Neo Turf Masters

“PLAYER ONE, BIRDIE TRY”

» NEO GEO » 1996 » NAZCA CORPORATION

I hated golf as a child. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t watch or play it now, but I no longer actively resent it today – mostly because I never find myself at anyone else’s house with nothing to do, while they watch golf on the TV. I frequently found myself in this position in the mid-nineties, silently lamenting the misuse of a Sky dish that could have been used to watch The Simpsons or Cartoon Network. So when my local sports centre swapped the cartridge in its Neo Geo cabinet, replacing Double Dragon with Neo Turf Masters, I was initially extremely annoyed. How dare they replace something interesting with something so mind-numbingly tedious? Who would even bother to play it anyway?

After my karate classes, I had a lot of time to wander around while my dad did his, so I decided to hang around the cabinets and watch. It turned out that people were interested in the game, and not only that, the game was kind of interesting itself. I couldn’t help but be impressed by the golfer’s realistic swing, and everything rattled along at a good pace. There was no dull TV commentary here – instead you had an excited announcer shouting “On the green” after a good shot, and golfers who got frustrated when they scored a bogey. There were some really interesting courses too, with waterfalls and lakes to clear with powerful drives. When I got the chance, I played it. I played it again, too. I couldn’t believe I’d been hooked on a golf game.

Of course, you can probably guess what happened from there. I learned that Neo Turf Masters could be a blast in multiplayer and I found my favourite golfer, Robert Landolt. I bought the Neo Geo Pocket Color version and loved it, and after I got my Neo Geo MVS in 2016, the arcade game was one of the first cartridges I picked up. It all goes to show that with the right design, just about anything can be successfully adapted into a compelling videogame. Now, where’s our classic lawn bowls game?