General Play Advice
Gym Guide
Items Guide
Knockout Mode
League Mode
Team Manager Mode
Cup Mode
Multiplayer Mode
Bugs
General Play Advice
-------------------
On the pitch, use the multipliers and the power-ball chargers.
Practise.
In the gym, to raise the maximum level that each player's attributes
can be pumped up to, the average rating of each and all of the
different areas of your team (defence, midfield, attack, and the
subs) must rise above the next tenth point, as seen on the fixtures
screen. So, for example, if you had ratings of 107 in defence, 118 in
midfield, 110 in attack, and 109 in subs, you would need to raise the
defence rating to 110, and the subs rating to 110 before you could
beef up players' attributes to a new level. To get them higher again,
you would need to get the areas all up to 120, and so on.
Remember, you don't need to train up all the players in each area to
increase the average, so try to focus on training up the central
players, as much as you can. The reason for this is that these
players see most of the action, because the ball is thrown out in the
centre of the pitch, and the goals are in the centre of the pitch (in
the same sense that the centre forwards and centre mids are in the
'centre' anyway). The next most important position bar the central
ones is the left wing, then the right wing, then left mid, right mid,
and so on.
Also, if you focus on training up as few individuals as possible,
once you have finished in the gym before a game, you can shuffle your
players' positions around (in league and cup modes only though- in
the others you can't manually change players' positions), so that the
best players are all on the pitch and the worst are all on the subs
bench. This way, you save money, because you don't waste any on
training players who aren't going to be on the pitch anyway.
But remember, the next time you want to train your players up to the
maximum levels they had before the shuffle, you will have to put some
decent players back on the subs bench. Otherwise, your subs' average
rating may be too low for you to be allowed to train up all your
players to their pre-shuffle maximum attribute levels.
Gym Guide
---------
In my experience, it's a waste of time picking out specific
attributes for boosting up your players with in the gym, since all
the attributes are useful. However, if you want to experiment by
doing so, here is what each upgrade does:
Aggression: increases the likelihood that a player will attack an
enemy player.
Attack: increases the probability that a tackle or punch will knock
an enemy player over.
Defence: increases the likelihood that if your player is punched or
tackled, he will stay standing.
Speed: self-explanatory.
Stamina: increases the amount of time it will take for your
upgrades' effectiveness to wear off (if your players lack stamina
they will become slower, less aggressive, etc. as the game
goes on).
Throwing: increases the throw range. Also affects how well your
players will throw curving balls.
Power: increases the amount of damage your punches or tackles will do
when they are successful.
Intelligence: increases the likelihood that your players will pick
up items, and just generally act with less stupidity.
Items Guide
-----------
Body parts: if a player picks these up, they will have the
corresponding attribute beefed up to the maximum possible level,
until they are knocked over. They can be dropped (if the player
gets knocked over) and re-used once.
Coins
-----
Coins are worth the following amounts, depending on the mode:
In the knockout mode, each coin is worth 100 credits. You can collect
a maximum of 1100 credits in each game.
In the league mode, each coin is worth 100 credits. You can collect a
maximum of 550 credits in each game, no matter how many coins you
collect.
In the cup mode, each coin is worth 200 credits. There doesn't seem
to be any limit to the amount of credits you can collect in this
mode.
Tokens
------
All of the following tokens are octagonal shaped, with the following
types of symbols inside them:
(the following seven tokens' effects last for five seconds. Picking
any one of these up will cancel out any other that has just been
activated, either by you or your opponent)
'Star' token: gives every player on the pitch the maximum possible
scores on all the attributes.
'Plus symbol' token: gives every player on your team the maximum
possible scores on all the attributes (250).
'Minus symbol' token: gives every player on the opposing team the
minimum possible scores on all the attributes (100).
'0 II' token: produces an invisible barrier over your team's goal,
stopping anyone on the pitch scoring into it.
'/' token: stops every player on the opposing team from being able to
move.
'Egg-timer' token: gives every player on the opposing team the same
attributes as your players', provided the opposing team has
better attributes (if the opposing team is worse, this token will do
nothing).
'Shield' token: makes every player on your team invulnerable to
attack.
'Green Triangle' token: reverses the controls of the other player in
multiplayer mode.
The following four tokens' effects are not time-based:
'Heart' token: increases the health of the player who picks it up to
100 percent.
'Z' token: knocks over every player on the opposing team (like they
have all just been tackled or punched).
'Black reversed r on green' token: teleports the ball to your centre-
forward.
'Black cross on green' token: teleports the ball to the player who
picks up the token.
Knockout Mode
-------------
The easiest way to beat this mode is to make sure you keep drawing as
many games as possible (ideally, keep doing so against Revolver),
while running around grabbing as much cash as possible. Beef up your
players with the money you acquire, and once you have the best team
possible, start trying to win.
You will end up better than any other time in the game, since in
the knockout mode, you can beef up your team to 240 in every
department (it's different in other modes). Although funnily enough,
whether you use the drawing method or not, the last game will
probably be equally hard, since you can accumulate enough money to
train up your players to the 240 limit whether you draw repeatedly or
not.
