Sensible World of Soccer
Encyclopedia
Sensible World of Soccer was designed and developed by Sensible Software
as the 1994 sequel to their 1992 hit game Sensible Soccer
which combined a 2D football game with a comprehensive manager mode. All the players in all of the teams from all of the professional leagues in the world from that time are included, as well as all of the national and international competitions for all club and national teams around the world. Altogether there are over 1,500 teams and 27,000 players included in the game.
Although the gameplay is very simple (just eight directions and one fire button needed) a large variety of context sensitive actions can be performed easily without any predefined keys.
In 2007 Henry Lowood, Curator for History of Science and Technology Collections in the Stanford University
together with game designers Warren Spector
and Steve Meretzky
, researcher Matteo Bittanti and journalist Christopher Grant compiled a definitive list of "the ten most important video games of all time". This list included Sensible World of Soccer alongside such groundbreaking titles as Space Wars
, Tetris
, SimCity
and Doom. Sensible World of Soccer's inclusion in this list is notable on three accounts:- it is the only game in the list developed in Europe, it is the only sports game in the list, it is the most recent game in the list.
Every team has a squad of 16 players who each have individual strengths—for example speed, shooting and tackling. Their price on the transfer market is calculated on basis of these values. The user can buy players from other clubs by offering an amount of money and/or players from their own squad in a part exchange offer. To be able to buy stronger players and to keep them it is necessary to earn money with success in the various competitions. In the time of a career which lasts 20 years the player manager can get job offers from other clubs and also from a national team, depending on his success.
and Richard Joseph
(† 2007), sung by Jackie Reed, was composed for SWOS. The original song published in 2004 only had one verse, for the version of the games published in 2006 Hare wrote two more verses and he and Joseph re-recorded the song with original vocalist Jackie Reed, who also appears with the Sensible team in the introduction video to the game on some formats. The CD versions of the 2006 version of the game also include the 2006 studio recording as an audio track.
SWOS European Championship Edition In time of the UEFA Euro 1996, the European Championship Edition (aka ECE or SWOSECE) was released. This version is equal to 95/'96 Edition, but included the actual European Championship as a preset competition with updated teams. This version was released for PC as well as for Amiga computers.
Sensible World of Soccer 96/'97
The release of 1996 was the final version of the SWOS sequel, for Amiga (two disks) and PC (CD-ROM). It contained the updated data of the season and a new cover. It is mostly this version meant with "SWOS". It is also the base for the remake on Xbox Live Arcade
in 2007.
. Sometimes it was offered combined with the 96/'97 upgrade.
After the SWOS development ended in 1996, some fan projects tried to keep SWOS up-to-date, like the Cresswell brothers from England who collected data from several internet forums and created an unofficial update to '97/'98 for Amiga with it. During the 1998 World Cup in France
they made a special update, which was based on 97/'98 and contained also some new graphics. This "World Cup 98 update" was officially supported by Sensible Software
and released on the Cover CD number 24 of the magazine "CU Amiga". But to use this update a hard disk installation was assumed which officially does not exist.
Also there were some demo versions (Amiga) on several cover disks. One of the most known is "Sensible World of Moonsoccer", where the user could try the in-game options, but the scene was based on the moon, with craters on the pitch and moon-like ball physics.
as a 3D game were not very successful and are not quite accepted as a part of the series by many fans. So it became quiet about Sensible Soccer after Codemasters
' takeover of Sensible Software in 1999. So it was 2005 where Sensible Soccer was released again as a mobile phone game. Although the controls on mobile phones are usually a bit complicated, the game sold well enough to make new releases of the series possible. After a 2 Player Plug 'n' Play version, a small mini console with two controllers and TV-out (which contained Mega Lo Mania
and Cannon Fodder
besides Sensi Soccer), Codemasters decided to release Sensible Soccer 2006 during the World Cup
in Germany. But the game seemed to be unfinished and had some bugs which Codemasters never tried to fix. About the same time they released with Sensible Soccer Skillz another game for mobile phones which contained just a few mini games such as penalties or corner kicks.
