Tehkan World Cup

Unlike later games such as the FIFA series, Tehkan World Cup automates several elements of control related to releasing and receiving the ball. When passing and shooting, the velocity, direction and to some extent the height of the ball are determined by the human players, but not the method by which the virtual player must execute these instructions. The part of the body used (for example, left foot, right foot, head, chest or knee) while dependent largely on the height of the ball, is determined automatically by the game. In some cases, whether the virtual player must first control the ball before releasing it again, or whether they may pass or shoot with their first touch, is also determined by the computer. These simplifications, perhaps made under the assumption that World Cup-caliber players have fully mastered the basics of the sport, allow human players to concentrate on the context of play, resulting in gameplay that is more flowing and free of technical error. The movements of players off the ball and team formations are also fully automated.

Tehkan World Cup is a two-dimensional top-down scrolling soccer game in which the player(s) control the virtual player on their team who is closest to the ball, highlighted by small flashing arrows, with the ball sticking to the feet of the player in possession and the trackball determining the speed and direction at which he runs. With impetus the trackball can spin freely, its inertia and momentum translating onto the movements of the highlighted player. Thus, as the trackball is accelerated by human hand and decelerated under its own friction, so too does the virtual player under its control appear to accelerate and decelerate on the field. This interaction made possible by the combination of analog trackball and the programing of variable player running speeds produces an interface that is fairly intuitive and with a real-world feel. The importance of the trackball to the game's playability and longevity is revealed in versions of Tehkan World Cup packaged instead with digital joystick control. In such variants, the virtual players start and stop instantaneously and thus exhibit zero mass in a similar vein to other sprite-based games of the era such as Donkey Kong, with the game lacking much of its fluidity and nuance.

A single push-button labeled "Kick" (duplicated on either side of the trackball for left or right handed players) causes the virtual player in possession to release the ball with the same force and direction in which he is currently running. The action of kicking is therefore used to pass and also shoot, depending on where the ball is aimed. Tapping the kick button quickly causes a high kick, which depending on its force can clear the reach of other players, while a longer press of the Kick button results in a low, driven kick along the ground^[3]. It is reported by some players that Tehkan World Cup supports curved balls either by applying a curving motion to the trackball or through an aftertouch feature similar to that of Sensible Soccer. Indeed, curved balls are occasionally seen during gameplay, but as these are not documented by Tehkan and it is not immediately apparent how they were executed, they may be a result of a bug.

When not in possession, the player closest to the ball is highlighted and the trackball is used to attempt to steal or intercept the ball. The Kick button has no function while defending; sliding tackles are initiated exclusively by the computer. Unlike other games where the highlighted player can be reselected, the only way to change the player under control is to move the current highlighted player away from the ball or off the screen such that he is no longer the defending player closest to the ball, at which time the new player closest to the ball becomes highlighted.

When a shot is aimed towards the goal, control for the defending player automatically switches to the goalkeeper. The goalkeeper can be motioned via the trackball to intercept the ball at which time he will catch it or attempt a diving save. In some cases the goalkeeper will parry the ball after a diving save, but in Tehkan World Cup the goalkeepers never push the ball over the crossbar and rarely commit errors.

Because only a portion of the field is viewable at a time and scrolls with the movement of the ball, a miniature "radar map" of the field is overlayed on one side that indicates the position of all the players, similar to radar displays in flight sims. This provides an aid to passing to players who are currently off screen. Also on the side of the screen is the score and a clock which counts down to zero, the point where the current game ends.

In the cocktail cabinet version with players standing on either side of the unit with the screen in between, players stand behind their own goal and make progress in a forward direction up the field. (As there was no half time, no change of direction was required.) In upright cabinet variants the opponent's goal in Single-Player mode is typically located at the top of the screen.

