This file accompanies the DEMO (1-hole) version of Pitch & Putt
v2.1. The full game is to shortly appear on the Psion Games Pack,
as one of 14 quality games. Start saving now!
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See the end of this file for installation notes.

Introduction

Pitch and Putt is a golf game with a difference. Playing a full golf
simulation on a handheld computer, while standing at a bus-stop etc
would be a bit cumbersome! The aims for Pitch & Putt were therefore
to simplify the gameplay as much as possible without sacrificing the
elements of skill and judgement needed to make the game fun and
challenging.

Gameplay

Pitch and Putt takes you on a round of a 9-hole mini-golf course. You
have three clubs (iron, pitching wedge and putter) and they are
selected automatically. The current club, distance to pin and current
wind direction and magnitude are shown in small windows superimposed
on the main 3D view. 

There are four modes of play. Demo, where the Series 3 plays itself,
Normal, where you play against the computer player, 2-player, where
you can play against a friend, or Solo, where you can play a practice
round on your own. It is possible to change mode half-way through a
round, but the results may be unpredictable, and letting the computer
play most of the round for you and then stepping in at the end to
take the credit is, I'm afraid, cheating!

Each hole is randomly generated at the time of playing, so you'll never
play the same course twice! And of course the computer player behaves
randomly as well, so that you'll never play against the same opponent
twice, either!

Hazards

There are the usual golf hazards of trees (which can block your shot)
and long grass and bunkers (in which you'll need to hit much harder
than normal). Also, there is normally a wind blowing, with a special
arrow showing its magnitude and direction. If you are putting at the
time, the arrow is used to show the break on the putt, i.e. the
slope of the green and its size. Note that if the arrow is so short
that you cannot distinguish its direction, then the wind/slope is
probably not sufficient for you to worry about!

Hitting the ball

The method used to hit the ball is the same as you've probably used
before on other computer golf games. There are cross-hairs to aim
your shot and a 'power bar' (along the bottom of the screen when it's
your turn to play) to control how hard you hit the ball. 

Using one of the Pitch and Putt action keys (Tab, Delete, Space or
Enter), use the '3-click' method, whereby you tap the key once to
start the 'power bar' moving, once more to stop it rising and one
last time to time your shot, by stopping the bar as close as possible
to the timing mark shown. Timing your shot badly will result in
hooking or slicing the ball, or in imparting spin if you are putting.
Note that hitting the ball too hard when putting can cause the ball to
jump over the hole, and not drop in. So you can't just blast the putt at
50 mph straight at the hole!

Pitch & Putt uses the laws of physics when it calculates ball motion,
and was designed to give some of the feel of the real game. This has
several effects. For example, when putting, notice that the markings
on the power bar are not evenly spaced, and that although hitting the
ball to half the maximum putting distance still needs the power bar to
be taken up to the fifth graduation (ten graduations = full scale), this
mark is nearer 75% of the on-screen maximum. This non-linearity is
designed to represent what happens on a real putting green, with
friction, inertia and so on.

Getting help

Pressing the Help key will usually bring up a help menu in the Psion
style, with each help option typically having several screens of help
text. Don't worry, because the game is very simple to play, especially
so if you've played golf on a PC before.

If you are doing particularly badly, the help menu will automatically
appear, though you can get rid of it by pressing ESC, as usual.

Menu options

The Menu key gives you access to the overhead and ball lie views, to
the scorecard so far, and to the setup menu. And of course there is
an Exit option, by which you can terminate your game.

You can also turn off (or on) automatic showing of the overhead
view and of the ball lie, and can ask the computer whose shot it is
and which shot they're currently playing.

Each menu option has its own hot key, by which you can go straight to
their function without going through the menus, e.g. Psion-X will
take you straight to the "Exit: are you sure? (Y/N)" screen.

Setup options

The setup menu will appear at the beginning of every game, and allows
you to control how the game should work. You can select the playing
mode (Demo, Normal, 2-player, Solo), the number of holes to be
played (up to a maximum of 9 in the full game, but limited to 1
in this special demo version), your name and that of your
opponent, the timing mode (Easy or Difficult) and whether you
want sound effects (On, Off)

The setup menu will also appear if you press ESC in Demo mode, if you
select Setup from the menu, or if you press Psion-S at any time.

Installation

Copy PITCH.OPA into the \APP directory (on SSD or internal disk).
Then put PITCH.PIC and PITCH01.OPO into a \PITCH\ subdirectory of
\APP ...

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