It’s Started the poll of the year: Vote the best indie soccer game of 2006! Vote the best Old-school Football game of the year here: The best old-school soccer games of the year

Sensible Soccer 2006

http://www.kickoffworld.net/blog/sensible-soccer-2006/

Jon Hare, designer and producer of the original Sensible Soccer series, here collaborates with Codemasters and developers Kuju Entertainment for the return of the long-standing soccer series. This revival plays up the fast action and wild multiplayer of the original series, now with 3D visuals and new aggressive new arcade-style gameplay.

Throw in

http://www.kickoffworld.net/blog/throw-in

Throw In is the tribute to the best game ever, Kick Off 2. It’s developed by Gianluca Troiano, the 2003, 2004, 2005 Kick Off 2 World Champion. Throw in attempt to reproduce the classic gameplay of Kick Off 2 and is designed to offer fast action with responsive controls. You can do anything on the pitch with just a single fire button.

Yoda Soccer

http://www.kickoffworld.net/blog/yoda-soccer-73-released/

The Open Source clone of Sensible World of Soccer is available for all OS: Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It’s developed by an italian team of coders to reproduce the playability of the classic Sensible World of Soccer.

www.kickoffworld.net/blog/pulp-of-soccer/

The vocation of Pulp Of Soccer is to procure a lot of sensations for everybody who like funny video games and soccer, purposing easy but efficacious gameplay. Pulp Of Soccer is an original concept purposing intuitive gameplay accessible to everybody

New Star Soccer 3

http://www.kickoffworld.net/blog/new-star-soccer-3/
New Star Soccer 3 is the award winning career football game that lets YOU be the star player. Take full control of your career and work your way to the top. Defender, midfielder or attacker, the choice is yours, just make sure you keep the boss, fans and everyone else happy on your rise to football stardom!

Netsoccer

http://www.kickoffworld.net/blog/netsoccer
Netsoccer is a Multiplayer Online Soccer game. Each gamer controls a player, not a team as is common in most Soccer games. You can join different teams and have matches aginst other teams or you can just have a practice match online.
Sensational Soccer

www.kickoffworld.net/blog/sensational-soccer-released/>

Sensational Soccer is a New game made by the same creator of New Star Soccer 3. The match engine of Sensational Soccer is the same as New Star Soccer 3 (updated a bit though). The tactics editor is complete, and available on a Sensible Soccer style with a 2-player football game where you control the whole team

Webchamps 06

http://www.kickoffworld.net/blog/webchamps-06

In webchamps06 you play with your team against a variety of computer-controlled teams. webchamps06 doesn’t only convert the fascination of football into a clever online game and give us a virtual foretaste of the World Cup atmosphere.

Kickin’ Soccer

www.kickoffworld.net/blog/kickin-soccer/
Kickin’ Soccer is a fast-paced arcade soccer game. Dribble the opponent players, slide into their defenses with quick and accurate passing, score with shoots from a distance or use crosses and try to head the ball in the back of the net.

Pixelkick

www.kickoffworld.net/blog/pixelkick/>
pixelKick takes all the best elements from the classic footie games from the 90’s and is set in it’s own primary coloured, pixel playground world.

pixelKick is a game which captures all the excitement of a real football match and conveys it through 16×16 blocks.

Slam Soccer 2006

www.kickoffworld.net/blog/slam-soccer-2006/>
Slam Soccer 2006 is a funny football game in 3D-comic-style - it’s Freeware and open source with Funny 3d-comic-style

Addictive Football

http://www.kickoffworld.net/blog/addictive-football

Addictive Football is similar in style to the great games of yesteryear such as Sensible Soccer and Kick Off. Play 5-a-side rules on a variety of different pitches with 5 different game modes to choose from. Including Knockout Cups and League style games as well as a Custom Game Mode where you set the team skills yourself.