The teams consist of ten players each (nine outfield and one goalkeeper). Team formation is controlled by the computer, with virtual players assuming predetermined positions for set pieces. As slide tackles are controlled by the computer there are no fouls and therefore no free kicks or penalties, and no yellow or red cards. No referee is shown on the field, although his whistle can be heard at the kick off, when the ball goes out of bounds or when a goal is scored. As Tehkan World Cup predates the passback rule, the goalkeeper will pick up the ball after receiving a pass from his own defenders.

Although the graphics are two-dimensional, the ball can be aimed at height for the purposes of crossing, chipping, lobbing or clearing. The height of the ball can be perceived by its growing larger while it separates from its shadow on the ground. Virtual players automatically adapt to the height of the ball, and will automatically use their head or chest as needed (or in the goalkeepers' case, their hands).

The Player 1 (red trackball) side contains two additional push-buttons for choosing between Single or Two-Player games. Although fixed via dip switch settings, Single-Player games typically cost one credit while Two-Player games cost two or more credits.

Single-player mode consists of seven short games (between 1 minute and 2 minutes 30 seconds depending on dip switch settings) of increasingly difficult opponents that simulate the seven games a team needed to play to win the World Cup. Unlike the World Cup itself, there is no "round stage", with players required to win each game to progress to the next "round". Drawing or losing results in instant elimination and a Game Over message. The first six games are given a numerical round number denoted as "Game 1", "Game 2",..."Game 6", etc. The seventh game is known as "Final Game". Winning this seventh and final game displays a victory screen with the player's team lofting the World Cup, accompanied by a victory tune. Successful players are prompted to enter a three-letter name into the high score table, although the table is reset when the machine is turned off.

The range of difficulty between the seven CPU opponents is such that while it may take an hour to learn how to defeat "Team 1", it often requires several weeks of practice to defeat all seven teams and win the World Cup. In addition to gaining experience in on-field strategy, manipulating the trackball with sufficient skill in terms of applying the necessary direction and pace poses a learning curve in manual dexterity. The skill required to perform more intricate moves such as crossing followed by an attempted volley shot is obtained gradually, akin in some ways to mastering an actual ball sport. This challenge caused many, particularly the casual players, to give up before mastering the game.

With enough practice, the experienced player can defeat all of the computer opponents regularly as they ultimately discover that the limitations of the computer opponent lies in its predictability. (It tends to perform the same moves given the same situations, and does not learn from past mistakes.) At this point the challenge for human players inevitably migrates to winning by increasingly large margins or scoring progressively more imaginative goals. In the default 90-second duration game, a top player can defeat Team 1 by a score of 25-0, and Team 7 by a score of 8-0.

The skill of the CPU opponents can also be modified via internal dip switches. There are four different difficulty levels: easy, normal, hard and very hard. The difficulty level affects the speed at which the CPU players can run and shoot, the fervor at which they crowd the ball and the speed at which they can jump from defense to attack and vice versa.

While Single-Player mode comprises between one and seven games, Two-Player mode consists of a single head-to-head game between two human players. While the length of Single-Player games is fixed by dip switches, the length of Two-Player games is determined by dip switches but also the number of credits the players buy. (Initial game time and time per extra credit are set independently through PCB dip switches.) Typical Two-Player game time is typically on the order of 5 minutes, but can be as little as 1-2 minutes. As the upper limit is based on pay-per-play, there is no upper limit although games longer than 30 minutes are uncommon. As with other games such as Gauntlet, upon reaching zero time the machine prompts players to insert additional credit(s), giving them the option of prolonging the current game.

In two-player mode, the player using the single-player trackball side (normally a red trackball) controls a team wearing red shirts and white shorts, while the player using the second (normally blue) trackball has a team with blue shirts and white shorts. Since the red "Player 1" trackball is used in every game and the blue "Player 2" trackball is only used in two-player mode, the red trackball often exhibits more wear. It is therefore common for players playing multiple games to "switch sides" in order to eliminate any possible inequality and any advantage to "being blue".

