Independent game developers at the Mac games and reviews website,
Macgames.org, have announced the release of their first game, a new
tennis game for the Mac, Smashing Tennis
(http://www.macgames.org/smashing-tennis/). It costs US$9.95

Here’s how the game is described: “Smashing Tennis was created with a
specific focus: to make a game challenging and entertaining for avid,
arcade tennis players. Realistic physics were incorporated into the
game as best as could be done in a 2D environment, therefore, the
game play is accentuated by real ball flight trajectory, as well as
sound effects, which are recordings of actual tennis matches. The
court surfaces also come into play and greatly vary the feel and
style of game play. Each court surface offered in Smashing Tennis:
grass, clay, hard decoturf courts, behaves as on real life tennis
court surfaces, such that grass courts will have a fast performance
with balls skidding and bouncing low favoring serve and volley
players; hard court surface play involves a medium speed tennis,
which gives slight advantage to fast and hard hitting players; and,
clay courts, having the slowest speed but high bounce, reduce any
sort of power game but will work well with drop shots.

“Players of Smashing Tennis choose their own abilities, as well as
their level of difficulty. Pressing F6 enables the Easy Play Mode
whereby the up and down cursors are disabled, so it is only necessary
for the player to use the left and right cursors and the space bar.
The up and down movement of the on-screen player will be automatic in
Easy Mode. To play the advance Hard Mode, press F7 and players use
all cursor keys to control multidirectional mobility of the tennis
player. Note: Gamers on laptops must press the function key and the F
keys to select difficulty level).

“Smashing Tennis offers a Training Mode so that players can practice
refining their moves and shots, as well as become more familiar with
the game, before they embark on playing in Tournament Mode.
(Tournament Mode is only available after purchase). With some
training and a knowledge of key controls, players will be able to
smash, dive, lob or even make a drop ball shot to trick their
opponent. They will also be able to aim their serves and well as
control the strength of their hits. A look at the in-game ‘Help’ and
‘Tips’ describes all the moves and shots a player can make, along
with which keyboard controls to use.

“Single Player option in Smashing Tennis involves one gamer playing
against the computer, however, 2-Player mode allows two players to
play against each other on one Macintosh computer.”