[{"TitleName":"Kick Off","Publisher":"Anco Software Ltd","Author":"John Mitchell","YearOfRelease":"1989","ZxDbId":"0002687","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 74, Mar 1990","Price":"£1.7","ReleaseDate":"1990-02-22","Editor":"Oliver Frey","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Oliver Frey\r\nFeatures Editor: Richard Eddy\r\nStaff Writer: Mark Caswell\r\nEditorial Assistant: Viv Vickress\r\nPhotography: Michael Parkinson\r\nContributors: Nick Roberts\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nProduction Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell\r\nArt Director: Mark Kendrick\r\nReprographics: Robert Millichamp, Tim Morris, Rob (the Rev) Hamilton, Jenny Reddard\r\nDesign: David Western, Melvin Fisher\r\nSystems Operator: Ian Chubb\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executives: Caroline Blake, Christian Testa\r\nAssistant: Jackie Morris [redacted]\r\nGroup Promotions Executive: Richard Eddy\r\n\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nSubscriptions\r\n[redacted].\r\n\r\nDesigned and typeset on Apple Macintosh II computers using Quark Express and Adobe Illustrator '88, output at MBI [redacted] with systems support from Digital Reprographics [redacted]. Colour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistribution by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOMPETITION RULES\r\nThe Editor's decision is final in all matters relating to adjudication and while we offer prizes in good faith, believing them to be available, if something untoward happens (like a game that has been offered as a prize being scrapped) we reserve the right to substitute prizes of comparable value. We'll do our very best to despatch prizes as soon as possible after the published closing date. Winners names will appear in a later issue of CRASH. No correspondence can be entered into regarding the competitions (unless we've written to you stating that you have won a prize and it doesn't turn up, in which case drop the Viv Vickress a line at the [redacted] address). No person who has any relationship, no matter how remote, to anyone who works for either Newsfield or any of the companies offering prizes, may enter one of our competitions. No material may be reproduced whole or in part without the written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return anything sent into CRASH - including written and photographic material, software and hardware - unless it is accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. We regret that readers' postal enquiries cannot always be answered. Unsolicited written or photo material is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates. Colour photographic material should be 35mm transparencies wherever possible. The views expressed in CRASH are not necessarily those of the publishers.\r\n\r\nCopyright CRASH Ltd 1989 A Newsfield Publication. ISSN 0954-8661. Cover Design by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Anco\r\n£9.95 cass, £14.95 disk\r\n\r\nThe Amiga version won an industry award and has been played by the ZZAP! guys next door for many months (and indeed still is), and now we get to welcome the Spectrum Kick Off into the CRASH office.\r\n\r\nAs with many footy games the obligatory option menus have to be flicked through: choose between one or two player game, decide whether to play with keys or joystick. Practice skills or penalties, play a single game, or if you can grab a few people off the street (preferably ones you know), you can set up a league. There are eight international teams on offer: Spain, Brazil, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Argentina and England. The league runs for 14 weeks (ie 14 games), and don't worry if you can't find seven other friends - the computer will control teams you don't have players for. Next you set the playing time, which ranges between 10 and 90 minutes. Then choose a skill level. International, National, Reserve, Youth and Sunday League are on offer - each player picks his/her own skill (there's always one clever dick who chooses International to your Sunday League). Finally choose a playing formation 4-3-3 (defensive play), 4-2-4 (attacking play), 4-4-2 (good midfield control) and 5-3-2 (sweeper defensive play). And now whether you're playing a single game or a pitch.