Another Best of question...

charlie · Post by **charlie** » Fri May 18, 2007 8:19 am

Well, not quite.

I was just having a quick think about sporting titles for the BBC. And, the only one that came to mind was Match Day.

A quick look through the cover scans revealed Superior Soccer.

Surely there must be some other sporting titles of note?

sorvad · Post by **sorvad** » Fri May 18, 2007 8:58 am

The infamous Ian Bothams Test Match springs to mind.

CMcDougall · Post by **CMcDougall** » Fri May 18, 2007 9:39 am

IJK - Five a side soccer

Moist_Mog · Post by **Moist_Mog** » Fri May 18, 2007 1:56 pm

Brian Jack's Superstar Challenge (which I think came up in the worst games ever thread... I quite liked it though)...

Holed Out...

and if you really push it, Pole Position (which I guess was as close as an F1 simulator as you could get back in them days)...

there was at least one boxing game as well, from Superior I think... was it called By Fair Means or Foul?

retro_junkie · Post by **retro_junkie** » Fri May 18, 2007 2:01 pm

CMcDougall wrote:IJK - Five a side soccer

That is brilliantly awful! How did they get away with releasing it?!

Post by **Samwise** » Fri May 18, 2007 7:27 pm

I have Soccer Boss and, from the Codemasters label, Pro-Boxing Simulator (which was previously* released by Superior Software as By Fair Means Or Foul).

Also got Grid Iron II and Bug-Byte's 'Owzat somewhere, Hypersports of course ... Micro Olympics too.

Plus there's all the karate simulations ...

In short, there's hundreds ...

Sam.

* [EDIT: "later" changed to "previously" as the consensus is BFMOF came first.]

charlie · Post by **charlie** » Fri May 18, 2007 9:12 pm

Well, there's definitely more there than I'd found with my brief search.

Although, I guess that generally I'm less interested in the fighting games, than the others.

Better get downloading and playing!

ivor_the_injun · Post by **ivor_the_injun** » Fri May 18, 2007 9:31 pm

A game I keep going back to is Graham Gooch Test Match Cricket. You can play entire 2 innings matches just using the space bar, and that includes cycling through the options and picking your team.

It's actually quite therapeutic. I play it quite a lot when I'm being told tales of back home by my mum for the millionth time.

Also, Indoor Sports is great stuff. I got utterly hooked with table tennis when I first got it. Air hockey's pretty good too.

I know Bug Byte's Ice Hockey has its fans, but I'm not one of them.

Blue Ribbon's Bar Billiards is a good one, although some of the physics is a bit of a pain. The number of times I've racked up a huge score only to knock the black peg over with about 10 seconds to go. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGHHHHH!

Both of Tynesoft's Winter Olympics and Winter Olympiad are good packages. The slalom skiing in the latter is one of the best mini-games on the Beeb in my opinion.

Football Manager obviously needs no introduction. Some of the finest graphics on any machine anywhere.

So yeah, basically there's plenty out there. A lot of crud, but some good stuff too.

charlie · Post by **charlie** » Fri May 18, 2007 9:58 pm

To be honest, the one I loved, mainly for the graphics, was Match Day.

retro_junkie · Post by **retro_junkie** » Fri May 18, 2007 11:42 pm

samwise wrote:...from the Codemasters label, Pro-Boxing Simulator (which was later released by Superior Software as By Fair Means Or Foul).

Didn't BFMOF come first (1989) at full price and then the Codemasters one was the reissue (in 1990) as a budget thing? I assume they just changed the title to match the versions they released on other systems (I know there was an Amiga one). No idea why Superior let them instead of giving it to the Superior/Blue Ribbon range...

Post by **Samwise** » Sat May 19, 2007 1:07 am

Could well be, I don't have it to hand - it's 200 miles away.

Sam.

Ed · Post by Ed » Sat May 19, 2007 1:00 pm

retro_junkie wrote:
CMcDougall wrote:IJK - Five a side soccer
That is brilliantly awful! How did they get away with releasing it?!

