[{"TitleName":"American Football","Publisher":"Softstone Ltd","Author":"Gary Burfield-Wallis, Keith A. Goodyer, Nic Rackley","YearOfRelease":"1984","ZxDbId":"0002145","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 48, Jan 1988","Price":"£1.95","ReleaseDate":"1987-12-10","Editor":"Barnaby Page","TotalPages":196,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Managing Editor: Barnaby Page\r\nStaff Writers: Dominic Handy, Lloyd Mangram, Ian Phillipson\r\nSubeditor: David Peters\r\nPhotographers: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson\r\nOffice: Frances Mable, Glenys Powell\r\nTechnical Writers: Simon N Goodwin, Jon Bates\r\nAdventure Writer: Derek Brewster\r\nPBM Writer: Brendon Kavanagh\r\nStrategy Writer: Philippa Irving\r\nEducation Writer: Rosetta McLeod\r\nContributors: Robin Candy, Mike Dunn, Paul Evans, Dave Hawkes, Nick Roberts, Ben Stone, Paul Sumner, Bym Welthy\r\nEditorial Director: Roger Kean\r\nProduction Controller: David Western\r\nArt Director/Illustrator: Oliver Frey\r\nAssistant Art Director: Markie Kendrick\r\nDesign: Wayne Allen\r\nProcess and Planning: Jonathan Rignall (Supervisor), Matthew Uffindell, Nick Orchard\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Andrew Smales\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nEditorial and Production: [redacted]\r\nPlease address correspondence to the appropriate person!\r\n\r\nMail Order and Subscriptions: [redacted]\r\n\r\nADVERTISING\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting by The Tortoise Shell Press, Ludlow\r\n\r\nPrinted in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistributed by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return any written material sent to CRASH - including written and photographic material, software and hardware - unless it is accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material is welcome and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates.\r\n\r\n©1987 Newsfield Limited\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Top Ten Hits\r\nRetail Price: £1.99\r\n\r\nYou've come a long way since managing the Wigan Wagglebottoms American football team. The USA called and now you are in great demand.\r\n\r\nIn your coach's bank balance you have a cool quarter-million bucks. With this mountain of greenbacks you can buy and sell players in an attempt to field the best team, beat the other clubs and win in that good of American sporting tradition, the Superbowl.\r\n\r\nAt the start of the game you can choose your level of coaching expertise, and the team you'll to propel to victory. But to improve the team and achieve your ambitions you have access to the transfer market.\r\n\r\nYou can call up financial statements showing your balance, the availability of loans and any loan repayments outstanding, and arrangements for making loan repayments appear before each match. There's also a fist of available players can be called up, showing their value and skill and energy levels. And yet another list allows reserve players to substitute for playing members so that advantage can be taken of their enhanced energy or skill levels.\r\n\r\nWhen a game is in progress on the field, the morale, skill and energy levels of both teams are shown and these are crucial in determining the outcome - though luck can play its part. The match is shown in 3-D, with both sides lining up on the gridiron.\r\n\r\nAt the end of the match other recent fixture results are shown, and these are further translated into league-table positions. A financial report then displays the gate money from that match, interest payment, the wage bill and your bank balance.\r\n\r\nTo measure your progress en route to the big time, a rating screen shows the total value of your squad, its morale, skill and energy levels, the team's league position and your rating as coach... because success depends on you.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nJoysticks: none\r\nGraphics: limited - Mike gave them 02%","ReviewerComments":["I must admit to once being addicted to Quarter Back magazine, which deals entirely with the play of this contorted version of rugby - but Grid Iron deals entirely with the management side. There are plenty of chirpy features but plenty of problems too; for instance, you can't make more than one change in the team unless you've got an injured player. Grid Iron is enjoyable to sit down with for a long time, but I look forward to a game where you can really play American football.\r\nBym Welthy\r\n73%","Grid Iron is the worst sports game I have ever played. There is simply nothing to it but inaccuracy after inaccuracy. Players can do more or less anything - you can get a team made up entirely of quarterbacks - which makes the simplistic game much too easy: if you manage to get a good team (hardly difficult) nothing can touch you. The financial aspect doesn't make sense either; I played the entire league, beating everyone by a huge margin, and still had a balance of about $100,000 without having taken any loans. I then won the Superbowl 28-0 (notice the way that your team and your opponents only score in multiples of seven, yet all the other games in the league have completely random scores...) and acquired an $80,000 debt. How? I don't know. But any money you invest in Grid Iron will be wasted.