Match Day

Match Day is a football computer game, published by Ocean Software in 1984 for the ZX Spectrum. It is the first game in the Match Day series, and was the creation of programmer Jon Ritman and Chris Clarke. Versions were later released for the Amstrad CPC and PCW, BBC Micro, Commodore 64 and MSX systems.

Chris Roberts ported it to the BBC Micro. Martin Galway worked on the C-64 port.

Gameplay
This was the first soccer game for the ZX Spectrum where large moving footballers characters could dribble, throw-in, take corners, etc. The game uses modified sprites from a Ritman's previous title Bear Bovver to create an almost isometric, but still ultimately side-on football title.

This is a very simplified version of football with less than 11 men a side and only one fire button used to kick the ball. This kick lofts the ball into the air no matter what so it isn’t possible to pass the ball in the conventional sense. If the ball bumps into another player anywhere other than at their feet it bounces off them as though they were a brick wall.

Once the player has the ball at his feet, it sticks there as if glued although it can be tricky to keep hold of it with the constant harassing from the other side. Scoring a goal appears to be just a case of kicking the ball between the posts with enough power to cross the line. The goalkeepers are no more than a third goalpost and rarely move other than to dive out of the way of a shot aimed straight at them. Because the ball is always lofted when kicking, long shots work better than those close to the goal.

On the ZX Spectrum version the game had 8 teams that the player could choose, such as Ritman Rovers, Clarke PR and Ocean United. Players could rename the teams and redefine the team colours. The BBC port has no cup competition to enter, no settings to alter the match length and not even any team names. It does have a two player option.

Reception
Match Day was released in late 1984 and became a best-seller over the Christmas period reaching number 2 in the charts behind Ghostbusters. The BBC micro version ported by Chris Roberts reached the top of the BBC charts in September 1985. Match Day sold over 50,000 copies