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Text File | 1995-02-22 | 32.0 KB | 718 lines

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- goal 94 new era software ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is THE game of international soccer team management, from the writers of THE SOCCER GAME and 1-0, much acclaimed by football addicts from all over the world. So you want to manage a national football team ? Well this is your big chance: 128 countries to choose from, incorporating most of the membership of FIFA. Your challenge is to select your squad and team for each match and, by careful selection of overall team tactics and individual player tactics, to take your team on to win the continental championships and ultimately the World Cup. Easier said than done..... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- features ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - play with up to 5 friends - choose to be any of 128 countries, from 4 continents - continental championship, for each continent - World Cup competition - friendlies, continental tours - fixture list and results history for every country - results summary for each competition - squad of 20 players for each country - select your team from a pool of the 100 best players in your country. - detailed analysis of each player, includes - skills - 12 skill categories - fitness and energy - hardness - age - caps (experience) - confidence - position (from choice of 14) - leadership - height - left/right/two footed - performance - speed - analysis of each national team, includes - formation - skills - attacking,midfield,defence, and keeping - average fitness,hardness,age,caps,performance - morale - world and continental rankings - setting of detailed tactics at both team and individual player level before and at any point during each match - visual presentation of each of your matches, linked with text commentary : watch every move in the game, with variable speed control, and display options - optional viewing of any other match you desire - variable match speed (for the impatient and those into slow motion!) - bookings,sendings off,suspensions,substitutions,injuries - match statistics, newspaper reviews and comments - team history and statistics - how well have you done? - save and reload game (full registered version only) - customisation of all player and country names, and strip colours (full registered version only) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- improvements - version 1 to version 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 player game much harder much improved gameplay, with more realistic scores extended history and statistics player info - number of skills increased (8 to 12) - extra fitness and confidence categories - leadership - number of positions increased (13 to 14) - performance rating - two footed players player skills now vary over the lifetime of a player team info - performance rating - history for all teams team managers assistant auto-squad selection cancel/rearrange friendlies tournament top scorers match statistics now include possession, territory, shots on target and man of the match improved zonal marking offside goals own goals action replays save and load goals save and load match summaries quick result option ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- improvements - goal 2 to goal 94 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Players' ages, caps and goals can be customised Skill levels can be altered for each player Extra player characteristic (speed) Three points for a win Upto three substitutes (including one goalkeeper) in competitive matches Career goals against statistics for goalkeepers Whole match commentary can now be scrolled through and printed out More strip colours (11 instead of 7) More realistic match animation featuring new 'stick man' graphics Option to begin game with World Cup competition more shots on goal - more exciting matches better crosses, more effective centre forwards ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOAL takes you right into the heart of soccer team management: selection of the squad and choice of tactical options, in considerable detail. You watch every game your team plays and adjust your players' positioning and tactics from minute to minute in response to every threat from your opponents. You will have to cope with injuries, suspensions, fluctuating player fitness and confidence. Newspapers will keep you in touch with what is happening and you have access to a comprehensive database of results, fixture lists and detailed information on each team and on each player. Like international soccer, GOAL works in 4 year cycles: each cycle comprises: year 1 - continental friendlies and championship qualifying matches 2 - continental friendlies and championship finals 3 - continental friendlies and World Cup qualifying 4 - inter-continental friendlies (including tours) and World Cup finals (depending on which competition you choose first, years 3+4 above are swapped with years 1+2). You can play on forever (if you have nothing else to do), but you may be sacked if your performance is very poor. We have taken the opportunity to simplify and rationalise the international football structure somewhat, with the following results: We have four continents: 1 - Europe 2 - America (ie Concacaf and South America) 3 - Africa 4 - Asia (and Oceana) Each has 32 nations eligible for its continental championship and for World Cup qualifying matches. European teams are on the whole better then American teams, which in turn are better than African teams, with Asian teams being the most lowly (simply a reflection of soccer reality and not a political statement). