GARY LINEKER'S SUPERSTAR SOCCER =============================== Welcome to GARY LINEKER'S SUPERSTAR SOCCER, the most exciting soccer simulation yet! Passes, dribbling, injuries - GARY LINEKER'S SUPERSTAR SOCCER packs in all the realism and excitement of real outdoor soccer, combining the hectic demands of team management and coaching with the talent needed to be a 'Star Striker!' It's YOUR team and it's your goal to turn it into championship material ... Welcome to GARY LINEKER'S SUPERSTAR SOCCER, the most exciting football simulation yet! Passes, dribbling, injuries — SUPERSTAR SOCCER packs in all the action and realism of real outdoor soccer. Play striker or goalie, decide your strategies as Manager and make your lineups as coach; make substitutions and trade or recruit neuu players. It's your team and your goal is to turn it into championship material ... Follow 64 teams in four divisions through nine seasons of play and nine cup playoffs. Each team has records for each of those nine years covering wins, draws, losses, points, goals for, goals against, division played in, division finish, Cup results and League rating. Each of the teams has 10 players on it's roster and has statistics for each player such as name, skill rating, playing position, age and injuries. How to play The game starts uuith the MASTER MENU SCREEN, which displays all the options available to the player. Handling the League The top of the main screen is used to display wins, draws and losses of all the teams within a given division. Your team and your next opponents are highlighted in RED. The options displayed at the bottom of the screen are split into two sections — VIEW and TRY. Move the highlight using the joystick and press FIRE to select your option. VIEW OPTIONS League Status When you select LEAGUE STATUS, the options at the bottom of the screen are replaced with information on I) Trading points available, II) Games per season, III) Seasons played so far, IV) League games played so far, V) Rounds played in the play-offs. Pressing FIRE returns to the main options screen. Team History Here you can view a team's history for the last five years. Your information is (I) Number of wins, (II) Number of draws, (III) Number of losses, (IV) Number of points, (V) Goals for, (VI) Goals against, (VII) Division, (VIII) Position, (IX) Round reached in the playoffs, (X) Rating. As well os showing information on your team's history, other teams may be viewed by moving up/down. Leave this screen by pressing FIRE. Game Scores This screen displays the results of the last set of matches. UP/DOWN to view all the results, your team appears in highlight. Divisions This simply allows you to change the division viewed at the top of the screen, allowing you to keep track of the whole League. Load/Save This option allows you to either load or save a League, so continuing, again exactly where you left off. Just follow the onscreen instructions. TRY OPTIONS Trading Points are the means by which you improve your team. You are awarded an initial allotment of 250 trading points when you start the game. Each team is awarded additional allotments at the end of each season depending on their overall rating in the league. It 'costs' Trading Points to recruit, trade and generally improve your team. Every player in Superstar Soccer has a skill rating of 0 to 99. This indicates the player's overall abilities in running speed, shooting accuracy, defensive ability and shot quality. Each player also ages as the seasons pass. This is advantageous to the maturity of the player's style, but eventually, even though he may have a high skill rating, his age will slow him down more than his inexperienced, but younger team mates. Only you, the Manager, can make the decision of either trading him or replacing him completely. The options of RECRUIT A PLAYER, A PLAYER TRADE, and IMPROVE TEAM, are the only means by which you can improve your team. Recruit a Player This allows you to recruit a "Rookie Player" to replace an ageing or useless player. The player to be replaced is first selected by pressing UP/DOWN to choose and FIRE to select. You may then enter details for your new player. Highlight the "NAME" option and press FIRE. You may now select a new name by pressing UP/DOWN. When you have made your recruitment press FIRE to accept. Next, highlight SKILL and press FIRE, then adjust his skill by pressing UP/DOWN and FIRE to select. Each increment of SKILL costs four Trading Points, maximum allowable skill being 50. Press FIRE when you are finished. The player's best field position is decided in a similar way. When you are finished recruiting your youngster, move to the OK prompt and press FIRE to return to the main menu. If you wish to quit this screen at any time, move to CANCEL and press FIRE to return to the main menu. A Player Trade Choose between VIEW TEAMS, TRY TRADE and RETURN by highlighting your choice and pressing FIRE. By viewing the teams you can decide with which team to trade. An arbitration fee will