Are the E&J Software guys kicking around somewhere?

[Daveysloan]

Premier League
Release Date: 1985
Original Publisher: E&J Software (UK)
Creators: Alan J. Clayton (UK) R.W. Clayton (UK)

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/3 ... ier_League

Complete long shot, but when I was about 12 or so I got the basic listing of the above game & tweaked a few player names & colours etc added a loading screen & passed it off as my own, Harry S Price style.

I mean not quite that bad, it was only for my own amusement, it wasn't sold or anything.

Anyway I found the tape & made a snapshot of it & was going to chuck it as a freebie on Itch, but it'd probably be manners to at least ask the guys who actually programed it if they were OK with that first.

[PeteProdge]

Incidentally, this has sparked off a bit of curiousity from me.

In modern gaming, FIFA is regarded as king of the football games, and Pro Evolution Soccer is the "no, we have FIFA at home" option, with its imaginary teams and players that hint at the real thing, but can't be the real thing because of the multi-billion-pound corporate circus that is current-day football, with its image rights and heavy-handed legal threats about intellectual property.

If someone makes a homebrew 8-bit football game and then uses the names of current Premier League clubs and players, I guess it's likely to be 'a bit naughty' and could face a legal ban hammer?

[Andre Leao]

There were other people having the same idea

https://planetasinclair.blogspot.com/20 ... r-iii.html

[Daveysloan]

There were other people having the same idea

https://planetasinclair.blogspot.com/20 ... r-iii.html

No way!! That's incredible. What an obscure game for that to have happened on completely separately...then to be unearthed within months of each other!

@PeteProdge yeah, I guess that sort of started in the 16 bit era when games like Sensible World of Soccer changed the vowels around in players names to get around the image rights issues.

[PeteProdge]

No way!! That's incredible. What an obscure game for that to have happened on completely separately...then to be unearthed within months of each other!

Ah, I'd have to take issue with it being obscure, as its inclusion on a Sinclair User covertape in the middle of 1989 when that mag was (2nd best selling Speccy title) selling tens of thousands of copies, made it fairly famous!

@PeteProdge yeah, I guess that sort of started in the 16 bit era when games like Sensible World of Soccer changed the vowels around in players names to get around the image rights issues.

Yeah, football went very corporate once they did away with the old First Division and ending up turning Sky Television from a financial disaster into a hugely rich broadcaster. I don't exactly yearn for the days where you stood on a windy cold terrace with a cup of Bovril to cheer on a team in the Axminister Carpets Trophy second round or the play-offs of the Transform-A-Snack Southern Counties Third League, but it's just become a bunch of businesses with dubious sources of funding, showing off nearly as many brand logos as you'd see in Formula One.

[worcestersource]

Going off topic, but that’s why I prefer lower league and grassroots football nowadays. I run two U15 youth teams and the boys regularly ask who I support. Truth is, I don’t support anyone anymore.