Sensible World of Soccer

Sensible World of Soccer
developer	Sensitive software
Publisher	Renegade GT Interactive (1994–1996) Codemasters Microsoft (2007)
First title	Sensible World of Soccer (1994)
Last title	Sensible World of Soccer (2007)
Platform (s)	Amiga , MS-DOS , Windows , Xbox 360
Genre (s)	Sports game

Sensible World of Soccer is a computer game that was first released in 1994 as the successor to the Sensible Soccer series. In 2007 Sensible World of Soccer was named as one of ten computer games that can be considered milestones and the most important games of all time.

Gameplay

Sensible World of Soccer combined the 2D soccer game with a manager mode that is still unique today due to its wealth of data. It includes all global teams from the professional leagues of that time, as well as the national and international competitions of club and national teams from all continents. In total there are around 1,600 teams and 22,000 players.

Although the controls are very simple (only a fire button is needed), you have many options and all the freedom to design your game.

Career mode

A special feature of the game is a career mode, which makes it possible to take on a club team of your choice as coach and manager and to control your team on the pitch. Each team has a squad of 16 players, each with different strengths and weaknesses, e.g. B. Header , tackle or shot power . Their market value is determined accordingly. So you can put together your dream team, e.g. B. also the German players who played in Japan in 1996, such as B. Uwe Bein or Guido Buchwald , bring them back to Germany. In addition, you can offer an exchange with existing players (and possibly value compensation) or a direct amount of money, provided you have enough money in the bank account. However, you first have to earn that through success. If you have one, you will also receive offers from other clubs within your career, which can last up to 20 years, even from top teams and ultimately from a national team that you can lead to the World Cup , depending on the success .

Theme song

“Goal-scoring Superstar Hero” by Richard Joseph († 2007) and Jon Hare , sung by Jacky Read , was composed especially for SWOS. The studio recording is also available as an audio track on the CD versions.

Lyrics:

You're a goalscoring superstar hero

You let your hair down and play to the fans

You're a goalscoring superstar hero

And every goal says you're the best in the land

For Sensible Soccer 2006 a remix was recorded again and received two additional verses:

You're a goalscoring superstar hero

We sing your song and you turn up the heat

You're a goalscoring superstar hero

And with your ball control you have the world at your feet

You're a goalscoring superstar hero

I got your name on the back of my shirt

You're a goalscoring superstar hero

You drive me wild I wanna be your superstargirl

Versions

Sensible World of Soccer

Released in 1994 for Amiga and still contained a few bugs, which were fixed a few months later with a free update disk (SWOS v1.1). In 1995 a PC version was also released, on floppy disks or as CD (with voice output / commentator).

Sensible World of Soccer 95/96

With the '95 / '96 Edition, a revised version for the Amiga, with recent data, redesigned menus and refined gameplay was published in 1995 (it was now also heads the state and the flat passports Effet give to), which later in the successors finds again.

SWOS European Championship Edition

The European Championship Edition, ECE or SWOSECE for short, was published in time for the 1996 European Championship. This version corresponded in principle to the '95 / '96 edition, but contained the current European championship that could be played with the updated teams. It was released for PC and again for the Amiga.

Sensible World of Soccer '96 / '97

In 1996 the last and final version of the SWOS series appeared for Amiga (2 disks) and PC (CD-ROM). It contained the updated dates for the season and a new cover. When one speaks of SWOS, one usually speaks of this version. It is also the basis for the new edition on XBLA .

Other publications

Also in 1996 there was an upgrade in a double CD case from SWOS '96 / '97, for PC (CD) as well as for Amiga (disk), with which you could bring your older SWOS version up to date. Nowadays these are rarely found and more interesting for collectors. In addition, there was later also a "white label" version, this corresponded to the ECE version and was distributed by Virgin Interactive . This was sometimes also offered together with the '96 / '97 upgrade.

