[{"TitleName":"Soccer 7","Publisher":"Cult Games","Author":"Shaun G. McClure","YearOfRelease":"1989","ZxDbId":"0004611","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 69, Oct 1989","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1989-09-19","Editor":"Oliver Frey","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Oliver Frey\r\nFeatures Editor: Richard Eddy\r\nEditorial Assistants: Viv Vickress, Caroline Blake\r\nPhotography: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson (Assistant)\r\nContributors: Nick Roberts, Mike 'Skippy' Dunn, Robin Hogg\r\n\r\nPRODUCTION DEPARTMENT\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nProduction Manager: Jonathan Rignall\r\nReprographics Supervisor: Matthew Uffindell (Supervisor), Robert Millichamp, Tim Morris, Robert (the Rev) Hamilton, Jenny Reddard\r\n\r\nDESIGN\r\nRoger Kean, Mark Kendrick, Melvin Fisher\r\n\r\nSystems Operator: Ian Chubb\r\nPublisher: Geoff Grimes\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Neil Dyson\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executives: Lee Watkins, Wynne Morgan\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":"SOCCER 7\r\nCult\r\n£2.99\r\n\r\nSoccer 7 is supposed to be a televised (!) indoor seven a side tournament. Eight teams play the game in two groups, battling it out to go through to the finals. You take the job of manager of your chosen team (what a surprise). You have to decide on your captain, penalty taker, match tactics, training, method of play and all the other decisions that a manager has to make to take his or her team up to the top of the Leagues and win the Final.\r\n\r\nWho do Cult think they're conning? Soccer 7 is just a revamped version of International Football (or the other way around). In facts, all the soccer games on their label probably use all the same routines. There is just so much a poor reviewer can take of these football management games, and I'm almost at bursting point. Here are some of the options in Soccer 7: 1 to 8 players, player trading, goal reports, formations, edit teams, fitness and skills options.\r\n\r\nThe presentation of Soccer 7 isn't as good as International Soccer. The normal Spectrum character set has been used, but the little pictures of the strip are still in there. Soccer 7: buy it if you dare!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"48,49","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"48","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"48%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 93, Dec 1989","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1989-11-18","Editor":"Jim Douglas","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"JIM \"Scaredy Cat\" DOUGLAS (Editor)\r\nWith Ghostbuster fever in the office most of the SU team are making ghostly woo wooing noises and filling our mouths with blood capsules. Spazzy Jim, however, is turning into a human jelly (and you all thought he was really hard didn't you?) This is him just before he hid under the desk shouting, \"stop it you lot, you know I don't like the dark\"\r\n\r\nALISON \"Heads Up!\" SKEAT (Production Editor)\r\nEntering in Ghostbustee fever like a good 'un, Al actually agreed to have her head sawn off (she'll do anything for a laugh, that one - Jim) for our photographer. We are at the mo putting her back together with Pritt stick and staples - is there a paramedic in the house?\r\n\r\nTIM \"Creeping Terror\" NOONAN (Art Editor)\r\nAfter 15 pints of shandy at his local The Kosh and Headbutt, and 32 pints of curry from his fave \"restaurant\" Tim finds he has a bad case of biryana botty and terrifies the rest of the SU team with his impression of a Haloween pumpkin head\r\n\r\nGARTH \"Nosferatu\" Sumpter (Staff Writer)\r\nA right ruddy spooky weirdo this one. Garthy runs around EMAP towers, fangs at the ready, biting the office cat and wiping the blood on the roller towel in the loo (geross - all SU readers). That's on any normal day at work, but since Ghostbuster fever he's gone completely off his nut and killed everyone... (but not really)\r\n\r\nAdventure: The Sorceress\r\nHow The Hell: Andrew Hewson\r\nI've Got This Problem: Rupert Goodwins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: James Owens\r\nSenior Sales: Martha 'Tell me now' Moloughney\r\nAd Production: Emma 'Cor Blimey!' Ward\r\nMarketing Manager: Dean 'Beezer Geezer' Barrett\r\nMarketing Assistant: Sarah Ewing\r\nPublisher: Terry 'Digestable' Pratt\r\n\r\nOur Address: [redacted]\r\nOur Phone Number: [redacted]\r\nOur Fax No: [redacted]\r\n\r\nThis Month's Cover: Ghostbusters II from Activision\r\n\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nTypeset on Laser Imager at EMAP Towers. So Nerr!\r\nDistributed by EMAP Frontline.\r\n\r\nSubscription Enquiries: [redacted]\r\n24 Hour Order Line: [redacted]\r\nBack Issues: Back Issues Department (SU), [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1989 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nAll information is correct at time of going to press. And if you don't believe us Big Al Skeat will come round your house and crush your gerbil between her knees. