Jack Nicklaus 4
Encyclopedia
Jack Nicklaus 4 is a 1997
computer game published
by Accolade that is based on the sport of golf
. The original Microsoft Windows
version was developed
by Santa Cruz, California
-based Cinematronics
and the Apple Macintosh
version was developed by Austin, Texas
-based Eclipse Entertainment.
, Muirfield Village Golf Club
, Colleton River Plantation, Country Club of the South and Cabo del Sol. It also included one course created especially for the game. In addition to the visual layout before the player, weather effects are also a factor in play.
Play is similar to the previous games in the series, but the graphic quality and realism are greatly enhanced. For example, water hazards no longer look like blue tar pit
s, but instead reflect the surrounding environment realistically.
The same course editor
used by the developers comes with the game. It can be used to create new course and modify the ones which come with the game. Courses from the previous Jack Nicklaus Signature Edition game can be loaded into the editor, as can user-designed ones from the older game. Like with the previous games in the series, user-created courses abounded on the Internet
.
(not to be confused with the arcade game
developer also named Cinematronics
) to develop the game, early development of Jack Nicklaus 4 floated aimlessly around Accolade for years. Accolade had fairly good success with its Jack Nicklaus line of golf
games (which itself followed Accolade's popular Mean 18
series of games), but hadn't released a game in the line since 1990
. Instead of upgrading its existing game's code base
, Accolade decided to start development over. Their previous games were all DOS
-based, and Accolade wanted their next Jack Nicklaus game to run on the emergingly popular Windows 3.1 operating system
.
The game, like its predecessors, would consist of two applications: the game itself and an editor
, with which users could build their own courses or modify the courses delivered with the game.
In 1993
, Accolade had one in-house programmer
who knew how to program for the then-new Windows operating system, a tools
programmer, Gary Strawn. They selected Strawn to develop the course editor and another off-site programmer, an avid golfer himself, to develop the golf game. Incidentally, Strawn was also the only Accolade programmer who knew C++
and understood OO methodologies.
Despite the effort of the two programmers, the project lacked direction. The project was bandied about from producer
to producer, all the while the game made little progress. Strawn worked on making the editor import the old DOS-based courses, but lacked direction on a feature set to implement. And the limited communication he had with the off-site programmer of the main game portion didn't help matters.
Eventually, Strawn was joined by another programmer to handle the load of the course editor work. Strawn recruited a tester, Chris Nash, from the QA department. Nash was at the time a software engineering
college
student and his knowledge of the Windows programming environment and OO methodologies made him a prime candidate for the job. It was decided that Nash would do the GUI
work for the editor while Strawn continued to handle the back-end work (such as file
reading and course construction).
Though they still lacked a clear design, work on the course editor progressed. However, the state of the actual game was in question. The off-site programmer made infrequent trips to the office and, when he did, the "game" he demoed looked exactly the same each time. While it looked fine for an early prototype
, none of the bugs
(such as rendering rocks in red, instead of gray) were ever corrected.
Eventually it was determined that the code base for the game had to be scrapped and the off-site programmer terminated. Because of speed considerations, the programmer had developed the game in assembly
from the beginning. However, the complexity of the assembly language code eventually overwhelmed him and he was unable to determine the cause of bugs, nor how to fix them. It was evident that it would be impossible for him to ever make much progress on the game, much less finish it.
About this time, in 1995
, the game's current producer, George MacDonald, started searching for an outside developer. He eventually determined Cinematronics would be a prime developer for the golf game. Not only did they have a good track-record and a knowledgeable staff, they were located in Santa Cruz
, fairly near Accolade's San Jose, California
main office.
Originally, it was determined that Strawn and Nash would continue to develop the golf editor while Cinematronics would develop the main game. Eventually, however, Accolade requested Cinematronics develop both portions of the product and development of the editor was also assigned to them.
Shortly after Cinematronics took over the development of the game, Accolade brought in Mike Franco to be the in-house producer. Meanwhile, Cinematronics had moved from Santa Cruz, California
to Austin, Texas
and the close proximity advantage was lost. In addition, feature requests by Accolade greatly extended the development scope of the project and pushed out the completion date. In the meantime, Cinematronics had been purchased by Maxis
, which meant that one of Accolade's major competitors was now developing one of their products. This did not, however, prevent Cinematronics from delivering the product on time—indeed, Accolade's test team was unprepared to receive the product at the end of 1996
, delaying code release and putting the developers in a holding pattern for a couple months.
None of the source code from the original game was used in the final Cinematronics produced product.
