Speedball

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Description

The original future sport game, Speedball is played out on a small court with five players on each team, making it more frantic than the more famous sequel. The ball must be thrown into the goal at your opponent's end. Any amount of physical contact can be made, and there are no illegal ways to get the ball or the goal.

Before each match you can bribe the referee into awarding you a head-start or strengthening the abilities of your players. You compete in a simple knockout cup tournament, or in individual 2-player games.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Alternate Titles

• "KlashBall" -- NES title

Part of the Following Groups

• Speedball series
• Theme: Future sports / Brutal sports

User Reviews

While obviously not as good as its sequel, a damn fine game.	DOS	Tomer Gabel (4643)
An exciting, action-packed game	Atari ST	Matthew Bin (5)
The start of the Bitmap Brothers' incredible winning streak	DOS	Colin Rowsell (45)

Critic Reviews

Commodore User	Amiga	Dec, 1988	92 out of 100	92
Zzap!	Commodore 64	Jun, 1989	90 out of 100	90
Games Preview	Amiga	Jan, 1989	88 out of 100	88
Commodore User	Commodore 64	May, 1989	88 out of 100	88
The Games Machine (UK)	Commodore 64	Jun, 1989	87 out of 100	87
Computer and Video Games (CVG)	Atari ST	Nov, 1988	84 out of 100	84
Computer and Video Games (CVG)	SEGA Master System	May, 1991	80 out of 100	80
ASM (Aktueller Software Markt)	Atari ST	Nov, 1988	8.6 out of 12	72
Power Play	SEGA Master System	Jun, 1991	57 out of 100	57
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	DOS	Oct, 1989	Unscored	Unscored

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Trivia

C64 version

The C64 version of the game is one of the 30 games on the Commodore 64 Direct TV retro game joystick released in 2004.

Inspiration

Unofficially inspired by the 1975 movie Rollerball.

Playtesting

According to Eric Matthews, plain programming only took one and a half months - but play testing and fine tuning of the game play took another four months. Spending such amounts of time on the game play was very unusual at the time the game was created.

Awards

• Golden Joystick Award
  • 1989 - won the 16-bit Game of the Year award

Information also contributed by Johnny "ThunderPeel2001" Walker and Ricky Derocher

Related Web Sites

• Speedball (Bitmap Brothers' site for "Speedball".)
• The Chaos Regime - The Bitmap Brothers Tribute (Fan page with information, music, manuals, screenshots and reviews.)