Rothmans Football Quick Quiz Volume 1

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Simon Inglis

FITBA CRAZIE! Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate? Well, C+VG, of course. As the world is gripped by football fever, Simon Inglis proves to be on the ball with a special round-up of all the computer football games available. With so much attention lavished on this month's World Cup in Mexico you might think there's enough football on our screens at the moment without harping on about football computer games. But the fact is that although games manufacturers continue trying to milk the national sport - another three this year takes the total to over 20 - most of them aren't much more fun than a goalless draw at Arsenal. And very often the ones that are worth trying are the ones least pubicised. Take managerial games for instance. Everyone has heard of Kevin Toms' Football Manager, mainly because Addictive Games has a strong marketing instinct. Reported sales of over 150,000 make it easily the best seller in this field. Yet its lesser known rivals are actually more challenging and amusing. The Boss from Peaksoft, for example, with claimed sales of over 90,000. You must tackle realistic financial problems familiar to any soccer buff - like repairs from riot damage, rate demands from the council and so on, while favourable comments from pundits like Jimmy Hill play havoc with your team's morale. But then the game spoils itself by allowing you to buy any player you want from your next week's opponents, a gambit not even tried by Malcolm Allison in his heyday! The trickiest managerial game is United from C.C.S. which has horribly inflated prices for players - £2 million for a sweeper would deter even Ron Atkinson these days - but allows you to play clean or dirty on a scale of 1-10, and you pitch in apprentices and sell them off for a quick profit. Big League Soccer from Viper, which arrived last year, has clearer graphics but goes to the other extreme by undervaluing players - Gary Bailey for £25,000! Surely he's not that bad? And what a tedious format. Playing 42 games per season may be realistic but a takes an age to play, especially as you have to select each team from scratch for every match. Football Manager scores because it has a good balance of challenge and reward. If we're honest, no one would play any game for long if, like most football managers, you end up nowhere having won nothing all season. With Football Manager you have to be pretty awful not to do well at beginner's level. Alone amongst the managerial games each match has its own graphic display. Others just show minute by minute scores. The trouble with this however is that you can only sit back and watch the action - like a real manager - and after the first few matches it's tempting to keep nipping out for a Bovril or a pee. None of the players ever get sent off or fined for drunken driving, which makes it all horribly idealistic. The latest managerial game on the market is Virgin's Official F.A. Cup Game, which is great for a crowd to play - well, eight people anyway - but on your own is somewhat less demanding than finding room on the terraces at Torquay. Once you've selected ten teams to manage, the only other decisions to make are to choose between three sets of tactics and in later rounds answer a few fatuous questions. Meanwhile, in between rounds, the computer churns out a load of ridiculous newsflashes which are supposed to affect your teams morale. Flashes such as "There is no news about your team in the press this week" and 'The club's oldest surviving player is 100 years old today'. Big deal! Unless of course the centenarian is still playing. But the biggest anti-climax is the Final itself. Having teased you with a rendition of Abide With Me and a picture of Wembley, once the Final is over the game stops - no cheering, no presentation, no wildly ecstatic graphics Now if you really wish to avoid excitement buy Liverpool (mail order only), possibly the slowest and least rewarding game on the entire market and an insult to the name of that great football club. If, like Tommy Docherty, you can't cope with managerial games for very long, Rothman's Football Quick Quiz, wityh questions by the yearbook's editor Peter Dunk is packed full of toughies, although the version I played had somehow managed to get all the categories mixed up. The non-League section was all about the FA Cup, and the European section was full of soccer trivia. For sheer enjoyment I much preferred Answer Back Sport from Kosmo, which not only includes questions on cricket rugby, boxing, golf and tennis as well as soccer, but also has two action games of soccer and tennis in between quiz rounds. For this reason I can just forgive them for misspelling the name of Liverpool's immortal manager Bill Shankly. A cheapie quiz game available by mail order from Marksman Software, The Ultimate Soccer Quiz, is ultimately rather simple and dull, which might explain why the makers felt bound to slip in totally irrelevant scoreflashes from a fictitious game between Spurs and Everton. Of course the hardest part of soccer to simulate is the actual game itself - hard enough for real professionals nowadays - and in this respect