''MicroProse Soccer'' is an association football video game published by

MicroProse MicroProse is an American video game publisher and video game developer, developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization (series), Civilizatio ...

in 1988. The original

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

version was developed by

Sensible Software Sensible Software was a British software company founded by Jon Hare and Chris Yates that was active from March 1986 to June 1999. It released seven number-one hit games and won numerous industry awards. The company was well known for the exa ...

and ported to other systems. In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, the game was released as ''Keith Van Eron's Pro Soccer'', named after

Keith Van Eron Keith Van Eron is a retired American soccer goalkeeper who played one season in the American Soccer League and three in the North American Soccer League. He also played the first eleven seasons of Major Indoor Soccer League, winning the 1984 c ...

. Designed by

Jon Hare Jon "Jops" Hare (born 20 January 1966, Ilford, Essex, England) is an English computer game designer, video game artist, musician and one of many founder members of the early UK games industry as co-founder and director, along with Chris Yates, ...

and programmed by Chris Yates, they adapted the gameplay format of

arcade video game An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an arca ...

Tehkan World Cup originally released as in Japan, is an association football video game released to arcades in 1985 by Tehkan, the former name of Tecmo. It features multiplayer gameplay and trackball controllers. It was released in both upright and table arca ...

'' (1985) while adding their own elements to create ''MicroProse Soccer''. It is the forerunner of the 16-bit ''

Sensible Soccer ''Sensible Soccer'', often called ''Sensi'', is an association football video game series which was highly popular in the early 1990s and which still retains a cult following. It was developed by Sensible Software and first released for Amiga a ...

'' series.

Gameplay

The game can simulate a full 11-a-side game of football on a grass pitch, or 6-a-side soccer, based on the American indoor league of the time. A single player can work through a World Cup (or Indoor League) tournament, or take on a series of increasingly tougher computer teams. A two-player friendly can be played head to head. The control method was designed to be as simple as possible, lending itself to fast and flowing football (in the manner of the later ''

''). A quick tap of the fire button passed forward, a longer hold of the button chipped the ball at height. Pushing backwards and fire did an overhead kick. Pushing forwards and fire took a shot. Most unusual was the "banana kick", the strength of which could be varied among three settings in the options menu. By pushing diagonally as a shot was taken, the ball would swerve in the air to get round defenders and goalkeeper. Rival game '' Kick Off'' would also add this after-touch feature. Most versions featured a simulated "action replay" after a goal was scored, with the C64 version featuring black & white stripes to resemble a video rewinding.

Development

The game was designed by

and programmed by Chris Yates. Hare cited the

'', released by

Tehkan , was a Japanese video game corporation founded in 1967. It had its headquarters in Kudankita, Chiyoda, Tokyo. Its subsidiary, Tecmo Inc, was located in Torrance, California. Tecmo was formerly known as Tehkan. Tecmo is known for the ''Captain ...

(Tecmo) in 1985, as the basis for the game. Hare stated "all of our inspiration for ''MicroProse Soccer'' was drawn from this." He referred to it as an "arcade conversion" of ''Tehkan World Cup'', but said it was not "a carbon copy" as they also added their "own elements" to the gameplay. ''Tehkan World Cup'' used a

trackball A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down ball mouse with an exposed protruding ball. Users roll the ball to position the on-s ...

to control the direction and speed of the shot, which they incorporated into the game by adapting the

game physics Computer animation physics or game physics are laws of physics as they are defined within a simulation or video game, and the programming logic used to implement these laws. Game physics vary greatly in their degree of similarity to real-world phy ...

for more conventional

joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...

controls. Preview pictures of the game appeared in an issue of ''

Zzap!64 ''Zzap!64'' was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazine ...

'' magazine, with a plea for a publisher to come forward. The Electronic Pencil Company ported the game to the Amiga and Atari ST. The programmer created a 6502 emulator, transferring the game code and logic to the 16-bit machines.

Reception

'' gave 90% for the game. The game was voted Best 8-bit Simulation of the Year at the

Golden Joystick Awards The Golden Joystick Awards, also known as the People's Gaming Awards, is a video game award ceremony; it awards the best video games of the year, as voted for originally by the British general public, but is now a global event that can be voted ...

. In the Spectrum sales charts, it briefly reached the number one position before being replaced by '' Kenny Dalglish Soccer Manager''. In the all-formats charts, the game was kept off the top position by ''

Robocop ''RoboCop'' is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O'Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, and Miguel Ferre ...

''. which had been at number one for a record eighteen weeks.

Legacy

''MicroProse Soccer'' was the basis for the ''

'' series, which was created by the same designer Jon Hare and programmer Chris Yates.

References

{{reflist

External links

''MicroProse Soccer''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

''MicroProse Soccer''
at the Hall of Light

at crashonline.org.uk 1988 video games Amiga games Amstrad CPC games Association football video games Atari ST games Commodore 64 games DOS games Golden Joystick Award winners MicroProse games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games scored by Barry Leitch Video games scored by Martin Galway ZX Spectrum games