Category: Sports Games

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jose Quesada GAME DEVELOPER:Dinamic Multimedia GAME PUBLISHER:Dinamic Multimedia Copyright 1993, Dinamic Multimedia This is a rare PC version including two excellent football (soccer to you Americans ;)) games for the Spectrum: Michel Futbol Master and Super Skills, both of which are sadly very little known outside…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jukka J?k?l? GAME DEVELOPER:Anonymous GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1999, Jukka J?k?l? One of the best rally games ever made, Rally-Sport is a great 3D rally game with excellent vector graphics. The game is very accessible, with smooth graphics, great controls, and a ton of cars and options…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jussi Koskela GAME DEVELOPER:Mediamond GAME PUBLISHER:Mediamond Copyright 2001, Jussi Koskela Undoubtedly the very best ski jumping simulation ever made for a computer, Deluxe Ski Jump 2.0 is an amazingly addictive shareware underdog from Finnish designer Jussi Koskela, published by Mediamond (now apparently defunct). Thanks to precisely…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Michael Abbot & Nana Chambers GAME DEVELOPER:Electronic Arts GAME PUBLISHER:Electronic Arts Copyright 1989, Michael Abbot & Nana Chambers Kings of The Beach is a great beach volleyball game from Electronic Arts that remains to this day one of the only game of its kind. (There are…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Denes Nagymathe GAME DEVELOPER:Invictus GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1998, Invictus Hands down one of the most fun and versatile off-road simulation games ever made, Terep 2 is a wonderful freeware racing game that is amazing on both gameplay and technical levels. Also known as Deformers, the game…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:David Holt & Jeff Holt GAME DEVELOPER:Micro Sports GAME PUBLISHER:IBM Copyright 1995, Micro Sports All-American College Football is a fun, little-known American football game developed by Micro Sports and published by IBM, back when the PC giant was aggressively entering the PC game market (and from…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Andy LeBeis GAME DEVELOPER:Destiny Software Productions GAME PUBLISHER:Micro League Copyright 1994, Micro League A nice entry in Micro League’s short-lived “Time Out Sports” series, designed to provide bite-sized sporting entertainment for short coffee breaks between your spreadsheet or word processing. TOS Basketball is a simple and…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Dark Technologies GAME PUBLISHER:Mindscape Copyright 1994, Dark Technologies Alien Olympics is a decent PC conversion of an also-obscure Gameboy game of the same name, first released in 1992. The game is best described as Caveman Ugh-lympics fast forward to the future. Despite the zany…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Simulmondo GAME PUBLISHER:Simulmondo Copyright 1990, Simulmondo One of Simulmondo’s most obscure games, The Basket Manager is a game in one of the niche sub-genres in sport: basketball simulation. It can be regarded as the coaching simulation companion to their earlier Basket Playoff, an arcade-style…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Cyberdreams GAME PUBLISHER:Cyberdreams Copyright 1993, Cyberdreams CyberRace is a very stylish cyberpunk racing game featuring the designs of famed artist Syd Mead (best known for his sets for Blade Runner the movie). Although storyline is superfluous in this kind of game, it is still…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Eddie Dombrower GAME DEVELOPER:Mirage Graphics GAME PUBLISHER:Electronic Arts Copyright 1987, Mirage Graphics One of the best sports games ever made, Earl Weaver Baseball is a revolutionary baseball game that introduces numerous features that are far more advanced than most contemporary games, including multiple camera angles, lifelike…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Bethesda Softworks GAME PUBLISHER:Bethesda Softworks Copyright 1997, Bethesda Softworks One of the most underrated racing games ever, X-Car: Experimental Racing is the perfect game for anyone who likes tinkering with cars, although arcade gamers will be disappointed. As the name implies, X-Car is an…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Laszlo Szenttornyai & Peter Balla GAME DEVELOPER:Novotrade GAME PUBLISHER:Novotrade Copyright 1989, Novotrade Official soccer game of the 1990 World Cup at Italy, World Trophy Soccer is a graphically advanced game that is unfortunately bogged down by frustrating controls and unrealistic ball mechanics. The best thing about…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Mark Howman & Andrew Prime GAME DEVELOPER:Impressions GAME PUBLISHER:Sierra On-Line Copyright 1999, Impressions One of the most underrated soccer simulation series of all time is back, and this time is arguably a better game than venerable Championship Manager 2. USM 98 contains data for the 7…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jon Hare GAME DEVELOPER:Sensible Software GAME PUBLISHER:Sensible Software Copyright 1996, Sensible Software Undoubtedly the best game in the venerable Sensible Soccer series, Sensible World of Soccer 96/97 is the last annual update by Sensible Software before the series succumbed to the 3D graphics fad with Sensible…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Andrew Morris & Shaun Southern GAME DEVELOPER:Magnetic Fields GAME PUBLISHER:Europress Copyright 1993, Magnetic Fields Network Q RAC Rally is a classic racing sim based on the rally championship of the same name, held annually in Britain. Despite somewhat pixellated graphics and awful-looking scenery (especially cardboard-cutout “spectators”…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Clay Dreslough GAME DEVELOPER:Infinite Monkey Systems GAME PUBLISHER:Infinite Monkey Systems Copyright 1997, Infinite Monkey Systems One of the best baseball simulations ever made, bar none. Baseball Mogul lets you assume the role of both General Manager and Manager for a professional baseball team of your choice.