1986 · Koei Tecmo Holdings · Arcade · Association football

Tecmo Cup

Tehkan World Cup, aka. Tecmo Cup, is the first multi-player soccer game featuring a trackball controller.

Released: 1986
Platforms: Arcade
Genres: Arcade Association football Sports
Developers: Koei Tecmo Holdings
Publishers: Tecmo
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Country: Japan

About

Tehkan World Cup, originally released as World Cup in Japan, is an association football video game released by Tehkan (now Tecmo) to arcades in 1986, following location testing in late 1985. It features multiplayer gameplay and trackball controllers. It was released in both upright and table arcade cabinets, but was most commonly released in a cocktail cabinet form factor. Its arrival coincided with the buildup to the 1986 FIFA World Cup. It featured the then colors of several of the world's top teams such as West Germany, Argentina and Brazil, although it did not mention any team by name.

The game uses a bird's-eye view, with the trackball controls allowing game physics such as controlling both the direction and speed of the shot. The gameplay format was adapted from the American football game Gridiron Fight, developed by the same team and released earlier in the year, for an association football game, but with the controls simplified down to a trackball and single action button. It became a major success in arcades, and was a landmark title for association football games upon release. While Tehkan World Cup was not officially ported to home systems at the time, its gameplay format was later adapted by Sensible Software to develop the home computer game MicroProse Soccer (1988) and provided the basis for later association football games such as the Sensible Soccer series in the early 1990s.

Keywords

soccer
football
trackball

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Graphically, it offers a two-dimensional bird's-eye view of the field that was unique for its time. It has multi-directional scrolling, with only a portion of the field visible on screen at any time.

Its trackball control system contributes significantly to its gameplay, which is relatively speedy and exhibited a fluidity something akin to ice hockey, with as little as three seconds required to score from kick-off. Two-player action can be highly competitive, with players facing each other across the game space while using sweeping arm movements reminiscent of table tennis.

Development

Tehkan World Cup was developed by Tehkan, the former name of Tecmo. It was developed shortly after the American football game Gridiron Fight, released earlier the same year, with several of the same team members working on Tehkan World Cup. The game was planned and designed by Shin-ichiro Tomie with Kazutoshi Ueda (who previously worked on titles such as Space Panic, Lady Bug, Mr. Do!

and Bomb Jack). It was programmed by Michishito Ishizuka, while character design and background graphics were handled by his wife Rie Ishizuka (also known as Rie Yatomi), cabinet design by Kohji Okada, and illustrations by Hideyuki Yokoyama.

Reception

The game was a major arcade hit. In Japan, World Cup was listed by Beep magazine as the seventh top-grossing arcade game of November 1985. Game Machine magazine later listed it as the third most successful table arcade cabinet of February 1986. It went on to be Japan's fourth highest-grossing table arcade game in 1986 and 1987.

Upon release, David Snook of Play Meter magazine praised the game and said that "most consider" it "the best soccer game around right now" on the market. Mike Roberts of Computer Gamer magazine gave Tehkan World Cup a generally favorable review upon release, noting the "very good graphics" and trackball controls.

Legacy

Tecmo released an arcade successor to the game, Tecmo World Cup '90, in 1989.

Shinichiro Tomie, who was a big soccer fan, went on to develop Tecmo's Captain Tsubasa series of association football games, based on the popular sports manga and anime series. The first title in the series, the Nintendo Famicom game Captain Tsubasa (1988), was released as Tecmo Cup Soccer Game in North America and Tecmo Cup Football Game in Europe. Tecmo later went on to develop Tecmo Cup Football Game (1993) with Sega for the Mega Drive console, before the game was cancelled.