Nutella Football Game

http://www.kickoffworld.net/blog/nutella-football-game

Nutella Football Game is the soccer videogame created by gianluca troiano and Artematica, it was sold on italian big malls as a promotional gift together with a can of Nutella during the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Goofy Soccer

www.kickoffworld.net/wikickoff/index.php?title=Goofy_Soccer

This game is designed to develop the creative skills of soccer gamers. Now it’s time to get the best soccer game that can reflect your creativity. Choose your team and league from the wide databases freely distributed or create your own league.

Technorati Tags: Sensible Soccer 2006, Throw in, Yoda Soccer, Pulp of Soccer, New Star Soccer 3, Netsoccer, Sensational Soccer, Webchamps 06, Kickin’ Soccer, Pixelkick, Slam Soccer 2006, Addictive Football, Nutella Football Game, Goofy Soccer, football games, soccer games

A new MAME has been released, bringing it into line with the regular version:

• xMAME for Linux
• MacMAME for Mac OS X
• MAME OS X universal binary for intel Mac
• Mame32 for Windows
• MAME Plus for Windows
• VectorMAME for vector games
• EEMAME, MAME for Symbian Mobile Phones
• PocketCultMAME for Pocket PC
• PalmMAME for Palm OS
• MAME4ALL PSP for Playstation Portable
• MAMEPSP for Playstation Portable
• PSPMame for Playstation Portable
• XMame PSP for Playstation Portable
• MAME has a sister project called MESS which applies the MAME philosophy to emulating home computers and consoles.
• MAME arcade cabinet, homebuild replicas of arcade cabinets to run MAME software.

As usual you can download from it’s home

Technorati Tags: MAME, 110, emulator, arcade

Progress of the NSS game is steady at the moment but things are coming together very nicely. The core of the NSS4 database editor is up and running from a few weeks back and now work has begun on taking that data and doing something with it.

Here’s a picture of the Editor.  Well the really exciting thing is the competition editor. With a few careful selections in the editor you should be able to create any competition in the world and plug it straight into the main game. All the competitions basically break down into two types, league based or knock-out based. Pretty obvious really, but some competitions like the World Cup use a combination of the two, with a group stage then a knock-out stage. So in the editor you simply create two competitions; World Cup Stage 1 and World Cup Stage 2. Then the really neat trick is the section where you set the promotion places. For the WC Stage 1 you set places 1 & 2 to get promotion to WC Stage 2. Then when stage 1 is over the program finds the top 2 teams in all the groups and “promotes” them to the knock-out stage. This same technique can be used in all types of league or cup competition, even for relegations. For instance, you simply set positions 18, 19 and 20 of the Premiership to get promoted to the Championship. I use the word “promote” here, but in effect the same thing is happening whether a team is promoted or relegated.

Ok, so that’s the theory behind the competition editor, but the tricky part is implementing it in the game. So far all the World Cup Qualifying stages ticking over is made so that national teams are assigned fixtures and the group winners qualify from one stage to the next.

This is the game in it’s embryonic stages. All it does is run through the fixtures creating random scorelines at the moment. Once this is all in place so that the game plays through from World Cup Qualifications to the World Cup final then it’s just a matter of adapting the code so that it does the same thing (in principle) for the club competitions. Having multiple leagues, cups and international competitions running smoothly without any fixture clashes will be the first real milestone, and the foundation upon which the entire game will be built. Progress is steady and that milestone will be reach within a couple of weeks. Soon the competition engine will be available for people to download and test, just to make sure everything is working correctly.

The programmer is using BlitzMax for the main game this time around, which means development can move pretty fast. It also means that Mac and Linux owners will finally be able to experience the joys of NSS. Don’t get too carried away though people, it’s still early days.

Technorati Tags: New Star Soccer 4, NSS4, NSS, New Star games, soccer games, football managerial games

The Open Source clone of Sensible World of Soccer has some important new features:

- bench: substitutions, players swapping and tactics switch
- coach only mode
- input device selector
- template database

Download available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux: Yoda Soccer

Enjoy it!

Technorati Tags: yoda soccer, football game, soccer game

The GP2X–which stands for ‘Game Park Times Two’–was first released this year as an alternative portable that runs on Linux. The handheld sports two 200MHz CPUs with 64MB of RAM and custom graphics hardware and decoding chips. It connects to a PC via USB and also takes SD cards. It retails in the UK at £124.99 (around $231).

