A Little Dream Come True

Alright that's a bit of an over statement. But I remember back in the day, I must have been 15 years old max, with an interest in computers but absolutely no programming knowledge whatsoever. I almost wet my pants when I got an Amiga coverdisk with "Easy Amos" on it. It was supposed to let you make your own games. At that age, I couldn't get anywhere with it. What a disappointment.

It was a minor victory just to FIND the Sensible Soccer data files. What a disappointment then (after struggling just to OPEN the files) to be presented with something like this:

How the fuck was I supposed to update Liverpool with their exciting new signings, Sean Dundee and Bjorn Kvarme?! What a disappointment!

Fast forward a couple of years and the very beginnings of my education in computers. I was in the right circles, speaking to the right people. A HEX EDITOR, THAT'S WHAT THE FUCK I NEEDED!

Finally I'd be able to update the pool to their rightful glory with wonder signings such as Djimi Traore and Bernard Diomede!

So I cracked open my shiny new hex editor, loaded in the file, and...

FUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!

Alright, at least there's something readable on the right, but this is just a dick tease! Maybe I could change a few names, have the beast Biscan playing for Liverpool, but he'd have all the stats of whoever he replaced. Ballix. And how can I change the stats? How can I give Heskey 10 out of 10 for "falling over"? How can I give Michael Owen -1 for loyalty? Robbie Fowler 4,000,000 for finishing? Where IS all this stuff ?!?! WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT!

Anyway, I went on my merry way, learning my programming trade and only now, thanks to this Senseless Soccer project, have I rediscovered these dat files. Well guess what bitches. NOW I FINALLY  have the knowhow to make those dat files sing to my own damn tune.

There is an online community keeping these data files up to date, which will be pretty cool for Senseless Soccer, but for now, JUST BECAUSE I CAN, here's some select tidbits ripped from the original SWOS amiga game: (attributes out of 15) - see next post for the code!

Note: As far as I know, the applied skill values in the game range from 1-7. A value over 7 signifies that this skill shows up as one of the 3 top skills for that player but in the actual gameplay, 7 is deducted to give it a val in the range 1-7.

So for example, Mark Wright has Passing, Heading and Tackling (PHT) as his 3 key skills but his passing rating of 12 is actually 5 out of 7.

The following screenshot is how this shows up in the game (couldn't find Liverpool team, sorry). Tony Adams has HTP as his key skills - heading, tackling and passing!