******************************************************* * * * NECESSARY ROUGHNESS VERSION 1.0 * * * * (C)1993 Chris Sadler * * * ******************************************************* -----*----- PLAYING POSITIONS -----*----- American Football teams give the impression that they have a squad of thousands lined up on the sideline ready to take to the field. There are so many positions within the game that it sometimes can get confusing. In Necessary Roughness abbreviations are used for the positions. All very well if you know your stuff but to someone who doesn't know all of the positions it can be a little daunting at the best of times. All the players in Necessary Roughness have a value between 3 and 9 inclusive for SKILL, SPEED and STRENGTH which is all very well until you find out that they all serve different purposes for different positions. I hope that the following text will give you more of a clearer insight into the different positions in American Football and how the three attributes affect each of these. -----*----- POSITIONS ON OFFENCE -----*----- 1). The Offencive Line (or Down Linemen) The offencive line consists of five players - A Left Tackle - LT A Left Guard - LG A Centre - C A Right Guard - RG A Right Tackle - RT They will line up on the field as follows - _____________________________________________ <- line of scrimmage O O 0 O O | | | | | LT LG C RG RT The CENTRE. The centres first job is to 'Snap' the ball to the Quarterback or whoever is receiving the ball from the snap. From then on his duties are with the rest of the offencive line in blocking. BLOCKING. The offencive line will run their blocking patterns after the snap. During a running play the offencive line will usually step forward to try and open ahole which the running back can then aim at. During a passing play the offencive line will drop back and form a protective pocket around the quarterback to give him time to pass the ball. SKILL is used by the offencive line when blocking along with STRENGTH. The better the player is at these two the better he will be at taking an opponent out of the game or keeping them off balance so they will not be able to make a decicive hit. SPEED is used when manouvering into position. The faster the player is the quicker he will be able to get into position and he will be able to contend with the faster members of the defence. 2). Tight Ends (TE) This is how the tight end will line up - _____________________________________________ <- line of scrimmage O O O 0 O O O | | TE TE Tight ends have to have good SKILL and STRENGTH to be affective in American Football. He may be called apon to help block with the offencive line or lead block for a running back or leg it up the field and recieve a pass. The side that the tight end lines up on is known as the strongside. SKILL and STRENGTH apply the same as the offencive line when the tight end is blocking. They are, however, used differently when recieving the ball. SPEED is of great importance to get into the open where the quarterback can pass to you. If you are slow then it is less likely that you will break away from your markers. SPEED can also help a tight end to run further after receiving the ball. SKILL is used firstly to help catch the ball. A tight end with poor SKILL is less likely to catch the ball than that with high SKILL. Once caught then SKILL is used in dodging defenders. A tight end with high SKILL will try his best not to be running in a strait line, he will try to dodge and weave his way upfield. STRENGTH is used to shrug off tackles once the ball is in his possession. A tight end with high STRENGTH will break through feeble tackles and has the chance to go all the way is his SPEED is suitably high. 3). Wide Receivers. (WR) This is how wide recievers line up - _________________________________________ <- line of scrimmage O O O 0 O O O | O WR | WR It is the wide receivers job to run pass patterns either to decoy the defence or to try and break free to receive a pass from the quarterback. As with the tight end on passing plays SPEED is all important to break free. Fast receivers can break free quicker so allowing the defence less time to rush the quarterback and sack him. SKILL, SPEED and STRENGTH are the same as the tight end. 4). Running Backs and Fullbacks (RB/FB) This is an example of how running backs could line up - _________________________________________ <- line of scrimmage O O O 0 O O O O O O | | RB RB The running backs receive the ball from the quarterback and then rush towards a hole opened up by the Offencive line. Running backs use much the same skills as a wide reciever after recieving the ball , SKILL allows them to dodge, SPEED gets them futher quicker and STRENGTH allows them to break through tackles and continue their run. Running backs and fullbacks can also receive a pass so they can run pass patterns. SPEED is important here as they have to break free. 5). The Quarterback (QB) The quarterback lines up directly behind the centre to receive the snap exept for when he is in the shotgun formation, he will then stand five yards behind the centre. Once the snap is received the quarterback will either hand the ball to a running back or drop back looking to pass the ball. SPEED helps the quarterback to avoid oncoming defenders as does SKILL. STRENGTH allows the quarterback to hold his own in the pocket. Once the quarterback throws the ball SKILL and STRENGTH both determine how accurate the pass is. -----*----- POSITIONS ON DEFENCE -----*----- 1). The defencive line. The defencive line will always have the following - Left Defencive End - LE Nose Tackle - NT Right Defencive End - RE How many 'Ends are used depends on the formation. Defencive ends line up facing the offencive line. 2). Linebackers. There are four types of linebacker - Left Outside Linebacker - LOLB Left Inside Linebacker - LILB Right Inside Linebacker - RILB Right Outside Linebacker - ROLB Line backers line up just behind the defencive line. 3). Cornerbacks. The cornerback can either line up on the left side (LC) or right side (RC). It is the cornerbacks job to mark the wide receivers or force the running play to the inside. 