\r\n\r\nThere are several referees - some real sticklers who pickup on every foul, others who turn a blind eye. Whichever, don't foul too often - you can't win it all your players have been sent off.\r\n\r\nThe Speccy version looks quite good and is certainly playable with great features like tough referees, penalties, corners etc, my fave being the league table: a great excuse to get your friends round and wipe the floor with 'em. While not usually a great lover of football games, I must admit Kick Off proved entertaining.\r\n\r\nMARK 77%","ReviewerComments":["Kick Off is brilliant! If you want a good laugh that is. Tiny little blobs (I think they're supposed to be footballers) run around the pitch, half of them covered in a purple splodge that leaks onto the grass! You have to make these footballers move a small ball around the pitch by pushing it in the direction you want it to go. This is all very well until you need to change direction, because the ball never tags along with you, it just trundles on it's own course! This makes playing a decent game of football very difficult. There are plenty of options in the game though: you can choose different leagues, players and formations to play in. Kick Off is a bad attempt at simulating what was a really good game on 16-bit. The only similarity is the colour of the sticker on the tape! Steer clear of this one.\r\nNick Roberts\r\n36%"],"OverallSummary":"Kick Off to a mixed reception footy season for afficionados.","Page":"42","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mark Caswell","Score":"77","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"36","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"56%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"48%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"50%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"56%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictivity","Score":"55%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"56%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 50, Feb 1990","Price":"£1.7","ReleaseDate":"1990-01-18","Editor":"Matt Bielby","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Matt Bielby\r\nArt Editor: Catherine Peters\r\nDeputy Editor: David Wilson\r\nProduction Editor: Andy Ide\r\nDesigner: Martin Sharrocks\r\nTechnical Consultant: Jonathan Davies\r\nContributors: Robin Alway, Marcus Berkmann, Richard Blaine, Jonathan Davies, Mike Gerrard, Kati Hamza, Tim Harding, David McCandless, Richard Morris, Rich Pelley, Phil South, Wag\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Lynda Elliott\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Caroline Day\r\nClassified Advertisement Executive: Chris Skinner\r\nAdvertisement Director: Alistair Ramsay\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nAdvertisement Production: Claire Baker\r\nNewstrade Circulation Manager: Stephen Ward\r\nSubscription Manager: June Smith\r\nPublisher: Teresa Maughan\r\nFinance Director: Colin Crawford\r\nManaging Director: Stephen England\r\nChairman: Felix Dennis\r\n\r\nPublished by Dennis Publishing Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England.\r\nTypesetters: Point Five [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinted By: Riverside Press [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1989 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":"Anco\r\n£9.95 cass\r\nReviewer: Matt Bielby\r\n\r\nThis is a really, really weird one. The 16-bit versions are classics (I think anyone would acknowledge that), but while the Speccy version isn't as good it's still a very different kettle of fish from most footie games. We didn't have any great hopes for it since Anco slipped it out ever so quietly with no real publicity or anything but in actual fact it's quite a pleasant surprise.\r\n\r\nSo, first up, the presentation - and it's lousy. The little purple and white players are pretty indistinct, there are oodles of graphical glitches and both men and ball have a bizarre tendency to go under the 25 yard line! in fact, this gives it very much the feel of a rather bad three or four year old game. Hardly what you'd call 'state of the art'.