Just when they thought they had it solved, they ran into a major problem: with short putts the ball would bounce out of the cup. Nothing seemed to solve the problem. Finally, in frustration, Fregger suggested that, with short putts, they "Just put the ball into the hole ... this is, after all, a computer program." The programmer rolled his eyes and left the room. The next day the programmer announced, "I've solved the problem! I just moved the metal cup down one inch below the top of the hole and now the balls go in properly. And, I didn't have to fudge the phyics to make it work!"
Brad immediately called Franco to announce that the "short putt" problem had finally been solved, "He moved the metal cup down an inch from the top of the hole... sure hope that's okay." There was silence on the other end of the line. Finally he said, "Sorry, Brad, I forgot to tell you that that's what they do on real golf courses."
. Immediately after being relinquished of the duties of programming the editor for the game, Strawn was recruited by the Deadlock
team to help program for their game. Eventually Strawn would go on to be lead programmer
on some of Accolade's later titles.
Nash stayed in the tools department, by now a college graduate. After developing some marketing tools, Nash left Accolade for the ill-fated game developer Morpheus. Eventually, however, he landed at Engineering Animation, Inc.
where he became lead programmer on two titles.
joined Cinemtronics in 1996
as a senior producer and managed the project. The Jack Nicklaus 4 design was written by Kevin Gliner, with later additions by Fregger.
to the Apple Macintosh by Eclipse Entertainment. This version of the game was produced by Brad Fregger
, who also produced 1998's
Jack Nicklaus 5.
Jack Nicklaus 5 would turn out to be the last Jack Nicklaus golf game developed or published by Accolade. The next installment of the series, Jack Nicklaus 6, was released by Activision
.
1997 in video gaming
-Events:*October 4 — Gunpei Yokoi dies after a double car accident.*November – Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association launched.*3rd annual E3...
computer game published
Video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....
by Accolade that is based on the sport of golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
. The original Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
version was developed
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
by Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
-based Cinematronics
Cinematronics, LLC
Cinematronics, LLC was a Texas-based developer of games for the PC and Mac, founded in 1994 by David Stafford, Mike Sandige and Kevin Gliner. They developed Tritryst for Virgin Interactive, Full Tilt! Pinball for Maxis, and Jack Nicklaus 4 for Accolade...
and the Apple Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
version was developed by Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
-based Eclipse Entertainment.
Description
The game included four courses designed by Jack NicklausJack Nicklaus
Jack William Nicklaus , nicknamed "The Golden Bear", is an American professional golfer. He won 18 career major championships on the PGA Tour over a span of 25 years and is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional golfers of all time. In addition to his 18 Majors, he was runner-up a...
, Muirfield Village Golf Club
Muirfield Village
Muirfield Village is an upscale golf-oriented community located in the Columbus suburb of Dublin, Ohio. Founded by Jack Nicklaus, and named after Muirfield, the village contains a golf course that is home to the Memorial Tournament each year. A statue of the founder can be found along Muirfield...
, Colleton River Plantation, Country Club of the South and Cabo del Sol. It also included one course created especially for the game. In addition to the visual layout before the player, weather effects are also a factor in play.
Play is similar to the previous games in the series, but the graphic quality and realism are greatly enhanced. For example, water hazards no longer look like blue tar pit
Tar pit
A tar pit, or more accurately known as an asphalt pit or asphalt lake, is a geological occurrence where subterranean bitumen leaks to the surface, creating a large area of natural asphalt.-Known tar pits:...
s, but instead reflect the surrounding environment realistically.
The same course editor
Level editor
A level editor is a software tool used to design levels, maps, campaigns, etc and virtual worlds for a video game. In some cases the creator of a video game releases an official level editor for a game, but other times the community of fans step in to fill the void...
used by the developers comes with the game. It can be used to create new course and modify the ones which come with the game. Courses from the previous Jack Nicklaus Signature Edition game can be loaded into the editor, as can user-designed ones from the older game. Like with the previous games in the series, user-created courses abounded on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
Windows development history
Before contracting with CinematronicsCinematronics, LLC
Cinematronics, LLC was a Texas-based developer of games for the PC and Mac, founded in 1994 by David Stafford, Mike Sandige and Kevin Gliner. They developed Tritryst for Virgin Interactive, Full Tilt! Pinball for Maxis, and Jack Nicklaus 4 for Accolade...
(not to be confused with the arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
developer also named Cinematronics
Cinematronics
Cinematronics Incorporated was a pioneering arcade game developer that had its heyday in the era of vector display games. While other companies released games based on raster displays, early in their history, Cinematronics and Atari released vector-display games, which offered a distinctive look...
