Football Crazy docs typed in by Stryper/Oracle INTRODUCTION ------------ If you are unfamiliar with the fundamentals of using your computer, it will probably prove advantageous to be sitting in front of your machine whilst reading these instructions. You can then try the various facilities out as you read about them. QUICK TIPS FOR EXPERIENCED USERS For those people who are experienced users we have listed four points we think are essential in helping you get along with the program swiftly: 1. The program generally expects the left mouse click to confirm selection of a highlighted item. You can highlight an item by moving the mouse pointer over the top of the box or text concerned. 2. You can exit most screens clicking with the right mouse button. This will generally return you to the MAIN MENU or next selection. 3. Whenever the display stops you must press a key or either mouse button. The right mouse button in some cases will follow the above point. 4. Read the Hints and Tips section for clues as to how to do well in the game. At some stage you should read all the instructions. LOADING THE PROGRAM To load the game insert your BACKUP copy of the game disk in Drive A. Then either reset the computer using the button at the rear of the machine or if the machine is not on, switch it on. The program will then start to load. When the program has finished loading a menu will appear with the heading FILE. The following options will be displayed directly underneath LOAD, SAVE (Disabled), NEW GAME, and QUIT. If you are unsure what these items do or how to use them please read the relevant sections which wlil fully explain their purpose. USING THE MENU In football crazy we have created our own menu system which we describe as 'display and stay'. When you are shown a menu you will find you can run the mouse pointer over all menu items. As you run the pointer over each option it will enable itself by highlighting a small area around the text. Nothing will jhappen until you press the right mouse button. The RIGHT mouse button always returns you to the MAIN MENU. This does not take effect until you have loaded a game or created a new one. The LEFT mouse button will instruct the machine to proceed with the item selected. Any items shown as grey are disabled and not selectable. If you LEFT click on one of these you will return to the Main Menu. THE MAIN MENU Once you have loaded some data into the computer by the LOAD or NEW GAME options, you are presented with the MAIN MENU. At the top of the screen a banner provides some details about your next game. The numbers in brackets are each teams current position in the league. The team printed on the left is playing at home. The only exception for the last comment is when a game is played at a neutral venue. No indication is given about such games. Domestic Cup games are shown slightly differently in that the teams are shown with numbers in square brackets. Each number relates to the division of the respective teams. [NL] is used for Non-League teams. European cup games ignore brackets altogether. Immediately underneath this banner are details about your opponents last league game. In a cup game the cup, round, leg and/or replay number are shown. If it's the second leg the first leg result is also shown while if your in one of the European Cups the first leg will show the Country from which your opponents originate. This text is in the managers colour. To the left of the screen we have 2 columns of text. The leftmost column shows the formation and total number of players selected. On the right of this the number Injured, suspended and Loaned in & out are shown with the total number of players in your squad. At the bottom of the screen your name and the team under your management are highlighted. Your teams money is shown with your present level. This box is in the managers colours. The level can range from 0 to 10. This number represents the amount of assistance your team receives (0 is the hardest). This level is changed automatically by the computer according to how you perform. On the right hand side a box is headed Main Menu. This displays all the options currently available to you. Some items have a direct effect in they will show you something, others will go to another Menu. All these menus and effects are described below. THE MANAGERS COLOUR At the beginning of the game each player is designated a different colour. It will be either Red, Yellow, Blue or Green. This colour will remain with each manager throughout the game. All displays and warnings which concern your team will be displayed in this colour. This is the quickest way to recognize your team in any presentation. FILE LOAD - We have selected the extension .CZY to be that associated with our program. The standard file select will be displayed along with all the present files on the disk with the extension .CZY. Just click on the appropriate file required twice or once and click on OK. The computer will print it is Loading the data and when it has completed this task the Main Menu will appear. SAVE - All the files with our extension .CZY that are on the present disk will be shown. To save a file already saved then just double click on that name or click once and then hit that OK box. If you want to save a file under a new name or for the first time, just type in your filename and press return. The computer will confirm it is Saving the data and then return to the Main Menu. NEW GAME - To start a new game select this item. After the computer has cleared any outstanding information it will ask you for the first players name. Eight underscores are shown where what you type will be printed in capitals. The length of the name is restricted by the number of these underscores. If you mistype your name pressing ESCAPE will clear the whole word. To enter your name press the RETURN key, this will clear the whole word. To enter your name press the RETURN key, this will not be needed if you fill up the underscores. After entering a name the screen wil be cleared and a list of all 24 fourth division clubs are printed in 2 columns. Here is where you select the team you wish to manage. You can do this by moving the mouse pointer over the desired team (it should become highlighted) and clicking with the left mouse button will select it. If any team appears in Grey it is not available. Repeat this for all 4 players if necessary. To stop the entering names type nothing for the next players name. This last emtry will be ignored and the computer will then set about setting up all the new information. Please note that the true player information as at the beginning of this season will only have effect when a new game is chosen at the very beginning of the game. If you load another game prior to selecting new, the player names will be distorted. QUIT - to exit the game back to the desktop select this item. The computer will