116
RETRO
116 NOVEMBER 2019|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 381
Software in Basildon –was taking ahuge cut
from the games theymade.
But of all the early games theywere
commissioned to develop –including Parallax,
Shoot’Em-Up Construction Kit, Wizball and
MicroProse Soccer –itwas the latter that
captured their imagination the most.
“With MicroProse Soccer,which we
developed with Martin Galway, we pioneered
bending the ball, action replays, rain during
matches, indoor and outdoor soccer,and
overlaid sprites on the Commodore 64,”
Hare says.
MicroProse Soccer had been inspired by
the top-down, trackball-controlled Tehkan
World Cup,aswell as Hare’s love of Subbuteo.
“I used to bug my dad to playitwhenever
he came home from work, and Iwas so into
football as akid that Iwould make my own
matches on my hands and knees with teddies,
stuffed mice and aping-pong ball,”helaughs.
VIEWFROMABOVE
Sensible Soccer was also influenced by a
different kind of game entirely: the real-time
strategy title Mega-Lo-Mania. Developed by
Sensible Software,the camera was set very
high and the team reckoned this would give
gamers agood, wide and long view of the pitch
should it be employed in afootball game.
As such, coder Chris Chapman, who created
Mega-Lo-Mania, was enlisted to assist in
Sensible Soccer’s development, and he spent
nine months packed with latenights to get it
done before turning his attention to Sensible
World of Soccer,which incorporated a
player-manager element as well as 27,000
players from more than 1,500 clubs.
Such was the humongous task, the Amiga
version’s development went intoextra time
and the PC version entered what can best be
termed Fergie time.Sure,the stress of it all
probably caused more hair loss than a
pre-transplant Wayne Rooney, but it was
worth it in the end.
“Sensible Soccer pioneered obsessive
research to produce realistic team and player
content, multiracial players and azoomed-out
camera angle forbetter ability forstrategic
play,”saysHare,who opted to support
Norwich City because yellow was his favourite
colour (he’d had aspell supporting Arsenal
after seeing their awayshirt in the 1971 FA Cup
Final against Liverpool).
“But SWOS brought in insane levels of
research behind player and team content,
an in-game tactics editor,afull player
THEAMIGA1200
LIVES ON
Commodore’s Amiga 1200, with
its 32-bit design, faster
microprocessor and an AGA
chipset, which increased the
colour palettefrom 4,096
to 16.8 million, was a
significant advance
on its A500 (and
A600) models. It
was unveiled in
1992, just two years
before Commodore
filed forbankruptcy,
and while it didn’t sell
as well as its predecessors,
it’s nevertheless remained a
popular computer.
As if to prove you can’t keep
agood machine down, Jeroen
Vandezande has produced a
replacement motherboard that
has been designed to fit intoa
standard A1200 case.Calling it
the A1200+, the open-source
PCB has the CPU, video and
DRAM on daughterboards, and
replaces the PCMCIA with an SD
card slot. There’s no need fora
power brick, either.
More information
about the new
motherboard can
be seen by going
totinyurl.com/
381retro,which
explains that you’d
need to pop the
original AA chips
including Lisa, Paula and
Alice intothe sockets in order
forittowork. It’s alovely
work-in-progress, however,
with an extension board
connector foraUSB mouse and
two classic DB-9 connectors
currently in development.
NEXT-GEN NEOGEO
IS ON ITSWAY
Released in 1991 forthe Japanese
and American markets, the Neo
Geo AES was afascinating
console since it was effectively
an arcade unit stuffed intoa
box forthe home.Indeed, it
was based on the coin-operated
Neo Geo MVS machine,making
it the most powerful console
around, but excellence certainly
came at ahigh price.
The machine rolled in at an
eye-watering $649 (around £350
at the time) and the arcade-
perfect games (mainly fighters)
cost up to half as much again.
But it was adesirable,luxury
product, which is why gamers
were not only excited about
getting their mitts on last year’s
Neo Geo Mini console packed
with 40 classic games, they’re
now looking forward to a
surprise next-gen offering.
Japanese game company SNK
Corporation took to Twitter to
announce “next-gen Neo Geo
hardware is coming”,claiming it
will have a“modern design and a
wonderful playfeeling”.Fans, it
adds, will be able to link it to a
Neo Geo Mini, but there are few
other details as yet. Whether
you’ll have to take out a
loan to buy it also remains
to be seen, but this time
around we suspect not.
eyeing $6 (ar
other
aro
⬆SWOSoffered amanagement mode that allowed players to delve intothe
transfer market and pick teams
⬆1994’s Sensible World of Soccer was an even bigger success forthe team
behind the original game
