THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE



THE ASHES



PUBLISHER

Pulsonic



YEAR

1984



CATEGORY

Sport



DESCRIPTION

The Ashes is a cricket simulator.



CONTROLS

Keyboard - Cursor keys and space bar.





INSTRUCTIONS

Playing as England or Australia, you must win a Test match.  If

you don't know the rules of cricket, this probably isn't the game

for you. Suffice it to say that there are ten venues in which to

play the match - five in England and five in Australia. Each

pitch has its own characteristics and suits different types of

play. The teams are made up of six batsmen, one all-rounder, a

wicket-keeper and four bowlers. Three types of bowling are

permitted: fast, seam/swing and spin. Teams may be named as you

wish, although the computer already holds the names of some

already.



The toss takes the form of alternating the names ENGLAND and

AUSTRALIA on screen and stopping at random. The winner of the

toss can then elect to bat or bowl first. Field placement is done

by showing the outline on black and the possible positions in

purple. There are more positions than you have in your team, of

course, the idea being to say yes or no to each in turn until all

eleven team members are where you would ideally like them.  The

field then turns green and ready for play.



For each over a ball must be selected (players 8 to 11). A ball 

is specified by its line and length and entered as a two-digit

number. The batsman has seven types of stroke, from defensive

through to off-drive. A stroke is played by pressing the

appropriate key for the type of play desired while the ball is

bowled. The path of the ball from bowler to batsman is shown so

that the batsman has a few seconds to decide what shot to play,

and then the path of the ball after batting is also shown.



A captain may declare if he wishes. Weather may interrupt play,

and rain is likely to alter the characteristics of the pitch.



SCORES RECEIVED

Crash: "It does look rather like an old-fashioned program

 now." [and that was in 1984!] RATING : 49% (CRASH #5, June 1984)















