Is that the one in which the teams had bizzare names? Like "SEXY MEN" and "TWATS" all in glorious MODE2 size text.

ivor_the_injun · Post by **ivor_the_injun** » Sat May 19, 2007 4:07 pm

BFMOF was definitely out first.

Others worth mentioning are Birdie Barrage (CDS), a golf game I always enjoyed. Bit more complex is Pro Golf (Atlantis), which was a nice little budget game. Far from the best sports games on the Beeb though.

Dave Footitt · Post by **Dave Footitt** » Sat May 19, 2007 6:39 pm

ivor_the_injun wrote: Also, Indoor Sports is great stuff. I got utterly hooked with table tennis when I first got it. Air hockey's pretty good too.

Agree with you there, I'm no sports fan but that was one very polished title, excellent stuff.

Plus of course the brilliant 3D Pool

retro_junkie · Post by **retro_junkie** » Sun May 20, 2007 4:37 pm

Ed wrote:
retro_junkie wrote:
CMcDougall wrote:IJK - Five a side soccer
That is brilliantly awful! How did they get away with releasing it?!
Is that the one in which the teams had bizzare names? Like "SEXY MEN" and "TWATS" all in glorious MODE2 size text.

No - just 'Team 1 and Team 2' I think... I didn't mean 'how did they get away with it' in terms of anything offensive... just how did they get away with charging for what was at best a half decent type-in. I guess in 1983 there weren't any other football games around... if you haven't played it (it has 3 names btw - the cover calls it Five-A-Side Socca, the tape is labelled Fiva A Side Soccer and the program calls itself Star Soccer) you have 5 players but they all move together! Your goalie only moves up and down (but with the rest of the team) while your other players are locked in a diamond shape. There is no tackle - you just sometimes get the ball by running into the opposition. You also can't pass. There are 2 keys for shoot - one shoots 45 degrees to the left, one to the right. The ball then shoots off bouncing off the edges of the pitch like pinball and either sticks to another player or miraculously lands in the goal. It is pretty much impossible to play with any skill but actually isn't bad as a fast and furious 2 player game in the style of Air Hockey or something (there is no 1 player option either!)...

Ed · Post by Ed » Sun May 20, 2007 4:57 pm

retro_junkie wrote:
Ed wrote:
retro_junkie wrote: That is brilliantly awful! How did they get away with releasing it?!
Is that the one in which the teams had bizzare names? Like "SEXY MEN" and "TWATS" all in glorious MODE2 size text.
No - just 'Team 1 and Team 2' I think... I didn't mean 'how did they get away with it' in terms of anything offensive... just how did they get away with charging for what was at best a half decent type-in. I guess in 1983 there weren't any other football games around... if you haven't played it (it has 3 names btw - the cover calls it Five-A-Side Socca, the tape is labelled Fiva A Side Soccer and the program calls itself Star Soccer) you have 5 players but they all move together! Your goalie only moves up and down (but with the rest of the team) while your other players are locked in a diamond shape. There is no tackle - you just sometimes get the ball by running into the opposition. You also can't pass. There are 2 keys for shoot - one shoots 45 degrees to the left, one to the right. The ball then shoots off bouncing off the edges of the pitch like pinball and either sticks to another player or miraculously lands in the goal. It is pretty much impossible to play with any skill but actually isn't bad as a fast and furious 2 player game in the style of Air Hockey or something (there is no 1 player option either!)...

It sounds absolutely bizarre! The one I was thinking of is “Indoor Soccer.” There’s evidence of the silly team names in the screenshot.

iamaran · Post by **iamaran** » Mon May 21, 2007 4:07 pm

In my opinion the worst ever was "Footballer of the Year" from Gremlin. I sent my cassette back to the publishers with a letter of complaint. They didn't quibble, but sent me a free game. Can't recall which now though.