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- starting the game: selection of your country ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the start of the game you must choose a country from the 128 offered. Factors to consider are principally the skills of the players and the continent the team is in: The Asian championship is the easiest, followed (of course) by the African, then the American, with the European championship being the most difficult (arguably even more difficult to win than the World Cup since qualification is harder). Each country has its own quirks, so essentially you have 128 different games to choose from, offering varying degrees of challenge, from what we consider to be too easy (eg Germany) to virtually impossible! What is more, not one of these games will ever be the same twice. The worse the team you choose, the longer you should be prepared to work at building up your team, in order to achieve success in the competitions, but the more rewarding that final success will be (if you make it that is...). Success or failure in the competitions (measured in terms of points achieved in the qualifying and final groups, as well as major success in the final knockout stages) will affect the growth/decline of footballing talent in your country: ie if you do better than expected (from your country's skill ratings), talented new players will gradually appear in your pool, often better than any in your squad; but if you fail to match expectations, you will be lucky to find replacements up to the standard of players who retire. So the route to success with a lowly team is to persevere and consistently triumph over those teams who are supposedly better than you, thus encouraging the growth of footballing talent in your country. In short, success breeds success. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- playing the game ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOAL is designed so that all the displays and features are explained where you find them - so just roam around and you will discover all the things you can do. You can do just about everything with the following keys: enter accept/proceed/select Esc reject/backtrack/escape cursor keys move selection bar up,down,left or right spacebar next category (eg continent) The options on the main screen are as follows: F1: displays this help file. F3: replays a saved goal. F4: loads a saved match summary. F5: prints the current screen: use this to print out results, history etc. F7: saves the game, and allows you to continue playing. F10: quits game (and saves it if requested). TEAM INFO - lets you see information for every team. World and continental rankings given indicate the team's performance in the last World Cup/Continental championship and are not directly related to the actual skill of that team. Skills shown are based on the current team of 11 players, not the entire squad, and allow for the formation chosen. Hit enter for details of fixtures - for every team: note that from this option you can select which matches you wish to watch, or cancel or rearrange your own friendlies. FIXTURE LIST - lists all arranged fixtures, filling in results as games are played. You can select games to watch from here, too. TOURNAMENT - note that you can always see all results for the current or most recent occurrence of each of the 5 competitions. HISTORY - lets you assess every teams' performances. SELECT TEAM - select your team from the pool of players. PLAY - this moves the game on, generally bringing you to your next match. First you are given the 'latest results' service, with the option to watch any pre-selected match (see 'fixtures') and then it's the big day and time to have your wits about you.... During your own matches you can alter tactics at any time and make substitutions from any of your squad, via the 'bench' option. You get 2 substitutions in competition matches and 5 in friendlies. Substitutions can be made from any of your squad of 20 (not the pool): you do not have to nominate your substitutes before a match. You can rearrange your team any way you like before the kick-off. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- the competitions: continental championships and world cup ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The four continental championships are organised as follows: - Qualifying : 8 groups of 4 teams, teams playing each other over two legs : group winners qualify for the finals - Finals group stage : 2 groups of 4 teams, playing each other once : winner and second placed play off in the semi-finals - Knockout stage : semi-finals,third place play-off,and final Allocation of 32 World Cup final places is: Europe - 16 America - 8 Africa - 4 Asia - 4 World cup qualifying is as follows: - 8 groups of 4 teams in each continent : top two from each European group and winners of each American group qualify. Winners of African and Asian groups have play-offs over two legs to decide on the 4 qualifiers from each continent. The World Cup finals start off with (yes you've guessed it) 8 groups of 4 teams (oh if real life was only so simple....). Each play the other teams in the group once. Winners and second placed from each group go forward to the last 16 knockout stage. Matches in the knockout stages of every competition go into extra time and on to a penalty shoot-out, if necessary, to produce a result. Penalty shootouts are best out of five, with sudden death thereafter. African and Asian World Cup qualifying play-offs are decided by a coin toss, should the aggregate scores over the two legs tie. Group winners and second placed are decided first on points (obviously), then on goal difference, then on goals scored, and finally again by a coin toss (well after all there has always been a lot of luck involved in football). There are no exemptions from qualifying for the competitions, so the current title holders and the host nations all have to compete along with everybody else. However, the selection of host country for each competition is only made after the qualifying stages from those teams who have been successful to ensure that the host takes part in the finals. Groups are selected in such a way as to ensure that major teams are spread among the groups: effectively teams are seeded according to rankings. There is a considerable advantage when playing at home. The host nation for a competition enjoys this advantage in the finals. