Bully's Sporting Darts/Walkthrough



You will first have to connect your Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, or Commodore Amiga (and cassette recorder, for all except the Commodore Amiga version) to your television set, and switch all (or both) of them on; you will then have to place the cassette (or disk, in the case of the Commodore Amiga version) of Alternative Software's 1993 darts game Bully's Sporting Darts into the cassette recorder (or into the console itself, for the case of the Commodore Amiga version), type LOAD "" (without leaving a space between those quotation marks), and press Enter to load the program into the console. You will then have to press 1, 2, 3 or 4 to select keyboard, Kempston joystick, cursor or Sinclair joystick control, then use O and P (or left and right on the joystick, or Z and X for the Amiga) to pick one of the seven variants on the start screen, then press Space (or the button upon the joystick) to confirm your selection - and you will then have to enter your own name for 1P (and if you are playing against the CPU, enter "COMPUTER" and a number from 1 to 9 for 2P as the number indicates its skill level, but if you are playing with a friend, he or she will have to enter his or her name for 2P). Also, when a game is finished, you must press Space or the joystick button to return to the start screen and pick another variant.

501
Both players' scores start at 501 (as the name suggests), and are reduced by the value of each dart thrown (a throw is usually comprised of three darts); in order to win a round (the game ends when one player wins two so it can be up to three rounds long), a player must reduce his score to 0 with a dart in a double. When a double will finish the game, it will be highlighted upon the board to inform the players of this fact - and if a player throws a higher value than the one needed to reduce his score to 0, his throw shall immediately finish, and his score will be reverted back to the value at the start of the throw.

Round the Clock
Both players must hit each number in ascending order, finishing with the bullseye (inner or outer); this game ends after three rounds, and whichever one has won the most wins. Doubles and trebles of the target number will count as a single if their value is greater than 20, otherwise they will be counted as the double/treble value - therefore, if the current target number is 1 and a player hits double 1, it shall count as 2 so that the next target number will be 3.

Football
Only the top half of the board (which removes all, but one, of the numbers) is utilized for this variant; the highlighted section indicates the target number, and when that number is hit, the highlight will move towards the opponent's side by 1-3 positions depending on whether the single, double or treble was hit. When the highlight reaches the opponent's "goal area" (red for 1P and blue for 2P), the bull will become highlighted and hitting an inner or outer bull will score a goal - and just like in real football, the game will continue until the full-time whistle, with the winner being the player who has the most goals.

Tennis
The tennis "ball" is represented by a highlighted section upon the board that must be hit with a single dart to return it; just like in real tennis, the serving player has a slight advantage over the receiving one, as he has a double section as his target, and the receiving one has a treble section. If the serving player fails to hit the target section with his first dart, he will still have another chance, with his second one - and a rally will end when one player fails to hit the ball, with true tennis-style points awarded to the other one in succession (15, 30, 40 and Game). Should a score of 40-all (Deuce) occur a player must gain advantage and win the next rally to win the round; a match is comprised of up to three sets, with the first player to win two sets becoming the winner (and just like in real tennis, a player must win six or seven rounds with a difference of two). Should a score of 6-all occur, the last round will be a tiebreaker - and the first player to score 7 or more points with a difference of two (service also switches every two points) will win the round and the set.

Golf
In this variant, the numbers 1 to 18 represent the eighteen holes on a golf course; both players have to hit each number three times, in ascending order, and doubles and trebles count as two and three of a number respectively. A hole in one can also be achieved by hitting a treble with your first dart - and the amount of "strokes" for each "hole" represents the amount of darts it takes to finish each one. The par for each "hole" is also 3, which makes the par for the "course" 54; just like in real golf, the winner at the end of this game is the player with the lowest score (regardless of if it is higher than 54 or not).

Cricket
This variant is comprised of two innings (with both players alternating between being the batting and bowling sides); to start one innings the batting side will throw first, and throws will then alternate between batsmen and bowlers. To score a run, the batting side must get at least 40 points with three darts, as only points above that value will be counted - and the bowling side must hit two bulls with three darts to take a wicket (the centre of the bull counts as two wickets). If the batting side hit a bull, they will lose a wicket, and if the bowling side throws a dart outside the treble ring, that score will be credited to the batting side as wides; also, if a bowler throws outside the doubles ring, 25 wides shall result. The player with the most runs after two innings will win.

Snooker
For this variant, the numbers 1 to 15 represent the red balls on a snooker table, while the numbers 16 to 20 and bull represent the yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black ones respectively; to "pot" a "red ball", both players must hit three numbers representing them in one throw and to "pot" a "coloured ball", they must hit their numbers four times (doubles and trebles count as two and three respectively for both cases). Just like in real snooker, a red ball must be "potted" before each coloured ball, until they have all gone, then each coloured ball must be "potted" in turn, ending at the bull which represents the black ball - and if a player fails to "pot" a ball with a throw, his "break" will finish, and the other player will have a chance. When red balls are "potted" they shan't be returned to the "table" but coloured ones shall be if at least one red ball is still present; when only coloured ones remain, they'll disappear when potted in the right order (yellow, green, brown, blue and pink). If one player plays a foul stroke, his points will be given away to the other one - and if he misses a red (not hitting any of the numbers 1-15 with any of his three darts in a throw) or "pots" a red instead of a colour four points shall be given away to his opponent. Missing a colour or potting a red instead of one also gives four points (or the value of the ball that should have been potted, if it is higher) away to the other player - and if either player has no chance of winning he can press C (when his on-screen hand is not moving) to resign the frame to his opponent. Also, in the event of both players' scores being equal at the end of a frame, the black ball shall be returned to the "table" and the first player to "pot" it shall win the frame; the first player to win two frames shall be the winner which means that a game can be up to three frames long.