\r\n\r\nBut playability is another matter altogether! I know footie games are normally incredibly popular (even the bad ones) but, personally, I'm not much into them. They've got a strange sort of addictiveness, it's true (even if you're not much into football), but I can't get much fun out of the managerial aspects, graphically there's not much you can do with them and the controls are often hard to get to grips with. And, to cap it all, gameplay is too often stodgy and slow.\r\n\r\nThat's not a criticism you could make of Kick Off though! For a start it's fast. Very fast indeed. It's almost like ice hockey or basketball (or pinball!) with the game moving from one goal to the other in a matter of seconds. There's no way you're gong to get bored, that's for sure. It's easy to get into too. There's a trial option for you to learn ball control, how to take corners and so on, but, as the controls seem to have been kept as simple as possible you'll quickly want to get into a real game and learn 'on the job'. I did lose 2-1 (ahem), but it was only my first go. Anyway, they give you a choice of five skill levels so all players are catered for. Of course, the real test of these sorts of things is in a two player game, so how does it fare? Well, let's have a little listen, shall we?\r\n\r\n\"Blimey!\". \"Oi! Gerroff!\". \"You fouled me!\" \"Send him off, ref!\". \"Yellow card!\" \"Oi! You fouled me again! You're a dirtier player than Real Madrid!\" (From the original soundtrack of me and Davey playing). Yep, it goes down pretty well all right, since it's so fast and frantic, though the lousy graphics do spoil things slightly.\r\n\r\nAll in all then, a different sort of footie game, a lot faster and easier to get into than usual, but with some annoying glitches and a slightly unfinished look. Still, there's no denying it's a lorra, lorra fun (especially in two player mode).","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Very fast, very playable and very easy to get into, though a bit hopeless visually.","Page":"23","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Matt Bielby","Score":"80","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Kick Off is at its best in two player mode, though the choice of 12 different refs, with 12 different degrees of leniency, means the other player can sometimes get away with murder."}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"These little things down here show which direction the goal mouth is in, so you can shoot even when you can't actually see the goal. Don't mistake them for the ball though!\r\n\r\nHere's the ball. It gets a bit bigger as it bounces into the air, Passing Shot-style.\r\n\r\nLook at these lines. They seem to just peter out at the edges, with the ball and players going under them!"}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Life Expectancy","Score":"86%","Text":""},{"Header":"Instant Appeal","Score":"75%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"62%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"84%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"80%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 54, Jun 1990","Price":"£1.7","ReleaseDate":"1990-05-10","Editor":"Matt Bielby","TotalPages":92,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Matt Bielby\r\nArt Editor: Kevin Hibbert\r\nProduction Editor: Andy Ide\r\nDesign Assistant: Andy Ounsted\r\nContributors: Robin Alway, Marcus Berkmann, Joe Davies, Jonathan Davies, Cathy Fryett, Mike Gerrard, Duncan MacDonald, Paul Morgan, Jon North, Rich Pelley, David Wilson\r\nAdvertising Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertising Executive: Simon Moss\r\nPublisher: Greg Ingham\r\nAssistant Publisher: Jane Richardson\r\nManaging Director: Chris Anderson\r\nProduction Manager: Ian Seager\r\nProduction Coordinator: Melissa Parkinson\r\nSubscriptions: Computer Posting [redacted]\r\nMail Order: The Old Barn [redacted]\r\nPrinters: Riverside Press [redacted]\r\nDistributors: SM Distribution [redacted]\r\n\r\nYour Sinclair is published by Future Publishing Ltd [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Future Publishing 1990. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission."},"MainText":"KICK OFF\r\nAnco\r\n\r\nBest known in its 16 bit incarnations, the Speccy version of Kick Off (when it finally came out) proved to be quite a scrappy looking affair, with balls that went under the lines and goal markings that simply petered out for no reason whatsoever. But (but! but!) there still remained something to recommend it - the sheer speed with which it moved! There was no way you could accuse this game of slow and stodgy gameplay - the ball flew absolutely everywhere, bouncing around the players (overhead viewpoint, remember?) like the whole pitch was a giant pinball table or something. All of a sudden ninety percent of existing soccer games seemed pedestrian in the extreme. All in all then, it was easy to get into and a lot of fun (especially in two-player mode) but fell foul of some very scrappy graphics.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"55","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Jonathan Davies","Score":"75","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"And what a foul that was! So realistic we even heard it up here in commentary box!"}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON THINGS\r\n\r\nThe Overhead View\r\n\r\nThis features in MicroProse Soccer, Kick Off and most of the Codies games, among others. It has the advantage that you don't actually get to see the players faces (only their bald patches) and generally avoids some of the confusion you get in side views when too many players get all tangled in together and you can't quite tell what's going on. You often get a nice 3D view of the ball too, as it flies up into the air and then plummets back down to earth again. And on the minus side? Well, timing headers can get very, very tricky, but more importantly it doesn't always 'feel' quite right somehow. After all, when you watch a game of soccer, you never see it from above, do you?\r\n\r\nThe Side View\r\n\r\nA bit common, you get this viewpoint all over the place, but generally it's the most reliable method. It gives a good 'as seen on telly' angle, although things have to be quite well animated for it to work (not always the case) and you do tend to get horrible sprite 'scrums' at key moments.\r\n\r\nA Bit Of Both Views\r\n\r\nOnly spotted occasionally, in things like Gazza's Super Soccer, this technique can get very confusing indeed. You get a side view when the ball's in the middle of the pitch, but when you get near to either goal the whole thing flips round to give a sort of overhead/into-the-goalmouth sort of perspective. All very well, but it gives you a godawful headache after a while."},{"Text":"ALMOST EVERY SOCCER GAME EVER RELEASED (DEPRESSING ISN'T IT?)\r\n\r\nBobby Charlton's Soccer - Dacc\r\nBrian Clough's Football Fortunes - CDS\r\nBryan Robson's Superleague - Paul Lamond\r\nEmlyn Hughes' Soccer - Audiogenic\r\nEuropean Five-A-Side Football - Silverbird\r\nFA Cup Football - Virgin\r\nFighting Soccer - Activision\r\nFootballer of the Year - Gremlin\r\nFootballer of the Year II - Gremlin\r\nFootball Director - D&H\r\nFootball Director II - D&H\r\nFootball Fever - Tanglewood\r\nFootball Manager - Addictive Games\r\nFootball Manager II - Addictive Games\r\nFour Soccer Sims - CodeMasters\r\nFootball Frenzy - Alternative\r\nGary Lineker's Superstar Soccer - Gremlin\r\nGary Lineker's Hotshot - Gremlin\r\nGary Lineker's Superskills - Gremlin\r\nGazza's Super Soccer - Empire\r\nInternational Manager - D&H\r\nInternational Match Day 128 - Ocean\r\nKenny Dalglish Soccer - Manager Cognito\r\nKick Off - Anco\r\nLeague Challenge - Atlantis\r\nManchester United - Krisalis\r\nMatch Day - Ocean\r\nMatch Day II - Ocean\r\nMexico '86 - Qual-soft\r\nMicroprose Soccer - Microprose\r\nPeter Beardsley's International Football - Granslam\r\nPeter Shilton's Handball Maradona - Grandslam\r\nPlayer Manager - Anco\r\nPremier II - E&J\r\nProfessional Soccer - CRL\r\nRoy Of The Rovers - Gremlin\r\nSaint And Greavsie - Grandslam\r\nSoccer Boss - Alternative\r\nSoccer 7 - Cult\r\nSoccer Star - Cult\r\nStreet Cred Football - Players\r\nStreet Gang Football - CodeMasters\r\nSuper Soccer - Imagine\r\nThe Double - Johnson Scanatron\r\nTracksuit Manager - Goliath Games\r\nTwo Player Super League - D&H\r\nWorld Cup Carnival - US Gold\r\nWorld Cup Soccer - Artic\r\nWorld Cup Soccer '90 - Virgin"},{"Text":"AND STILL TO COME\r\n\r\nThis is of course World Cup Year. And what happens in World Cup Year? Yes, hundreds and hundreds of new Speccy soccer games suddenly appear, that's what. There are going to be oodles of them - but how are you going to be able to tell them apart? What you need is a handy-dandy reference sheet to keep score on, isn't it? And - by Jingo! - what have we got here but the very thing! Simply keep reading YS, fill in the scores of all the new games in the spaces provided as we print them and 'Bob's your uncle' (as they say)! Now all you need do is take this copy of the mag down the shop with you whenever you intend to buy a footie game. You won't regret it! (Oh, and by the way, we've not included any budget games here - there'll be plenty of those around too. Check out Matchday or the Codies' World Cup offering for starters.)\r\n\r\nWORLD CUP '90 SCORE CARD\r\n\r\nGame: Adidas World Championship Football\r\nCompany/Release Date: Ocean - May/June\r\nNotes: Programmed by Smart Egg Software, this one has to have a good chance around World Cup time.\r\nScore: 85%\r\n\r\nGame: England - The Official Football Game\r\nCompany/Release Date: Grandslam - May/June\r\nNotes: Grandslam has secured the official England licence, meaning it can use the images of all the individual players (say John Barnes, or Bryan Robson). It's also planning a feature which modifies the team's performance if one of these is injured and can't play. Blimey!\r\nScore: Never released\r\n\r\nGame: European Superleague\r\nCompany/Release Date: CDS - June\r\nNotes: Another management game to add to the list.\r\nScore: 80%\r\n\r\nGame: Football Manager World Cup Edition\r\nCompany/Release Date: Addictive - any day now\r\nNotes: Apparently even better than Football Manager 2. It comes with its own World Cup wall chart and a competition with 'prizes' like getting your picture up alongside Kevin Toms on the packaging of the yet-to-come Football Manager 3!! Blimey!\r\nScore: 82%\r\n\r\nGame: Italy 1990\r\nCompany/Release Date: US Gold - April\r\nNotes: We await US Gold's entry with bated breath. The one thing we're certain of is that it won't be a replay of World Cup Carnival (surely?).\r\nScore: 81%\r\n\r\nGame: Golden Boot\r\nCompany/Release Date: Ocean - to be announced\r\nNotes: We don't know much about this (including a firm release date) but it's a wacky football game programmed by Ocean France (responsible for Beach Volley, which looks less and less likely to ever appear on the Speccy).\r\nScore: Never released\r\n\r\nGame: Kenny Dalglish Soccer Match\r\nCompany/Release Date: Impressions - April\r\nNotes: A pretty straight, eight-way scrolling side-view footie game with a Kenny Dalglish licence attached. Again, a full review next issue.\r\nScore: 46%\r\n\r\nGame: Kenny Dalglish Soccer Player\r\nCompany/Release Date: Impressions - end of next year\r\nNotes: More in the Footballer Of the Year mould (though more arcadey than that apparently), this new Kenny game follows the fortunes of an individual player trying to make it into a team and then on and upwards from there.\r\nScore: Never released\r\n\r\nGame: Kick Off 2\r\nCompany/Release Date: Anco - May\r\nNotes: Hopefully a souped-up, less scrappily presented version of the original Spectrum game (on compilation now, though it was only released a few months ago).\r\nScore: 80%\r\n\r\nGame: Liverpool - The Official Football Game\r\nCompany/Release Date: Grandslam - April\r\nNotes: The first of the two 'official' Liverpool games, this one gets to use the images of the various players...\r\nScore: Never released.\r\n\r\nGame: Liverpool FC\r\nCompany/Release Date: Ocean - September\r\nNotes: ... while this one uses the official team badge and colours.\r\nScore: Never released.\r\n\r\nGame: Manchester United\r\nCompany/Release Date: Krisalis - any day now\r\nNotes: Another game sponsored by a team as opposed to an individual player, we'll have a full review next issue.\r\nScore: 74%\r\n\r\nGame: Player Manager\r\nCompany/Release Date: Anco - July\r\nNotes: Like a sort of cross between Kick Off and a management game, this was a massive hit on the 16-bit machines recently and deservedly so. Will it do the same on the Speccy?