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- selection of your squad ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You should regularly scan through your pool of national players on the lookout for emerging talent. Your main squad should be updated between every match (though this, obviously, is not allowed during the finals of a competition or while on tour abroad), to remove injured, suspended, unfit or less skillful players. If you're feeling lazy you can ask your assistant to recommend his favoured squad - his selection will be based on the team's current formation. Player skills change with age: each player has a maximum skill he will attain at his "peak" age. His skill improves till he reaches that age and then tapers off till he retires. Each player has his own peak age. Skills should be considered in conjunction with fitness and confidence when selecting players. Fitness and confidence can be taken together to represent form, and thus can be seen as a player's ability to utilise his skill. Player fitness is very important: keep a close watch on fitness and energy: player energy will decline during a match in direct proportion to the activity of the player. Unfit players should be reserved for last minute substitutions, or not played at all. Exhausted players should be substituted, if possible. Tactics can be adjusted to minimise the movement of a player, thus preserving his energy. Fresh players, put on towards the end of a game, can often run circles round the opposition. Player confidence is also a significant factor in performance: winning or even drawing matches can boost the confidence of the players involved, and thus the team morale, as will scoring goals. The opposition is taken into account when making changes to player confidences: eg Germany may be expected to beat India by 3 goals, so any margin greater than 3 will improve the Germans confidence, any margin less than 3 will decrease their confidence. Accordingly, given the same fixture, India will boost their confidence by only losing by two goals. Injuries, bookings and sendings off will damage player confidence. Thus the result of every match, including friendlies, is important. Pay attention to The SPORTING TIMES, particularly if they offer advice on replacing players (though they are not always right). Ignore your assistant, physio and coach, unless for idle amusement! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- player skills ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KEEPING: specific goalkeeping skills. Relevant only to goalkeepers. These cover such skills as shot stopping,one on one,handling crosses and penalty stopping. GOAL KICKING: ability to punt a dead ball accurately up-field. KICKING: used for defensive clearances and goal kicks. TACKLING: ability to take the ball off a player cleanly and legally. A tackler must match the agility of the player on the ball with his own tackling skill. Tackling success can be enhanced by 'going in hard' (see tactics below), but this is related to hardness rather than tackling skill. Vital for defenders. Also covers blocking, the ability for an outfield player to get in the way of a shot. HEADING: ability to intercept high balls and to accurately pass and shoot with the head. Especially important for attackers receiving crosses into the box and for defenders trying to beat them to it. MARKING: ability to man-mark an opponent. This skill is compared with the feinting skill of the man being marked. A good man-to-man marker will be practically on top of his markee whenever his team are defending. PASSING: accuracy of passing. Of most importance to midfielders. CROSSING: ability to cross the ball into the penalty area (high or low) from the wings. Naturally useful for a winger, wide midfielder or over-lapping fullback. FEINTING: not the ability to fall over in a dead swoon (though certain strikers do have the uncanny knack of doing this once they reach the penalty area!), but the ability to make penetrating runs and shrug off markers. CONTROL: ability to collect passes and immediately have the ball under control. DRIBBLING: ability to shield the ball from tackles and get round opponents without losing possession. SHOOTING: ability to put the ball in the net in the course of play. Includes power and also accuracy, though even the best players will often shoot wide of the mark when under pressure. PENALTIES: ability to score from the penalty spot. Compared with the keeper's penalty stopping skill. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- player positioning -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You must consider firstly your required balance between attack, midfield, and defence, and then within each category position your players so that 1) their greatest skills are taken advantage of 2) you have a balance between centre, left and right flanks. STRIKER (dollar sign): a small agile attacker, with a tendancy to roam around looking for shooting opportunities. Move around a lot in an effort to avoid markers, so fitness helps. CENTRE FORWARD (cent): a taller attacker, able to reach high crosses into the box, and good at heading. Generally less agile than strikers (and with a less accurate shot), and tend to play through the middle. LEFT/RIGHT WINGER (W): agile forward midfield player, specialising in runs up the wings, with the aim of putting a cross into the box or occasionally cutting inside and having a shot himself. Generally reasonable goal scorers, with particular abilities at dangerous set pieces. Similar in skills to strikers, though better at passing. FORWARD MIDFIELDER (F): like wingers this is a combination midfield/attack player, though a forward midfielder has a central role. His speciality is the short incisive pass through to an attacker. Not bad at shooting. LEFT/RIGHT MIDFIELDER (L/R): in many ways a cross between a fullback and winger, also with similar skills to central midfielders (see below). Prefers running with the ball to