Thanks to the current popularity of retro games
, Codemasters decided to release SWOS on the platform of Xbox LIVE Arcade
. It was originally planned for August 2007, but was delayed due to problems with the online mode. After its release, the online mode became the reason to pull the game from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. SWOS saw its final release two days later on 2 December 2007, without any official announcements.
The game is based on the Amiga version of SWOS '96/'97 and uses some elements of the PC release. The graphics are enhanced (HD mode), but during the game the user is able to switch to the classic graphics mode. SWOS is the first XBLA game which uses the technology of Massive Inc.
to show commercials within the game, updated over the network. The game's price is 800 MS Points. Meanwhile there are packs of SWOS-related gamer pictures and themes, the price for both in each case is 150 MS Points and they can be downloaded on the Marketplace
.
Errors in the online mode were reported by consumers in the official forum, but Codemasters announced that there are no plans for patches, bugfixes or other SWOS-related releases in the near future. In regard to this the previously announced Windows Vista
version will not be released.
Since then, two official Xbox 360 SWOS tournaments were organized by Codemasters. During a press event for the XBLA release on 5 July 2007, the Challenge Cup took place in the Sports Café in London, which was won by Tomslav.
Additionally there was an official World Cup on 14 March 2008 at the Codemasters Connect 2008, Birmingham UK. The winner of this tournament and the prize money of £1,000 was Brian Davidson, beating his friend of 20 years Jamie Reid in the final 13–5.
Apart from that, SWOS tournaments are mainly organized by the fans themselves. Some of the best-known events are the World SWOS Tournaments (WST) of the "SWOS Witnesses" in Serbia and the tournaments of the ISSA (International Sensible Soccer Association) in Copenhagen/Denmark, both played with the PC version. But the game is also very popular in Poland and Germany, tournaments with more than 40 players take place there on a regular basis (on Amiga as well).
Furthermore, the world's biggest online community SensibleSoccer.de is organizing the "Sensible Days" once a year, a meeting of fans with international SWOS championships on PC and Amiga. The latest Sensible Days took place on the weekend of 18–19 August 2007 in Pirmasens/Germany. With more than 40 players from 12 nations, with top players from all existing rankings, it was so far the offline event with the strongest of known competitors overall. Philipp Habermann aka Playaveli from Germany was able to win both tournaments, thus being respected by many fans as the currently world's best SWOS player.
The upcoming Sensible Days will take place on 9–10 August 2008, again in Pirmasens. The SWOS tournaments of this event are the first time acknowledged by Codemasters, so both winners will be the first official SWOS World Cup Winners on PC resp. Amiga.
Online competitions take place since 2003 which are mainly managed via the SensibleSoccer.de website. A special version of WinUAE with Kaillera client (netplay function) makes it possible to play the Amiga version through the internet. Besides national leagues there are also European cups and other tournaments. One famous tournament was the 2006 world cup organized by the Retrogaming Scoreboard community, which was won by Rasputin. Meeting point for online players is IRC channel #sensible on QuakeNet
servers.
The Xbox 360 version of the game has its own community. The community is called SWOS Football Fantasy (SWOS FF) and it runs leagues and cups, with opportunities for players to create their own custom competitions.
There is also a community called Tournamaniac. This community also runs leagues and cups for SWOS.
Sensible Software
Sensible Software was a software house active during the 1980s and 90s, from the United Kingdom.The company was well-known for the very small sprites used for the player characters in many of their games, including Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder and Sensible Golf.- Early history :Sensible Software...
as the 1994 sequel to their 1992 hit game Sensible Soccer
Sensible Soccer
Sensible Soccer, often affectionately known as Sensi, is an association football video game series which was highly popular in the early 1990s and which still retains a cult following...
which combined a 2D football game with a comprehensive manager mode. All the players in all of the teams from all of the professional leagues in the world from that time are included, as well as all of the national and international competitions for all club and national teams around the world. Altogether there are over 1,500 teams and 27,000 players included in the game.
