Welcome to Cricket Unlimited
Cricket Unlimited is a One-Day Cricket Simulator game, where you can play out a game against
the computer or against a friend. It also brings to you cutting-edge commentary using Microsoft's Agent technology. Therefore,
you must have MS Agent and also Merlin (MSAgent character, which speaks out the commentary) installed, in order to get the
maximum satisfaction from CricU. If you have WindowsXP installed, you probably already have MSAgent installed. But with the
older operating systems, you might need to install MSAgent from
here.
Moreover, some other files may also be required like the VB6 runtime files (get it from
here) as well as the Microsoft Ado (Again, get it from
Microsoft). Usually, these files are already installed on your system
and you might not need them.
The Main Menu
The Main Menu is the very first screen that you get when you open CricU. Merlin comes up and
introduces himself and also gives a brief description of what you can choose at each step.
Fistly, you need to choose whether you want to play a limited overs international or
OneInnings, or whether you want to view the Hall of Fame.
If you choose Limited Overs International, you need to choose single or double player game,
ie whether you want to play against the computer or against a friend. Then, you need to enter the player's name(s). The
game automatically saves the names and records of the earlier players. If you click on a particular player, it will give
you his win-loss record. After that, choose the countries you want to play with. Lastly, you can even choose the number of
overs you want to play.
OneInnings is an innovative concept of playing cricket in which you play only the second
innings of a ODI. Several times, when you watch a cricket match, you feel that although your team failed to chase or defend
a score, you might be able to do that if given a second chance. Yes, OneInnings, gives you that chance. You do not need to
choose single or double player game in OneInnings because it is always single player. Then, you need to enter the player's
name(s). The game automatically saves the names but NOT the records of the earlier players in OneInnings. After that, choose
the countries you want to play with. Lastly, you can even choose the number of overs you want to play.
The Continue button appears only after you choose all these required options. If the button
does not automatically appear, just click and choose any overs, it will eventually appear.
The Reset button requires some special mention. You might observe that after you choose any
option in the menu, you are not allowed to change it. This is for security reasons. But, it is possible that you might have
chosen any option by mistake. The Reset option allows you to change/reset these options.
The Hall of Fame -- Do you have it in you to excel?? Yes, the game automatically maintains
several aspects of your game in the record books, which you can view here. Win-loss record, fastest century, most number
of wickets and what not... More yet to come... Look out for them in the next release.
The Toss
After you have chosen all the options from the main menu, you are taken over to the toss. Either
of the two players get the oppurtunity to toss the coin. [So, in single player game, it might be you or the computer.] If you
won the toss, choose batting or bowling and click next.
Team Selection
On this screen, you can change the batting order, the opening bowlers, captain and keeper. Or you
can even swap players from the reserve bench. For eg, simply, click on the player you want to set as captain and click on the
button labelled Captain or you can even use the shortcut key 'C'. Similarly, you can use the other shortcut keys 'K', '1' or '2'
for keeper, bowler1, bowler 2 respectively. To swap players, click on the players (one from the startup bench and one from the
reserve bench) and then click on the swap button.
Furthermore, you can even change the teams, players and their ratings using the built-in TeamEditor.
Just choose the team you want to edit and then, click on the 'Edit Team' button to bring up the TeamEditor, discussed in the
next section.
The Team Editor
The Team Editor is used to change/edit any of the teams. You can use it to make sure you always have
the most current teams. It will automatically come up if the team you are playing with does not have any valid team file.
Use the TeamEditor to chnage the palyer names, player type and most importantly, his bat and ball rating.
Important: As mentioned, 1 denotes a low rating whereas 5 denotes a high rating. A batsman having a bat rating of 5 might not get out
easily whereas a bowler having a ball rating of 5 might have a greater chance of getting wickets. When you are happy with the changes,
click on the 'continue' button.
OneInnings
When you choose OneInnings in the main menu, you are brought to this screen, where you need to first
tell CricU whether you want to chase a score or defend one.
If you choose to chase a score, you will be asked the runs scored by your opponent. And if you want to
defend, you will be asked your score. Simply, enter the relevant score (only the runs, without the wickets please!) and hit the
'Continue' button.
The Game Screen
This is the main game screen where you, as the coach of your team, will try to adjust how the players
play their game. Towards the right of the screen, there are two slider bars through which you can set the level of aggressiveness of
the two players on the crease.
Level 1 [I will not get out!] denotes very defensive tactics, ie more chance of defending the balls and less chance of getting out
Level 2 [I think I can bat!] denotes defensive tactics, ie more chance of getting singles and also a little more chance of getting out
Level 3 [Singles - The order of the day!] denotes normal tactics, normal chance of getting singles, boundaries as well as of getting out
Level 4 [Get the Boundaries!] denotes aggressive tactics, batsmen will try to get more boundaries.
Level 5 [I will hit you wherever you ball] denotes very aggressive tactics, ie more chance of hitting sixes and also getting out. A word of caution : Do not, I repeat, Do NOT use Level 5 aggressive tactics unless absolutely needed.
To change the bowler while you are bowling, click on the Commentary tab and click on the next bowler. It
will take you to a new screen where you can choose a new bowler. Remember to choose the better bowlers as they obviously have a better
chance of getting the wickets.
If you want any analysis of how the players have scored their runs, click on the Batting tab and you can
click on any of the players to bring up the players' analysis screen to bring up more information about the batsman's runs.
The bowling tab gives you more information about the bowlers, their wickets taken, maidens and runs given.
The Partnership tab gives more information about the partnerships between the batsmen.