The Football Attic

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Subbuteo: Short-Sided Variations

Tuesday, October 21, 2014 Subbuteo 9 comments

Think of Subbuteo and you think of eleven plastic men pitted against eleven on a big green cloth pitch. It was ever thus; in its simplistic form, Subbuteo was nothing if not a beguiling interpretation of football on a miniature scale.

What's not so well known is that the makers of this classic football game also made several other variations, each with their own quirks and foibles...

1. Fivesides

"The Replica of Indoor Soccer" as it proudly called itself, this game was launched in the 1950's as a complimentary edition to the regular Subbuteo 11-a-side format. Aimed at improving your playing techniques, Fivesides consisted of a half-size pitch with minimal markings, some tape to act as a low wall around the perimeter of the playing surface, two modified goals and a pea-sized football.

There were three different sets to buy, ascending in price - Introductory, Standard and Deluxe - and the first two of those didn't even come with any players. By using the players from your original Subbuteo set, you could save some money and still enjoy the essence of the game.

The Greatest Retro Football Video Game Ever: Semi Finals

Monday, October 20, 2014 Video games No comments

Welcome back to the Greatest Retro Football Video Game vote-off where we find ourselves at the semi-final stage!

We had a great response to the First Round of our competition, so thank you to everyone that took part. The results were as follows:

Simulation: 1970's/1980's

Kick Off (1989, CA/AST) - 16 votes
Emlyn Hughes International Soccer (1988, C64/ZXS/AST/CA/AMS) - 14 votes
Match Day (1984, ZXS/C64/AMS/BBCM) - 10 votes
Microprose Soccer (1988, PC/CA/AMS/AST/C64/ZXS) - 9 votes
Match Day II (1987, AMS/C64/ZXS) - 8 votes
International Soccer (1983, C64) - 6 votes
Peter Shilton’s Handball Maradona (1986, ZXS/C64/AMS) - 4 votes
World Cup / World Cup Carnival (1986, C64/ZXS/CPC) - 4 votes
Gary Lineker’s Superstar Soccer (1987, C64/ZXS/AMS) - 3 votes
Peter Beardsley’s International Football (ZXS/C64/CA/AST) - 2 votes
Pele’s Soccer (1980, ATA) - 2 votes
‘Football’ (1975, BIN) - 2 votes
NASL Soccer (1979, INT) - 0 votes
World Soccer (1987, SMS) - 0 votes

Simulation: 1990's Group A

Kick Off 2 (1990, CA/AST/AMS) - 16 votes
FIFA Soccer 95 / FIFA 95 (1995, SMD) - 13 votes
Actua Soccer (1995, PC/PS1) - 9 votes
International Superstar Soccer (1995, SNES) - 7 votes
Italy 1990 (1990, ZXS/C64/CA/AMS/AST) - 7 votes
Manchester United Europe (1991, ZXS/AST/CA/AMS/C64/ARC) - 4 votes
Super Kick Off (1991, SMD/NGB/SNES) - 2 votes
World League Soccer ‘98 (1998, PS1) - 2 votes
Gazza’s Super Soccer (1990, C64/ZXS/AMS/CA/AST) - 2 votes
Dino Dini’s Soccer (1994, SMD/SNES) - 1 vote
Super Soccer (1992, SNES) - 1 vote
European Championship (1992, PC/AST/CA) - 0 votes
Olympic Soccer (1996, PS1) - 0 votes

Simulation: 1990's Group B

Sensible Soccer (1992, CA/AST) - 27 votes
Sensible World of Soccer (CA/PC) - 25 votes
FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 (PC/NGB/SMD/SNES/PS1/N64) - 10 votes
FIFA 99 (WIN/PS1/N64) - 6 votes
Multi-Player Soccer Manager (1991, ZXS/C64/AMS) - 4 votes
FIFA International Soccer / FIFA 94 (PC/CA/SNES/SMD/SMS/SGG/NGB) - 4 votes
Actua Soccer 3 (PC/PS1) - 3 votes
World Cup Soccer - Italia 90 (1990, ZXS/C64/AMS) - 2 votes
Michael Owen’s World League Soccer ‘99 (PS1) - 2 votes
Striker (1992, CA/AST/SMD/SNES) - 1 vote
Champions of Europe (1992, SMS) - 1 vote
John Barnes European Football (1992, CA/AST) - 0 votes

