Ultimate Pool is a physically realistic pool simulation game for the Mac. The balls, pool table, and cues are all scaled versions of their real-world counterparts, and the balls roll and collide just as they would on a real pool table. But more important, Ultimate Pool is a lot of fun to play.
This manual explains how to play all the different games that come with Ultimate Pool. It also describes the game's user interface, and provides an overview of basic pool terminology. The manual is organized into the following chapters:
Chapter 1 presents a detailed description of Ultimate Pool's controls and all of the user preferences that you can specify.
Chapter 2 gives a very brief description of the origins of pool and explains basic pool terminology. It is a good idea to at least skim this chapter before reading any of the specific game rules, since the rules assume that you are familiar with basic terms.
Chapter 3 explains how to play Stripes & Solids. Though a very basic game, its simplicity will enable you to concentrate on learning to interact with Ultimate Pool without having to memorize any complicated rules.
Chapter 4 covers the rules for 8-ball. This is the game most familiar to casual pool players and both a house version and the official Billiard Congress of America (BCA) tournament version are available.
Chapter 5 introduces the game of 9-ball -- a fun and fast-paced pool game that you will probably enjoy playing again and again. A more casual house version of 9-ball is included in addition to the official tournament version.
Chapter 6 explains the rules of 14.1 continuous. This is the game that real pool players play and it is an outstanding test of your overall pool skills. A shorter and simpler house version (50 points) is included, as is a longer tournament version (150 points).
Chapter 7 presents the rules for Cutthroat. This casual barroom game is quick to play and involves three players instead of the usual two.
Chapter 8 describes the rules for Rotation. This very challenging game is a good test of a player's ability to set up position for subsequent shots using Ultimate Pool's English/Spin Control.
A short bibliography is included at the end of this manual. If you are looking for other pool sources, this bibliography should give you a place to start.
Ultimate Pool requires a minimal system configuration consisting of:
For a quick overview of Ultimate Pool's controls, see "How to Play" under the game's apple menu. The brief explanation presented there is enough to get you started, and playing a game will familiarize you with the controls better than any manual can. Once you have played around a bit, come back to this Introduction for a more detailed explanation of Ultimate Pool.
Beneath the pool table and to the right of the control buttons and current player portrait is a chalkboard text display. This display is used to convey information to you during a game. The chalkboard always displays the name of the current player. In addition, a player's set of balls is displayed to the right of his name for the games Stripes & Solids, 8-ball, and Cutthroat. During the games of 14.1 continuous and Rotation, the score appears to the right of the current player's name. The first number is always the current player's score, and the second number is his opponent's score. For the games of 9-ball and Rotation, a chalk smudge indicating the color of the lowest numbered object ball on the table is displayed. Note that solid balls are numbered lower than striped balls.
The next two lines of the chalkboard display are used to convey information about the game being played. For example, if you are playing a game that is "call shot", then you will be asked to call a ball and a pocket. Once you select a ball or pocket, then this information is displayed on the chalkboard. The information area is also used to inform you of any penalties you may have or any other information relevant to a particular game.
The bottom line of the chalkboard display is reserved for fouls. Whenever a player fouls, his inning at the table ends and the table is turned over to his opponent. If you foul and your inning ends, then the bottom line of the display will explain what foul you committed.
The mouse is the basic control used in Ultimate Pool. You use the mouse both to push the control buttons, and to position the cue and to shoot. The following subsections go into more detail on mouse control (especially as it pertains to aiming and shooting).
Tip: You may only select a control button if it is active. If a button is inactive (indicated by a dimmed button), then that selection is not valid at this time.
To position your cue for a shot, select the shoot button (indicated to the left). You can now aim the cue for your next shot. One thing that may seem a bit strange is the red line projecting from the cue ball. This is the cue ball guide line and it is there to help you align the cue ball with the ball you want to hit (called the object ball by the pros).
The guide line projects from the cue ball and touches the object ball, indicating the path the cue ball will follow and the point of impact of both balls. In other words, the spot touching the cue ball matches up to the spot touching the object ball when the two balls collide. The guide line should make aiming easier, especially when you first start playing. However, if you do not want to use the guide line (or if you're really good and don't need it), you can turn it off by unchecking the "Show Guide Line" option in the Preferences menu.
