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Best English Football Games on the Amiga


Amiga English Football Games


English football games aka soccer games on the Amiga ran at 50 frames per second with ultra-smooth, per-pixel hardware scrolling of their playing fields. In addition, they featured clear graphics, accurate controls, good user interfaces and two-player simultaneous gameplay.

The best English football games on the Amiga were made by Dino Dini, Sensible Software and Realms of Fantasy between 1989 and 1998. Kick Off maintained a loyal following even after the advent of Sensible Soccer.

I would say that the original Kick Off is the best football game on the Amiga and Atari ST; indeed, relative to its release I would say that Kick Off is the best football computer game ever made. In fact, Kick Off is one of the best computer games ever made.

English football games on the Amiga are as playable in 2024 as they were three decades ago.

From Avatar-anchored screen-scrolling:

Note that screen-scrolling can also be anchored to interactable objects or core-gameplay objects. For example, in English football computer games it is not the currently controlled football player to which screen-scrolling is anchored but rather the football itself: the viewport updates (scrolls) based on football position, not player position. And the controlled player changes based on the proximity of the players to the football.
It is a technical feat that EFCGs maintain ultra-smooth scrolling under frequent and sudden changes in direction.

List of English Football Games on the Amiga


  • Microprose Soccer (1989, Sensible Software)
  • Kick Off (1989, Anco, Dino Dini)
  • Kick Off: Extra Time (1989, Anco, Dino Dini)
  • Kick Off Player Manager (1990, Anco, Dino Dini)
  • Kick Off 2 (1990, Anco, Dino Dini)
  • Kick Off 2: Giants of Europe (1990, Anco, Dino Dini)
  • Kick Off 2: Return To Europe (1991, Anco, Dino Dini)
  • Kick Off 2: The Final Whistle (1991, Anco, Dino Dini)
  • Goal! (1993, Virgin Games, Dino Dini)
  • Sensible Soccer: European Champions (1992, Sensible Software)
  • Sensible Soccer 92-93 (1992, Sensible Software)
  • Sensible Soccer International Edition (1993, Sensible Software)
  • Sensible World of Soccer (1994, Sensible Software)
  • Sensible World of Soccer 95–96 (1995, Sensible Software)
  • Sensible World of Soccer: European Championship Edition (1995, Sensible Software)
  • Sensible World of Soccer 96–97 (1996, Sensible Software)
  • Sensible World of Soccer 97–98 (1997, Sensible Software)
  • Sensible World of Soccer 97–98 World Cup Edition (1998, Sensible Software)
  • Premier Manager (1992, Realms of Fantasy)
  • Premier Manager 2 (1993, Realms of Fantasy)
  • Premier Manager 3 (1994, Realms of Fantasy)
  • FIFA International Soccer IBM PC MS-DOS 1994 Creative Assembly
  • Actua Soccer IBM PC MS-DOS 1995 Gremlin Interactive
  • FIFA Soccer 96 IBM PC MS-DOS 1995 Extended Play Productions
  • FIFA Soccer 97 IBM PC MS-DOS 1996 Extended Play Productions

Kick Off by Dino Dini of Anco (1989-93)


 

Kick Off 1 Feature List


  • Five skill levels
  • Four distinct tactics
  • League competition for 1-8 players (8 teams / 14 weeks)
  • Dribble, shoot, pass, chip or head the ball
  • Sliding tackles
  • Ball movement impacted by wind direction and ground and air friction
  • Nine types of corner kick
  • Goal kicks and penalty kicks
  • After touch control introduced in Extra Time of 1989

Kick Off 1 Formations


  • 4-3-3: Defense
  • 4-2-4: Attack
  • 4-4-2: Midfield
  • 5-3-2: Sweeper Defense

Kick Off 1 Atari ST Original Version



Dino Dini and Anco Software released the original version of Kick off for the Atari ST in June of 1989. Many people cannot play Kick Off because the ball is not glued to the feet of the player in possession of the ball: the difference in ball control between new players and veterans is huge, just like in real football.

Get good, son. Get good.

Kick Off 2 Feature List


One of the most notable additions of Kick Off 2 is its after touch controls that allow players to curve or dip the ball post-kick or -throw-in. (After touch was actually first employed in the Kick Off expansion, Extra Time.)