Because two-player games lack the predictability of the computer opponents, new tactics are opened up both defensively and offensively. Essentially the computer opponents cease to be a challenge once mastered, and only by head-to-head competition with those of similar skill can experienced human players enjoy true competition. In this sense, two-player mode is where Tehkan World Cup comes into its own, with games fought intensely as players seek to dominate the other and attain champion status among their peers. By contrast, games between novices and accomplished players are a foregone conclusion as they are of little challenge to one player and cause embarrassment to the other. As Tehkan World Cup declined in popularity, it became increasingly difficult for skilled players to find worthwhile opponents.

Tehkan World Cup uses two Z80C 8-bit CPUs at 4.608 MHz for processing. For sound, it employs one Z80C at 4.6 MHz, two AY-3-8910s at 1.536 MHz and one M5205 at 384 kHz for FM and samples. Although this produces three-channel music plus sound effects, all sound is fed through a mono amplifier in the cabinet housing. As machines age the amplifier is known to fail, resulting in silent gameplay.

The screen is a horizontally mounted 20" color raster CRT monitor fed at 256 x 224 pixels by 768 colors by 60 Hertz. As "Game Over" is displayed throughout its demonstration mode and as the clock and score panels are permanent screen fixtures, Tehkan World Cup is a candidate for screen burn. However, no specimen has been observed to exhibit screen burn, perhaps as a result of its relatively short commercial life compared to classics such as Space Invaders.

The game unit consists of two 3" optical trackballs. These are made of semi-transparent plastic, illuminated from below such that they shine fairly brightly blue or red, depending on the color of the ball. On older machines the trackball bulbs eventually burn out, but this does not affect functionality.

The PCB (motherboard) contains dip switches that control the length, difficulty, speed and cost of games and whether sound is heard in demo play. A 1P (Single-Player) game can be 1:00, 1:30, 2:00 or 2:30 in length; playing all 7 rounds results in an elapsed playing time of 7:00, 10:30, 14:00 or 17:30 respectively. As the game clock stops when the ball is dead, actual elapsed time is typically around 10% higher than game time. The maximum elapsed time in 1P mode for the cost of a single credit is therefore around 20 minutes. In almost all permutations, 1P games represent better value for money in terms of game time per coin.

The above table shows that the minimum 2P game time is 1:00 with the smallest additional increment being 0:30. Effectively any game length can therefore be chosen, although the game's internal dip switches gave the arcade operator a large say in available game lengths and their cost. The game clock itself cannot display times larger than 99:59 although games longer than this can be purchased. In such a case, the game's internal clock will keep track of remaining time but the clock display will read 99:59 and begin counting down when the remaining time is lower than this. Note that additional time can be added during a game by adding credits per the 2P matrix below. At the end of each 2P game, players are given a 10-second window to continue their current game by adding credits.

Some versions of Tehkan World Cup appeared in single-player upright cabinets with joystick controllers replacing the trackball as the means of control. Since the joysticks were digital, player movement and kicking was mapped to 100% trackball speed. This maximized the running performance of the players but eliminated soft and medium strength passing or shooting from the game, essentially depriving it of the subtleties that were its forte. Because joystick play released the true speed potential of the virtual players, scores of 30-0 were possible in a 90-second game^[4].

Two different versions of the software are known to exist. These are ostensibly identical with the exception of having differently colored computer opponents in Single-Player mode. In the first version the team in the Final Game wore white shirts and black shorts. In the second version the Final team wore navy blue shirts and white shorts.

Entering TOMI (the first four letters of the game planner's name) into the high score table plays the music the game associates with winning the World Cup.

Entering MICH (the first four letters of the programmer's name) into the high score table plays a hidden tune.

Entering TSUK (the first four letters of the name of the creator of the game's music) into the high score table plays a second hidden tune.

Tehkan World Cup contains some bugs that manifest on rare occasions. As they occur infrequently, they may have escaped gameplay testing entirely or else were thought minor enough to overlook.