And now back to aiming. As you move the mouse around, the cue moves as well. In order to aim the cue effectively, you need to know how the motion of the mouse corresponds to the motion of your cue. This is fairly simple to visualize: Imagine that the mouse is the butt of your pool cue. If the cue is positioned vertically, dragging the mouse to the right or left swings the cue in that direction. Alternately, if the cue is positioned horizontally, moving the mouse up or down swings the cue up or down.
Tip: It is better to make slow, smooth motions when moving the mouse and to avoid quick, jerky motions.
Once you have taken aim, shooting is very straightforward. Just press the mouse button and hold it down until the desired power level is reached and then release it. The power level of a shot is indicated both by the amount your cue pulls back from the cue ball and by a similar power display beneath the control buttons. The longer you hold down the mouse button, the harder your shot will be.
In general, it is best to make the opening break at full or near full power. Later shots can be made at any power, and after a few practice shots you'll find a power level you like.
Once you have selected the shoot button, your cue appears at the table and will not go away until you shoot. However, if you would like to stop aiming and have control of the mouse again, just press the space bar.
Similarly, if you start to shoot (by holding down the mouse button) and then decide that you want to abort the shot in progress and start over, just press the space bar. There is no penalty for doing this, and you can abort as many shots as you like.
If you make an unsuccessful shot and want to try again, select the undo button (indicated to the left) or choose Undo in the File menu. If you select undo before the balls on the table stop rolling, you can reshoot immediately. If you are playing against a computer opponent and he shoots before you select undo, you must wait until he is done shooting to undo your shot. Undo restores the game back to the state before you took your shot.
Undoing a shot and trying again is not discouraged in any of the "house" games or in Stripes & Solids and Cutthroat. The purpose of undo is instructional, since redoing a shot until you pocket an object ball is very useful to teach good aiming skills. However, during tournament play, sportsman-like conduct dictates that undo should be used judiciously.
To start a new game you can either press the rack button (indicated to the left) or choose New Game in the File menu. This will start another game against the same opponent. If you would like to play a different game, make a new selection under the Games menu. Selecting a different game will automatically rerack the balls for the new game. To change the starting player or to choose a new opponent, select the "Change Starting Player..." or "Choose New Opponent..." option in the Preferences menu.
Tip: If you accidentally hit the rack button during a game in progress, you can select the undo button to restore the previous game.
During most games you play, you will at some point get "ball in hand". This occurs most commonly when one player scratches (i.e., hits the cue ball into a pocket), giving the other player ball in hand. This means that you are permitted to place the cue ball anywhere on the table or anywhere within a specified region before shooting. The specific game rules enforce the ball in hand rule for that game and are not discussed here. It suffices to state that if you have ball in hand, indicated when the ball in hand button (shown at left) is active, you may position the cue ball where you want it before taking your next shot.
If the ball in hand button is active and you would like to reposition the cue ball, select the button. A white outline of the cue ball now appears over the actual cue ball. Position the outline ball by moving the mouse until it is at the desired location, and then click the mouse to put it down. You may reposition the cue ball as often as you like before taking your next shot. If you try to place the cue ball in an invalid location (e.g., on top of another ball), an "X" appears inside the cue ball outline, indicating that this is not permitted.
Tip: It is often useful to position the cue ball and try aiming, and then reposition it to get a better shot. You may reposition the ball as many times as you like before making a shot.
Some pool games are "call shot." This means that you must indicate which ball you intend to hit in next and into which pocket you expect it to go. Whether or not a game is call shot is discussed in the specific rules for each game. In general though, if a game is call shot, you will not be permitted to select the shoot button until you have indicated a ball and pocket.
Choosing a ball and pocket is simple. To select a ball, simply click on that ball on the table. Your selection will appear on the text display chalkboard (to the right of your player portrait). To call a pocket, simply click inside of it. This too will be indicated on the text display chalkboard. If you change your mind, you may keep selecting another ball and pocket until you are satisfied with your choice.
Tip: If during any pool game you want to know the number of a ball on the table, just click on it and the ball number will appear on the text display chalkboard.