Although the gameplay is very simple (just eight directions and one fire button needed) a large variety of context sensitive actions can be performed easily without any predefined keys.
In 2007 Henry Lowood, Curator for History of Science and Technology Collections in the Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
together with game designers Warren Spector
Warren Spector
Warren Spector is a role-playing game designer and a video game designer. He is known for having worked to merge elements of role-playing games and first-person shooters. He currently resides in Austin, Texas with his wife, fantasy writer Caroline L. Spector...
and Steve Meretzky
Steve Meretzky
Steven Eric Meretzky is an American computer game developer, with dozens of titles to his credit. He has been involved in almost every aspect of game development, from design to production to quality assurance and box design...
, researcher Matteo Bittanti and journalist Christopher Grant compiled a definitive list of "the ten most important video games of all time". This list included Sensible World of Soccer alongside such groundbreaking titles as Space Wars
Space Wars
Space Wars was the first vector graphics arcade game. It is based on Spacewar!, a PDP-1 program. It was ported to the Vectrex in 1982...
, Tetris
Tetris
Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
, SimCity
SimCity
SimCity is a critically acclaimed city-building simulation video game, first released in 1989, and designed by Will Wright. SimCity was Maxis' first product, which has since been ported into various personal computers and game consoles, and spawned several sequels including SimCity 2000 in 1994,...
and Doom. Sensible World of Soccer's inclusion in this list is notable on three accounts:- it is the only game in the list developed in Europe, it is the only sports game in the list, it is the most recent game in the list.
Career mode
The main objective in Sensible World of Soccer is to manage a club of your choice, and either sit and watch them play in Coach mode—or control the players as you would in any other Sensible Soccer game, in Player-Manager mode.Every team has a squad of 16 players who each have individual strengths—for example speed, shooting and tackling. Their price on the transfer market is calculated on basis of these values. The user can buy players from other clubs by offering an amount of money and/or players from their own squad in a part exchange offer. To be able to buy stronger players and to keep them it is necessary to earn money with success in the various competitions. In the time of a career which lasts 20 years the player manager can get job offers from other clubs and also from a national team, depending on his success.
Title song
"Goal-scoring Superstar Hero" by Jon HareJon Hare
Jon "Jops" Hare is a British computer game designer, game artist and musician. He is one of the two founder members and directors, with Chris Yates, of Sensible Software, one of the most successful European games development companies of the late 1980s and 1990s.Hare was co-designer and artist of...
and Richard Joseph
Richard Joseph
Richard Joseph was a British computer game composer, musician and sound specialist. He had a career spanning some 20 years starting in the early days of gaming on the C64 and the Amiga and onto succeeding formats through to the present day.After being diagnosed with lung cancer, he died on 4 March...
(† 2007), sung by Jackie Reed, was composed for SWOS. The original song published in 2004 only had one verse, for the version of the games published in 2006 Hare wrote two more verses and he and Joseph re-recorded the song with original vocalist Jackie Reed, who also appears with the Sensible team in the introduction video to the game on some formats. The CD versions of the 2006 version of the game also include the 2006 studio recording as an audio track.
Sensible World of Soccer
The first release from 1994 for Amiga had some bugs which were fixed with a free update disk a few months later (SWOS v1.1). A PC version came later, in 1995, as floppy disk version and as CD-ROM (including voice commentary).Sensible World of Soccer '95/'96
The 95/'96 Edition was an improved version for Amiga, with updated data, new menus and an enhanced gameplay (now with the possibility to do headers from standing positions and low passes with curling effect), which was also content of subsequent releases.SWOS European Championship Edition In time of the UEFA Euro 1996, the European Championship Edition (aka ECE or SWOSECE) was released. This version is equal to 95/'96 Edition, but included the actual European Championship as a preset competition with updated teams. This version was released for PC as well as for Amiga computers.
Sensible World of Soccer 96/'97
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
in 2007.