Although the goalkeepers cannot exit the penalty area while under human control, while under CPU control the goalkeepers are able to collect the ball with their hands outside the penalty area if they are the closest player.

Occasionally the player in possession will "lose sight" of the ball and run off without it. The gameplay window then drifts away such that the ball is no longer displayed on the screen, it then being difficult or impossible to retrieve by either team. In such a case, the clock will run down to zero without any further action, and the game will end without any further scoring. It is sometimes possible to escape this situation by directing a player to the ball using the overlay map.

Normally a result of an errant signal from a partially worn trackball, highlighted players have been known to "teleport" from one part of the screen to another. Sometimes a player will teleport out of bounds, resulting in a goal kick, throw-in or corner kick to the team not in possession. In rare cases, the ball will teleport over the goal line between the posts, resulting in a goal.

Occasionally a successful shot (resulting in a goal) will pass through the goal net. It is not known if this is due to a bug or the deliberate simulation of the netting being burst by the force of the shot.

Occasionally the ball will be released in a curving trajectory, particularly from a corner kick. As this is not documented by Tehkan and it is not well understood how it is executed through the control system, it is not known if this is a bug or a deliberate attempt to simulate curving.

Although not a bug, Tehkan World Cup predates the pass-back rule and therefore the goalkeeper can pick up the ball after a pass from his own team mate. This allowed for time-wasting techniques which sometimes raise objections during two-player games.

Gridiron Fight was an American Football video game released in the same year as Tehkan World Cup featuring almost identical hardware. It employed the same twin trackballs with an action button duplicated on either side and a similar cocktail cabinet design with horizontal screen, although the cabinet design in many specimens (but not all) had a more angular shape. The primary hardware difference was the inclusion of a seven segment LED adjacent to the action buttons for each player on Gridiron Fight that indicated their "formation number". The software of the two games exhibited a similar top-down two-dimensional window-on-the-field graphical design.

Tehkan World Cup does not simulate player stamina and thus virtual players can run indefinitely at full speed, up until the very end of the game. Additionally, while passing is a rich part of gameplay, because it is more difficult to master than running with the ball, new players tend to rely on running strategies, sometimes forgoing passing altogether. This imbalance is occasionally carried over into Two-Player Mode, although the accomplished player can normally exploit a player who overemphasizes running. (In using trackballs, running costs more energy, and actual physical stamina can become a factor.)

The game's trackballs are relatively high wear components and thus Tehkan World Cup could be a victim of its own success. (A sign of high use is the fading and peeling of the colored laminate around the Player One trackball.) Trackball life can be extended by regular cleaning and lubrication of moving parts and replacement of bearings, but machines could go through two or more replacements of entire trackball sub-assemblies in a five-year arcade run, placing a relatively high maintenance burden on staff. (The far-less-used Player Two trackball rarely suffered the same fate; savvy arcades could extend the game's life by swapping the Player One and Player Two trackballs around.) Towards the end of its life, Tehkan World Cup was often found in arcades in an unplayable state. Owners, in some cases unknowingly operating a defective machine, would note the reduced coin intake and conclude that it had lost its popularity. Thus, the game's reliability issues ultimately contributed to its demise.

In the later rounds of Single-Player games, depending on the dip switch difficulty level, CPU players are faster than the players on the human team such that running more than a short distance is futile. In contrast to the overemphasis on running imposed on new players, this forces human players who reach the later rounds to choose a strategy entirely based on passing.

The goalkeeper in later rounds of Single-Player games is almost impossible to beat with a long-range shot. This forces human players to rely on volleys and short-range shooting.