\r\nMike Dunn\r\n6%"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: A team-management game with the 'realistic' details so appallingly flawed it's worthless.","Page":"169","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Bym Welthy","Score":"73","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Mike Dunn","Score":"6","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Grid Iron: football mismanaged."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"34%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"11%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"47%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"39%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"29%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 26, Feb 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-01-14","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nArt Editor: Peter George, Darrell King\r\nDeputy Editor: Marcus Berkmann\r\nTechnical Editor: Phil South\r\nActing Production Editor: Fran Husband\r\nContributors: Richard Blaine, Audrey & Owen Bishop, Ciaran Brennan, Jonathan Davies, Mike Gerrard, Gwyn Hughes, David Jones, David McCandless, Duncan McDonald, John Minson, David Powell, Nat Pryce, Rick Robson, Peter Shaw, Rachael Smith, Mischa Welsh, Tony Worrall\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Simon Stansfield\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nPublisher: Kevin Cox\r\nPublishing Director: Roger Munford\r\nManaging Director: Stephen England\r\n\r\nPublished by Dennis Publishing Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England.\r\nTypesetters: Carlinpoint [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinters: Chase Web Offset [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1988 Felden Productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Sinclair is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"Top Ten\r\n£1.99\r\nReviewer: David Powell\r\n\r\nI hate games like this - they give reviewers a bad name. But having been disappointed by Ocean's Super Bowl (two player only), and with Mind Games' American Football which basically falls into the guessing game category, I had high hopes for this NFL-inspired management game, especially considering my love of the sport.\r\n\r\nIt might have been an idea, though, if the author, Keith Goodyer, had spent less time on his witty hackers' message and more on his programming skills.\r\n\r\nAlthough the game has five skill levels, level one practically assures a victory and level five guarantees a dismal last place (after 35 minutes of pure tedium in both cases). You may transfer players (only one trade per game) and you can borrow money, all to help you increase the strength of your team.\r\n\r\nBut the action, even allowing for the atrocious graphics, shows only touchdowns and incompletion. No tackling or anything approaching realism is used here or anywhere else. What happened to the inter-league divisions? And games are decided randomly, heavily influenced by the chosen skill level.\r\n\r\nAbout the best feature is a facility to save to microdrive, which is pretty gripping. Believe me, this is a prize turkey.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Sadly only a cheapie. Otherwise you'd be able to congratulate yourself on the savings you'd make from not buying this.","Page":"74","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"David Powell","Score":"2","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"2/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"2/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"2/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"1/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"2/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 71, Feb 1988","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1988-01-18","Editor":"David Kelly","TotalPages":108,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Graham Taylor\r\nStaff Writer: Jim Douglas\r\nStaff Writer: Tamara Howard\r\nArt Editor: Gareth Jones\r\nAdventure Help: Gordo Greatbelly\r\nZapchat: Jon Riglar\r\nHelpline: Andrew Hewson\r\nContributors: Richard Price, Tony Bridge, Chris Jenkins, Tony Dillon, Gary Rook\r\nHardware Correspondent: Rupert Goodwins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mike Corr\r\nSales Executive: Steve Prescott\r\nClassified Sales/Production: Alison Morton\r\nPublisher's Secretary: Debbie Pearson\r\nSubscriptions Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscription Enquiries [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Jim Davis\r\n\r\nSinclair User\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1988 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nABC 84,699 July-Dec 1986"},"MainText":"Label: Top Ten\r\nAuthor: Sparklers\r\nPrice: £1.