C64 Grass Roots Football Manager 0.02 Beta
A downloadable game
Version 0.02 uploaded 3rd December 2024
Ever since I was a youngster, playing excellent football management games on my Commodore64 and Spectrum, I was fascinated by the management game.
Along the years, many iterations of this incredible software came to light, especially the great Championship Manager games from Domark.
I loved CM, and this went on even with the newer Football Manager series. One caveat I found with these games were that they were just too complicated, and it took forever to complete a season.
Finally, one day (years ago), I decided to write my own pick me up game… somewhat simpler, less complicated, and one in which the players can either play this for fun, simply picking the best players, or as deep as they want, by raising youngsters, squad rotation, upgrading their stadium, taking care of finances or amenities.
The game looks simple, until you start getting injuries, or a freak goal which derails you. A refereeing decision goes wrong, a yellow card, then a red one. Down to ten men against a relegation haunted side.
Suddenly that one nil advantage doesn’t seem so safe. And in the 94th minute, deep into injury time, you concede an equalizer. That result slows your progress, and with two matches to go, you cannot afford slip ups.
This game has them all. Injuries, player rotation, fatigue, yellow cards, sending offs, refereeing skills, promotion, relegation, tactics, and of course, running commentary.
I have dedicated years and years into creating this game. Everything in it has been created by myself. Graphics play little part here, but I have tried to make them as period specific. Sounds are minimal, and I will also introduce a ‘BOSS’ key, as it has been requested so much.
One might ask… why does it look dated? Easy. It’s just a ‘dress’. But I wanted this game to be dressed in a retro theme.
For the moment it comes in a Commodore64 and Spectrum theme.
The game starts with a C64 theme although that can be switched over as well.
GRFM can be played on any PC from Windows XP to Windows 11. Fonts for both the Spectrum and the C64 will be installed automatically. An uninstaller is also available from the Control Panel.
The game still has a lot of work to be finished, but it is totally playable without any hindrance or adverts at all.
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Hey, you did a great job of delivering the C64 feeling. :)
I hope the game will grow, I am waiting to try expanding the stadium and such :)
One thing I did not get was the auto mode when selecting the squad for the next game. Sometimes players with strength of 2 were selected and the 4s not.
Hi, thank you for downloading. So, the way auto works is more of a help than a guaranteed selection. For the moment it just selects the top line of the keepers, the top four of the defenders, top four of the midfielders, and the top two lines of the forwards...
IF any of the top line players are injured or suspended, then they can not be selected... :-)
I am working on the premise that the computer knows which players are unavailable and skip them...
Add a follow so that you know when updates are available... Still a lot to do, but with help from people like you with your feedback, I will be able to improve this little game.
Thanks for the explanation. I am already following, I am curious what other devs do in the genre. :-) May I ask how you develop the game? Is it all from scratch or with an engine?
Thank you for playing the game... still a lot to do!
I use Blitz Basic for the PC. All from scratch. The only thing I went online for was the league fixtures... I could do it myself but it would take ages to figure out. There is an online league generator, and I purchased a fixture list...
This has been the journey of many years as it is a single guy project, from programming to images... You can download BlitzBasic for free, and follow tutorials on youtube...
Also great is a language called AOZ Studio... you can program on it and upload it online, and anyone with a browser can play it. Even on a smart fridge! :-)
Haha sounds cool, playing games on the fridge. Thanks for the answer. I remember Blitz Basic from the Amiga back then :) Although I was more of an AMOS and Amiga Basic user. Maybe I will check it out, Basic was a nice language.
I also copied the algorithm for fixtures from an online tutorial to be honest ;)
So good luck for the next steps, I know as a solo dev myself how hard it can be to make slow progress. But if you look back at the beginning you will see a huge step :)
Blitz basic is more similar to AMOS than AmiBlitz itself... in fact, porting the game to Amos is laughably easy! Building the screens is the most complicated part. Thanks for your post!