Virtual Cricket - A great game

G'day, my name is Neil Cameron and one of the games I play on an almost continual basis is John Cole's Virtual Cricket. This website is meant to be a sort of "centre" on the internet.

A few years ago I was in contact with John Cole. I don't think he ever knew how popular his game was. In fact, I remember him distinctly saying that it was the only game he ever wrote, and that he still used Windows 95.

We'd all like to see VC5, but I don't think John has it in him. I would like to ask John, on behalf of all those who enjoy the game, to open up the source code of VC4 and license it under the GNU General Public License (GPL) so that others can work on it instead, and allow it to be improved and built upon by volunteers.

The game can be downloaded here (140kb)

For a detailed examination of the game, go here.

Update 2010-12-15
It's been a looong time since I updated this site. Sorry 'bout that. Anyway I've just added the 1989 County season + Australians here. Given that England is about to beat Australia in Australia for the first time since 1986-87, having the 1989 Ashes side playing against the counties is a great thing. Ahhh.... remember when Australia used to be the best side in the world??

As far as updating VC4 and/or making it open source, I haven't contacted John Cole for years. I'll try and do it again soon although I do wonder what I will do once I actually have the source code since I am not a programmer!

Anyway, keep checking here often.

Team/Player Data Files
Current Test Teams. (very old now)
2007 English County Championship.
2005 English County Championship.
1989 English County Championship. **NEW**
1986 English County Championship.
Bowler's economy rates adjusted.
Batting averages adjusted.

Fantasy
Bapu Nadkarni playing for Hampshire 2007.
Harold Larwood returns for Nottinghamshire 2007.
Keith Miller opts to play for Somerset in 2007.

Articles
My Idea for English county cricket.
VC5 wish List.
Standard deviation and VC5.
Different points systems for VC5.
VC4 and WINE (Linux).
VC5 - 40 wicket cricket.

Bugs
#1 Bowler's series averages. 10W match figures stuffed up somehow.
#2 Early declarations.
#3 Bowling points in First Class Matches.
#4 Winning by ten wickets without batting a second time.

Messages from John Cole
9 May 2006.
5 February 2008.