Management / Hybrid

Football Manager (1981, ZXS/ZX81/BBCM) - 26 votes
Championship Manager (CA/AST) - 19 votes
Tracksuit Manager (1988, ZXS/C64/CA/AST) - 9 votes
Footballer of the Year (1986, ZXS/C64/AMS) - 7 votes
Premier Manager 2 (1993, PC/CA/AST) - 7 votes
Player Manager (1990, CA/AST/PS1) - 5 votes
Footballer of the Year 2 (1989, ZXS/C64/AMS) - 4 votes
The Boss (1984, C64) - 3 votes
Brian Clough’s Football Fortunes (1987, ZXS) - 2 votes
Kenny Dalglish Soccer Manager (1989, ZXS/C64/AMS/CA/AST) - 2 votes
The Double (1987, ZXS/C64) - 1 vote

(Total responses: 45)

And so to the Semi Finals where the top three from all of the above sections have now been drawn into two new groups - A and B. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is simply to pick your favourite video game from both groups. Once again, you have five days to cast your votes, after which the most popular video game from Group A and Group B goes through to our Grand Final.

Here's the voting form - now it's over to you... Good luck! :)

Key:
AMS - Amstrad CPC; AST - Amiga ST; BBCM - BBC Micro; C64 - Commodore 64; CA - Commodore Amiga; N64 - Nintendo 64; NGB - Nintendo GameBoy; PC - Personal Computer; PS1 - PlayStation 1; SMD - Sega Mega Drive; SNES - Super Nintendo; ZX81 - Sinclair ZX81; ZXS - Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

World Soccer: August 1981

Sunday, October 12, 2014 1981, 1982 World Cup, Magazines, World Soccer No comments

With less than a year to go until the 1982 World Cup, there was much concern among the writers of World Soccer. Concern over Spain's readiness to host the tournament, concern over England's ability to qualify, and concern over the standard of football being played by Europe's top clubs.

A survey of officials and observers in Spain suggested the twelfth World Cup hosts would indeed be ready when the tournament started in June 1982, however while the areas of transport and accommodation appeared to be in good shape, the upgrading of certain stadia appeared a little sluggish.

Despite having been appointed as hosts in 1964, work on improving the Balaídos Municpal Stadium in Vigo and the San Mamés Stadium in Bilbao was only just beginning, and a similar tale could be told for many of the other 15 venues too. Barcelona's Nou Camp was due to increase in capacity and have a new roof fitted, while elsewhere media facilities were being beefed up too.

The Greatest Retro Football Video Game Ever: First Round

Friday, October 10, 2014 Video games, Vote-off 1 comment

How do you like your video game football? Do you like the excitement of scoring goals out on the pitch, or do you prefer the cerebral challenge of managing your team to glory?

Either way, the world of computer soccer has offered much in the way of fun, thrills and spills down the years, from the basic battyness of Binatone's 'Football' to the ultra-realistic games we know today. But what's so fun about manipulating a not-quite-right version of Robin Van Persie when you can immerse yourself in the retro world of blocky pixels and badly synthesised music?!

Yes, where The Football Attic's concerned, the less realistic it is, the better we like it - a sentiment we're sure you'll agree with... And that's why we've decided to find out which retro football video game is the best with the launch of our cunningly-titled 'Greatest Retro Football Video Game Ever' vote-off!

Over the last two weeks, you've been telling us which retro football games you think should make our starting list, and with thanks to all of you that did so, we can now begin Round 1.

We've arranged 50 titles into four groups: One for playing simulations of the 70's and 80's, two for playing simulations of the 1990's and one for management simulations. What we'd like you to do is to choose up to three favourites from each group. You've got five days to make your choices, and at the end of that period, the most popular three titles from each group will go through to the semi-finals. At that stage we'll have two groups of six where the winners will go through to the Final - more of which in due course...

For now, just pick up to three favourites from each of the groups below, and we'll fill you in on who's through to the next round in five days' time. Thanks for taking part!

Key:
AMS - Amstrad CPC; ARC - BBC Archimedes; AST - Amiga ST; ATA - Atari 2600; BBCM - BBC Micro; BIN - Binatone TV Master; C64 - Commodore 64; CA - Commodore Amiga; INT - Intellivision; N64 - Nintendo 64; NGB - Nintendo GameBoy; PC - Personal Computer; PS1 - PlayStation 1; SGG - Sega Game Gear; SMD - Sega Mega Drive; SMS - Sega Master System; SNES - Super Nintendo; WIN - Microsoft Windows; ZX81 - Sinclair ZX81; ZXS - Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

POLL NOW CLOSED
Thank you for all your votes in the First Round of our Greatest Retro Football Video Game vote-off. Here's how the voting went...