) to develop the game, early development of Jack Nicklaus 4 floated aimlessly around Accolade for years. Accolade had fairly good success with its Jack Nicklaus line of golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
games (which itself followed Accolade's popular Mean 18
Mean 18
Mean 18 is the name of a series of computer golf games released by Accolade in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It is also the name of the first game in the series. In the early 1990s, the series was phased out by Accolade's Jack Nicklaus series of golf games, which arrived in 1990...
series of games), but hadn't released a game in the line since 1990
1990 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*Bonk's Adventure is released for NEC's TurboGrafx-16 and is the first US appearance of Bonk, the mascot of the TurboGrafx-16.*February 12 — Nintendo releases the NES game Super Mario Bros. 3 in North America...
. Instead of upgrading its existing game's code base
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
, Accolade decided to start development over. Their previous games were all DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
-based, and Accolade wanted their next Jack Nicklaus game to run on the emergingly popular Windows 3.1 operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
.
The game, like its predecessors, would consist of two applications: the game itself and an editor
Level editor
A level editor is a software tool used to design levels, maps, campaigns, etc and virtual worlds for a video game. In some cases the creator of a video game releases an official level editor for a game, but other times the community of fans step in to fill the void...
, with which users could build their own courses or modify the courses delivered with the game.
In 1993
1993 in video gaming
-Events:*March — In Sweden, the Swedish video game magazine Super PLAY starts. The original name is Super Power.*Midway Games embroiled in controversy for its game Mortal Kombat from 1992 when the game is launched for video game consoles in 1993....
, Accolade had one in-house programmer
Game programmer
A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebase for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines all of which fall under the umbrella term of "game programmer"...
who knew how to program for the then-new Windows operating system, a tools
Game development tool
A game development tool is a specialized software application that assists or facilitates the making of a computer or video game. Some tasks handled by tools include the conversion of assets into formats required by the game, level editing and script compilation.Almost all game development tools...
programmer, Gary Strawn. They selected Strawn to develop the course editor and another off-site programmer, an avid golfer himself, to develop the golf game. Incidentally, Strawn was also the only Accolade programmer who knew C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
and understood OO methodologies.
Despite the effort of the two programmers, the project lacked direction. The project was bandied about from producer
Game producer
A video game producer is the person in charge of overseeing development of a video game.The earliest documented use of the term producer in games was by Trip Hawkins, who established the position when he founded Electronic Arts in 1982...
to producer, all the while the game made little progress. Strawn worked on making the editor import the old DOS-based courses, but lacked direction on a feature set to implement. And the limited communication he had with the off-site programmer of the main game portion didn't help matters.
Eventually, Strawn was joined by another programmer to handle the load of the course editor work. Strawn recruited a tester, Chris Nash, from the QA department. Nash was at the time a software engineering
Software engineering
Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...
college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
student and his knowledge of the Windows programming environment and OO methodologies made him a prime candidate for the job. It was decided that Nash would do the GUI
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
work for the editor while Strawn continued to handle the back-end work (such as file
Computer file
A computer file is a block of arbitrary information, or resource for storing information, which is available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind of durable storage. A file is durable in the sense that it remains available for programs to use after the current program has finished...
reading and course construction).
Though they still lacked a clear design, work on the course editor progressed. However, the state of the actual game was in question. The off-site programmer made infrequent trips to the office and, when he did, the "game" he demoed looked exactly the same each time. While it looked fine for an early prototype
Technology demo
A tech demo is a prototype, rough example or an otherwise incomplete version of a product, put together with the primary purpose of showcasing the idea, performance, method or the features of the product...
, none of the bugs
Software bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...
(such as rendering rocks in red, instead of gray) were ever corrected.
Eventually it was determined that the code base for the game had to be scrapped and the off-site programmer terminated. Because of speed considerations, the programmer had developed the game in assembly
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
from the beginning. However, the complexity of the assembly language code eventually overwhelmed him and he was unable to determine the cause of bugs, nor how to fix them. It was evident that it would be impossible for him to ever make much progress on the game, much less finish it.
About this time, in 1995
1995 in video gaming
-Events:*May 11 – Introduction of trade magazine GameWeek *May 11-16 — The 1st annual Electronic Entertainment Expo is held in Los Angeles, California...
, the game's current producer, George MacDonald, started searching for an outside developer. He eventually determined Cinematronics would be a prime developer for the golf game. Not only did they have a good track-record and a knowledgeable staff, they were located in Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
, fairly near Accolade's San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
main office.
Originally, it was determined that Strawn and Nash would continue to develop the golf editor while Cinematronics would develop the main game. Eventually, however, Accolade requested Cinematronics develop both portions of the product and development of the editor was also assigned to them.