be charged and you may then Select a player to Trade with from your team. Once chosen, you then select a player to trade for. When you have selected both players, you will be asked how many Trading Points you would like to offer as part of the deal. When all of this has been done, arbitration will commence after which you will be told if your trade has been successful. To quit this section, move to RETURN and press FIRE. Improve Team This is a means by which you can send your whole team off to 'training camp'. Here, each player will undergo an amount of skill improvement. The overall amount of improvement is related to the length of time and quality of training at the camp. The time and quality is charged as Trading Points. You are only allowed to visit the training camp once per season, and you can allocate up to 600 points for that visit. Set Up Team This screen shows all your players on the left, and your chosen players on the right (including your two substitutes). The two players highlighted on the left are not in your current line-up. Players in their best on-field position are shown in white, and are YELLOW if they are not. If a player is injured, he is shown in RED, and cannot be used in your line-up. Players can be swapped, put in or taken out by highlighting first the position to be changed and pressing FIRE. You now have two options — "move" or "swap". To swap a player within the on-field line-up, move to the "swap" option and press FIRE. Now press UP/DOWN to select the field position with which to swap. Press FIRE when ready to swap the two positions. To move a player onto your line-up choose "move" and press FIRE. Now you can bring in one of the remaining players in a similar manner. (HINT: The best team is one with the highest skill but the lowest overage age). Move to the QUIT option to exit to the game set-up saeen. New League This allows you to reset the league to year 1 and to set up some of the variables about the way the League will operate. You may choose between English or American Territory and select the number of games to be played in a season. When you select FINISHED you then select a 4th Division team to Manage. Play Next Game Before you play, you can fine tune some more aspects of how any one game will play. (I) First you can change the "speed" of the dock to run between real time up to ten times faster. (II) Next is setting up the control of your team to JOYSTICK or COMPUTER. You may choose joystick control of either Centre Forward or Goolie, or the computer can take control. (III) To play the game, move to the PLAY GAME option and press FIRE. You will then be asked if you wish to watch the match (computer controlled players) being ployed. Select YES or NO as desired. You may view the results in the "game scores". Playing the Coach Whenever there is a stoppage in play; due to the scoring of a goal, a penalty, the ball leavina the pitch, a delay, and injury, or at the end of a half or game; the top score line will switch to a message, and you will then be placed in the Coaching Screen. If you have chosen joystick control for the coach, you may make decisions as to what Offensive and Defensive attitudes to use, or any substitutions to be made. You can make one of three Offensive Attitudes: I) SHOOT: All players will try to get a lot of shots from the points, up close, and even out in midfield! The closer they get to the goal, the more likely a shot will be taken. This can also take a lot of the offensive responsibility from a weak Centre Forward. II) PASS: Most players will tend to pass the ball to your Centre Forward, who can keep oil the players in on the action by passing the ball himseif. This teamwork will work the ball downfield, keeping the defence off-balanced. The PASS attitude allows your Centre Forward to take more control of the offence. III) MIX: In most situations, this is the best attitude to take for a well balanced game. There ore also Defensive Attitudes: (I) COVER: If you are losing ond need to catch up quickly, your team mates must gamble more ond more to get the ball back. With this attitude, your players will shadow the men they are covering. (II) DEFEND: A good conservative defence for if you are winning the game and want to play it safe. This attitude will prevent your players from over committing themselves. They will play back, defending against breakaways or dear shots. (III) MIX: A combination of cover and defend for a well balanced game. SUBSTITUTIONS: You will obviously want to make substitutions from time to time as part of your game strategy or to replace an injured player but this can also be used to view your team's fatigue levels. When in the SUBSTITUTION screen you can view a player's effective power (EP), his maximum power (MP), ond his position (P). A players EP is equal to his MP the first time he takes the field, but as he tires his EP drops. His EP will also be lower if he is playing out of his best position. Remember tired player's don't perform well! How to control your Centre