Ultimate Pool includes some keyboard shortcuts to give you more control over shooting and aiming, and positioning the cue ball. The following diagram shows the layout of shortcut keys for right-handed and left-handed players. The functions of the keys are described below.
User specifiable options are listed in the Preferences menu. If a menu item is appended with "..." then that selection will bring up one or more dialog boxes to accomplish the option. Otherwise, the menu item is either on (checked) or off (unchecked). Each of the user options is described below.
You will probably want to change the name of the starting player to your name, since you will be playing this position. If you select "Change Starting Player..." in the Preferences menu, you can enter your name and select the appropriate player portrait (female or male).
Once you click "Ok", another dialog box comes up and you can select the cue you would like to play with from the cue case.
Henceforth, you will be the starting player every time you play Ultimate Pool. When it is your turn to shoot, your name and portrait will be displayed beneath the pool table and to the right of the control buttons.
Ultimate Pool comes with six computer opponents who range in ability from beginner to pro. You also have the option of playing against a human opponent. To choose a new opponent, select "Choose New Opponent..." in the Preferences menu. You will be presented with a dialog box showing the portraits of the six computer opponents on top, and two human opponents (one female and one male) below.
To select an opponent, just click on a portrait (a black rectangle surrounds the selected opponent portrait). If you select a computer opponent, a description of that opponent is displayed to the right of the portraits. Read through the descriptions and choose the opponent you want to play against. If you would like to play against a human opponent, select the appropriate portrait (female or male) and then enter the person's name in the text box beneath the portraits.
When you have chosen an opponent, click on the "Ok" button. If you are playing against a human opponent, then he will be asked to select a cue from the cue case. After that selection is made, you can start a new game. When it is your opponent's turn to shoot, his name and portrait will be displayed beneath the pool table in place of yours.
Tip: The starting player is always the player who will make the opening break. If you want to switch off the break, just change the starting player and the human opponent.
You can play Ultimate Pool with pool sounds enabled or disabled. Pool sounds occur whenever a sound would occur in any pool game (e.g., when two balls collide or when a cue strikes the cue ball). To enable (check) or disable (uncheck) the pool sounds, select "Pool Sounds" in the Preferences menu.
During play, computer opponents will occasionally make comments on their playing, your playing, the weather, or whatever. This banter is friendly and light-hearted and is intended to enhance the mood of the game and give the computer opponents a personality. Opponent banter is displayed in the information section on the chalkboard display (on either the second or third line). Banter always appears in quotations, so you will know that it is conversation and not important information.
You can play Ultimate Pool with opponent banter enabled or disabled. To enable (check) or disable (uncheck) the banter, select "Opponent Banter" in the Preferences menu.
The guide line was described earlier in the section called "Positioning the pool cue to shoot". See that section for a complete explanation of the guide line. Briefly, the guide line indicates where the cue ball will strike the object ball (i.e., the ball you are aiming at). To enable (check) or disable (uncheck) the guide line, select "Show Guide Line" in the Preferences menu.
Ultimate Pool includes an optional spin control module, enabling you to place spin on the cue ball if you want it. When advanced pool players wish to place spin on the cue ball, they vary where they strike the cue ball with their cue. If the cue ball is struck to the left or right of center, then side spin (called English by Americans) is imparted to the cue ball. If the cue ball is struck above or below center, then top and bottom spin are imparted, respectively.
Spin is added to the cue ball in order to position the cue ball for the following shot only. This is a very important point to understand as the spin you add to the cue ball should only be used to gain position for the shot following the shot you are currently attempting. Spin has little or no effect on pocketing an object ball. Thus, you should only use spin if you are confident you will pocket your object ball. It makes little sense to set up the shot following the current shot if you lose your inning attempting to do so.
To use spin, you must select (check) the English/Spin Control option in the Preferences menu. When you do, the spin control module, shown above, will be visible to the right of the controls display. To add spin to the cue ball in Ultimate Pool, simply click on the spin control cue ball. The blue "chalk spot" represents where your cue will strike the cue ball. To reset the spin control to dead center (no spin), click the center buttom beneath the spin control ball. This is the default position and if the English/Spin Control menu item is not selected (not visible), then you will always shoot dead center. If you are already in "shooting mode" and you wish to add spin, use the arrow keys to make any adjustments. Note that the English/Spin Control must be visible for the arrow keys to have any effect. To enable (check) or disable (uncheck) the English/Spin Control, select "English/Spin Control" in the Preferences menu.
