Ultimate Pool

Ultimate Pool is a $20 shareware physically-realistic pool simulation for Power Macintosh. The balls, table, and cues are scaled versions of their real-world counterparts, and balls roll and collide using simulated physics rather than scripted shot outcomes. Seven computer opponents of varying skill provide single-player competition across six pool variants.

Game modes

The package ships with six distinct rule sets, covering most of what a casual pool player would recognize: Stripes & Solids, 8-ball, 9-ball, 14.1 Continuous (straight pool), Cutthroat, and Rotation, plus the less-common variant 41. Together this gives Ultimate Pool more rule-set breadth than most Mac shareware billiards titles of its era, which typically shipped with one or two modes.

Physics and AI

The selling point is the physical model: balls behave as scaled physical objects rather than abstractions, so cushion bounces, follow-through, and combinations all play out from simulated rolling and collision. Seven opponents at "widely varying abilities" let players ramp difficulty as they improve. The Macintosh Garden listing places the title at 2003 from Quarter Note Software, consistent with the Info-Mac upload.

System requirements and provenance

Ultimate Pool requires a Power PC Macintosh, System 7.0 or later, 256 colors or greys, a 640x480 display, Sound Manager 3.0, 8 MB of RAM, and 4 MB of hard disk space. Mirrored here from Info-Mac's game/ directory as ultimate-pool-ppc-15.hqx (version 1.5).