After the development of SWOS was stopped in 1996, there were various fan projects to keep SWOS up-to-date, for example the Cresswell brothers from England collected the data from various Internet forums and thus developed an unofficial upgrade in '97 / '98 for the Amiga. On the occasion of the World Cup in France , they set out to work on a World Cup 98 update, which was based on '97 / '98 and which also changed the graphics a little. It was officially supported by Sensible Software and appeared on the cover CD number 24 of the magazine "CU Amiga" in England. However, a hard drive installation of the Amiga version was required for this type of update, which officially does not even exist.

There were also some demo versions (Amiga) on various cover disks, the most famous being "Sensible World of Moonsoccer", which illustrated the functions of SWOS, but the events took place on the moon , so you can see craters on the playing field and experience one ball physics corresponding to the moon .

comeback

Any attempts since 1998 to implement Sensible Soccer as a 3D game have not been particularly successful and are still hardly recognized by SWOS fans as part of the series. For a long time it was quiet about Sensible Soccer when Sensible Software was sold to Codemasters in 1999 . It was not until 2005 that Sensible Soccer was brought out of the drawer as a mobile game . Although the controls are of course rather cumbersome due to the mobile phone keypad, the game has enjoyed good sales and is therefore a trailblazer for further releases in the series. In addition to a "2 Player Plug 'n' Play" version, a small mini game console with two gamepads and a TV output, which in addition to Sensible Soccer also contained Mega lo Mania and Cannon Fodder , was published in 2006 on the occasion of the World Cup in Germany , " Sensible Soccer 2006 ". The game had good approaches, but couldn't convey the old feel, looked unfinished and had some bugs that Codemasters didn't even try to fix. At around the same time, another mobile game called “Sensible Soccer Skillz” appeared, but it only contains a few mini-games ( standard situations ), so not a full-fledged soccer game.

The game was also released on the Xbox 360 game console via Xbox Live Arcade . The release was originally planned for August 2007, but was postponed to December 19th due to problems with the online mode. Strangely enough, however, a bug in that online mode made sure that the game was removed from the marketplace shortly after its release . Without any official announcement, the actual premiere of SWOS took place two days later, on December 21, 2007. The game is based on the Amiga version of SWOS '96 / '97 and contains some elements from the PC version. The graphics have also been improved (HD mode). But you have the option to switch to the classic graphics during the game. SWOS is the first XBLA game to use Massive Inc. technology to display commercial advertisements in-game. A dashboard theme and a gamer picture pack also appeared later.

Buyers of the game reported bugs in online mode in the official Codemasters forum, but Codemasters announced that no patches , bug fixes or further releases are expected. This also means that the previously announced version for Windows Vista will not appear.

Competitions and events

In the early 1990s there were two official Sensible Soccer World Championships, the last one took place in 1994 in the “City Pride” pub in Farringdon (England). The winner at the time was Simon Byron.

Since then, there have been two official tournaments hosted by Codemasters and played on the Xbox 360. As part of a press presentation of the XBLA version, the “Challenge Cup”, which Tomslav was able to win, took place on July 5, 2007 in the “Sports Café” in London. There was also an official SWOS World Championship, which was played on March 14, 2008 in Birmingham at the "Connect 08" event. Brian Davidson won the £ 1,000 prize money.

Peter (Denmark) versus Coolio_Jack (Croatia) at the Sensible Days 2007

Otherwise, SWOS events and the actual sporting competitions are organized by the fans themselves. In Germany there are regular tournaments in Berlin (Berlin Open), Mülheim an der Ruhr (Ruhr Area Open & Mülheim Local Round) and Sistig (Eifel-X-Mas-Cup). SWOS fans in Poland also regularly organize tournaments on PC and Amiga. In Denmark, the PC tournaments of the ISSA (International Sensible Soccer Association) in Copenhagen and the Amiga tournaments of the Amiga Club Denmark enjoyed great popularity until a few years ago (last time in November 2014). At the turn of the millennium, the WSTs (World SWOS Tournaments) of the "SWOS Witnesses" in Serbia (on PC) were among the largest SWOS tournaments.

