When Table Tennis was first released on the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972, a whole new world of gaming was created. Not only was it the first ever sports simulation, but it also inspired one of the biggest ever games and the grandfather of the arcade revolution, Atari’s Pong. But the bat and ball genre would have to wait a whole 12 years before a game could truly be called a Tennis-sim.
In 1984, both Tennis and gaming were in their hey-day. At Wimbledon it was the year McEnroe thrashed Jimmy Connors to take his 3rd title, Martina Navratilova won her 5th final and Britain had a winner in the mixed doubles. So what better time for Psion to release possibly their best ever game?
Match Point takes place solely on centre court and launches you straight into the Quarter, Semi or Final of a fictional championship trophy (though we all knew we were playing for Wimbledon glory).
Despite its loading screen that shows a player dressed in whites but apparently playing with a badminton racket, Match Point is a triumph that still plays great to this day. The single screens representation of a standard tennis court is colourful and well drawn, with its line judges and electronic scoreboard.
But it is when the game moves that you see the real artistry that PSION have squeezed into the game. The stick figure have so much character as they run cross-court to reach a powerful stroke and the sight of ball boys sprinting on to the court to retrieve stray balls shows the attention to detail that can only have come from a real fan of the sport.
Despite its simple controls of running and swinging your bat, the AI of computer controlled characters has been perfectly honed and the ability to name the players lets you live the dream of taking on McEnroe and the likes in a tense final. But, as with most sports games, add a second player and true joy of Match Point comes alive as two white clad gladiators compete in a battle to the death for tennis supremacy.
It is a testament to the game’s quality that it was never beaten on the 8-bits and it would take almost 10 more years before Super Tennis on the SNES finally defeated Match Point and take the crown of Tennis game champion.