\r\nScore: Never reviewed in YS\r\n\r\nGame: Subbuteo\r\nCompany/Release Date: Goliath - May/June\r\nNotes: Based not on football itself so much as the popular 'flick-to-kick' table-top game. Will we see giant fingers reach down onto the pitch? You'll have to wait and see! (Again.)\r\nScore: 81%\r\n\r\nGame: Super League Manager\r\nCompany/Release Date: Audiogenic - May\r\nNotes: Audiogenic's first Emlyn Hughes game got a critical drubbing from Marcus (and then went on to sell by the lorry-load of course). How will this management offering fare?\r\nScore: Never released.\r\n\r\nGame: Superleague Soccer\r\nCompany/Release Date: Impressions - out now\r\nNotes: A pretty basic management game by all accounts. Again we'll be having a look at it next month.\r\nScore: 52%\r\n\r\nGame: Vinnie Jones\r\nCompany/Release Date: Again Again - September\r\nNotes: Too late for the World Cup, this will in fact sell on the 'merits' of soccer hard-man Vinnie himself. We can hardly wait.\r\nScore: Never released.\r\n\r\nGame: World Cup Italia '90\r\nCompany/Release Date: Virgin - May\r\nNotes: And last, but by no means least, it's Virgin's game, the only one officially sponsored by the World Cup tournament itself. Hurrah!\r\nScore: 79%"},{"Text":"NAMING YOUR FOOTIE GAME\r\n\r\nThis is the trickiest part of writing any footie game. Although coming up with a name is fairly easy, the chances are that it's already been used seven times before. To assist with this problem we've designed the YS Footie Game Naming System™. Simply pick one word from each column and put them all together to come up with a convincing title.\r\n\r\nGary\t\tRobson's\t\tAdvanced\t\tFootball\t\tGame\r\nBrian\t\tThe Hamster's\tTen-a-Side\t\tSoccer\t\t\tSimulator\r\nKevin\t\tLineker's\t\tSuper Footie\tDirector\t\tPlus\r\nWayne\t\tOf The Rovers'\tBoring\t\t\tTracksuit\t\tManager '90\r\nDarren\t\tMonkhouse's\t\tQuite Good\t\tPickled Onion\tChallenge\r\nBernadette\tToms'\t\t\tStrip\t\t\tNinja\t\t\tFootie Quiz"},{"Text":"RATINGS\r\n\r\nBeing the tricky things they are, footie games don't quite fit into the usual way we rate our games, so for the purposes of this feature here's a one-off system we've devised that hopefully takes into account all their little (and dearly loved) idiosyncrasies.\r\n\r\nPlayerbility: Having forked out your dosh and loaded it up, will you be over the moon or sick as a parrot? In other words, is it any cop... or is it utter crap?\r\n\r\nAt The End Of The Day: ...will you still be playing it? Or will it have joined the potato peelings, used tea bags and missives from Readers Digest in the dustbin?\r\n\r\nKit: Aesthetic appeal, really. Lists of numbers are all very well, but are they decently presented? And if it's an arcade jobbie, are the graphics any good? Especially high marks go to those games with two or more colours used on the players, or a choice of team outfits.\r\n\r\nAtmosphere: Is it just like being in the stands at your local ground (apart from getting a bottle smashed across your cranium every ten minutes that is)? Or might you just as well be standing in a queue by the fish counter at Waitrose counting the dandruff on the back of the person in front of you? Here's where to find out!"},{"Text":"SO YOU WANNA WRITE A FOOTIE GAME?\r\n\r\nHere are a few features you may wish to incorporate when devising your own 'tuff turf' footie extravaganza...\r\n\r\nA celeb, preferably glistening and grinning, with his signature scrawled across the box.\r\n\r\nImportant-looking statistics, and screenloads of them. These should not only be wholly incomprehensible but, so as to thwart even the most dedicated of punters, boast no underlying logic whatsoever.\r\n\r\nMinimal player interaction. Keep him waiting for hours just to 'PRESS ANY KEY'.\r\n\r\nA big green box with lots of footballers on it. They all have one.\r\n\r\nTacky adverts round the pitch carrying plugs for your other games.\r\n\r\nDisastrous artwork all over the place. Muscles where you never knew they existed.\r\n\r\nFree poster and badge that you wouldn't particularly want to stick anywhere (see artwork).\r\n\r\nA 'STOP THE TAPE' message halfway through loading. Meanwhile, you've dozed off and the tape runs on to the end."