But really, why didn't the Speccy have a definitive football game?

[StanVanman]

In my spectrum era, the closest thing to Tehkan World Cup I owned was Five-a-side Footy

It looked like a poor-man Tehkan World Cup but at least it was playble. I also owned Match Day 1,2 and Super Soccer but I was not that impressed by them.

Yeah, you're never going to get short-changed by Tim Closs, but it's quite slow and it's very hard to figure out what it wants you to do to get the ball into the net.

[PeteProdge]

I concur. Would could do a poll, but the winner is obvious. I, for one, would be voting for it.

Ditto!

Just searched on this site's front end, with machine set to ZX Spectrum, sport type set to 'Soccer' (*shudders*), released games only and game type to Sport Game: Action (to ensure we don't get a zillion management titles) and there are 67 games in total, but 5 of them are MIA, so make that 62.

And even then, Emlyn Hughes International Soccer is better than the 61 others. It just is. It's the Chaos of football games!

[SteveSmith]

It's the Chaos of football games!

So second best then?

[PeteProdge]

So second best then?

Casts DISBELIEVE

[Mpk]

Football Manager is the best footy game anyway.

[PeteProdge]

Football Manager is the best footy game anyway.

Very hard to score a goal in it, from what I remember...

[Mpk]

Very hard to score a goal in it, from what I remember...

You just hire a bunch of goons to do that for you and put your feet up.

[Inky]

I doubt drawing a bigger centre circle would be that much of a drain. (And if it was I'm sure I could live with the smaller one.) It already manages fine with 10 or more players onscreen at once.

@StanVanman It probably wouldn't have been much of an extra drain. I can't remember why I went with a comedic centre circle. It may even have been just a place-holder while I got everything else up and running and never got enlarged. FWIW horizontal and vertical lines are plotted. Everything else is sprites (the centre circle is made up of 16x16 sprites). And the AI always considers all players, regardless of whether they're on screen at the time.

[AndyC]

Football Manager is the best footy game anyway.

Nah, that's Street Gang Football https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/9 ... g_Football

[p13z]

I'm here to concur with Emlyn Hughes being the definitive Speccy football game.
It tends to rank highly in top Speccy game lists / charts, where you see no other footie games - beyond the occasional sighting of Matchday 2 and Football Manager lower down.
eg:
Official UK Top 40 Classic Speccy Games

[Mpk]

Official UK Top 40 Classic Speccy Games

Chaos in a respectable 11th there, I notice. @PeteProdge

[Morkin]

Chaos in a respectable 11th there, I notice. @PeteProdge

That's understandable, it was 2020, everyone had lost their marbles that year.

[PeteProdge]

Chaos in a respectable 11th there, I notice. @PeteProdge

They let people who have never played Chaos have a vote.

[StanVanman]

@StanVanman It probably wouldn't have been much of an extra drain. I can't remember why I went with a comedic centre circle. It may even have been just a place-holder while I got everything else up and running and never got enlarged. FWIW horizontal and vertical lines are plotted. Everything else is sprites (the centre circle is made up of 16x16 sprites). And the AI always considers all players, regardless of whether they're on screen at the time.

I had no idea you made Man United Europe! Nice work!

[Inky]

I had no idea you made Man United Europe! Nice work!

Ta! Only the arcade section. Shaun Hollingworth and Pete Harrap did the front end / management section.

[StanVanman]

Ta! Only the arcade section. Shaun Hollingworth and Pete Harrap did the front end / management section.

Well, there you go, the definitive Speccy football game can be your next project after Timeblasters

[XTM]

Just wanted do add another +1 for Emlyn Hughes. I was never into footy as a kid, I simply didn't care for it and had no interest in Football Manager, the Match Day games etc., yet I got hooked when I started playing Emlyn Hughes because of the great controls.

That top 40 from 2020 would have made some people very angry 15 or so years earlier, because Abadia is nowhere to be found . Well, it said "UK-centric" didn't it ...

[Inky]

Well, there you go, the definitive Speccy football game can be your next project after Timeblasters

@StanVanman Let's talk about it next year, once I've had chance to take some things OFF my todo list