League Mode
-----------
Save up your money, and spend it on the first decent non-goalie
transfer you can afford. Once you have such a character, you can use
them to run around the pitch, grabbing cash, since most of the
players in the other second division teams won't be able to run fast
enough to be able to catch up with them. Even if you haven't had much
practise, you should still be able to complete division two fairly
easily, if you get loads of money this way.
In the league mode, you can only beef up your original team players
to a maximum of 220 on each attribute. For advice on training them
up, see the general advice section.
Remember, you get a point for every ten you score in a game, and
whether or not you get promoted (or complete the game by winning
division one) depends upon your total number of league points, so
it's important to rack up the points. Winning every game is, hence,
not that important.
If you finish second in division 2, you will play the team that
finished seventh in division 1, in a play-off match. Obviously, the
winner gets promoted and the loser gets demoted (if you lose, it's
game over). If you need some extra cash, you can draw this game
repeatedly and collect more and more money in each re-playing of the
game.
Here is a password that will get you into division one:
LU0Q CJ8h u6BW e7TJ
QIZs 9ltL frbC MBMC
By the way, due to a bug with the password system, when you save your
game, the team that gets promoted with you won't actually get
promoted if you reload a saved game. In other words, you'll be
playing against all but the lowest-placed of the original first
division teams.
Team Manager
------------
Before you start playing the team manager mode, bear in mind that
there is a rather annoying bug in this version of Speedball 2: you
will receive a password if you get promoted in team manager mode,
but if you try to reload a game with it, the saved game will load up
in normal league mode, not team manager mode (in other words, the
computer will not control your team anymore). In other words, if you
want to complete the team manager mode, you will have to do so in
one go.
Once you do start playing, and your players are on the pitch, hold
down A, B, or C, to make the games speed by at a much faster rate
than normal (this makes things considerably less frustrating than on
other versions).
Read the stuff in the general advice section about training up
players. It is particularly relevant to the team manager mode.
And once you (hopefully) get into division one, don't bother with
any transfers apart from Jensen and Seline. They are the only two
players who are better than the original dudes can get to be, in this
particular mode (in the team manager mode, you can beef up your
original team players to a maximum of 230 on each attribute).
If you want to win division 2 (as opposed to getting promoted via the
play-off, which is fairly easy), it might be worthwhile buying some
cheap transfers and putting them in your central positions early in
the season. This will give you a bit of an early boost, and stop the
top team building up too much of an advantage in terms of league
points. The only problem is that you will wind up with a worse team
for the later games in division 2 and division 1 (because the
transfers are worse value than trained-up original dudes are, and
hence, more expensive in the long run).
Cup Mode
--------
Save up your money, and spend it on the first decent non-goalie
transfer you can afford. Once you have such a character, you can
use them to run around the pitch, grabbing cash, since most of the
players in the other second division teams won't be able to run fast
enough to be able to catch up with them. Since there is more money
available on the pitch in each game in the Cup mode, you should be
able to get enough to train your team up in a relatively small number
of games.
If you need some extra cash, you can draw any game (obviously, the
total scores after both legs must be equal) repeatedly and collect
more and more money in each re-playing of the game (a replay is just
one match long; you don't need to replay both legs each time).
Again, limit your transfer purchases to a maximum of three players,
since the original players (e.g. Colin or Barry) can actually be
trained up to eventually be better than every character in the game
bar the two best first division transfers (Jensen and Seline). So
eventually, once you have all your players better than any transfer
bar these two, you will have a team as good as you can get.
(in the cup mode, you can only beef up your original team players up
to a maximum of 230 on each attribute. For advice on training them
up, see the general advice section)
If you did get three transfers, as I suggested your max should be,
you might have one less than ideal player, but put them in the third
substitute position, and the chances aren't that great they will ever
play anyway (only if you get three players injured).
Multiplayer Mode
----------------
The only real difference between playing a computer opponent and
another player is that when you injure another player's players,
their stats are affected for future games. So try and beat the crap
out of as many of their players as possible.
Bugs
----
1. Sometimes, when the ball is thrown against the bonus point dome
things, it will register the points twice.
2. In team manager mode, if you get promoted and receive a password,
that password won't work properly when you try to reload your saved
game with it. The saved game will load up in normal league mode, not
team manager mode (in other words, the computer will not control your
team anymore).
3. In both team manager and normal league modes, when you get
promoted, and receive a password, the password won't record who gets
promoted with you from division 2. In other words, you're stuck
playing all but one of the first division teams (not that the team
manager passwords actually work properly anyway).
4. Acquire over 32,768 credits, and the game will screw up. The
credits amount display will disappear, being replaced by a bunch of
stars. Also, you won't be able to spend any money!
5. In team manager mode, one of your players and a member of the
opposing team may get stuck in a pattern of throwing the ball at
each other from close range. If this happens, they will continue to
do so for the rest of the half.
