''Match Day II'' is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

sports game A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with video games, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize playing the sport (such ...

part of the ''Match Day'' series released for the

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for "Colour Personal Computer") is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spec ...

Amstrad PCW The Amstrad PCW series is a range of personal computers produced by United Kingdom, British company Amstrad from 1985 to 1998, and also sold under licence in Europe as the "Joyce" by the German electronics company Schneider Computer Division, Schn ...

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...

MSX MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, the director at ASCII Corpo ...

and

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

platforms. It was created in

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

Jon Ritman Jon Ritman is a game designer and programmer notable for his work on 1980s computer games, primarily for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC home computers. Career His first experience with a computer was when he was 13, his first computer was a ...

with graphics by Bernie Drummond and music and sound by Guy Stevens (except for the Commodore version, which was a line-by-line conversion by John Darnell). It is the sequel to 1984's '' Match Day''.

Gameplay

The controls consist of four directions (allowing eight directions including diagonals) and a shot button. Each team has seven players, including

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

and there are league and cup options available. The game is considered highly addictive due to its difficulty level, the complete control over ball direction, power and elevation (using a Diamond Deflection System), and the importance of tactics and player positioning over the field (barging if necessary), which makes it challenging to break strong defences. It was the first game to use a kickometer. Some versions of the game play the song "

When the Saints Go Marching In "When the Saints Go Marching In", often referred to as simply "The Saints", is a traditional black spiritual. It originated as a Christian hymn, but is often played by jazz bands. One of the most famous jazz recordings of "The Saints" was made o ...

" while the players are walking to their initial positions on the field at the beginning of each half.

Reception

The ZX Spectrum version of the game went to number 2 in the UK sales charts, behind ''

Out Run (also stylized as ''OutRun'') is an arcade driving video game released by Sega in September 1986. It is known for its pioneering hardware and graphics, nonlinear gameplay, a selectable soundtrack with music composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi, and ...

''.

Related games

The game is similar to a previous unpublished game by

, ''Soccerama''. Later, in 1995, Jon Ritman tried to release ''Match Day III'', but the name of the game was changed to ''

Super Match Soccer ''Super Match Soccer'' is an association football video game published by Acclaim Entertainment and developed in 1998 by Jon Ritman. The game was released for PC and PlayStation and is the last game in the '' Match Day'' series. Gameplay ''Supe ...

'' to avoid any potential legal issues.

References

External links

* {{WoS game, id=0003070
Comment about Ritman, that allows his games to be distributed over the Internet

''Match Day II'' playing video
at youtube.com

Crash - Issue 37

at c64.com
''Match Day II''
at thelegacy.de 1987 video games Amstrad CPC games Amstrad PCW games Association football video games Commodore 64 games MSX games Multiplayer and single-player video games Ocean Software games Video game sequels Video games developed in the United Kingdom ZX Spectrum games