The GP2X.
So far, approximately 30,000 units have been sold in less than nine months, and Craig Rothwell, the Director of GP32/2x Distribution Ltd., is confident that sales will reach 50,000 by Christmas.

Rothwell is delighted at the way that sales have been picking up for the underdog, which can play games, movies, and music as well as show photos and e-books. And although GP2X still has a way to go to catch up with the likes of the Game Boy Advance or the iPod, he thinks things are looking good.

“Things have really sped up in the last few months,” said Rothwell, who attributes this growth in sales to a number of factors. One of the things he firmly believes is that people “have had enough” of larger companies and their restrictive policies on homegrown game development.

“We think it’s [the growth in sales] because essentially the system is completely open whereas Sony and Apple and big companies like that lock down their systems. We pretty much let people run whatever they want on it. We don’t have any secrets about how it works, and we release all the documents. In fact we encourage people to hack the system and see what they can get it to do.”

Rothwell used to own (among other systems) an Amiga, and looks back on the early days of computers, especially the 16-bit era, fondly. With the GP2X, he says that he wants to try to recreate this kind of computing community.

“In the late ’80s and early ’90s, all systems were open like ours. They were all owned by small companies like Sinclair and Amstrad and Tiny. And then the big guys came in and put an end to it. I used to really like doing all that hacking around with the systems and things and it had a huge scene at the time. We know that the market is still there–it hasn’t disappeared–so that’s the market that we’re trying to appeal to now.”

He also revealed his “cunning plan” to make the GP2X easily upgradeable, with plans to do so at some point in the future.

Rothwell believes that there is great gaming potential for his company’s handheld. There are over 200 freeware games for download posted in the files section of the company Web site, and he recently ran a coding competition, and several people rose to the challenge of creating new games and applications. He added: “It’s essentially a PC, so ports are really easy.”

It’s not just indie games and freeware coming out for the GP2X though. Payback, a Grand-Theft-Auto style car game is the first big-budget game to be released for the handheld, and will be available for £24.99 (around $46) this month. There are also a number of other games in development for the system, including an RPG called Elsewhere from Japan.

Technorati Tags: GP2X

The GP2X is an open-source, Linux-based handheld game console and media player created and sold by GamePark Holdings of South Korea.

Released on November 10, 2005 in South Korea, the GP2X is designed to support video, music, photos, and games in an open architecture, allowing any user to develop software for the device. Room for expansion with future upgrades (new media formats, features, operating system, etc) has been made possible by upgradable flash memory firmware.

The GP2X is able to emulate many different game systems, such as the NES, SNES, Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear, Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis, Game Boy, PC Engine, Neo-Geo, and Neo Geo CD consoles, as well as various arcade systems via MAME. The very finite processing power of the machine will naturally cap the complexity of emulable machines. There are even PlayStation and Game Boy Advance emulators on the system, though the GP2X has fewer buttons than a standard Playstation controller. However, emulation of 3D systems operates slowly due to lack of a hardware 3D rendering device, and GBA emulation will likely not run at full speed until GBA games’ ARM7 code is made to run natively on the GP2x’s ARM9 processor (a project that as of 2006 is underway in some capacity.)Template:Fact

The GP2X natively supports codecs and formats such as DivX, XviD, MP3, and Ogg Vorbis, but because the player is open-source there is also already support for various other formats, such as SPC, NSF, GBS, GYM, and VGM. The GP2X also supports a variety of picture formats, such as PNG, JPG, GIF, etc.