In addition, the world's largest online community SensibleSoccer.de organizes the "Sensible Days" once a year, a fan meeting with international SWOS championships on PC and Amiga (in the style of a LAN party ). They usually take place over a full weekend and also offer room and board. The tournament takes place on the PC on Saturdays and on the Amiga on Sundays. Codemasters' tournaments have been recognized as official SWOS World Championships since the Sensible Days 2008. Since then, the venue within Europe has changed every year.

Previous tournaments of the Sensible Days

date	venue	PC SWOS		Amiga SWOS
		Attendees	winner	Attendees	winner
2004, August 28-29.	Pirmasens	15th	greg	7th	Obi-Wan
2005, August 13-14.	Pirmasens	11	Playaveli	5	Redhair
2006, August 19-20.	Pirmasens	13	Redhair	10	Playaveli
2007, August 18-19.	Pirmasens	42	Playaveli	32	Playaveli
2008, August 9-10.	Pirmasens	54	Lucaa83	47	lobo
2009, August 15-16.	Fulda	62	Manuel	54	Playaveli
2010, August 21-22.	Wroclaw	39	Foka	32	Marin Parushev
2011, July 30–31.	Varna	24	Blazej_Bdg	18th	Hawkz
2012, July 14-15.	Almelo	38	Playaveli	36	ALI
2013, August 17-18.	Berlin	46	Playaveli	35	ALI
2014, July 26-27.	Billund	27	Marin Parushev	33	djowGer
2015, August 1–2.	Lubin	54	Playaveli	59	Blazej_Bdg
2016, August 20-21.	Almelo	42	Blazej_Bdg	39	Blazej_Bdg
2017, July 29-30.	Budapest	47	Blazej_Bdg	37	Blazej_Bdg
2018, July 21-22	Billund	36	Blazej_Bdg	34	Blazej_Bdg

Since 2003 there have also been SWOS online competitions, most of which are administered via SensibleSoccer.de. The game is played here with a special WinUAE Kaillera version, an Amiga emulator with Netplay function. In addition to numerous national and international leagues, there are also European Cups and other tournaments. The IRC channel #sensible on the QuakeNet server is used as a meeting point for SWOS online players .

reception

Sensible World of Soccer (1994) was voted into the Game Canon in March 2007, a list of computer games that are considered milestones. Henry Lowood, administrator of the History of Science and Technology Collections at Stanford University , game designers Warren Spector and Steve Meretzky , and scientist Matteo Bittanti and journalist Christopher Grant made the list. Sensible World of Soccer is also the youngest game on the list.

The Library of Congress took up the suggestion and began long-term archiving of major video games, starting with the games on this list.

Fans

The game enjoys cult status among its fans. Atypical for computer games of this age, players of all ages travel all over Europe, primarily to meet like-minded people. Such events are organized privately by the fans and have a non-commercial character, which is also reflected in their personal points of view. They often distance themselves from modern soccer games as the trend is towards realistic graphics rather than straightforward gameplay. Since the end of the 1990s, regional fan communities have developed around the world, sometimes with special ceremonies, e.g. E.g. in Denmark, where a group of around 30 to 40 people take a walk through Copenhagen as part of SWOS tournaments, led by the master (“Den Bedste”) who carries a torch (“Sensible Flame”).

Web links

• www.sensiblesoccer.de - Largest SWOS community
• Sensi Superstar - Fanpage from the late 90s (English)
• database.swoes.info - Complete database from SWOS 96/97
• swos.gazchap.com - Alternative database from SWOS 96/97 with extended search function
• SWOS - Xbox.com - Xbox Live Marketplace

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} HEATHER CHAPLIN: Is That Just Some Game? No, It's a Cultural Artifact ( English ) nytimes.com . March 12, 2007. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
2. ↑ Sensible Software 1986-1999, p. 146
3. ^ Doom next to Kant - killer games as a cultural asset . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 14, 2007
4. ↑ Trevor Owens: Yes, The Library of Congress Has Video Games: An Interview with David Gibson . blogs.loc.gov. September 26, 2012. Retrieved January 18, 2013.
5. ↑ James Ransom-Wiley: 10 most important video games of all time, as judged by 2 designers, 2 academics, and 1 lowly blogger ( English ) Joystiq . Archived from the original on January 21, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 4, 2013.