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Unique Development Studios (UDS) GAME PUBLISHER:Virgin Interactive Copyright 1997, Unique Development Studios (UDS) One of the best racing games ever made, Ignition is a wonderfully addictive game that strikes a perfect balance between awesome visuals and solid gameplay. The description of the game on…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Inner Workings GAME PUBLISHER:SegaSoft Copyright 1998, Inner Workings Plane Crazy is based on the very familiar theme of racing along a course, tagging checkpoints to get the extra time, and ultimately, trying to cross the finish line before any of your opponents do. The…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Malcolm Howard GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1999, Malcolm Howard Ostentatiously one the best soccer management simulation for DOS, and a precursor to ambitious Sick As A Parrot (SAAP). Supremo 99 has just about everything a soccer sim fan could hope for: hundreds of teams, statistics…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Talking Birds GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, Talking Birds Tactical Manager 2 is a solid soccer management game that was recently made freeware by its developer. Daniel Henriksen nicely sums up the pros and cons of this underdog in his review: “…Although this game is…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Orlando Pilchard GAME DEVELOPER:Aardvark Software GAME PUBLISHER:MicroPlay Copyright 1990, Orlando Pilchard Sharkey’s 3D Pool is an excellent pool game that introduces 3D perspective long before Celeris’ Virtual Pool. The game is fast, easy to learn, and a lot of fun. You can play against the computers…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:John Line & Chris Hunt GAME DEVELOPER:Lindensoft GAME PUBLISHER:Lindensoft Copyright 1988, Amstrad Alex Higgins’ World Snooker is an excellent PC port of one of the best early snooker games on the Spectrum and Commodore 64 computers. The game was revolutionary for its time– offering mouse support,…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Christian Bertrand GAME DEVELOPER:Microids GAME PUBLISHER:Microids Copyright 1992, Microids Last in Microids’ lackluster trilogy of skiing games is Super Ski 3, which boasts significant graphical improvements over the previous two games in the series, but unfortunately not playability. The best feature from Super Ski 2 is…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Addictive GAME PUBLISHER:Addictive Copyright 1993, Addictive Final entry in Addictive Games’ highly underrated series of soccer simulation that began in 1983 on the Spectrum computer, Football Manager 3 is a disappointing game compared to Football Manager 2. It is not a bad soccer sim…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Goliath Games GAME PUBLISHER:Electronic Zoo Copyright 1991, Goliath Games Subbuteo is a solid PC version of the popular miniature soccer game in the UK that most kids grow up with. Similar to Foosball in the US but much more akin to the actual game,…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Mastertronic GAME PUBLISHER:Mastertronic Copyright 1988, Mastertronic California Pro Golf is a nice, early golf game from Mastertronic that should have gotten more attention than it did. Although not as well known as Accolade’s Mean 18, California Pro Golf offers a few rounds of solid…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Anonymous GAME PUBLISHER:Anonymous Copyright 1995, Anonymous Super Speed is nice little top-down racer that pays homage to Indy 500, an old arcade racing game. Like its spiritual predecessor, Super Speed allows up to 4 players to race around a curvy track, performing wild spins…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Avalon Hill GAME PUBLISHER:Avalon Hill Copyright 1984, Avalon Hill The very first statistical baseball simulation for PC, Pro Manager is a faithful adaptation of the Avalon Hill board game of the same name that enjoyed moderate success among tabletop baseball fans in early 1980s.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Konami GAME PUBLISHER:Konami Copyright 1990, Konami Decent conversion of one of Konami’s earliest hit arcade games. When Double Dribble made its debut on arcade machines in 1986, it was hailed as a revolutionary game in early competitive sports gaming. This basketball game offers both…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Beam International GAME PUBLISHER:Mindscape Copyright 1986, Mindscape Bop ‘N Wrestle (released as Rock ‘N Wrestle in Europe) is a fun arcade-style wrestling game that was way ahead of its time in terms of graphics and player animations, although coaching options leave a lot to…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Brderbund GAME PUBLISHER:Brderbund Copyright 1989, Brderbund Playmaker Football is little-known PC version of legendary football simulation for the Macintosh. One of the best American football management sims ever made, the game lets you decide a myriad of options, from “who to draft” on down…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Atilla Baro & Anders Moree GAME DEVELOPER:TyneSoft GAME PUBLISHER:TyneSoft Copyright 1988, TyneSoft Tynesoft’s last attempt at a sport tournament game is a much better attempt than Summer Olympiad, mainly because the range of sports they select are much more adaptable to computer games– meaning