Technorati Tags: GP2X, Gamepark, linux, console, handheld, open source, game, emulation

A new version of the MAME emulator is out as well as some of it’s alternative versions. As always you can download the new version from here

Other version of Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator:

• xMAME MAME for Linux
• MacMAME MAME for Apple Mac OS X
• Mame32 MAME for Windows
• MAME Plus MAME for Windows
• EEMAME, MAME for Symbian Mobile Phones

Technorati Tags: MAME, XMAME, MacMAME, MAME32, MAME plus, EEMAME, E2MAME, emulator, emulation, arcade

Why the Bizarre Creations “Geometry Wars” was so acclaimed?? An unique mixture of Basic and addictive gameplay with retro-taste and vector graphics! This exclusive Xbox Live Arcade game gives you both the original Retro action and a new Evolved mode, which combines modern graphics with old-school fun.
So you don’t own an XBox 360 with live Arcade?? No problem, stop at here and try all the best clone available for free by indie developers, for PC Windows, Mac OS X, Linux. All the games mentioned in this article bears some semblance to acient Vector games and Geometry Wars.

Grid Wars

Probably the most popular Geometry Wars clone, partly due to the fact that it’s free and playable on at least two platforms. The dual analog controls work well, but players without a joypad can play using a combination of mouse and keyboard. No levels, but the difficulty increases slowly with the addition of new types of enemies. A black hole appears from time to time, which you can use to your advantage since it sucks everything into it. Blow it up, and the amount of points you earned depends on how many objects were drawn into the dark matter. This particular technique called black hole harvesting is a heated discussion among many fans of Mark Incitti’s shooter.

Most power-ups upgrade your shots or gives you a temporary shield, while bombs can be used to clear the entire screen. The game has gone through many revisions and what we have is the final version, plus it’s unlikely to be updated since the author has moved on to other projects.

Name: Grid Wars
Developer: Mark Incitti
Type: Freeware
Platform: PC, Mac
Size: 3.3MB
Online High Score: No
Geometry Wars-like scale: 8/10
Rating: 9
Download page: http://www.incitti.com/Blitz/
Alternate download page (working):
http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/grid/wars.htm

Rainbow Wars

A side project from Volition designer Luke Schneider, part of the team responsible for the development of the Descent series. The background is practically empty, but destroying enemy ships will cause glowing particles to appear on screen. Bombs only appear as a power-up item, and is activated on the spot when collected. A power-up item will appear for every five thousand points earned which includes a black hole that only sucks in enemy ships.

Your ship is equipped with three layers of shield, and you lose one whenever an enemy ship touches yours. Destroying each wave of enemies will increase the level number by one, also replenishing your shields automatically. Losing all your shields ends the game, but you can continue from the last level attempted by selecting it at the main menu. Note that the easy difficulty will only allow access to the first ten waves.

Your ship also has the ability to warp and charge it’s shot. Tap the left shoulder button on your gamepad to teleport, and hold the right shoulder button to prepare for a special attack. It’s interesting to note that Rainbow Wars is an effort made with Game Maker in only thirty hours.

Name: Rainbow Wars
Developer: Luke Schneider
Type: Freeware
Platform: PC
Size: 2.2MB
Online High Score: No
Geometry Wars-like scale: 7/10
Rating: 8
Download page: http://www.volition-inc.com/Staff/LukeSchnieder
(click on design ideas to download)

Veck

(Watch the gameplay video on YouTube!)

Veck was originally a competition entry for the Retro Remakes vector competition, which it won by garnering more than half of the votes submitted even though there were nine other entries. The level number increases for each minute that your ship remains intact, up to fifteen. Then the game loops back to the first wave but your score remains.

Weapon upgrade is automatic as well, bestowing the ability to shoot more bullets whenever the minute counter changes. No lives or shields, instead health is measured by energy which increments slowly but depletes if a collision with another object occurs.

Has the distinction of most bullets fired by your ship among all the games mentioned. The soundtrack is great as well, generating plenty of adrenaline rush as it reaches a crescendo. Full screen can only be enabled using a command line parameter, stated in a text file that comes with the zip package. For users with no gamepad, the mouse is not part of the control option although directional firing is still possible by mapping four other keys in addition to the standard movement.