some of the software houses have come closest to scoring own goals. Glenn Hoddle's Soccer from Amsoft offers routine entertainment but little more. It was far too easy to walk the ball into the opponents net - not one of Glenn's specialties. For no discernible reason the goalkeepers wore the same shirts as the rest of the team, a practice which was banned a mere 77 years ago. The ball in Bobby Charlton's Soccer created by D.A.C.C. was so tiny, control was so hard and the instructions so lacking in one vital point that I had to turn to Bobby's very self-conscious message on the other side of the cassette for encouragement, before ringing the makers to find out how to proceed. If you too get stuck the way out is by Pressing Q twice. World Cup Football, like the FA Cup game, is good for a whole crowd, especially those old enough to remember Bobby Moore, who is still featured on the cover. Hasn't anyone told Artic that Bryan Robson is the current England captain? Or that great footballing nations like Portugal and Hungary deserve inclusion rather more than Guyana and Tasmania. A quick scan of the rule book would also inform Artic that a player cannot throw the ball in to himself. Which is where Andrew Spencer comes in. He apparently knew nothing about football until he read the rule book and then proceeded to write International Football from Commodore which outscores its rivals in almost every respect. You can really hurl your keeper about the goalmouth, as well as getting your men to head the ball. The graphics and sound are outstanding and the player's movements easily recognisable. My only criticism is that both teams wear black shorts. International Soccer's closest rival is Match Day from Ocean which also sports good graphics and the Match of the Day theme tune. Unfortunately the computer seems to play some odd tricks, the oddest being to make its players turn away from open goals and kick the ball into touch. The might just be sour grapes on my part however, since I seemed to be totally incapable of beating the computer in the tackle. If you don't have a Commodore for International Football, Match Day for the Amstrad, BBC or Spectrum is the best of the rest. Not all of us see soccer as a mere game however. There are some of us who delight in pouring over statistics and records, and some who use computers to help run their own leagues. Yes, people do still actually play the real game. For such people two Spectrum programs from the Spartan Sports Association - Club File and Tables - are valuable aids. I also liked League Table and Champions, both from Football Follower, which work out past form and list winners (useful for pools punters) and another Spectrum home-produced program called Tables which enable you to keep up-to-date records for the entire Football League and Scottish League, from Football Software. I fear that none of these information packages will help you win a fortune on the pools, and I'm pretty sure none of them will make their creators very rich either. We'll leave that side of soccer to ourboys in Mexico. Long may they be needed to endorse the next crop of football computer games. MANAGERIAL GAMES FOOTBALL MANAGER Addictive Games, [redacted] BBC, Electron, Dragon, Amstrad, C64, Vic 20, Spectrum, ZX81 THE BOSS (also The Champions) Peaksoft, [redacted] C64, 16, Amstrad, MX, BBC, Electron Dragon, Tandy, Spectrum £6.95-£8.95 UNITED CCS, [redacted] Spectrum £6.95 BIG LEAGUE SOCCER Viper Software, [redacted] Amstrad £6.95 LIVERPOOL P. M. Corbishley, [redacted] Spectrum, Atari £8.45 (£14.95 Atari disk) OFFICIAL FA CUP GAME Virgin Games, [redacted] Tel: 01-717 8070 Amstrad,C64/128, Spectrum £7.95 ACTION GAMES WORLD CUP FOOTBALL Artic Computing Ltd, [redacted] C64, Amstrad, Spectrum £6.95-7.95 KICK OFF Bubble Software, [redacted] C64 £1.99 INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL Commodore, [redacted] C64 £14.99 MATCH DAY Ocean Software, [redacted] Tel: 061-832 6633 LEAGUE TABLE/CHAMPIONS Football Follower, [redacted] Spectrum £6.95, £4.95 (or £9.50 both) Amstrad, BBC, Spectrum £7.95-£9.95 BOBBY CHARLTON SOCCER D.A.C.C. Ltd., [redacted] BBC, Electron £11.95 inc p&p GLENN HODDLE SOCCER Amsoft, [redacted] Amstrad £8.95 (£12.95 disk) SPOT THE BALL Thorn EMI, [redacted] Atatri £9.95 FIVE-A-SIDE FOOTBALL Anirog Software, [redacted] C64 £5.95 (£8.95 disc) FIVE-A-SIDE SOCCA IJK Software, [redacted] BBC, Electron FOOTBALL QUIZZES ANSWER BACK SPORT Kosmo Software, [redacted] BBC, Electron £9.95 ULTIMATE FOOTBALL QUIZ Marksmen Software, [redacted] Spectrum £6.95 ROTHMANS FOOTBALL QUIZ Cassell Ltd., [redacted] Spectrum £9.95 CLUB FILETABLES Spartan Sports Association, [redacted] Spectrum TABLES J. Moore, Football Software, [redacted] Spectrum £5.95 Simon Inglis writes on football for the Guardian and Observer. He has written three books on football and is currently the official historian for the Football League's Centenary History. His second book, The Football Grounds of England and Wales, has sold over 20,000 copies to date and has been widely acclaimed. His latest book, a history of British football scandals, has also aroused great interest. Both are published by Collins Willow. He writes on a BBC computer and his record score at Hopper is 28,540.