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: None\r\nReviewer: Tony Dillon\r\n\r\nMost sports games these days are managerial type games in which you must pick your brain and make crucial decisions that could be vital to your team's future. This is not the case here.\r\n\r\nDon't get me wrong. It is a managerial game, it's just that none of the decisions you make have the slightest effect on your team as they win every single match they get and then win the superbowl. I did this on my first go and was more than a little disheartened.\r\n\r\nThe game is displayed in the usual format, I nice menus and tables, but I laugh at the (and I quote) '3D match graphics'. What they boil down to is a few diagonal lines and little black and white stick figures.\r\n\r\nGrid Iron was released as Touchdown USA on the Sparklers label and was greeted with a little less than enthusiasm then. What chance does it have now?","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Probably this is the world's first 'too easy' game and one definitely to leave on the shelf.","Page":"73","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Tony Dillon","Score":"2","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"2/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer News Issue 86, Nov 1984","Price":"","ReleaseDate":"1984-11-02","Editor":"Peter Worlock","TotalPages":74,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editorial\r\nEditor: Peter Worlock\r\nProduction Editor: Lauraine Turner\r\nSub Editor: Harriet Arnold\r\nEditor's Assistant: Karen Isaac\r\nNews Editor: David Guest\r\nNews Writer: Ralph Bancroft, Sandra Grandison\r\nFeatures Editor: John Lettice\r\nSoftware Editor: Bryan Skinner\r\nPeripherals Editor: Kenn Garroch\r\nHardware Editor: Stuart Cooke\r\nPrograms Editor: Nickie Robinson\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nArt Editor: Dave Alexander\r\nAssistant Art Editor: Tim Brown\r\nLayout Artist: Bruce Preston\r\nPublisher: Cyndy Miles\r\nPublishing Assistant: Tobe Bendeth\r\n\r\nAdvertising\r\nGroup Advertising Manager: Peter Goldstein\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Bettina Williams\r\nAssistant Advertisement Managers: Laura Cade, Claire Rowbottom\r\nSales Executives: Claire Barnes, Phil Benson, Mike Blackman, Julian Burns, Steve Corrick, Tony Keefe, Andrew Flint, Christian McCarthy, Isabel Middleton, Sarah Musgrave, Tony O'Reilly, Anita Stokes\r\nProduction: Richard Gaffrey\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Jan Moore\r\nSubscription Enquiries: Gill Stevens\r\nSubscription Address: [redacted]\r\nEditorial Address: [redacted]\r\nAdvertising Address: [redacted]\r\n\r\nPublished by VNU Business Publications, [redacted]\r\n© VNU 1983. No material maybe reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\nPhotoset by Quickset, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Chase Web Offset, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Seymour Press, [redacted]\r\nRegistered at the PO as a newspaper"},"MainText":"PRICE: £6.95\r\nPUBLISHER: Softstone [redacted]\r\n\r\nAmerican Football is quite in vogue, and this version of the game from Softstone isn't half bad. It's very like Football Manager, and almost as good.\r\n\r\nYou can select from five levels of play. The lowest is novice, through group level of the team, coach, and finally the team itself. And don't they have great names - The Huston Oilers are my favourites, with the LA Rams a close second.\r\n\r\nThere are many options in the game, checking the team's statistics, changing players' names and soon. Sooner or later you'll want to play a match, and it's here that games like this come into their own. The view is from the side and slightly above the pitch. On a green backdrop, the yard lines marked out in white, the players get to work. The figures are small and a bit stick-like, but move quite well across the pitch. All the action's here as you pray for your team to make touchdown.\r\n\r\nThe aim of the game is to coach your chosen team to the Superbowl - the peak of the game, like the FA cup. That could take you some time and careful strategy is needed to keep your team ahead of the competition.\r\n\r\nYou don't need to have any knowledge of the game because all the action's automatic though it would have been an improvement to have information about the game rules, as well as some background - the only instructions on the inlay cover loading the game.\r\n\r\nI'm not partial to this type of game, where all the choices are menu selection, or name and price entry, but if that's your bag then you should check this game out. You might even win a sovereign should you come across a hidden message.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"57","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Bryan Skinner","Score":"8","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"8/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]