Name: Veck
Developer: smayds
Type: Freeware
Platform: PC
Size: 2.4MB
Online High Score: No
Geometry Wars-like scale: 7/10
Rating: 9
Download page: http://smayds.googlepages.com/games

Bullet Candy

Bullet Candy is more like Robotron: 2084 than Geometry Wars, although the inclusion of dual analog controls make it a worthwhile inclusion into this list. You control a ship stuck in space much like the others, but enemies are able to shoot at you in many different ways. Lives can be earned either by collecting red power-ups or scoring 100,000 points.

Power-ups include lasers, triple shots and temporary invincibility. Bullet Candy includes a survival mode and an Asteroid Belt game, plus some secrets as well. Only fifty levels in the normal mode although most are designed to offer different challenges. For players without the luxury of a gamepad, the standard mouse and keyboard control combination can be used.

Name: Bullet Candy
Developer: Charlies Games
Type: Demo
Platform: PC, Mac
Size: 8.2MB
Online High Score: Yes
Geometry Wars-like scale: 3/10
Rating: 8
Download page: http://temp.macdock.com/charliesgames/index.html

RetroBlast

RetroBlast uses vector shapes for objects and enemies, much like Geometry Wars but that’s where the similarities end. Only mouse control is available, and players used to a dual analog gamepad will be disappointed with this effort. To shoot at an enemy, your ship must first be rotated to face it by using the left or right mouse button to turn. Bombs can be used to clear the screen.

The full version features a hundred levels but only the first eighteen can be accessed in the demo.

Name: RetroBlast
Developer: JGOware
Type: Demo
Platform: PC
Size: 2.8MB
Online High Score: Yes
Geometry Wars-like scale: 5/10
Rating: 5
Download page: http://jgoware.com/retroblast.htm

HGEWars

HGEWars is a work in progress by Yuriy O’Donnell, and there is still plenty of development to be done although it’s been around longer than any of the other Geometry Wars clones. The rating should not be taken seriously since scores are not based on the final version. Some fiddling with the ini file is required for the gamepad to work.

Weapon upgrade is automatic. The gameplay is quite faithful to the original but it may be months before the final version is released.

Name: HGEWars
Developer: Yuriy O’Donnell
Type: Freeware
Platform: PC
Size: 0.3MB
Online High Score: No
Geometry Wars-like scale: 7/10
Rating: 3
Download page: http://yurka.org/gamedev/

Mu-cade

Using vector shapes for shmups is practically a Kenta Cho hallmark, but the celebrated Japanese developer had been toying around with dual analog controls since Gunroar. A combination of both Robotron: 2084 and Snake, your objective is to stay on the rectangular platform and knock other enemies off it by shooting at them repeatedly.

For each enemy pushed off the platform, the tail of your ship grows longer and the score multiplier increases. A longer tail does complicate matters a little as it gets harder to stay on the platform. If the tail of your ship is over the edge, the weight will drag the rest of the ship with it as well.

Fortunately players only need to worry about the front portion of the ship. The tail itself can be blown apart in exchange for a short burst of additional firepower. You will lose the multiplier in the process though.

It gets increasingly harder to stay on the platform as time passes, but an extra life is awarded for every 200,000 points earned.

Name: Mu-cade
Developer: Kenta Cho
Type: Freeware
Platform: PC
Size: 6.02MB
Online High Score: No
Geometry Wars-like scale: 2/10
Rating: 7
Download page: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/windows/mcd_e.html

Base 2

Base 2 is a game that plays more like Every Extend than anything else. The player controls a bit with the mouse, using the left button to activate the shield. Coming in contact with enemy ships when your shield is up will cause them to explode.

Some enemies are too large to eliminate in this manner, so your only option is to maneuver around them carefully. The green bar at the top of the screen indicates the amount of energy you currently have, and will depreciate whenever your bit touches an enemy ship with the shields down. Some energy is lost regardless of shield status when collision with large enemies could not be avoided.

Pressing the right mouse button activates the freeze bomb, which freezes all enemies on-screen momentarily. Extra lives can be earned by destroying enemies of the same color in a row, using a process called linking. Multipliers are awarded for long links.

The screen tilt can be rather helpful or distracting to players, depending on their preferences. A higher score would have been awarded if the toggle option was available from the main menu.

