''UEFA Euro 96 England'' is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

video game developed by

Gremlin Interactive Gremlin Graphics Software Limited, later Gremlin Interactive Limited and ultimately Infogrames Studios Limited was a British software house based in Sheffield, working mostly in the home computer market. Like many software houses established in ...

and published by

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

and the

Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it was the successor to the succ ...

in 1996. The title is an officially licensed tie in with the football tournament of the same name.

Gameplay

Players can play the full European Championships or play friendly matches. The game features all sixteen national sides that qualified for Euro 1996 and all eight host stadia. It features commentary from

Barry Davies Barry George Davies MBE (born 24 October 1937) is an English retired sports commentator and television presenter. He covered a wide range of sports in a long career, primarily for the BBC. Although best known for his football commentary, Dav ...

, with the developers stating that Davies' script includes 30,000 words (up from 22,000 words for his ''Actua Soccer'' script). The PC release offered online play for up to 20 players using BT's

Wireplay Wireplay was an online multiplayer gaming network available as a dial-up service that allowed players to match up and play PC games with each other remotely. Compatible games had ''Wireplay'' capability built into the game itself, with the onlin ...

network gaming system.

Development

The game was developed with the

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

used for Gremlin's previous football title ''

Actua Soccer ''Actua Soccer'' (''VR Soccer'' in North America) is a sports video game developed and published by Gremlin Interactive for MS-DOS, PlayStation, and Sega Saturn. The game features a variety of teams and leagues to choose from, including nationa ...

.'' Gremlin used the

motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

of professional footballers

Andy Sinton Andrew Sinton (born 19 March 1966) is an English football manager and former professional footballer, who is club ambassador for Queens Park Rangers. As a player, he was a left midfielder who notably played in the Premier League for Queens P ...

Chris Woods Christopher Charles Eric Woods (born 14 November 1959) is an English football coach and former professional footballer, who is goalkeeping coach for the Scotland national team. As a player, he was a goalkeeper who played in the Football Leag ...

and

Graham Hyde Graham Hyde (born 10 November 1970) is an English football manager and former professional player. As a player, he was a midfielder from 1988 to 2008. He spent seven top-flight seasons with Sheffield Wednesday (six in the Premier League) and pl ...

(of

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

) for the development of ''Actua Soccer'', but told '' CVG'' that for this release they had implemented "nearly twice as many frames of motion capture creating smoother movement", with particular assistance from Chris Woods to improve the

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

AI.

Reception

The title received largely positive reviews. Rob Bright of ''

Sega Saturn Magazine ''Sega Saturn Magazine'' was a monthly UK magazine covering the Sega Saturn, a home video game console. It held the official Saturn magazine license for the UK, and some issues included a demo CD created by Sega, ''Sega Flash'', which included ...

'' gave the game a score of 94%, arguing that it featured "the tidiest graphics and most dynamic animation of any footy game on the Saturn". ''

Sega Power ''Sega Power'', initially known as ''S: The Sega Magazine'', was a Future publication aimed at the Sega range of consoles, including the Master System, Mega Drive, Game Gear and later on the Mega-CD, 32X and Saturn. The magazine was later re ...

'''s Nick Merritt wrote that "the attention to detail makes this a worthy tie-in for top quality European football" and that it "blows ''

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

'' away, no contest", awarding the game a score of 90%.

References

{{UEFA Euro 1996 1996 video games Association football video games Sega Saturn games Gremlin Interactive games DOS games UEFA Euro 1996 Video games set in 1996 Video games set in England Video games developed in the United Kingdom UEFA European Championship video games