Football Boss

1991 retro games Amiga games

soccer manager games

In 1991 one of the best of the early football managers was published - The Manager, English version of Bundesliga Manager Professional - offering animations with multiple endings and plenty of managerial options. Football Boss was published the same year, but was on the opposite end of the rankings. It was a very simple game, offering basic options and looking like it was a adapted from 8-bit computers.

While simulating the English league the scenario was very typical - you start at the bottom (3rd Division) and work your way up to the Premiership. To do that you have squad, transfer market (with limited options), training options (with help from coach and physio) and... I’m afraid that is pretty much it. Yes, there were contract extension options, but basically the game was the least that you can do and still can call it a game. Each player had defined four skills (in goal, defence, midfield and attack), those skills were sum to create team value and then you get the match result. Literally match result - you don’t get any statistics, any description what was going on in the match, just list of goal scorers, players injured, booked and that’s it.

Football Boss was one of many games that entered the market in late 1980s and early 1990s, all simulating English league, all using the same scenario of working from the bottom to the top, all with simple rules and outlook, but Football Boss was really the basic thing.

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Football Boss screenshots