The Greatest Retro Football Video Game Ever!

Sunday, September 28, 2014 Computer Games, poll, Video games No comments

Way back in August 2012, on our second ever podcast, we covered the subject of football computer games and it was a whole heap of fun!

Chris and I were discussing the subject again recently while also observing it's been a while since we had a decent vote-off here in the Attic. Put 2 and 2 together and you get 4... which is a nice bit of maths for you, but nothing really to do with computer games... To that end, we decided we simply had to decide once and for all which retro football computer game is the best ever!

Now, that word 'retro' is there for a very important reason and not just because we happen to be a nostalgia website. No, it's there so we can apply some kind of cut-off in history, lest the poll be overwhelmed with embryos who never got to experience the thrill of three minutes of gameplay after half an hour of epileptic-fit inducing load screens, and for whom the best game ever just depends on which version of 'FIFA' we're on.

For us, to make the cut, the games have to have a large degree of unrealism! 'FIFA' may have realistic player faces (and indeed names) and may look so real as to be almost indistinguishable from a match on TV, but we don't care about that! Where's the charm in realism versus the delights of a blocky sprite going by the name of Alun She-Ra? It's all very well being able to score a screaming volley and watch it back from 30 different angles, but don't we all pine for a simpler time, when goals could only be scored one of two different ways? No? Oh ok... maybe not that last one!

My own personal journey through retro video games starts with one of the worst ever... Arctic Software's 'World Cup'; a truly awful game, but it makes the cut because it's my first... and we're running the poll ;-)

So what else makes the list? Well, that's where you come in... We want your suggestions and if you feel so inclined, a justification of why you think your nomination deserves a chance. And you don't have to limit yourself to your favourite as that's what the vote-off's for. You can nominate any game you've ever played... once we've got a good list, we'll set up the vote-off and let the games begin!

Right - as hinted at, there are some rules... not many though.

1) The cut-off point - we had to pick a point in time to decide between retro and modern and the point we've chosen is right before the PS2 was released. Why? The PS2 introduced the first batch of almost-realistic games. Sure, the PS1 had 'FIFA' and Actua Soccer which were almost there, but they're blocky enough to shade that degree of unrealism.

2) That's about it...

So, get nominating on the form below... and keep an eye on the list of games on the Vote-Off Candidates page.

Enjoy!

Rich (& Chris).

See also:
Our video game reviews...

World Cup Soccer (ZX Spectrum)
Heads Up (Soccer Football) (Vectrex)
World Soccer (Sega Master System)
Super Action Soccer (ColecoVision)
NASL Soccer (Intellivision)
Nintendo World Cup (Nintendo GameBoy)
Pele's Soccer (Atari 2600)
Striker (Amiga/ST/Megadrive)
World Cup (C16)
Football Manager (ZX Spectrum)

Catalogue of Eras: Marshall Ward - Autumn and Winter 1975-76

Wednesday, September 24, 2014 1975, Catalogue No comments

Once again it's time to plunge into the long-forgotten world of mail order catalogues as we search for football-related delights to remind us of an innocent time before the internet went and spoiled everything.

On this occasion, we're going back nearly 40 years to check out a Marshall Ward 'club book' that would have been put to good use in the run-up to Christmas 1975.

In our previous instalment, we found that football boots were available to buy in a 1982 catalogue, and here again they crop up, but in two flavours - 'cheap and nasty' and 'I could be the next Johan Cruyff.'

FKS: Soccer Stars 80

Sunday, September 21, 2014 1980, FKS, Stickers 6 comments

It's my firm belief that FKS should probably have been renamed 'NCM' around the start of the 1980's. 'Non compos mentis' is a fair description of what their football sticker collections were like back then, such were the variable standards employed throughout.

The new decade should have brought about a new dawn for FKS and its sticker albums in the UK, but instead they continued to churn out yet more of their basic, plain-looking stickers that were not dissimilar to the ones they were making a decade earlier. Look closer, however, and you'd have marvelled at some truly laughable examples of photography in the images that were featured, setting FKS well apart from the equivalent merchandise being made by Figurine Panini at the time.

To begin, there was the eye-catching front cover of the Soccer Stars 80 album. Overall, it had a more modern look than the corresponding Panini offering, although the picture showing West Bromwich Albion seemingly playing St. Mirren may have been every bit as baffling as some of the stickers inside. Along the bottom, a caption indicated that the English First and Second Divisions were featured among the 48 pages, and for good reason as this was the first time that Second Division teams had appeared in an FKS collection.

