball. 
Quite often, however, the person closest to the ball is behind his
opponent, where he cannot defend. 
  
 I had the definite impression that the computer "cheats" in this
game, especially during league games. Your computer-controlled
teammates almost never slam-dunk and have a hard time bringing the
ball down-court. The computer opponent, on the other hand, often
gets fast breaks. Your players always set themselves up in the same
position on defense, even if there is someone going for a fast break
right in front of them. They will just stand around, even under
computer control, and let the other team score. And even when your
players are running down-court far ahead of the other team (either
on offense or defense), the computer opponent will always manage to
run ahead of them, no matter how quick your players are. The
computer also usually has a much higher shooting average, no matter
how good your shooters are, or how well you defend against the other
team. 
  
 The worst part of this game, though, is the amazing fourth-quarter
miracle, which is much worse in league games than in exhibition
mode. The computer's already high shooting percentage increases, 
even under the pressure of good defense. The fourth quarter is also
when the computer team starts using a press, keeping your team from
getting the ball across the half-line, and costing you possession. 
However, as I mentioned before, there is no way to return the
favor, and often there is no way to break the press. I have also
found that no matter how large your lead in earlier quarters, the
computer usually ends up winning by the end of the game. Often, 
you'll need a ten-point lead (even for 3-minute quarters) just to
squeak by at the end. The computer plays so amazingly (or unfairly) 
well then that it's more than frustrating. 
  
 Supposedly, TVSB lets you play with up to four human players on
either one or both teams, although you have to play in exhibition
mode. But you will often have to reconfigure the game to add the
third or fourth player, which means rebooting your system (since
TVSB doesn't have a "return to DOS" command) and re-running the
setup program. If you want to turn off the sound or change its
volume, you will also have to reboot and reconfigure. I only tried
playing with a third person a few times, but since there is also no
way to stop a game mid-point without rebooting when you realize
you've made a mistake, it soon becomes too much of a pain to even
bother. 
  
 TVSB comes on four 360K disks. Two of these disks are for the VGA
version and two for the EGA and Tandy versions. You can install to a
hard drive, but not to the master disks that came with your game. 
According to the box, the EGA and Tandy versions require 512K of
RAM, while the VGA version needs 640K. Only a "turbo XT" is
recommended, and since the game plays in real time, there will
probably be little difference between XTs and 486 machines. TV
SPORTS: BASKETBALL has the standard "look up word XXX on line YYY in
paragraph ZZZ on page NNN" type of copy protection, which means you
have to type a word from the manual before you can start a game. 
  
 TV SPORTS: BASKETBALL is not all that it could have been. Minor
things (such as a computer that is too good, and memory conflicts) 
add up to a lot of frustration. If you expect to play against
another person on a regular basis, you might find TVSB better than I
did. If you decide that you might like this game, I would advise
buying it from a store with a generous return policy. You may
discover that TVSB is just too incompatible. Or you might just have
to return it before you find yourself throwing heavy objects at your
monitor. But don't expect too much out of TVSB, no matter how
patient you are. It might be fun for the first few games, but
eventually you will probably get too sick of the computer's cheating
to play any more than the occasional exhibition game. I know that I
certainly did. 

 TV SPORTS: BASKETBALL is published by Cinemaware and distributed by
Electronic Arts.