1-0 Soccer Manager
Beautiful ASCII (looking) soccer manager
Mostly because of choice, rather than technological limitations, One Nil is a cool top down ASCII soccer manager. Yet, in spite of its limited graphics set (mostly consisting of ASCII and ASCII looking graphics) the playability and fun factor in this one is top notch. So you take your team and you can advance it by playing better and better. But to do that you need to play well, and that is not as easy as it sounds. At times you have to fire some of your players and change them with new ones. Also, the players are influenced a lot by their training, so in this department too you have to be very careful how you proceed. There is something beautiful and refreshing about the black and while (actually pale green!) look of the game, and you can be sure that you're going to have a good session at its helm. Also, a great thing to know about this game is that your options and choices truly make a difference, they are not purely decorative. So, truly worth looking into, a game you are most likely to love. If you want more graphics instead, download Premier Manager 3 for instance.
Created the basis for advanced match engines
What an unassuming title for a game that pretty much revolutionized the way soccer management match engines would come to be looked at! Basically, 1-0 Soccer Manager's disputes, the actual math behind the way two teams confront each other was built in this game's sparse and otherwise quite unattractive, graphically, little world. The game is a pretty (sic!) good example of a game that was internally revolutionary, code wise, while the exterior, the graphics were pretty ugly. Most of your interactions are happening within black and white screens, where you just enter your commands, changing the numerical parameters around. For a 92 game this was a bit bizarre, though not completely uncommon, though most other soccer management games could pull some more graphical heft out, but no, this one took the graphically minimalist road. But if you get to try it it sure was one to get hooked to, especially after you understood that your changes, even the slightest ones were read by the match engine, thus making all your efforts count. And that is a good design that will come to be used as the starting point for most other soccer management games to come, even ten years afterwards. That sure is some legacy, without a doubt. Try Football Manager as well, a game released much later to see the same, though updated match engine, at work. Marvelous!
