June 19, 1998 by Misha Sakellaropoulo SRP: $19.95 Digital Fusion MacSoft - RealPool Pros: Realistic physics, nicely rendered graphics Cons: only supports 2 players, no music     Don't have the room for a full size pool table? Or maybe it's their cost and your lack of skill? Either way, for $20 you can bring 3D pool action to your Macintosh with Digital Fusion's RealPool; that is, if you can put up with some of the interesting twists it puts on the game.     RealPool comes complete with seven different games of pool, which includes straight, 8-ball, 9-ball, and bumpers, the most commonly played pool games. The object is simply to amass more points (or wins, depending on which game you're playing) than your opponent, who can be someone sitting next to you, connected via TCP/IP, or the computer. Although 18 different computer players are included, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, you're limited to playing against only one at a time. The same holds true for playing against a human player, be it on the same keyboard or through TCP/IP, which rules out the possibility of disguising your Macintosh as a pool table at your next party.     The graphics in RealPool are well done, and especially impressive at the high-resolution setting (which requires at least a 120 MHz 604 processor to be played smoothly). A nicely rendered 3D table, almost-spherical balls, a well-done background (which can be toggled on or off if your processor is lagging) and life-like lighting effects highlight this aspect of the game. The sound is also very realistic, although the game is generally quiet beyond the knocking of balls since it lacks any background music.     You shoot from the perspective of looking directly down the pool cue that thanks to the game's 3D nature means you can observe the table at virtually every possible angle, complete with being able to zoom in and out. When you have everything lined up, you can adjust the power setting (which doesn't affect things as much one would expect), pull back on the mouse and then push it forward to simulate the movement of the cue. You can alter the location where the cue will hit the cue ball, allowing spin to be placed on the ball, although the effect that spin has is a little exaggerated. It's impossible, however, to adjust the cue to hit the ball at a steeper angle, which means jumps and quick turns are out of the question. Finally, for the beginning pool player, you can have RealPool show you the angle from which to hit virtually any ball and get it in, although it don't always point out what would be the easiest one were you playing in real life.     RealPool is a solid attempt at accurately recreating a pool environment on your Macintosh. Unlike VirtualPool, its creators wisely don't guarantee that your actual pool playing ability will improve (because it really won't), but the gameplay, even against a human player, still grows tiring after a few rounds: nothing like its real life counterpart. © 1998 The MacNN Review