For more information on the effects of the various kinds of spin, see bottom spin, top spin, and side spin in the glossary section of Chapter 2 of this manual.
Ultimate Pool supports three popular monitor resolutions: 640 x 480, 832 x 624, and 1024 x 768. If you have a monitor capable of higher resolutions, you may want to select a larger sized table to play on. You should probably select the table size that matches the resolution your monitor is usually set to, as it is inconvenient to have to remember to reset your monitor every time you want to play pool.
To change the default table size (640 x 480), select "Table Size..." in the Preferences menu. In order for any change you make to take effect, you will need to quit Ultimate Pool and start it up again. However, from now on Ultimate Pool will always load the table size you have selected.
If you increase the table size, you will also need to give Ultimate Pool more memory. To do this, select the Ultimate Pool icon on your desktop and then choose "Get Info" from the File menu. In the box labelled "Memory Requirements", set the "Minimum size" and the "Preferred size" fields to at least the following values:
These values are only suggested and you may need to increase or decrease them depending on your particular system configuration.
When you select a larger sized table, all of the balls and the cue will be scaled up proportionally. Because the balls are now larger, it will take longer for them to draw as they roll around the table. If you find that Ultimate Pool runs too slowly, you should probably select a smaller size.
Tip: If Ultimate Pool runs too slowly on your Mac, select a smaller table size.
Statistics are kept for all games that you play. Each time you start a new game the total number of games played increases. In addition, a win/loss percentage is recorded for each game you play against a computer opponent. To view your statistics, select "Game Statistics..." in the Preferences menu. The five games that come with Ultimate Pool are pictured graphically in the left column; the percentage of those games you won against the computer opponents is indicated in the second column; and the total number of each game you have played is listed in the third column. These statistics will hopefully give you a rough idea of how you are doing. If you want to clear all statistics back to 0 and start over, press the "Clear" button.
Ultimate Pool represents thousands of hours of programming, debugging, calculating, testing, drawing, and writing by three very dedicated Macintosh enthusiasts. If you enjoy playing Ultimate Pool, then please register. Registering pool is easy (and pretty cheap) and you will be doing your part to encourage more and better game development on the Mac.
To register Ultimate Pool, just run the registration program that came with it. If you did not receive the registration program, select "Register Pool..." in the Preferences menu and click on the "Create Register" button to make a new registration program. Once you register Ultimate Pool, you can play all of the games that come with it and you can choose to play against human opponents. You will also make three people in this world very happy.
Ultimate Pool began its life early in November of 1995, when James called me into our bedroom office and said "Hey Colleen, look at this." James was testing some physics functions he'd been working on and quickly drew a black and white rectangle and filled it with circles to approximate a pool table. That crude little line drawing was the snowball that started the avalanche that finally became Ultimate Pool after months of fun, frustration, torture, agony, and you get the idea.
Somewhere along the way James found a real-live artist on the Internet named Jason Rainbows who inspired us to forge ahead by drawing some beautiful artwork. At this point, we couldn't give up and quit!
I joined the project and turned a nifty physics experiment into something that hopefully looks like a game. Wow, Ultimate Pool now had menus, a name and something resembling a user interface.
It's impossible not to ask oneself if it was all worth it, but I just slaughtered Bob from New Jersey at a game of 9-ball and Portia is currently clobbering me at a game of 14.1 Continuous (she's leading 74 to 26) and more than anything else, I'm glad that I still love to play pool.
Ultimate Pool was created by three people with Macs who really love to play games:
If you have any problems running Ultimate Pool, or if you just want to contact us, you can send us email at qnote@kagi.com. You can always find the most current version of Ultimate Pool (and other games too) on our web page: http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~jhs/shareware. We'll keep a mailing list of registered users and will let you know as soon as a new version (with a new game!) is available.