Inside, each of the First Division team line-ups consisted of 13 players, confusingly spread over one-and-a-bit pages. The extra 'bit' meant that some double-page spreads actually showed players from two or even three different teams. You wouldn't have got that in a Panini album, but then perhaps Panini had a bigger budget or better designers.

Each team section was titled in a never-more-Eighties green bubble font, followed by some rudimentary facts relating to the honours won by that team. There was also a handy grid showing their results from the previous season, with spaces provided for results in the current season too.

Sadly, FKS didn't bother with the team pictures and foil badges that were made so popular by their rivals, making do instead with the regular white-bordered player stickers bearing a name along the bottom edge. As for the photos themselves, let's just say they were... idiosyncratic.

While Panini standardised on 'head and shoulders' shots for their stickers, FKS were nowhere near as conscientious. They instead opted to raid image galleries, reuse old pictures from previous collections, take some of their own pictures and even paint over old pictures to form a tapestry of lunatic inconsistency.

If ever you're feeling depressed, just turn the pages of this album in its complete form to quickly cheer yourself up. Smile at Brighton's Peter O'Sullivan pinching his nose as he runs out onto the field for Brighton. Be amazed at Martin Peters wearing his Norwich City shirt from 1976. Laugh at Middlesbrough's Stan Cummins sharing his picture with one of his team mates, or Terry Cochrane proudly wearing his Burnley shirt despite having moved to Ayresome Park in October 1978. As for Trevor Francis, his shirt has had more paint applied to it than the Forth Road Bridge.

Uniformity was a key element of this collection - in more ways than one. Players were shown in their home kits, away kits, old kits, new kits, training kits, tracksuits and in Terry Cochrane's case, wrong kits altogether. The whole thing was a total hotchpotch from start to finish and could be considered to be 'interesting' if it wasn't for the fact that it was actually rather deranged.

In similar vein, the Soccer Stars 80 album featured a dozen England Under 21 players - six shown in the middle of the album, and six at the very end. None of the full England squad were included, though - just 12 upcoming young stars such as Russell Osman (in a grey Ipswich shirt), Derek Statham (distracted) and Kevin Reeves (asleep).

Luckily, higher standards were restored with the excellent gallery of Second Division team pictures, before leading into the Scottish Premier Division team pages that used the same format as their English counterparts. Then at the very end of the album there was the customary 'Special Offer' - something not unfamiliar to Panini fans. In this case, FKS collectors were invited to send off for up to 22 bronze medallions "each representing an English First Division Club from the current 1978/79 season." The front of each coin showed a club badge while the honours and cups won by the team were displayed on the back. Think 'fancy 2p pieces' and you're pretty much there.

With that, you have a full picture of FKS and it's floundering attempts to keep their foothold in the UK sticker market. Though they'd make further collections for another couple of years, they were finally declared bankrupt in 1987, never to be seen again.

It's anyone's guess what their stickers might have looked like had they still been around today, but my feeling is they'd be virtually the same as they always were. A plain white border around a randomly chosen photo - that was the FKS way for years and years. Unable to stray far from that tried and tested formula, it was perhaps this reason and this reason alone that ultimately proved the undoing for Britain's very own answer to Panini.

-- Chris Oakley

Last Chance To Enter The Last Ever League of Blogs

Wednesday, September 17, 2014 The League of Blogs No comments

Last chance? Last ever? That sounds like an awful lot of finality... and it is...

There's just over three weeks left to get your entries in for the League of Blogs 2014, but not only that - it's your last chance to ever be in the League of Blogs as after this one, there won't be another.

The League of Blogs started out as a bit of fun and has always been just that and after three good years, we've decided to retire the feature once this one has finished.

We plan to replace it with something completely new next year which should be just as collaborative, but that's in the future... For now, it's all about the LoB!

So don't miss out on your last ever chance to be part of the nation's favourite* league... head on over to the instructions page and get scribbling!

Commercial Break 2

Wednesday, September 17, 2014 Advert, TV No comments

It’s time once again to dip into the advertising archives as The Football Attic finds a short selection of British TV adverts that all take their inspiration from the world of football.

Sit back and enjoy Brian Clough doing some sterling voiceover work (even if his dental work leaves something to be desired), the worlds of Dad’s Army and Fawlty Towers colliding, plus a triple bill of animated stripy chocolate bar delights.

As someone once said, they don’t make ‘em like that anymore...

(You can also see this video and many others on our Football Attic YouTube page.)