warn you once before it exits the program. TABLES This is not a menu but was considered of major importance to be listed in the main menu because it might be referred to more frequently than most. This will show the division tables according to what is set by OPTIONS. You will be shown the top and bottom of the division seperately from each other. Three grey triangular indicators in the background point up for the Top half and down for the bottom half of each division. The banner also describes which is Top from Bottom as well as the division number. GAMES RESULTS - This option will show all last weeks league results. WEEK - This will display the next league fixtures due. YEARLY - Displays all your teams forthcoming games and all the previous results. This covers both league and cup games and is shown in two columns. Cup matches are displayed in light brown and slightly indented to distinguish from them from league games. Results are shown in the For Against format and the venue indicator is also displayed. Your next cup opponents are listed under each cup heading, if you haven't been knocked out of the competition. CUP DRAW - This will let you see the full list of cup fixtures due in any of the 7 cup competitions. A list of all cups are shown and the selection of one item is required in the normal fashion. You will then be shown the information relating to that cup. If the cup has two legs and the first has been played the results are shown. The Leyland Daf will display the league tables when required. All displays are sorted alphabetically except the Leyland Daf. PLAYERS Before we describe all the items under this menu we think we should mention three important points which are not made clear in the game itself. 1) A transfer deadline exists which stops all player transfers near the end of the season. 2) You will not be permitted to Sell,Free Transfer or Loan players out if you have 13 players or less in your squad. 3) In a multi-player game you will only be permitted to Buy or successfully Approach one player each time you are prompted to select your squad. SELECT - Probably the most important of all items. Here you can change your squad. The colour representations are:- GREEN - Goalkeeper YELLOW - Defender BLUE - Midfielder RED - Attacker GREY - Injured,suspended or out on loan & therefore unavailable. These colours will always be used when displaying details about a player. At the top of the screen a banner confirms this is the TEAM SELECTION screen. To the right of this a number appears displaying the number of players currently selected to play. You will not be permitted to exit the screen with more than 11 players selected. All the players in your team are shown down the left and split by position and sorted alphabetically. They are coloured accordingly and by highlighting each player with the mouse the panel on the right will show the player statistics. In this case we are looking at L. Evans. The skills rate from 1 to 10 and all other items are fairly straight forward. Status and Other are the only items not blatantly obvious. Therefore, here is a short note about both of them. Status is used to confirm which players are currently selected to play or those on the Subs bench. Injuries and suspensions are also printed here. Other is used to show the players On Loan, For Sale or to specify the Trainees. You will not be permitted to select any players who appear in grey as they are unavailable for the reason displayed in the status box. Status and other are most likely to reveal the excat reason. At the very bottom right a box displays the team name of the squad on display, in case you get confused in a multi-player game when selecting your team. This will be of most use when you are requested to re-select your team for a cup replay. BUY - When you want to buy a player this is where the action is. The computer will take a short time to re-act while it searches all the records and then it will display all the players available in a similar fashion to Select. There are two main differences. The asterisk is now replaced by a number representing the division of the team that the player comes from. The bottom right hand box now shows the players value and the team he is currently with. To enter a bid just highligh the player you want and click on it. If the player and team are happy with your team then they will allow you to make a bid. In an example, the middle box has the figure 17,000 in it. This is displaying youre current offer. There are 3 boxes either side with arrows in. Clicking on the arrowed boxes to the left will decrease your offer by 100000, 10000, and 1000 respectively from the left. The corresponding boxes on the right increase your offer. If you click in the middle box, where the current bid is, then the value of the player is automatically entered unless you have previously made an unsuccessful bid. In such a case your last offer is put in the middle box. Beware of going overdrawn! No warning is given, so it's important to know how much you have in the bank before spending some money you might not have. SELL - If you decide to sell one of your players then the same screen as select is used. Asterisks appear against any players already designated for sale. Just left click on the one you want to sell and an asterisk will appear. You will be made an offer in due course. When you select to BUY a player you will not be shown your own players for sale. APPROACH - Rather than let you desperately wait for a certain type of player to turn up on the transfer market, you can try approaching a player who possesses the skills your team requires. Your scouts can then check their records to find a player in any of the other 91 clubs who has the abilities you specify in a particular position. The diagram below shows the screen where you must enter the details of the player you require. The POSITION box is at the very bottom of the screen. Simply click on the relevant box containing G,D,M, or A for the respective types of players. In this case A has been selected for an Attacker. All the seven skill attributes are listed under the heading SKILL. Next to all these are the MINimum values you are looking for. In this example we have simply requested to see all Attackers who have a shooting ability above or equal to 5. To begin with all attributes are set to 0. These can be increased by clicking left on the relevant MIN box. Once a value reaches 9 it returns to 0. Once you have finished click right and the information will be shown after a short time. The computer quickly checks that at least one skill is above 4 and then will continue the search. If it is not valid you will be returned to the Main Menu. Approaching a player can be expensive, in fact you should bid at least double the value. The Centre Offer Box will automatically double the value when clicked on. FREE TFR (Transfer) - If you wish