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transcribed, without written consent from the publishers, EMAP Business and Computer Publications. So we'll have no ore said about it."},"MainText":"Label: CULT\r\nAuthor: In-house\r\nPrice: £2.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\n\r\n\"Ere we go, ere we go, ere we go... \"And here, indeed, do we go with errrr, yes there's some news just coming in... Yes Cult have released a budget game that's really not bad and should be able to compete with several of the football manager simulations on the market. Well, that's quite remarkable.' Thank you Mr Coleman, and it's over to you Greavesy. \"Yes, Saint well it's not sa baad. I fink it should give a cupla games somfink ta worry abaart. Cult've been getting a bit of a reputation fer not giving 100% so it's great ta see vat they've got a star player and lets ope this will see 'em turn around and start building a stronger side fer the new season.\"\r\n\r\nSoccer 7 is a seven-a-side manager simulation, that takes you through the trials and tribulations of managing a squad of 10 players. You begin by choosing a team from eight and play is set up between two groups of four teams. You must manage your side and keep abreast (fnarr) of how the opposition fare.\r\n\r\nTo start, the computer sorts the fixtures for the first season and shows a list of the order of matches both home and away indicating which teams are playing who. At the beginning, all the players in the squad are shown along with their energy level which begins at a sprightly 100 and their average performance which begins at zero.\r\n\r\nPlayers are broken down into four key groups: Goalkeeper, Defense, Midfielders and Attack. There are nine in each team which includes two reserves with the tenth player in each squad joining in by watching from the sidelines and shouting \"You're gonna get your bloomin' head kicked in!\"\r\n\r\nTo begin the season you can load in a saved game or start from scratch and from one to eight teams can be controlled by the players. You are asked which of the teams you would like to manage, and once chosen, you can change the name of the manager and the players to whatever you like.\r\n\r\nReal control of the team only begins once you are due to play a match. At this point all the nerve and verve of a football boss comes into play. Changing the team around, allocating part of the 40 hours towards either fitness or skill training, trading players, checking the leagues and even having a sneaky look at the manager's ratings, all are done via the pre-match menu. The team morale is also shown here, a low morale can lead to a team's low performance so winning matches is sooo important.\r\n\r\nAnd so the whistle blows and the match begins. This is a text only affair with each team's strip (Oo-er), shown at the top of the screen. You decide on the playing formation, the level of aggressiveness that the team play at as a value between 1 and 9 and what type of game you play. For example, if you are playing an attacking game you can play it using either; Wingers. Long Balls (fnarr) or a slowly, slowly approach.\r\n\r\nAs the minutes slowly tick away, you are updated each time someone puts a ball in the back of the net. This tells you who scored and how they did it and at all times you have the option of sending on a substitute. Stabbing enter repeatedly will speed up the game between goal reports. On the final whistle the team performance is rated and any injuries or bookings are shown. At this point you can assess the individual players and if someone is looking like they have two left feet, you should think about passing him on to someone else the next time you have a chance to trade players.\r\n\r\nThe game continues until you get to the end of the season where the two top clubs from each of the two groups go into a semi final - get past that and there's just the final between you and complete stardom as manager of the season.\r\n\r\nI have to admit to be a big fan of football sims and this game certainly rates better than some I've seen and Soccer 7 really puts the boot in for games like World Cup Carnival and Handball Maradonna. At £2 99. with the option of eight managers playing together, I think it offers good value and if you've got seven mates around the house then what else could you do on a dull wet Saturday when your own team is playing away?","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Play it with your mates and you'll have a ball.","Page":"72","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Man United play a blinder under the questionable leadership of soccer supremo Garth 'If in doubt, kick it out' Sumpter."},{"Text":"The manager's options menu. Morale isn't too great - is it some changing room argument between Garth and Gazza?"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"71%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"N/A","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"76%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"72%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"74%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]