Name: Base 2
Developer: SimSimGames
Type: Freeware
Platform: PC
Size: 6.02MB
Online High Score: No
Geometry Wars-like scale: 2/10
Rating: 5
Download page: http://www.simsimgames.co.uk/

Mono

Mono is a shooter from Binary Zoo that uses Robotron 2084-style controls, where the aim of the game is to change the color of the entire screen from black to white or white to black. Enemies will leave a splash of color on the playing field when destroyed, and the behavior of a hostile unit will change depending on the patch of color that they traverse on.

Power-ups can be collected replenish energy, shields, or radically alter your ship’s firepower, although they only lasts ten seconds. Playing this game can be disorienting after a while because of the bright colors used.

Name: Mono
Developer: Binary Zoo
Type: Freeware
Platform: PC
Size: 5.5MB
Online High Score: No
Geometry Wars-like scale: 3/10
Rating: 5
Download page: http://www.binaryzoo.com/games/mono/

Mutant Storm

Mutant Storm is an arena shooter developed by PomPom Games, in which you control a ship equipped with directional firing much like Geometry Wars. Instead of vector shapes, most of the objects in the game are represented in 3D.

It’s quite unfortunate that your progress is only saved every ten levels, leaving most users replaying the same stages just to arrive at a save point.

Name: Mutant Storm
Developer: PomPom Games
Type: Demo
Platform: PC, Mac, Linux
Size: 4.3MB
Online High Score: Yes
Geometry Wars-like scale: 6/10
Rating: 7
Download page: http://www.pompomgames.com/mutantstorm.htm

Vector Infector

Vector Infector is another release by Oddbob that resembles Geometry Wars, featuring fifty rooms filled with geometric shapes bent on your ship’s destruction.

There are some notable differences when comparing this version with the console hit. For example, the only way to power up your weapon’s attack strength is by collecting gems that vanquished enemies leave behind. The game also has a wrap around playing field, where sprites that go over the edge of the screen will appear on the other side.

Two control options are made available to the player. Pressing the Z key will cause your ship to fire in the direction it is currently facing. Shots can also be directed by using W, A, S and D keys. Looks very promising even if it’s still in early development stages.

Name: Vector Infector
Developer: Oddbob
Type: Demo
Platform: PC
Size: 15.0MB
Online High Score: No
Geometry Wars-like scale: 7/10
Rating: 5
Direct download link: http://www.merseyremakes.co.uk/previews/testbuild8thJan.exe

Some notables which uses dual analog or features vector shapes that did not make the list (for various reasons), but very playable nonetheless.

Technorati Tags: Grid Wars, Rainbow Wars, Veck, Bullet Candy, RetroBlast, HGEWars, Grid Assault, Mu-cade, Base 2, Mono, Mutant Storm, Vector Infector, Geometry Wars, OS X, Mac, Linux, free, games, XBox 360, Live Arcade

CrossOver Office is an excellent program based on the Wine project. This program optimizes Wine and allows users to easily run Windows programs on a Linux/UNIX/OS X environment. CrossOver Office handles many popular Windows programs such as Microsoft Office, but it also allows for the advanced user to attempt installs of programs that are not officially supported by CrossOver Office.

Crossover Office

Technorati Tags: Crossover office, emulator, emulation, Mac OS X, linux, windows, office, microsoft

A nice interpretation of the classic Table Top Football, we all - well, most of us anyway, enjoyed when we were kids (and still do, really) (in the days before high end computing - the days when kids got dirty, climbed in trees, knew how to ride bikes without helmets and when wounded arms and knees were part of the day; Not that this has anything to do with computers, really ..) and I remember, when we played our hand were sweaty, the handles on fire and the poor ball dangerously kamikazing from one end of the table to the other. Not much tactics from either side, but very intense and fun. This net version does not deliver the same atmosphere, but very fun and addictive, nevertheless.

Try it.

http://www.carling.com/football/entertainment/table_top_football/

Technorati Tags: table top football, table football, carling, football game, soccer game