Crash

Use of Computer 23%

Graphics N/A

Playability 34%

Getting Started 51%

Addictive Qualities 26%

Value For Money 14%

Overall 21%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Rothmans/Cassell Retail Price: £8.95 Author: Peter Dunk As you can imagine, Rothmans Football Quick Quiz is a football quiz program. It boasts 1,000 questions on all aspects of football - FA Cup, League Cup, personalities, trivia - in fact it tests just about every avenue of foot- ball knowledge. Up to four people or teams can be quizzed together, and at the start a list of eighteen foot-balling subjects is displayed. Once a choice has been made, the appropriate section of the program loads and then information on the number of players and their names needs to be input. The computer acts as quizmaster and can present questions in three ways: Assigned; Three in A Row and The Race. Alternatively, the Full Quiz option is a mixture of the three styles of quiz. 'Assigned' is the most basic of the three options. The computer asks each player in turn a question and gives four different answers numbered 1 to 4. Using the appropriate number key, the player chooses an answer - a correct response is rewarded with a little fanfare and ten points are added to the player's score. If the computer is given a wrong answer, it points out the mistake and reveals the correct response to that question. Players are given a twenty second time limit to answer their questions - take too long and the computer assumes you don't know and gives the answer. After a certain number of questions the player who has scored the most points is proclaimed the winner. If there is a tie then, a tie-breaker question is asked. In 'Three in A Row' the game-play is the same, except a bonus of twenty points is given if a player answers three questions in a row correctly. 'The Race' has everybody scrabbling for the keyboard. When the Race option is chosen the computer asks everyone to define a 'claim' key for themselves before the game starts. The computer puts questions onto screen with a twenty second time limit. The first player to press his 'claim' key is given four seconds to answer the question. The correct answer wins ten points, but a wrong answer results in ten points being removed from the claimant's score! COMMENTS Control keys: 1-4 to choose answer, Z, Q, P to claim question Joystick: none Keyboard play: unresponsive Use of colour: not inspiring Graphics: just a dire loading screen Sound: minimal Skill levels: one Screens: four different quiz options

ZX Computing

Overall 4/5

Clive Smith 4/5

Cassell Ltd £8.95 Here is a 'just for fun' quiz, no tie in with famous personalities or TV shows, no offers of fabulous prizes, in fact the worst that it could be accused of is the plug for Rothmans. For fans of the art of spherical dexterity this is a challenging test the knowledge, 18 sets of questions totaling 1000 questions in all, and covering every aspect from general, to trivia and non league football. The quiz is well presented, giving three variations in play format, Assigned, Three in a Row and the Race. A full quiz can be played which involves a combination of all three. Not a lot to add, except that it is a good example of how the quiz can be implemented on a computer and it is a must for football fanatics.

Sinclair User

Overall 1/5

John Gilbert 1/5

Publisher: Cassell Price: £8.95 Memory: 48K Football is supposed to be a social game - so is smoking - but there is nothing very sociable about creating a database of soccer facts, and selling it as a quiz. Rothmans Football Quick Quiz can be played by up to four teams or individuals. Topics include the FA Cup, The Scottish League Cup and Non-League Football. There are three question formats within each quiz. Three-in-a-row gives each player a batch of three questions to answer. If one is answered wrongly, a bonus is thrown open to the other players. The race is a free for all buzzer round which uses the reply keys. The quiz becomes tedious if you play it for more than half an hour at a time and even the most ardent soccer bibliophile is likely to give the package a free kick before long. The package would probably not be a commercial success if it did not have the Rothmans name tagged to it. Spin-offs are justified in some instances, but is it laudable to link a cigarette manufacturer's name to a product which many 11 year olds may pick up?

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Your Sinclair

Graphics 5/10

Playability 9/10

Value For Money 8/10

Addictiveness 8/10

Overall 7/10

Rick Robson 7/10

Cassell £8.95 Reviewer: Rick Robson How can it fail? With a picture of Reidy on the box, this game's bound for glory! But can even this compensate for all our resistance to quiz computer games? On the other hand, until the Beeb does a deal this might be the nearest you'll get to soccer on a TV screen. The loading screen doesn't help the image of dumb footballers by having them totally faceless. is it just coincidence they're all in quasi Arsenal strip? But of course the pleasure of games like this isn't in the power of the pixels or the groovy graphics. This really is a game for football freaks... and there are still some of us out here you know. Mind you, there's enough quiz thrill in-built to keep the non-Association afficionados interested. There are four quiz options. Assigned questions, three in a row, the race and the full quiz combining all elements. There's also a bonus system - so much barmy key bashing can go on. But be sure you've the correct answers. Ten points deducted for an own goal if you get it wrong! The print is clear and the response swift, explanations full - and they'll often include clues to the more arcane questions. Answers are multiple choice so intelligent guessing can count for a lot. The only minor quibble is the program is so long you can waste a lot of time on the re-wind button desperately seeking soccer questions on one of the eighteen available subjects. These are pleasantly varied - from League (Scottish and English) through to European and World and even Non-League. The emphasis is on contemporary soccer, not a lot of stuff pre-'80. What it won't tell you is who are the eleven players whose surnames ending in 'y' played for England between '67 and '81...

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