MASTERS '98 遥かなるオーガスタ MASTERS '98 Faraway Augusta Contents 1.Introduction 2.Translation guide 3.Walkthrough 1.Introduction Released in Japan only on Boxing Day (December 26th) 1997, this is one of T&E Soft’s last games in their 9 year long series of golf games. The series began on the PC-9801 in 1989, and they even published a golf game for the virtual boy! Founded in 1982, T&E Soft are more infamous for the Hydlide series of RPGs. The company is still functioning, but it seems that they are no longer producing video games. This was the second golf game on the N64 and was followed by T&E Soft’s other game Waialae Country Club: True Golf Classics. Waialae Country club uses the same engine as Masters ’98 but features courses licensed from Augusta National Golf Club. This was part of series by T&E Soft, Augusta games were also released on the PC-9801, the 3DO, the Playstation, and Windows. This game features commentary from the TBS announcer Matsushita Kenji and Japanese pro Nobumitsu Yuhara. Yuhara also provided motion capture support for the game. This commentary is one of the best things about the game. Since it has two commentators, unlike most sports games, they have a conversation about your play. It really lends a sense of realism to the game, and it is cool to have a pro player commentate on how you should take your next shot. Of course you need to be able to understand Japanese to enjoy this aspect of the game. It also uses the controller pak to save your golfer and championship data. On September 30th, 2020 the game was fully translated into English by Zoinkity. The British publication, N64 Magazine laughed at the games Mortal Kombat style golfer graphics and awarded it 40%, saying “Your N64 could run this with the power off. A very poor conversion of a dated game design. Avoid at all costs. Augusta National Golf Club is a golf club in Augusta Georgia which was first opened in 1932. It is home to one of the four world professional golf tournaments. It is often ranked as one of the best golf courses in the world. It has a total par of 72, the course record of 63 is held by Nick Price and Greg Norman. As a for profit golf course it is maintained at an extremely high degree of care. The course features imported North Carolina spruce pine sand, under green ventilation systems, speakers which produce bird sounds, and ponds that were dyed blue to make them look more appealing. No running, loud talking, or mobile phones are allowed on the course. These rules are strictly enforced by security guards with permanent bans and sometimes prosecutions. Only about 300 people belong to the club, and it is through strict invitation only. It is believed to cost up to three hundred thousand dollars a year to belong to the club. In 2012, the club finally admitted its first female members. Notable members include Bill Gate, Warren Buffett, and Condoleezza Rice and President Dwight D Eisenhower. Eisenhower even held secret goverment meetings at the course, including a meeting concerning the first successful hydrogen bomb test. Eisenhower hit the so called “Eisenhower Tree” near the 17th hole so many times that he proposed it be cut down. Despite him being the president at the time the club managers did not want to cut the tree down so immediately ended the club meeting to avoid the proposal. In 2011, Tiger Woods was playing a shot underneath the tree when he slipped and damaged his left knee and Achilles tendon. As a result his world ranking dropped to 58th. For decades the club blocked black membership requests, co-founder Clifford Roberts said "As long as I'm alive, all the golfers will be white and all the caddies will be black." This is actually somewhat reflected in the game. While the crowd and golfers are white or asian, the only African Americans in the game are caddies. In 1977 after suffering from cancer and a debilitating stroke, Roberts committed suicide with a firearm at Augusta, on the banks of Ike’s pond. As the club is a private company it is unknown exactly how much profit they make each year from the course. But from 1999 to 2019 it spent more than 200 million dollars on buying 270 acres to add to the club grounds. As someone famously said "Golf is a good walk spoiled." By this they meant that the game was getting in the way of enjoying a walk. However, I have always took this to mean that the sport of golf has been spoiling the countryside by turning nature into an artificial playground for dull middle class men with more money than sense. I can think of no more fitting insult to the wealthy nitwits at Augusta, than being featured in a game so dull it makes you wish for the sweet release of death. 