PGA Tour Golf 486 (PC) Playthrough

A playthrough of Electronic Arts' 1994 golf game for PCs running Dos, PGA Tour Golf 486.
This playthrough shows a round played on each of the game's three courses along with some of the stuff included on all the PGA players featured in the game. Finally, a digitized avatar of the golf world's walrus darling Craig Stadler takes on Brad Faxon in a finale fit for the ages.
TPC at Summerlin. Las Vegas, NV 0:50
TPC at Sawgrass. Ponte Vedra, FL 26:51
TPC at River Highlands. Cromwell, CT 53:09
The PGA Tour Pros 1:20:16
Craig Stadler v. Brad Faxon 1:22:59
Preceded by PGA Tour III on the Sega Genesis and followed by PGA Tour 96 for the PC, 3DO, and PlayStation, PGA Tour 486 was the fourth main entry in EA's line-up of golf games that were officially licensed by the Professional Golfers' Association.
PGA Tour 486 was a big deal for sports games when it came out. It was an ambitious, big budget approach to golf that took a lot of design cues from Access's Links series, but it upped the stakes considerably.
It strove to mimic the look and feel of a TV broadcast and the results are still pretty striking today. The courses are rendered in 3D allowing for instant camera cuts to different angles, the golfers and the scenery are all made up of high resolution digitized sprites, and flashy broadcast-style graphics are used to provide all the info you need to make your shot. The commentators regularly offer up advice on how to sink tough shots as birds chirp in the background, the lively crowd reacts appropriately to your shots, and the music piped in during the menus and loading screens is fantastic.
It does an amazing job for the hardware it runs on, though the title is a bit misleading. It runs alright on a 486 (it will run on a 386 if you're determined to not have fun) but you'd have to deal with excessively long load times between each hole and shot. You needed a Pentium-class machine with a triple or quad-speed CD-ROM drive to get the most out of the game, and that was a very tall order in 1994.
But is easy to see why PGA Tour 486 needed that type of hardware muscle. It was an incredible looking game. But more importantly, it was a thoroughly enjoyable way to get your video game golf on. At least, I always thought so as a kid playing it.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (www.nintendocom...) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!

[@NintendoComplete]

It might seem strange for a golf game to be such a hardware showcase, but PGA Tour 486 was amazing to see back in 1994. And yes, that is Craig Stadler in the thumbnail 😀

[@rushnerd]

I'm only here because I saw the orange shirt.

[@SpeccyHorace]

Played this death back in the day

[@jam2007]

Glad that this game is being preserved on KZbin so it doesn't get lost.

[@rjcupid]

That EA intro is incredible. This game looks and sounds amazing. The whispering announcer is hilarious. This was right before the Pentium revolution.

[@JakMakai]

This was so calming to watch. Great job.

[@NintendoComplete]

Ty!

[@BB-te8tc]

I always find it amusing that there's a vaporwave artist named US Golf 95 whose entire existence seems almost solely due to the aesthetic of mid-90s golf games like this one.

[@NintendoComplete]

Really? Haha that sounds great, I'll have to check it out.

[@Dorian_Scott]

US Golf '95 is one of the strangest vaporwave artist names ever. What's next? A vaporwave artist who exists based on the aesthetic that the early Madden games had lol?

[@x_voxelle_x]

@@Dorian_Scott There's also an artist named Windows 96.

[@Kevin_40]

I used to play this back in the late 90s

[@Muhammad_9812]

Wow that game was really pushing the limit when it came out, great find and play through!

[@NintendoComplete]

Thanks! Yeah, I loved it. I remember my dad oohing and ahhing over it when he was playing it back when it was new.

[@asteroido]

Digitalized games put me crazy, serious! PGA is the Mad Dog Mcree of sports!

[@Sonnymac81]

Pre-rendered backgrounds and digitized sprites, idk why this aesthetic was left behind in pursuit of the fully polygonal. So much wasted potential, and with modern hardware they could bring back that early 90s magic with a proper evolution of this old tech.

[@marcuskuhnert6191]

I remember upgrading my memory from 4 mb to 8 and what a difference it made in this game

[@neilhess6407]

Man. Bring me back there for just a day.

[@Dorian_Scott]

I always loved the old Electronic Arts logo. The striped circle, triangle and square kinda reminds me of the Sierra On-line logo a little bit.

[@NintendoComplete]

I miss Sierra, with the mountains and that crazy string arpeggio that ends with the sparkly ding dong.

[@Nostalgia9478]

Love golf vid games

[@thegamingjedj]

Always been a Microsoft Golf fan

[@rushnerd]

1:20:39 "Think you can get it inside mine?!"

[@NintendoComplete]

Right down the middle.

[@Rokabur]

I want a golf game that takes after Happy Gilmore.

[@NintendoComplete]

I'm down as long as it lets me drop an air conditioner on the mista mista lady.

[@From.the.408]

Not me watching this and reminiscing!

[@blazingsoulhunter2862]

Came out at a time when Electronic Arts’ employees weren’t total dicks. You make something profitable, yet why are your employees such jerks? And yes, I don’t care how much money these products make.