Shortly after Cinematronics took over the development of the game, Accolade brought in Mike Franco to be the in-house producer. Meanwhile, Cinematronics had moved from Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
to Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
and the close proximity advantage was lost. In addition, feature requests by Accolade greatly extended the development scope of the project and pushed out the completion date. In the meantime, Cinematronics had been purchased by Maxis
Maxis
Maxis is an American company founded as an independent video game developer in 1987. It is currently a subsidiary of Electronic Arts . Maxis is the creator of one of the best-selling computer games of all time, The Sims and its first sequel, The Sims 2...
, which meant that one of Accolade's major competitors was now developing one of their products. This did not, however, prevent Cinematronics from delivering the product on time—indeed, Accolade's test team was unprepared to receive the product at the end of 1996
1996 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*January 29 — Duke Nukem 3D, successor to the simple side-scrolling originals, and a genre-redefining title for first person shooters....
, delaying code release and putting the developers in a holding pattern for a couple months.
None of the source code from the original game was used in the final Cinematronics produced product.
Physics
One of the issues that had to be dealt with early on was the desire by Cinematronics to create a more realistic physics model than the competing products of the day. In Cinematronics' view, better physics meant a game that felt more like real golf. While this was ultimately borne out, it took weeks of research, as there was very little information available concerning how the golf ball would fly under different conditions, swings, etc.Just when they thought they had it solved, they ran into a major problem: with short putts the ball would bounce out of the cup. Nothing seemed to solve the problem. Finally, in frustration, Fregger suggested that, with short putts, they "Just put the ball into the hole ... this is, after all, a computer program." The programmer rolled his eyes and left the room. The next day the programmer announced, "I've solved the problem! I just moved the metal cup down one inch below the top of the hole and now the balls go in properly. And, I didn't have to fudge the phyics to make it work!"
Brad immediately called Franco to announce that the "short putt" problem had finally been solved, "He moved the metal cup down an inch from the top of the hole... sure hope that's okay." There was silence on the other end of the line. Finally he said, "Sorry, Brad, I forgot to tell you that that's what they do on real golf courses."
Afterward
Jack Nicklaus 4 for Windows was completed and released in 19971997 in video gaming
-Events:*October 4 — Gunpei Yokoi dies after a double car accident.*November – Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association launched.*3rd annual E3...
. Immediately after being relinquished of the duties of programming the editor for the game, Strawn was recruited by the Deadlock
Deadlock: Planetary Conquest
Deadlock: Planetary Conquest is a turn-based strategy computer game by Accolade. The game was officially released in 1996. The story revolves around eight races' struggle for control over the planet Gallius IV, which came to a deadlock...
team to help program for their game. Eventually Strawn would go on to be lead programmer
Lead programmer
A lead programmer is a software engineer in charge of one or more software projects. Alternative titles include Development Lead, Technical Lead, Senior Software Engineer, Software Design Engineer Lead , Software Manager, or Senior Applications Developer...
on some of Accolade's later titles.
Nash stayed in the tools department, by now a college graduate. After developing some marketing tools, Nash left Accolade for the ill-fated game developer Morpheus. Eventually, however, he landed at Engineering Animation, Inc.
Engineering Animation, Inc.
Engineering Animation, Inc. was a services and software company based in Ames, Iowa , United States. It remained headquartered there from its incorporation in 1990 until it was acquired by Unigraphics Solutions, Inc. in 1999...
where he became lead programmer on two titles.
Credits
The physics engine for Jack Nicklaus 4 was written by Dennis Clark. Mike Sandige wrote the 3D engine. Jim Mischel created the editor. Brad FreggerBrad Fregger
Brad Fregger is an American entrepreneur, author and former game producer publisher, and book publisher.Fregger was involved in the computer and video game industry at its inception...
joined Cinemtronics in 1996
1996 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*January 29 — Duke Nukem 3D, successor to the simple side-scrolling originals, and a genre-redefining title for first person shooters....
as a senior producer and managed the project. The Jack Nicklaus 4 design was written by Kevin Gliner, with later additions by Fregger.
Legacy
Jack Nicklaus 4 was portedPorting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
to the Apple Macintosh by Eclipse Entertainment. This version of the game was produced by Brad Fregger
Brad Fregger
Brad Fregger is an American entrepreneur, author and former game producer publisher, and book publisher.Fregger was involved in the computer and video game industry at its inception...
, who also produced 1998's
1998 in video gaming
-Events:*Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts 1st Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; inducts Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo to the AIAS Hall of Fame*British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosts the 1st annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards...
Jack Nicklaus 5.
Jack Nicklaus 5 would turn out to be the last Jack Nicklaus golf game developed or published by Accolade. The next installment of the series, Jack Nicklaus 6, was released by Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
.