to get rid of a player, simply select the undesired player and an offer will be made to take him off your hands. LOAN OUT - If you want to loan out a player to a team for a short while, possibly to give them some experience, then this is what you want. Only one player can be Loaned out at any time. HOT SHOTS - This item will display the top 10 goalscorers for each division. HISTORY - This allows you to see the proceeding 6 seasons final positions. This includes details on all 4 divisional winners and runners up plus the points they got. The team that you managed at the end of that particular season is shown with the position you ended up at. Your full end of season details are displayed appropriately. Following this all the recent cup finalist and results are shown. NEXT When you have finished selecting your team and conducting your other business then you should hit the NEXT option. This will pass control to the next manager or will initiate the results. If you have selected less than 11 players then a warning is given before continuing. After the results have been shown you will be informed of various offers received by the club. Generally they will be YES/NO questions which are perfectly straight forward. If money is concerned in a bid then a refusal may result in an increased offer. The Financial details will be shown after all such business has been completed. MANAGEMENT OFFERS The computer constantly monitors your performance and will occasionally offer you alternative management positions. If you refuse it is possible that another offer will be made. MANAGERS WHO GET SACKED If you do not perform well you will eventually be sacked. In such circumstances there may be more than one position open, if you refuse and nothing else exists you will be forced to accept the offer received. OFFERS, LOANS & FREE TRANSFERS If you have players for sale, this is the period when you might get an offer. You could also be approached to buy one of your best players. Loans and Free Transfers may also be proposed. Whatever the form of the transaction the banner at the top will describe it clearly. A note on the screen also shows which manager the offer relates to and you are prompted to click when you are ready to continue with the proceedings. We advise you to thoroughly study the player before clicking because the next message will cover part of the information which might prove to be essential to your response. OPTIONS Now we come to the selectable options. This is where you gain access to the PRINTER and control of certain displays in the game. I will first cover the PRINTER facilities which are all listed down the left hand side. Moving the mouse over each item will highlight any item. To actually confirm you want to print that particular item you must click the left mouse button. If your printer is not switched on then you will be warned and the print will not take place. Make sure that you turn it on and click again. If you want to print an Approach you will be requested to input the necessary information. The various display options are on the right and have boxes showing their state. ie On or Off. To change them around just click left on the appropriate box and the change will occur. All the following options affect all managers. A description of what they all do follows: ALL RESULTS - When this is set to the OFF position it will instruct the program to only show displays (or wait for a click) when the information relates to a Manager. Therefore when OFF and all managers are knocked out of the FA Cup, it will show the results without waiting for a click. Default is OFF (Default means what the above option is set to when the program is first loaded.) CUP DRAW - When ON this item instructs the program to display the cup draw immediately after it has been done. This means that after each Cup Round the Draw is shown. The ALL RESULTS option does not affect the click. Default is ON. FINANCIAL - If you don't want to see the full financial breakdown and gate attendance after every game you should turn this item OFF. Default is ON. PREVIOUS This item has a simple effect in that it will show all the previous meetings against your opponents. First, the season you met in, followed by the type of game and then the venue and score. Cup games that go to Replays, will only display the last result and not the draws. CUP VARIATIONS Due to the English Club Ban in Europe it has not been defined how any clubs entry to those competitions will affect the new Zenith Data Sytems Cup. We have therefore taken it upon ourselves to exclude any team which gains European Cup Entry from the ZDS Cup. We believe this is the most sensible option. All the current rules comply with 1988/89 season. If the number of teams included needs to be reduced then the clubs at the top of the 1st division from the previous season are the ones that will not be invited to be in that competition. If a large number of teams gain entry, a corresponding number of byes will be used. At present the big 5 clubs in the country have elected not to enter the ZDS Cup. However, we understand that this may well soon change but we think entering clubs in too many cups will interrupt an already busy scheduled season. Anyhow, the 'Quidruple' sounds silly. WAITING FOR A CLICK Whenver the display stops, the computer will wait for a click from either mouse button or any key from the keyboard. After a short period of time the computer will ignore this requirement and move onto the next item until it reaches the Main Menu. In some cases space bar replaces the left click and escape key the right click. PROBLEMS We sincerely believe there won't be any problems while using this program. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world and even after many hours of conducting various tests there is a remote chance that we might have missed something during this time. If you have the misfortune to discover any such problem please write and tell us immediately so we can fix it. If you do suspect you have found a problem please ensure you have followed the instructions before contacting us and ONLY return the Floppy Disk, not the complete packaging. FUTURE UPDATES In the fullness of time it is inevitable that the governing Football Authorities will decide to change the weay some competitions are played. If any such changes are made we will revise this game as soon as possible. We are also aware that no matter what program you buy you will always find something that is missing. You know what we mean. You ask yourself, 'Why couldn't they have added this or that?'. Well, we have the simple solution to this very problem. If you find yourself asking such a question then why not write and tell us. If the same idea appears to be popular we will seriously consider implementing it in a future version. If any considerable updates are completed then we will contact you directly(!)