Graham Gooch's Test Cricket allows you to pit your wits as England in a game against Australia. There are two modes: Simulation, where you make decisions but the gameplay is controlled by the computer, and arcade, in which you control the batsman when your team is batting and the bowler when your team is fielding. Arcade mode offers 1- or 2-player games with 9 skill levels in the 1-player game. There is also a choice of 40 overs, 55 overs, 60 overs or two innings for the length of the game.

You are given a choice of 20 players for each team with real surnames from England and Australia players of the era. You also get to choose the wicket-keeper and slip fielder before proceeding to the toss. The team that wins the toss can choose to bat or bowl and the game then moves on to the action which is displayed in the style of TV coverage from behind the bowler's arm. Bowling is controlled by pressing the fire button and rapidly moving the joystick left and right to build up speed. Batting is controlled by timing the press of the fire button. If the ball is hit off the screen then a fielding screen is shown with players automatically trying to stop the ball. Play the game long enough and you will see that these fielding screens are the equivalent of cut scenes although occasionally a catch will be dropped or a run out chance missed.

Wickets are celebrated by the players along with white noise being used to simulate an appeal of Owzat! If the ball is timed perfectly, it comes straight down the screen with the ball getting bigger to look like it is coming out of the screen with the result being 6 runs. At the end of each over, a scorecard is displayed followed by bowling figures and if the fielding team is controlled by a player, there is is the option to change the bowler. Play continues until the number of overs is reached or a team is all out.

This game was re-released by Alternative Software as Graham Gooch's Match Cricket and Audiogenic released Graham Gooch's All Star Cricket in 1987 with the addition of more teams and a few tweaks of the gameplay such as a timing indicator for batting.

Reviews

Zzap!64 - Issue 5 - September 1985. Overall 73% - "The best cricket simulation yet."

Programmer - M.J. McLean
Price at release - £8.95

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