The game Billiard Blitz Snooker Star is by far my favourite computer snooker game. The gameplay mechanics are perfect to me – you don't have to practice for years (like a real snooker player) to be able to pot the balls consistently, but you do have to practice how to control the white ball to make the next shot easier.
Well, in some cases it is very hard to even pot a ball, because when you are very far from the ball the “helping lines” are simply too short. Moreover the helping lines show only the movements of the white ball and the ball that will be hit by the white ball FIRST – any subsequent movements of other balls are NOT shown even when they are very close to the white ball. Perfect!
After some practice I am now able to make a maximum break almost at will. Well, in this game the maximum break is “only” 107 points, because in the triangle of red balls there is one row less (there are 5 red balls less), but achieving the 107 max is still very cool – you still have to pot every red ball together with the black ball.
Below there is a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) file of my most recent maximum break in this game. After the update this max is against Odo – the best computer opponent in this game. Beating him is very rewarding because you literally have one shot to do it. When you start a frame you have to play a very good safe shot to have any chance at all (any chance that he will miss his shot). When he himself starts a frame he usually leaves one open red ball and one other loose red ball that is impossible to pot right away. It's all you've got to make a winning break to win the frame. And the rest of the triangle of red balls is usually almost intact, so you have to hit it with the white ball in a thoughtful way.
The GIF file shows only my own shots AND the shots are shown BEFORE I decided about the strength of the shots. It explains why the white ball sometimes travels in a slightly different path.
Below there is another GIF file of a maximum break against Odo – it shows that in this game you can maintain a break in positions that are hopeless in real world. After I hit the triangle of red balls with the white ball I had no easy red ball to pot. I had to make a combination shot (combo) – I hit one red ball with the white ball and it hit another red ball, but I couldn't see the path of the second red ball. My attempt was successful, but to continue the maximum break I had to make a kick shot on my next shot – I hit the white ball against the cushion first and only then it hit the black ball. The helping lines are long enough to handle such positions with ease.
As you can see I use a video/flash player to run this game, but you can play it directly online on many Internet sites.
On a side note, I would like to point out that this game actually shows that the AI (artificial intelligence) in every computer games HAS to be “dumbed down”. The best computer opponents in this game play like magicians – they regularly hit a bunch of red balls and one of them miraculously goes into a pocket, often after several cannons with other balls. It is impossible for a human player to make even one such shot, but the ultimate computer player knows everything the game designers know, so the ultimate AI should be able to play PERFECTLY on every shot. Beating such an opponent would be impossible, which would make every game unplayable.
Here's another GIF file that shows the last shots of 19 maxes against different opponents in this game.
Before the update here were also some Youtube videos, but I moved them to this post:
The 2019 World Snooker Championship is coming!
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