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American football! What a spooky old game it
is, eh, viewers? But add giant robot players,
'turbo defence' and exploding balls and, boy,
does it get worsel Twice as
as exciting and about six squillion times more
complicated! Matt Bielby still can't make head
nor tail of it, though it
won't stop him trying.
To the novice it all seems incredibly complicated and totally unfathomable. Just think about it - there are different teams for attack and defence, about 60 players a side, oodles of moves to remember, and lots of stopping and starting all the time. And that's just 'normal' American football! Toss in 20-foot robot players, more violence, extra-weird rules and even a smidgeon of management (you get to buy better robots to replace old players) and you get Cyberball, the heavy metal sport of the 21st century!! And that really is spooky! Even to the experts (such as, for instance, the guys who programmed the Speccy conversions, and you can't get much more expert than that!) it seemed incredibly complicated, though 'once you play it, it all comes to you and gets really easy'. Oh yeah? (Disbelieving look.) All right then, let's give it a go. HOW DO YOU PLAY IT THEN? So how does this Cyberball business work then, and how on earth are we all going to understand it? Well, first off you control a team of seven droids on the pitch at any one time, with seven computer-controlled opponents facing you. You start on the offensive, so basically what happens is the ball gets hiked back, your quarterback (the little man-shaped robot) grabs it and then decides what to do. Does he (ie. You) try to run up the pitch towards the opponents' goal carrying the ball, hoping to dodge in and out of the defenders? Or does he try and pass it to another team member? Well, in actual fact, you know full well what you're going to do, 'cos you've actually decided a couple of seconds earlier. Just before each 'play' occurs (as they're called), the computer shows you a menu, and you have to decide what strategy to use. So you pick 'Running Play'. That's fine. Now the computer gives you a choice of four different types of running play, in other words, set moves for all the other robots on your team to execute while you actually make your run. Then, when the action actually starts, you know that two of your big robots, for instance, are going to clear a path for you at the top left of the screen, giving you a good chance of getting quite a long way in that direction. You need to get all the way to the opposition's goal line (50 yards away) in four 'plays' or the ball explodes! Blimey! So don't waste any time! Exactly the some thing happens (sort of) with the defensive plays, only you are trying to second-guess what the computer will do of course, so that you can put your men in the best positions to stop the opposition. (Phew, I hope that's all clear, 'cos I'm not explaining it again!) Even if you didn't understand a word of it, good old Domark plans to have Cyberball ready for the end of January when it's, yes you guessed it, Superbowl time! So settle yerself down with a big packet of crisps for the whole three and a half hours or so, and you should know enough about American football to start your own blooming team, and certainly enough to make playing Cyberball a right old doddle. Or, at least, that's the idea. Hurrah! CYBERMEN So who are the chaps behind Cyberball? Well, first off, there's Stephen Wood, who did the code. He used to work at Probe, but sadly he's more or less packing in the Spectrum programming lark (in fact, he only plans to do one more game after this, another Bond licence for Domark). What was it like working on Cyberball then, Steve? 'Well, there was a lot of learning to do at the start! Not only all the rules of American football, but 'C' code too! 'C' code is the source code they use in a lot of coin-ops, and if you can get if off the arcade company concerned it can save you a lot of trouble! Unfortunately, some arcade companies guard it really jealously, but Tengen's pretty good at giving its code to Domark. It's a good job too because in a project as complicated as this it's the only real way that we can guarantee every version will play like the original. "The problem is that since hardly anyone in this country knows 'C' code I had to learn the whole blooming thing from scratch, which was a nightmare since the manual was about four inches thick!" Blimey! 'The other problem was getting the fight play information trom the States, since it's all so complicated, and then leaming how they all work so we could pick the ones that are most important for the Speccy. You see, there are lots of set plays in American football, and though we can fit about 100 of them into 128K there's a bit more of a problem with the 48K versions. In the end I think we'll have about 20 or 30 of the best ones in there, but I had to leam a lot about American football to discover what they were!" Tony West, perhaps best known for his work on Licence To Kill and F16 Combat Pilot (16-bit), was responsible for the graphics. So how do you tell the two teams apart, Tone? 'Well, two ways really. Even though Speccy version is in monochrome, I'm doing one lot in black and the others in grey, so it should be pretty clear. You can also tell by the way they're standing of course.' Um, right. 'Most of the players are sort of like tank bottom halfs with semi-human torsos and arms, the only totally human-shaped one being the quarterback. He's by far the best animated too.' Thanks, guys, things are a lot clearer now (I think). CYBERBALL THE COIN-OP You don't see the coin-op much in this country (probably because it's a big, awkward shape and hardly anybody can afford enough goes to learn the rules!), but it's a weird four player contraption, complete with two screens. Unusually, these aren't side by side but stand angled away from each other, so (in two player mode) the opposing players are effectively facing across the 'field'. Looking down, each player sees the some action, but from a different end of the pitch. There are two sorts of two player modes -- one where you take each other on, and one where the two players are on the same side against the computer. Combine the two and you get a genuine four player game, with two on each side. Fabby or what?! Apparently it's very popular in the States, but less so here because most people take one look and can't tell what on earth is going on! What you need is a free play version where you get the luxury of learning how to do things, but without blowing all your spare cash. Just like a home computer version in fact! Hurrah!
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