Other releases
Also 1996 an upgrade was released in a double CD case of SWOS '96/'97, for PC (CD) and Amiga (disks), with this one the user was able to upgrade an older version of SWOS to 96/'97. Nowadays they are only interesting for collectors, because of their rarity. Later there was also a White Label version, it contained the European Championship Edition and was published by Virgin InteractiveVirgin Interactive
Virgin Interactive was a British video game publisher. It was formed as Virgin Games Ltd. in 1981. The company became much larger after purchasing the budget label, Mastertronic in 1987. It was part of the Virgin Group...
. Sometimes it was offered combined with the 96/'97 upgrade.
After the SWOS development ended in 1996, some fan projects tried to keep SWOS up-to-date, like the Cresswell brothers from England who collected data from several internet forums and created an unofficial update to '97/'98 for Amiga with it. During the 1998 World Cup in France
1998 FIFA World Cup
The 1998 FIFA World Cup, the 16th FIFA World Cup, was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. France was chosen as host nation by FIFA on 2 July 1992. The tournament was won by France, who beat Brazil 3-0 in the final...
they made a special update, which was based on 97/'98 and contained also some new graphics. This "World Cup 98 update" was officially supported by Sensible Software
Sensible Software
Sensible Software was a software house active during the 1980s and 90s, from the United Kingdom.The company was well-known for the very small sprites used for the player characters in many of their games, including Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder and Sensible Golf.- Early history :Sensible Software...
and released on the Cover CD number 24 of the magazine "CU Amiga". But to use this update a hard disk installation was assumed which officially does not exist.
Also there were some demo versions (Amiga) on several cover disks. One of the most known is "Sensible World of Moonsoccer", where the user could try the in-game options, but the scene was based on the moon, with craters on the pitch and moon-like ball physics.
Comeback
Any attempts since 1998 to bring back Sensible SoccerSensible Soccer
Sensible Soccer, often affectionately known as Sensi, is an association football video game series which was highly popular in the early 1990s and which still retains a cult following...
as a 3D game were not very successful and are not quite accepted as a part of the series by many fans. So it became quiet about Sensible Soccer after Codemasters
Codemasters
The Codemasters Software Company Limited, or Codemasters is a British video game developer founded by Richard and David Darling in 1986...
' takeover of Sensible Software in 1999. So it was 2005 where Sensible Soccer was released again as a mobile phone game. Although the controls on mobile phones are usually a bit complicated, the game sold well enough to make new releases of the series possible. After a 2 Player Plug 'n' Play version, a small mini console with two controllers and TV-out (which contained Mega Lo Mania
Mega Lo Mania
Mega Lo Mania is a real-time strategy computer game developed by Sensible Software. It was released for the Amiga in 1991, and ported for a variety of other platforms. It was released as Tyrants: Fight Through Time in North America....
and Cannon Fodder
Cannon Fodder
Cannon Fodder is a short series of war themed action video games developed by Sensible Software, initially released for the Commodore Amiga. Only two games in the series were released, but were converted to most active systems at the time of release...
besides Sensi Soccer), Codemasters decided to release Sensible Soccer 2006 during the World Cup
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...
in Germany. But the game seemed to be unfinished and had some bugs which Codemasters never tried to fix. About the same time they released with Sensible Soccer Skillz another game for mobile phones which contained just a few mini games such as penalties or corner kicks.
Retrogaming
Retrogaming, also known as old-school gaming, is the hobby of playing and collecting older computer, video, and arcade games. These games are played either on the original hardware, on modern hardware via emulation, or on modern hardware via ports or compilations...
, Codemasters decided to release SWOS on the platform of Xbox LIVE Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
. It was originally planned for August 2007, but was delayed due to problems with the online mode. After its release, the online mode became the reason to pull the game from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. SWOS saw its final release two days later on 2 December 2007, without any official announcements.
The game is based on the Amiga version of SWOS '96/'97 and uses some elements of the PC release. The graphics are enhanced (HD mode), but during the game the user is able to switch to the classic graphics mode. SWOS is the first XBLA game which uses the technology of Massive Inc.
