For a while, in the mid Eighties, Access Software‘s Leaderboard hung on to the title of “best golf game on the planet”. Starting on the Commodore 64 and ending here on the Atari ST (and Amiga) in 1986.

Bruce and Roger Carver‘s golf sim was tight, fair, and compulsive on 8-bit machines. And on the 16-bit Atari ST it remains an excellent game.

I’ve seen reviews panning this version, but I see nothing wrong with it. The screen draw wait is much shorter than the original version. The extra colours are a godsend. The golfer animations are just as good as the Commodore 64 animations. The trees look a bit rubbish, but it doesn’t really matter.

The “Swingometer”, club selection, wind indicator and ball physics all match the original. There are extra courses to play too, outside of those supplied with the original game.

Leaderboard on the Atari ST is a worthy upgrade of the original and well worth a play in my book. Is it better than the original C64 version? Nah. It’s not quite that good. The original Commodore 64 version is pretty much perfection and has an unbeatable ‘feel’ and precision to it that this version unfortunately doesn’t quite have.

More: Leaderboard on Wikipedia