2.Translation Guide Controls A button – Confirm B button – Cancel C buttons – Rotates and changes the camera mode Start Button – Brings up the menu 3D Stick – Move the cursor Press the A Button to start the power meter moving. You then need to hit A again when the bar touches the center of the red line at the bottom of the power meter to determine your accuracy. If you have "easy shot" (イージーショット) on then you only need to press the A button to set the power. With this setting, the game always assumes you hit the ball perfectly. So I recommend setting it on in the options menu to save you hassle. Additionally the game will sometimes display a yellow marker on your power meter. If you press the A button when the meter is in the exact middle of that marker the ball will fly the exact right distance in that situation. For example, you are in a bunker and you want to hit the ball out onto the green but you don't want to hit the ball too far. In the case the yellow mark might be shown, so make sure you use it! The game normally gives you the exact right club to use and points you in the exact right angle. This makes playing the game a matter of pressing A to skip through 5 messages at the start of every hole and then pressing A to set the right amount of power. Whether this is a result of using Easy Shot, I'm not sure, but it makes the game much more enjoyable to play. I doubt even golfers enjoy trying to imagine exactly how much an ambigious virtual power bar conresponds to a real golf swing and how much they should adjust their virtual feet to compensate for the virtual wind direction and wind speed. The main menus is laid out as follows Quick Start – Play a quick game against the computer Continue – Load a save Game Mode Save/Load Setup Data Check Records – Look at personal records Course Guide – Look at 3D videos of each hole Option Game Mode This is second main menu which lists the types of golf available Match Play – A four day tournament with 80 golfers, you must finish within the top 40 by the second day in order to progress. Tournament – Only players which make it to the last day can enter the Masters Stroke Play – An 18 hole round to test your abilities Match Play – An 18 hole round for 2 players Training – Play a single hole Setup Data In this mode you can make your own golfer for use in Championship mode. You are first shown these three options. Register Player Delete Player Initialize Data – This means delete all of your created players. After choosing Register Player you can choose to edit one of the previously created players. Then you can enter a name and then choose one of four character sprites. Next you will decide your characters stats. You have various golfing “classes” to choose from. These classes are defined by the following stats Carry 0-5 stars Technique 0-5 stars Putting 0-5 stars Recovery 0-5 stars Wind 0-5 stars Characters Average Player – Average in all stats Power Hitter – Can hit the ball far and hard Technical Type – Good at technical shots Recovery Type – High recovery stats Putt Type – Good at putting Wind Type – Effective against the wind Customize – Decide your own stats No Change – Keeps the random stats I personally picked the Average Player, and it worked out well. After deciding your stats you can choose a caddy from one of four sprites. Finally you can select your preferred clubs from the ones available in the game. Here is a list of all the clubs. Each club is made of either Titanium, Persimmon or Metal, all of which have different Flight and Control stats. If you don't select any clubs the game will just give you the full set, so don't worry. Woods 1W – 270 yards 2W -250 yards 3W – 230 yards 4W – 220 yards 5W – 210 yards Irons 1I – 210 yards 2I – 200 yards 3I – 190 yards 4I – 180 yards 5I – 170 yards 6I – 160 yards 7I – 150 yards 8I – 140 yards 9I – 130 yards Sand Wedges PW – 110 yards AW – 100 yards SW – 90 yards PT – 100 foot Check Records This section is divided into 5 sets of records Personal Records – See below Course Records – The records for each course Hole Average – The putting average for each hole Miracle Shot – The top 5 miracle shots Replay – Watch replays of shots you have saved Personal records. This screen lists the following records. Left column Championships Handicap Longest Drive Nearest to Pin Longest Putt Furthest Chip in Fairway Hit Rate On Par Rate Average Score Average Putt Rate Right column Rounds Holes in One Albatrosses Eagle percentage Birdie percentage Par percentage Bogey percentage D. Bogey percentage Other percentage Course Guide Course guide lists the stats of the 18 holes and also has a video explanation of each hole.The holes at Augusta are named after plants due to the fact that the course was a former