Jack Charlton’s match fishing
Many people think that computer games based on fishing are a niche market but this isn’t entirely true as quite a lot of them have been made throughout the years. It’s true that the majority of them are either released only in Japan or the ones that are released in the west are based on Bass fishing. Bass fishing is very popular in the U.S. but there are lots of other species and ways to catch them so it’s always nice to find a fishing game that reflects this. Jack Charlton’s match fishing is about exactly that, match fishing European style, in which you stay on a single spot that you draw before a competition.
Once you draw a spot you get a description of that particular spot which will give you vital information about how deep the water is and what kind of fish you might expect. You can then select things like type of line, hook and bait but take care selecting them because big fish will tear your line and small fish won’t even swallow a large hook. Once you are done you cast out your line and then you wait. That’s right you simply wait until a fish comes along which will change the screen to a partial underwater view and if the fish bites then you press the button to set the hook which if you’re lucky will result in you landing a fish. If you don’t the game is fair enough to tell you why like a broken line or hook that’s too big. This goes on until the time for the competition ends which ranges from 1-90 minutes and can be set at the beginning of the match. The one with the largest weight in fish wins.
This game was the first computer fishing game I ever played and even though there is only one location and most of the time it has you waiting for a bite I still think it’s fun because I love fishing and fishing games as well. The funniest thing I remember about the game is that I was playing this with my cousin and I told him that if he wasn’t quiet than we wouldn’t catch any fish, to my amazement he actually was silent the whole time we played it :) Anyway don’t expect too much graphically as there are only two graphics screens and not much else either. Even for those who like fishing games in general I doubt you’ll get much out of this game unless you have some fond memories of it like me.
Overal rating: 6.5/10
This game was released for two different systems here are some notes:
| C64 | Released in 1985. Game has been tested but not completed with CCS64 v2.0 win. This version is actually written in basic and if you press ESC (run/stop) in the emulator you can view the entire source code. |
| ZX Spectrum | Released in 1985. Game has been tested but not completed with emuZwin v2.5. The view looks better than the C64, amazing! |
| Date added | Feb-09-2005 19:40 |
| Name | Jack Charlton’s match fishing |
| Developer | Aligata software |
| Publisher | Aligata software |
| First released | 1985 |
| Genre | Simulation |