Forward On the field, the Centre's movements are controlled with the keyboard or joystick. Your Centre can roam anywhere on the field, as well as shoot, pass and dribble. Your Goalie will be controlled by the computer. To control your Centre, first make sure that you have made the appropriate selection from the CENTRE CONTROL section of the Game Setup screen (choose joystick 1 from the Game Setup screen if your joystick is in part 1 or joystick 2 if your joystick is in port 2). Passing the Ball To get off a proper pass, you must know the following: (I) The eight joystick directions represent the members of your team. (II) You must move and hold your joystick in the direction that represents the player you wish to receive the pass. NOTE: Only the diagonal directions pick an exact player. Also, if you do not move the joystick at all, then the ball will be passed to no one. This will cause you to lose control of the ball temporarily. (III) Once you have moved the joystick in the proper direction, tap the joystick button quickly. This will pass the ball to the proper player, be sure not to hold the button down, or you will try to take a shot. Shooting the Ball Shooting is a combination of timing, luck, and position. Move your player into position, then press and hold the joystick button. You will see the indicator. Start to cycle back and forth. The arrows indicate toward which side of the goal your shot will travel. When the indicator shows the proper setting, release the button to shoot the ball. The more the indicator bar stretches toward the down arrow when you release the button, the more toward the side of the goal closest to the bottom of the screen your shot will go. Conversely, the more the indicator bar stretches toward the up arrow when you release the button, the more toward the side of the goal closest to the top of the screen your shot will go. The ball will travel in the direction of the opposing goal, no matter what direction the Centre is facing. When Attacking the Goalie on the Right CLOSETS(TOP) DEFENCE/WING LEFT(TOP) LEFT(TOP) DEFENCE | WING \ | / \ | / \|/ CLOSETS ---*--- CLOSET DEFENCE /|\ WING / | \ / | \ RIGHT(BOTTOM) | RIGHT(BOTTOM) DEFENCE WING CLOSETS(BOTTOM) DEFENCE/WING When Attacking the Goalie on the Left CLOSETS(TOP) DEFENCE/WING RIGHT(TOP) RIGHT(TOP) DEFENCE | WING \ | / \ | / \|/ CLOSETS ---*--- CLOSET DEFENCE /|\ WING / | \ / | \ LEFT(BOTTOM) | LEFT(BOTTOM) DEFENCE WING CLOSETS(BOTTOM) DEFENCE/WING Some Tips and Hints 1. One of the most important aspects of playing the Centre is anticipating what your teammates will do with the ball. Always keep in mind what offensive strategies are being used by your team. For example, if the strategy SHOOT is in effect, your teammates will take more shots at the opposing goalie as opposed to passing the ball to you. As Centre, you should be in position to pick up the rebounds and kick them past the goalie while he is out of position. On the other hand, if your team strategy is to PASS, then your teammates will pass the ball around, trying to set you up for a score. In these situations, your job is to shake off your defender so you are in the clear to receive a pass. 2. Play the rebounds! Even the best goalie will break under a lot of pressure. 3. Keep in mind that defense men have better ball handling skills than wings, who have better control than Centres (and Goolies are better at stealing the ball than anybody). This is important to remember when dribbling the ball down the field. Try to out manoeuvre an opponent. Bull-dozing will lose you the ball. 4. When your defensive strategy is DEFEND, your teammates generally will get back to help out the Goalie. They won't overcommit themselves to the man they are covering. In this case, you may want to "double-team" the opponent with the ball. When your defensive strategy is COVER, your teammates generally play tight man-to-man coverage. However, this strategy introduces greater possibilities for defensive mistakes and offensive opportunities. 5. As a coach, place your youngest men in the game. Wearing out an older but great player early in the game may mean he won't be any use to you later on when you need him. Controls At any time during the game control can be selected by pressing the appropriate key 1 to 4:— (I) KEYBOARD: Z - left A - right (II) KEMPSTON JOYSTICK 0 - up K - down (III) CURSOR KEYS/JOYSTICK O - fire (IV) INTERFACE 21+2 How to Load Spectrum 48K Type LOAD"" and press ENTER. Press PLAY on the cassette recorder. The program will load and run automatically. Because of the complexity of the game the leagues and teams in Gary Lineker's Superstar Soccer do not represent the actual English football league. This in no way detracts from the realism of the game. Good Luck! Under licence from Detiqnttar Consultants Exlcutive World Rights - Mindscape Inc. Sportime and Superstar Soccer and trademark of Design Consultants Inc. © Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd., Alpha House, 10 Carver Street Sheffield S1 4FS.