},{"Text":"THE FIRST FOOTIE GAME IN HISTORY\r\n\r\nA bit of a tie (almost), but by checking out all my back issues of YS, getting hold of various release dates, dismissing the really early stuff that's virtually unrecognisable as Speccy games as we know them today, and consulting with all the experts I could find, it has to be... Football Manager from Addictive! That's right, it's the one with mugshots of that cheery bearded bloke all over it (Kevin Toms actually. Ed). Originating in the days of long shorts and over-the-knee footie boots, it sold squillions of copies, mainly because it was released on everything from the ZX81 to the Teefal HY9000 De Luxe Deep Fat Fryer. We didn't stand a chance really.\r\n\r\nIt was, of course, the first of those dreadful 'management' jobbies, in which you spend the whole time staring at lists of things. Written in 100% Basic, it featured some chronic 'action scenes' and a unique 'customising' feature. (In other words, you could break into the program and do all sorts of despicable things to it.) The punters loved it.\r\n\r\nAs for the first action game, that's a bit harder. It was probably Artic's World Cup Football, the first of the little-people-running-around variety. Unfortunately though it was, to be honest, utterly, utterly terrible. The graphics especially were complete rubbish. It was so bad, in fact, that US Gold decided to use it as the basis for its renowned World Cup Carnival game. (Hurrah!) Far better is Matchday, which appeared soon after - the first proper, enjoyable footie action game."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Kit","Score":"62%","Text":""},{"Header":"Atmosphere","Score":"73%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playerbility","Score":"83%","Text":""},{"Header":"At The End Of The Day","Score":"74%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"75%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment) Issue 29, Feb 1990","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1990-01-04","Editor":"Steve Cooke","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EMAP B & CP [redacted]\r\nTelephone [redacted], Fax [redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Steve Cooke\r\nDeputy Editor: Rik Haynes\r\nReviews Editor: Laurence Scotford\r\nDesign Editor: Jim Willis\r\nContributors: Eugene Lacey, John Minson, John Cook, Pat Winstanley, Christina Erskine\r\nIllustration: Geoff Fowler\r\nAdvertising Manager: Gary Williams\r\nDeputy Advertising Manager: Jerry Hall\r\nAdvertising Production: Melanie Costin\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nSUBSCRIPTIONS\r\nEMAP Frontline, Subscriptions Dept [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOLOUR ORIGINATION\r\nLatent Image [redacted]\r\nBalmoral Graphics [redacted]\r\nProprint Repro [redacted]\r\n\r\nTYPESETTING\r\nCXT [redacted]\r\n\r\nDISTRIBUTION\r\nEMAP Frontline [redacted]\r\n\r\nPRINTING\r\nSevern Valley Press, Caerphilly\r\n\r\n©EMAP B&CP 1989\r\nNo part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission."},"MainText":"ST £19.95dk\r\nAmiga £19.95dk\r\nPC Out Soon\r\nSpectrum £9.95cs, £14.95dk\r\nC64 £9.95cs, £14.95dk\r\nCPC £9.95cs, £14.95dk\r\n\r\nAnco's championship-winning performance with Kick Off is down to the programming brilliance of Dino Dini, an Italian programmer who changed the rules of computer footy games. His revolutionary approach offered wide expanses of green grass, tiny footballers, but a very fast moving game. The effect was of a pitch that appeared to be realistic in scale, rather than the handkerchief-sized pitches that characterised so many other games.\r\n\r\nKick Off also offers a totally new method of trapping and passing - which again introduced a new level of realism. Not as pretty as most other computer soccer games but far more playable - and in this type of game the playability is everything.\r\n\r\nThere's just one bug in the lettuce here. The 8-bit versions of Kick Off, recently released, simply don't cut the mustard.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"81","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Ace Rating","Score":"935/1000","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]