plant nursery. Note that the stats in game differ from the stats of the real course somewhat. Here are the stats of each hole, it also records your average number of pots for each hole compared to the game average 1st Hole Tea Olive Par 4, 400 yards, Average 4 2nd Hole Pink Dogwood Par 5, 555 yards, Average 5 3 rd Hole Flowing Peach Par 4, 360 yards, Average 4 4th Hole Flowering Crab Apple Par 3, 205 yards, Average 3 5th Hole Magnolia Par 4, 435 yards, Average 4 6th Hole Juniper Par 3, 180 yards, Average 3 7th Hole Pampas Par 4, 360 yards, Average 4 8th Hole Yellow Jasmine Par 5, 535 yards, Average 5 9th Hole Carolina Cherry Par 4, 435 yards, Average 4 10th Hole Camellia Par 4, 485 yards, Average 4 11th Hole White Dogwood Par 4, 455 yards, Average 4 12th Hole Golden Bell Par 3, 155 yards, Average 3 13th Hole Azalea Par 5, 485 yards, Average 5 14th Hole Chinese Fir Par 4, 405 yards, Average 4 15th Hole Firethorn Par 5, 500 yards, Average 5 16th Hole Redbud Par 3, 170 yards, Average 3 17th Hole Nandina Par 4, 400 yards, Average 4 18th Hole Holly Par 4, 405 yards, Average 4 The Eisenhower Tree is on hole 17, while Ike's pond does not feature on any hole so is presumably not in the game. Options Ball Trajectory – on or off Easy Shot – on or off BGM – on or off Stereo – on or off Camera – Standard, Exciting, Classic 3.Walkthrough First set "easy shot" (イージーショット) on in the options menu to make the game much easier. Next you will want to create a player. I recomemend choose the Average Type golfer so that your stats are well arranged. I also recommend naming your golfer so they stand out on the leaderboard in game. To beat this game you need to win the main tournament in the Game Mode option. The tournament is held over four days, which means you will playthrough all 18 holes four times. If you are not in the top 40 at the end of the second day you are knocked out. Lucky for you, the credits will still play if this happens, but it's probably not kosha to call that "beating the game." If you are playing fast you can finish all 18 holes in about 30 minutes, meaning that the game could potentially be won in two hours if you play perfectly. Sadly this is not a perfect world and so some save scumming is going to be necessary. Before I tell you how to do that, here is how the scoring works in golf, if you didn't know. (I didn't) Par is the number of strokes that a good golfer should need to complete a hole. Obviously par is different on each hole. With that in mind this is how holes are scored. Albatross - Three strokes under par (-3) (very rare) Eagle - Two strokes under par (-2) Birdie - One stroke under par (-1) Par - 0 Bogie - One stroke over par (+1) Double-Bogie - Two strokes over par (+2) Triple Bogie - Three strokes over par (+3) For example if par was 5, the number of strokes would be as follows Albatross - 2 Eagle - 3 Birdie - 4 Par - 5 Bogie - 6 Double Bogie - 7 Triple Bogie - 8 The AI opponents in this game are very difficult. You need to aim for at least seven birdies and 11 pars on the first day in order to win. Don't even bother with Bogies. Once you are doing well the name of your golfer will appear on the leaderboard. The number of strokes you are behind the winner will be displayed at the start of each play. The leaderboard is confusing, but basically look at the furest right number. That number shows you how many strokes below par they are in total. 7 below par is good enough to take first place in my experience. To save scum you need to press Start and choose はい to stop playing. Don't worry you won't lose your progress unless you turn off your console. Then you need to go to the Save / Load menu and save your game. The exact hole and place on the course you were on when you stopped playing will be saved. For that reason I recommend you save at the start of a hole so that you don't save yourself into an unwinnable position. Another good place to save is when you have an easy chance of scoring a birdie. Say you are on the green 20 or 10 feet from the hole. You can then save scum to ensure you get that birdie. After you have saved the game you can resume playing. If you make a mistake simply turn off or reset your console and then continue from the main menu. If you want to make multiple save files you are probably going to need multiple memory paks, so be very careful. With this method winning the tournament is just a matter of time. However the time it takes to playthrough each hole is obviously a lot longer. Taking the length of a day's tournament from 30 minutes to an hour. This pushes the total time of a succcessful completion of the game up to about 4 hours. If you can win all four days, over 72 holes, the Augusta is yours.