the events…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Phillip Scot & Mike Croft GAME DEVELOPER:TyneSoft GAME PUBLISHER:TyneSoft Copyright 1988, TyneSoft This is probably the worst sport game Tynesoft ever made. Given the company’s excellent track record in sport games (e.g. Stunt Car Racer), this means Summer Olympiad isn’t very bad– it just doesn’t live…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Positive GAME PUBLISHER:Positive Copyright 1990, Positive Average kung fu fighting game that pales beside the likes of Bushido and Epyx’s classic World Karate Championship due mostly to awkward controls. Choy Lee Fut does have many high points that are worth mentioning, including detailed graphics…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Dale Jurich GAME DEVELOPER:Human Engineered Software (HESware) GAME PUBLISHER:IBM Copyright 1984, Dale Jurich One of the first “realistic” pool games for the PC, PC Pool Challenges lets you play straight pool or 8 ball with up to 4 players in an incredibly customizable simulation. Description from…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:GameTek GAME PUBLISHER:GameTek Copyright 1995, GameTek Terrible cyberpunk racing game that could have been much more, CyberBykes sports unconvincing graphics, irritating soundtrack, and an extremely frustrating gameplay that takes far too much effort to be fun. It does offer a few novelties, including head-to-head…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Kenta Cho GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1998, Kenta Cho Masashikun Hi! is a wacky school olympics game involving silly scribbled stick figures. Although the game is in Japanese and all the action is portrayed only by stickmen, the game is surprisingly playable, and reasonably realistic.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:SoftAd Group, The GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1992, Ford Company Ford Simulator 3 is the third entry in SoftAd/Fords excellent promotional game series that saw a new game released every year from 1989 to roughly 1994 to showcase new Ford car models that debuted during…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Remedy Entertainment GAME PUBLISHER:Apogee Copyright 1996, Remedy Entertainment One of the best racing games ever made, Death Rally is an arcade-style overhead racer that is simple in nature, but is incredibly addictive. The game is similar to Micro Machines, except that it is a…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:3DI Productions GAME PUBLISHER:Mindscape Copyright 1994, 3DI Productions Magnaflux Runner is a fun top-down miniature racing game for Windows 3.1 that is similar to better-known Micro Machines series. Instead of racing around everyday objects, Magnaflux Runner pits your skills against computer-controlled cyborg opponents on…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:OCEAN GAME PUBLISHER:OCEAN Copyright 1991, OCEAN International Open Golf Championship is a solid but relatively unknown golf sim by OCEAN sponsored by Pringles (yes, that crunchy snack were all familiar with), who also sponsor many annual golf tournaments. While there is only one course…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:OCEAN GAME PUBLISHER:OCEAN Copyright 1993, OCEAN Espana: The Games 92 is a fun game based on the 1992 Summer Olympics Games at Barcelona, Spain (hence the name Espana in the title). Although it pales besides Epyx more polished The Games: Summer Edition despite having…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Virgin Interactive GAME PUBLISHER:Virgin Interactive Copyright 1991, Virgin Interactive No doubt one of the most obscure Macintosh games ever made, Virgin Mastertronics Club Racquetball is a solid computer version of one of the worlds “niche” sports — racquetball, a distant cousin to squash. For…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Goliath Games GAME PUBLISHER:Krisalis Copyright 1990, Goliath Games World Championship Boxing Manager (WCBM) is a great sport game by Goliath Games that not only pioneered the niche genre of boxing simulation, but also stands today as one of the best games of its kind…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Teacy GAME PUBLISHER:Webfoot Technologies Copyright 1992, Teacy One of the more obscure shareware titles by Webfoot, 3D Cyberpuck is a decent futuristic sports game that utilizes good 3D graphics and fluid controls. Best described as a cross between hockey and soccer, your goal in…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Microids GAME PUBLISHER:Microids Copyright 1988, Microids First in a series of decent skiing games that ended with Super Ski 3, Microids’ Super Ski is a fun and surprisingly realistic CGA skiing game. The graphics look crisp and clear — no small feat given the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Accolade GAME PUBLISHER:Accolade Copyright 1992, Accolade “The Mach-5 is the most complex and ingenious car ever built, a tribute to my father’s imagination, genius, and technical skill!” — Speed Racer Japan’s Mach GoGoGo [retitled Speed Racer outside Japan] anime gained cultish popularity in the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Tomahawk GAME PUBLISHER:Coktel Vision Copyright 1986, Coktel Vision Ancient CGA rally racing game by Tomahawk, set in the isolated deserts of Africa. There’s not much else I can say about that 🙂 The cars look nice, and the tracks are decent. Gets repetitive very…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Andrew Morris & Shaun Southern GAME DEVELOPER:Magnetic Fields GAME PUBLISHER:Gremlin Copyright 1993, Magnetic Fields Third part of Magnetic Fields’ great arcade-style racing game series – the only one converted to the PC. And what a great conversion it is. Really refreshing! Although the last part of…