This document explains new features and fixes in Links Pro Mac 1.0.1, and answers some frequently asked questions about Links Pro Mac. If you have a problem or question you are going to call Access' technical support about, check below first to see if the answer is already there.
Changes/Additions to 1.0.1
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You can now save Game Stats, Player Stats, Course Stats, or the Scorecard to disk as text, to be opened in a word processor or spreadsheet. To save the stats to disk, hold down the Option key and click on the "Print…" button on the stats/scorecard dialog you want to save. You will be asked to name the file, after which it will be saved.
A "PowerPC native acceleration active" message now appears in the "About Links Pro…" dialog if the game detects a PowerMac and is using native PowerPC code to speed up drawing.
In a network game, the chat area (where messages from other players are displayed) now has scroll arrows, so you can look back at the last 8 messages. Cmd-Up Arrow and Cmd-Down Arrow are shortcuts for scrolling.
You can now set up & trigger sounds during a network game via chat commands. First create a folder called "Net Sounds" inside the Links Pro folder on each Mac in the network game. Then copy any System 7 format sound files you have into the Net Sounds folder on each Mac. Make sure the same sounds have the same file names on each Mac. When you are playing a network game, if you send a chat message of the form "*xyz" (asterisk followed by a sound name), each Mac in the net game will look for the sound file "xyz" in its Net Sounds folder, and play the sound if it is found. You can use the network sounds to make your own good(or bad!) comments to play back during a game.
Several minor bugs have been fixed, including garbage sometimes being drawn on the screen over the post-shot "continue" button, some problems with the marker & distance text not getting erased properly, a couple rare crash/unexpected quit bugs, a scoring bug when playing back recorded games with drops in them, and several other small glitches.
Frequently Asked Links Pro Mac Questions
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QUESTION: When I try to run Links Pro Mac it says there isn't enough memory to open it.
ANSWER: You need at least 2500K of free memory to run Links. If you have 4 megabytes of RAM in your Mac, your System & extensions may be taking up too much room. Try restarting your Mac while holding down the Shift key until you see the "Welcome to Macintosh" message. This will disable any extra extensions on your Mac, and free up the most RAM possible. You may have to start without extensions every time before you run Links if you do have a 4 meg Mac.
QUESTION: How can I tell if Links Mac is running natively, and why doesn't it look like other native applications in the Get Info box or in "native checker" utilities?
ANSWER: With 1.0.1 a new message has been added to the About… box that shows up only if the game has detected a PowerMac and is running native code. To make sure everything is running correctly on your PowerMac, simply choose "About Links Pro" from the Apple menu.
The reason Links Pro Mac doesn't look the same as other native applications in the Get Info windows and may incorrectly be labeled non-native by some "native checker" utilities is that its PowerPC code is stored in a different format than other PowerMac applications.
In order to support the PowerMac in the first version, Links Pro Mac doesn't run completely in native mode. Instead, the parts of the program dealing with drawing scenes have been written in native PowerPC code, while the non-speed critical parts remain emulated. This is similar to what Apple has done with the System itself- much of the System on a PowerMac runs in emulation, with only the parts that are called most often & take the most time being run in native PowerPC mode.
The overall speed of the game is close to what it would be as fully native, since 90% of the time drawing a scene is spent in only a small part of the game code(the part that is running natively). To see how the game runs without any PowerPC acceleration, hold down the Option key while double-clicking the application to start. This forces the game to run in full emulation.
QUESTION: I'm having problems chipping and putting, especially figuring out how hard to hit it.
ANSWER: When putting, each dot on the swing meter is about 10 feet. So on a 30 foot putt you would try to hit it at the 3rd dot from the bottom. Remember to check how far above or below the hole you are with the marker stick before each putt, since you'll have to hit the ball harder or softer if it is going up or down hill.
When chipping, the swing meter changes so you can only hit with about 50% the power of a normal shot. An 8 Iron chips about 45 yards from the fairway, less from rough or sand. Use the three dots in swing meter as percentages, with each about 33% of a full chip shot. If you are 15 yards away, hit at the first dot. The distance a chip shot goes is affected quite a bit by how close you hit the accuracy mark on the down swing, so you may want to hit with a little more power than necessary if you can't hit the bottom mark accurately every time.
You may find it easier to change your chipping club to a Pitching Wedge (PW) in the Create/Edit Golfer dialog. The PW doesn't go as far, so you have a bit more leeway on short shots.