Massive Incorporated
Massive Incorporated is an advertising company that provides software and services to dynamically host advertisements within video games. Massive Incorporated was purchased by Microsoft in May 2006 for approximately $200 million to $400 million....
to show commercials within the game, updated over the network. The game's price is 800 MS Points. Meanwhile there are packs of SWOS-related gamer pictures and themes, the price for both in each case is 150 MS Points and they can be downloaded on the Marketplace
Xbox Live Marketplace
The Xbox Live Marketplace is a virtual market designed for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console that allows Xbox Live members to download purchased or promotional content...
.
Errors in the online mode were reported by consumers in the official forum, but Codemasters announced that there are no plans for patches, bugfixes or other SWOS-related releases in the near future. In regard to this the previously announced Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
version will not be released.
Competitions and events
In the early 1990s two official Sensible Soccer World Cups took place, the latest was hosted in the City Pride pub of Farringon and the winner was Simon Byron.Since then, two official Xbox 360 SWOS tournaments were organized by Codemasters. During a press event for the XBLA release on 5 July 2007, the Challenge Cup took place in the Sports Café in London, which was won by Tomslav.
Additionally there was an official World Cup on 14 March 2008 at the Codemasters Connect 2008, Birmingham UK. The winner of this tournament and the prize money of £1,000 was Brian Davidson, beating his friend of 20 years Jamie Reid in the final 13–5.
Apart from that, SWOS tournaments are mainly organized by the fans themselves. Some of the best-known events are the World SWOS Tournaments (WST) of the "SWOS Witnesses" in Serbia and the tournaments of the ISSA (International Sensible Soccer Association) in Copenhagen/Denmark, both played with the PC version. But the game is also very popular in Poland and Germany, tournaments with more than 40 players take place there on a regular basis (on Amiga as well).
Furthermore, the world's biggest online community SensibleSoccer.de is organizing the "Sensible Days" once a year, a meeting of fans with international SWOS championships on PC and Amiga. The latest Sensible Days took place on the weekend of 18–19 August 2007 in Pirmasens/Germany. With more than 40 players from 12 nations, with top players from all existing rankings, it was so far the offline event with the strongest of known competitors overall. Philipp Habermann aka Playaveli from Germany was able to win both tournaments, thus being respected by many fans as the currently world's best SWOS player.
The upcoming Sensible Days will take place on 9–10 August 2008, again in Pirmasens. The SWOS tournaments of this event are the first time acknowledged by Codemasters, so both winners will be the first official SWOS World Cup Winners on PC resp. Amiga.
Online competitions take place since 2003 which are mainly managed via the SensibleSoccer.de website. A special version of WinUAE with Kaillera client (netplay function) makes it possible to play the Amiga version through the internet. Besides national leagues there are also European cups and other tournaments. One famous tournament was the 2006 world cup organized by the Retrogaming Scoreboard community, which was won by Rasputin. Meeting point for online players is IRC channel #sensible on QuakeNet
QuakeNet
QuakeNet is currently the largest Internet Relay Chat network, with a peak average of about 135,000 users and 100,000 channels. The network was founded in 1997 by Garfield and Oli as a new home for their respective countries' Quake channels...
servers.
The Xbox 360 version of the game has its own community. The community is called SWOS Football Fantasy (SWOS FF) and it runs leagues and cups, with opportunities for players to create their own custom competitions.
There is also a community called Tournamaniac. This community also runs leagues and cups for SWOS.
External links
- www.swos-game.com – Official site
- www.sensiblesoccer.de – Biggest SWOS community
- www.swos.ws – Xbox SWOS Community
- swosfootballfantasy.forumcircle.com – Xbox SWOS Community Forum
- swos-football-fantasy.piczo.com – Xbox SWOS Community Rules/History etc.
- www.purplesensi.co.uk – Infosite around Sensible Software
- www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/s/sensibleworldofsoccerxboxlivearcade – Info site on Xbox.com
- www.xbox.com/en-GB/livearcade/sensibleworldofsoccer – Mini site on Xbox.com
- database.swoes.info – Complete database of SWOS '96/'97
- www.codemastersconnect.com – Codemasters Connect
- RetroBola A new SWOS community