After touch simulates a player's ability to make a ball curve (bend, swerve) or dip in the air. In real life, this is achieved by generating spin at the point of the kick, which is dependent on where the foot strikes the ball, what part of the foot strikes the ball, and how much of the foot strikes the ball. Of course, the ability to make a ball curve or dip is dependent also on the angle of the body, the legs and the hips -- and the weather. These are skills that can only be truly understood by people that have actually kicked a football a few thousand times.

The ST/Amiga versions of Kick Off 2 allow for 1-4-player simultaneous: up to 2 players vs. computer or 2 players vs 2 players.

Goal! Feature List


As for Goal!, it supports six languages and its pitch and sprite graphics are the clearest of Amiga EFGs. Goal! supports vertical and horizontal pitch presentation as well as two pitch zoom levels that can be set to static or dynamic. There are five pitch types: Normal, Wet, Muddy and Wembley. Also, each player is constituted by eight stats. In addition, Goal! features one-touch passing and variable-rate player movement.

A nice touch is the spinning football hardware cursor, which is joystick- or mouse-controlled.

MicroProse Soccer (1989)


Originally coded by Sensible Software for the C64 in 1988, the Amiga version of MicroProse Soccer came out in the same year as the original Kick Off. Thus was it overshadowed by Kick Off.


Sensible Soccer by Sensible Software (1992)


In 1992 Sensible Soccer attempted to dethrone Anco's Kick Off by adding even more features to the English football game.


Sensible Soccer Feature List


  • 100 European teams
  • European Championship Competition
  • Design your own cup tournament
  • Detailed kits
  • 1-2 players
  • Slick, fast, intelligent passing
  • Second disk full of crowd sounds (sampled sounds)
  • Subs bench with manager and physio
  • Tactical advice on opposite team
  • Named scorers

Sensible World of Soccer (SWOS) by Sensible Software (1994-98)


And then, in 1994, Sensible Software added even more features to their football game via Sensible World of Soccer, aka SWOS.


Sensible World of Soccer Feature List


  • Accurate 95/95 Season Data on over 1,400 club and 131 national sides from around the world
  • Player, manager and player-manager options
  • 10 pre-defined and user-defined tactical selections
  • Mid-match substitutions and tactics changes
  • Crowd samples from around the world (sampled sounds)
  • International transfer market
  • 20 season management career option
  • Over 140 pre-set competitions from around the globe
  • Over 26,000 individual players
  • Design your own legaue, cup or tournament
  • Watch any other match in the world during your season

Premier Manager by Realms of Fantasy (1992-95)


Premier Manager is a series of English football management simulators developed by Realms of Fantasy (1992-95).


Premier Manager Feature List


  • Icon-driven interface
  • Five full divisions
  • Cup competition
  • Each player constituted by 11 stats
  • League tables
  • Squad details
  • Career history
  • Ground sponsorship
  • Ground improvements based on Taylor Report
  • Transfer market
  • Player training with x5 player staff
  • Interaction with other team managers

Premier Manager 2 Feature List


  • Five leagues and all major cups/competitions
  • 16 playing formations
  • 486 combos of playing styles and match tactics
  • Individual morale and fitness levels
  • Negotiate wages, bonuses, contracts
  • Banking system with interest rates
  • 26 players per team
  • 64 sponsors
  • Ticket prices and crowd control
  • Referee information
  • Confidence ratings of directors and supporters
  • Awards: Manager of the Month
  • Potential to be sacked

Premier Manager 3 Feature List


  • European transfer market
  • Player loans
  • Appoint Assistant Manager
  • Give instructions to individual players on what skills to develop
  • 4 talent scouts
  • Loans from directors

In Premier Manager 3 you can watch a representation of matches in real-time, complete with bitmap overlays and digitized commentary.


Future Sports


While not football games at all, the Bitmap Brothers' Speedball of 1988 and Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe of 1990 play somewhat similarly to Kick Off and Sensible Soccer. For example, when you throw the ball in SB2 you can curve its flight post-release just like you can curve the football post-kick. This is known as after-touch control. I knew of no players of football games that did not also like the Speedball games for the same reasons: fun in 2-player mode, accurate controls and smooth screen-scrolling.

However, the football games are much harder to master than the Speedball games because the football needs to be guided and constantly recollected in order to maintain possession thereof; it does not "stick" to the player that has it. In Speedball, the ball is carried in the hands as in Rugby or Gridiron.


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