passing, but is nonetheless adept at passing. CENTRAL MIDFIELDER (C cedilla): a player specialising in passing and control of the ball - particularly useful for slowing down play and keeping possession. Usually the best player in the team. DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER (D): plays in midfield behind the central midfielder. Reasonable passer but used for his ball-winning abilities in midfield. A bridge between defence and midfield and thus can make an adequate stand-in for a sweeper. Always willing to have a crack at goal. LEFT/RIGHT BACK (B): a defender specialising in controlling the left or right flank of the pitch, so particularly important for countering wingers. Like all defenders, good at tackling and marking. When pushing forward (overlapping), will attempt to get to the by-line and send a telling cross into the box. CENTRE BACK (C): stoppers. Their primary function is to releave their opponents of the ball. Adept at marking, blocking, clearing, tackling, etc. SWEEPER (S): an agile defender, acting as the last line of out-field defence against break-aways. The use of a sweeper implies that man-to-man marking is being practised, thus the sweeper cannot be assigned to mark anyone. He will often move into a midfield role when the defence is not under pressure. GOALKEEPER: the specialist who gets the blame whenever a goal is lost. His sole aim in life is to keep the ball out of his own net. Playing positions can be altered for any player, apart from goalkeepers. Their first position may NOT be the one for which they are best suited, although, it is generally the case. Repositioning of players during a game is a very useful tactical ploy. Repositioning also allows you to get around the loss of key players through injury/suspension/lack of fitness,etc. A two footed player can play equally well on either flank, otherwise it is not advised to play a left footer on the right flank or vice versa. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- tactics -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tactics can be set both at an overall 'team' level, (for certain tactics) or individual player level, giving you an enormous amount of flexibility, especially when taken in conjunction with selection of players and playing positions. Be prepared to adjust your tactics to suit those of your opponent. What destroys one team may simply not work with another. Your opponents may change tactics and positioning as required during the course of a match - be vigilant. POSITIONING: stay back/push forward: this tactic adjusts the willingness of players to press forward when attacking. Push forward to go for goals, stay back to retain possession and maintain a strong defence. This tactic can be set for each player, giving you a lot of control over your team's coverage of the pitch. POSSESSION: stay on the ball/one touch passing: choice depends on the relative agility and passing skills of your players. Passing may be more favourable if the opposition are marking man to man. Again, this tactic can be set for each player. PASSING: short passes/long passes: long passing is riskier than short passing, but the rewards are more immediate. The long ball game gains territory whereas short passing retains possession. Again can be set individually. DEFENCE: half/full pitch: half pitch defence requires less overall ability than full pitch defence, as the team will drop back into their own half when under attack, and defend from there. Full pitch defence implies holding ground and defending immediately possession is lost, from any position on the pitch: if your team is up to it, full pitch defence can achieve overall dominance of the entire pitch, but it leaves much more space for the opposition to exploit. SYSTEM: zonal system/man to man marking: marking options are extensive: zonal system implies that each player will defend his own 'zone' (based on his playing position), while the man-to-man option assigns each player to an opposing player (except for the sweeper and goalkeeper). The choice of system will radically affect the nature of the play, with man-to-man requiring more movement (hence fitness) from the players, and generally stifling the opposition more effectively, while the zonal system allows your players to operate with more space and freedom particularly when switching from defence to attack. Man-to-man marking will override any of the other tactical options, when there is a conflict (eg full/half pitch and sag back/stand ground). Assignment of men to mark is done automatically and will be updated whenever you or your opponents change the team. These assignments can be overridden for individual players: this allows you to try any combination of man-to-man marking and zonal, for example, assigning more than one player to a key opposing attacker. This option requires more work from you, as marking assignments must be set for each game, and altered whenever either team makes a substitution or alters player positioning. However, it also allows you to optimise the marking and gives you more control over your players than (probably) any other option. Note the following when setting marking assignments manually: 1 - players assigned manually (both your players and any opposing players they are assigned to) will be excluded from the automatic assignments for the rest of the team. 2 - marking assignments will be cleared (ie set to 'zonal') for such players, at the end of the match, so you must remember to set their new assignments at the start of the next match. PROTECTION: sag back to box/stand ground: sag back is the safer defensive option, where your players will head towards the box whenever your goal is under threat, but they will have to rebuild any renewed attack from scratch, and will get exhausted more quickly than those standing firm in their zonal defensive positions. OFFSIDE: defensive safety/offside trap: playing offside trap will encourage your defenders to move forward in the hope of catching the opposing attackers offside, but if it doesn't work you had better have a very good goalkeeper! TACKLING: avoid heavy tackles/go in hard: players will try to tackle cleanly unless you tell them through this option (which can be set individually) to do otherwise. Note, however, the harder the player, the more difficulty he will have in copping out of heavy tackles, even if he has been instructed to do so. 