As an arcade game, TWC offers instant play but lacks longevity features found in many later soccer games (particularly those designed for the home market) such as the ability to influence the careers of individual players, league formats or multi-season planning. Neither does it incorporate a management dimension that typically includes injuries, player markets and gate receipts. Energy levels are not simulated and so players never tire. Although in Single-Player mode the strength of the CPU teams increases from round to round, individual player attributes are not supported and so all the players in a given team are identical in behavior and ability. Fouling is not possible in TWC and therefore there are no free kicks, penalty kicks, drop balls, yellow or red cards; all tackles are considered clean (although not all tackles are successful). However, the gameplay does feature goal kicks, corner kicks, throw-ins and goalkeeper kick-outs.

Although highly popular in the year after its release, Tehkan World Cup faded as newer games appeared with larger screens and better graphics. Its trackball system exhibited issues with wear under high use, and without maintenance most specimens eventually broke down. These reliability problems combined with the fact that it required more floor space than upright games caused it to be dropped by most arcades by the early 1990s.

In 1989, four years after the release of Tehkan World Cup, Tecmo attempted to capitalize on Italia '90 World Cup hype by releasing a sequel, Tecmo World Cup '90^[5]. This dropped the two-dimensional top-down scrolled view in favor of an isometric three-dimensional view of the field, featuring a more common joystick control system and different gameplay. As it did not retain any signature elements of Tehkan World Cup aside from the choice of one or two-player play, it was a sequel in name only. Thus, Tehkan World Cup's arcade lineage was effectively ended after one generation.

Also in 1989, a two-dimensional top-down scrolling soccer game called Kick Off appeared for various platforms in the home computer market. Although not connected with Tehkan/Tecmo, its visual similarities (including overlayed miniature field map) sparked comparisons with Tehkan World Cup in the gaming press. Kick Off itself received strong reviews, spawned multiple sequels and its own world championship.

In 1992, Sensible Software released Sensible Soccer for the Amiga and Atari ST featuring top-down graphics and gameplay similar to Kick Off and Tehkan World Cup. Sensible also spawned many sequels. Its fourth variant, Sensible World of Soccer (1995/1996) received review scores of 96% from both Amiga Power and Amiga Format, the joint highest mark given for any game by either magazine^[6].

On 25th November 2004, a port of Tehkan World Cup under the name Tecmo Cup was released in Japan for the Playstation2 console in a compilation entitled Tecmo Hit Parade^[7]. The set also included Star Force, Bomb Jack, Solomon's Key, Pinball Action, Senjyo and Pleiads^[8]. Each game included dip switch settings, debug modes and reproductions of printed materials. As analog controls were not supported, the same limitations were in effect that hampered the original joystick version of Tehkan World Cup.

Released on 13th September 2005 in the U.S. and 27th October 2005 in Japan, an updated version of Tecmo Hit Parade entitled Tecmo Classic Arcade was released featuring Tehkan World Cup (as Tecmo Cup) for the Xbox console. The set included updated programming by Tomonobu Itagaki and Team Ninja^[9]. The compilation added Rygar, Strato Fighter, Swimmer and Tecmo Bowl. As analog controls were still not supported, the same limitations were in effect as with the original joystick version of Tehkan World Cup.

Tehkan World Cup can be played on a personal computer through the MAME emulator by downloading the necessary ROM set^[10]. Digital and analog control is supported, including use of keyboard, mouse or (as in the original) trackball. MAME adds features not available on the original arcade machine such as replay saving, and the ability to alter (through emulation) the dip switches on the motherboard.

It is possible to connect an original Tehkan World Cup trackball to a PC for use in MAME. This involves cannibalizing the PCB of a mouse, instructions on which are available on several hobbyist sites.

Programmer : Michishito Ishizuka

Planner : Shinichiroh Tomie

Music : Tsukasa Masuko

Character designer : Rie Ishizuka, aka Rie Yatomi

Cabinet designer : Kohji Okada

Illustration : Hideyuki Yokoyama

• List of association football video games
• List of trackball arcade games
• Tecmo

• World Cup entry at the Killer List of Video Games
• Tehkan World Cup fan site
• World Cup video montage on Youtube