'Going in hard' improves the chances of winning a tackle, but do not advise weaker players to 'go in hard' for tackles as they are likely to get injured. Hard players on the other hand are more likely to injure the opposition and/or get sent off. When setting individual player tactics (other than marking assignments - see above), there are always three options: the two options for that tactic (as per team tactics,followed by the letter P) and the third option of using the default team tactic. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- the match ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOAL centres around the visual presentation of the match. You can alter the speed at which things happen (left/right arrow keys), and the way the players are displayed (up/down arrow keys): - stick men: home and away teams are distinguished by their team strips. The player with the ball, or last in possession, will be highlighted. This is only available for VGA machines. - H/A: indicating home and away team, intended mainly for monochrome displays where the strip colours are not apparent. - block arrows: indicating direction of play, again intended for monochrome displays. - B-W: player position (see player positioning to learn the meaning of each symbol). Allows you to keep a track of individual players, especially when used in conjunction with the commentary. - 0-9: player number, 10 in all (the goalkeeper is always shown as a smiley face). Allows you to determine precisely which player is which. The ball is shown as a dot when on or near to the ground, and as a larger dot when high. Hit Esc or enter and you are into the 'bench' screen: from this you can make substitutions and alter tactics at any point in the game (though you may have to wait for a suitable break in play to put on a substitute). Hit INS to toggle the action replay facility on or off. This enables/disbables both the replay of goals and the option to save them. During the game hit the spacebar to get the match commentary, enabling you to analyse exactly how a goal came about, etc. , and how well individual players are playing. If you can't wait for the result, press R. The computer then calculates the result. Goals, bookings, sendings-off and injuries are listed in the commentary. There is a break at halftime so you can make substitutions. Likewise with any injuries. This option is quick, but does not provide the same amount of control over your team as actually watching the entire game. NB: if you use this option, all match-related statistics (which rely entirely on the full-length game) are discarded. The scoreboard always shows the home team (if there is one) first. Injury time will be allowed at the end of the match, if appropriate. You must select a captain for your team. The computer will select the player it considers best. Press enter if you agree (look at leadership ability), or select some one better. During the game you get the option to nominate penalty, free kick, goal kick and corner takers. To help the flow of the game, if you wait 10 seconds without pressing a key, the computer will accept the currently nominated player. Note that free kick selection is always within shooting range, although the player taking the free kick will not always have a pot at goal. Each player is given a performance rating, updated for every tackle, shot, dribble, etc he makes during the game. The highest rated player is given man of the match. This rating is a reliable guide as to relative performances of your players (obviously the quality of the opponents should be taken into consideration). The team performances are based on the performances of the 11 players on the pitch. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- print-outs -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Press F5 at any point to provide a print-out of the screen. To avoid any printer codes being erroneously transmitted, all possible printer control characters are ignored. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- compatibility and displays ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Goal should work on any truly IBM compatible PC, including those with monochrome or Hercules display adaptors. As already mentioned, display options are available during the match so that you can identify teams other than by strip colour. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- customisation ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hit F2 whenever player information is shown, and you can alter that player's name. Note that this new name remains only for the duration of the game. Permanent alterations require the use of the ALTER utility (provided only with the registered version of GOAL). Hit F2 on the main screen, and you can alter your own name! ALTER is very simple to use if you are familiar with GOAL and lets you customise all team,manager and player names, ages, caps, goals and skills,team strips and individual team continental and world rankings permanantly. Just type in ALTER from DOS, and make any changes you want,then hit F10 to exit and you will be asked if you want to save the changes to the 'GOAL.DAT' file. Note that any previously saved game will be unaffected. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- more entertainment ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For information on other NEW ERA SOFTWARE games, contact NEW ERA SOFTWARE PO BOX 19 LIVINGSTON EH27 8EH SCOTLAND 031-333-4958 or WIZARD GAMES OF SCOTLAND PO BOX 498 WILMINGTON MA 01887-0498 U.S.A. 1-508-658-2209 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- goal 94 new era software -------------------------------------------------------------------------------