4). Safety. Safetys come in two forms a strongside safety (SS) who will line up on the side the tight end is on, or the free safety (FS) who dosn't. Safetys are the generally last line of defence. All defenders skills are the same SKILL will help them to mark their men better and to break through blocking. SPEED is needed because a defence without speed will always be outdone by an offence with speed as they can't keep up. SPEED is also of importance when pass rushing - The fast bird sacks the worm!. STRENGTH is used in two ways the first and most obvious is to bring the offencive player with the ball to the ground. Poor STRENGTH leads to feeble tackles which can be broken through. STRENGTH is also used to avoid being blockd badly. -----*----- POSITIONS IN SPECIAL TEAMS -----*----- The kicker needs SPEED and STRENGTH to put power behind the ball and send it further. SKILL is required to be accurate in kicking Field Goals and Extra Points. ---------------------***********---------------------- I hope the above will help you in playing and understanding the game a bit better. ---------------------***********---------------------- **************************************************************** * * * NECESSARY ROUGHNESS V1.0 * * * * (C)1993 Chris Sadler * * * **************************************************************** -----*----- INTRODUCTION. -----*----- American Football has to be classified as one of the best sports ever to be created it is also one of the most complex of sports but once the basic elements are grasped it fast becomes one of the most enjoyable and fun to watch and be involved in. Two teams wage war on each other, their troops split into three platoons - offence, defence and special Teams. Their general, the head coach, calls the plays as they try to advance the ball when they have possession and try to halt stop their opponents from moving the ball. If you are not familiar with the rules I have included a Doc file which will explain all you need to know to play the game. I became dissapointed with the amount of American Football games avalible on the Amiga compared with PC's. I resorted to looking through P.D. librarys to find any type of American Football games that could satisfy my needs during the post-season. I did find some and they did satisfy my needs a bit but none of them had any 'depth' to them. It was then that I decided to attempt to write an American Footbal game that would satisfy me and have an element of depth to it. I would be the first to admit that I don't know a great deal about the game as I have only got into it within the past two years but I have had help from friends and books and with months of work I now present you with Necessary Roughness Version 1.0. I hope you enjoy this game and I hope it quenchs your post-season blues. -----*----- THE GAME IN BRIEF -----*----- Necessary Roughness V1.0 is shareware, not wishing to bore you with registration messages I have put them in a seperate document so I won't mention it from now on. Necessary Roughness V1.0 puts you in charge of a team of your choise and lets you play a computer team, again of your choise. As headcoach you will have to call the plays that you think will be most effective to the game. You will then be able to see the action, followed by a breif summary of what you have just seen. At the end of the game you will be presented with statistics for both your team and your squad members. ------*----- BEGINING THE GAME ------*----- To start the game double click on the NR_v1.0 icon. You will be presented with an introduction before the game loads the gameplan into memory. You will then be asked to insert the NR_DATA disk. please note this disk should be WRITE ENABLED as the program has to save data to it in order for you to play. -----*----- CHOOSING YOUR TEAM -----*----- There are 28 teams for you to choose from. You can use the Joystick or mouse (Left Button=Rotate Left - Right Button=Rotate Right - Space Bar=Select) to rotate through the teams and select your team. I have playtested this game quite a lot and below I have included my summary of all the 28 teams. NAME SUMMARY ___________________________________________________________________ 1). ATLANTA From what I have seen of Atlanta they seem to be the 'Nasty Boys' of Necessary Roughness. They have a good defence which is more than backed up by an explosive offence and good special teams. 2). LOS ANGELES My personal favourite. Adequate defence and average offence and special teams. Altogether nothing special. 3). NEW ORLEANS The offence has got guts and will fight to the end although they don't posess any great tallent. Sadly this is let down by their defence. They have an average special teams. 4). SAN FRANCISCO Good offence and above average defence and special teams make this team a threat to anyone. 5). CHICAGO Excellent special teams and good offence are let down by a slack defence. 6). DETROIT Devistating defence (Sack masters or what?) combined with an offence that can crush teams makes Detroit a threat at the best of times but they never live up to potential. 7). GREEN BAY This team is held together by an above average running game and an average defence. 8). MINNESOTA Fast offence and adequate defence make this a team to look out for. 9). TAMPA BAY I must be honest, I haven't seen much action from this team but I do know that their special teams are sub-standard. 10). DALLAS Good offence and above average defence make Dallas a good team. A bit poor on special teams however. 11). NEW YORK A Above average team altogether and can do well when given the chance. 12). PHIIDELPHIA Quiet offence which can suddenly explode into life and score mixed with a hard hitting defence make this a good team. 13). PHOENIX Above average offence which is usually let down dramaticly by their poor defence. 14). WASHINGTON Good offence and defence, altogeter a good team. 15). DENVER Average team in all areas. Pass offence is a bit slack but team held together by the defence. 16). KANSAS CITY A great offence hogs the limelight from the good defence. The only chink in the armour is the special teams. A true powerhouse of a team. 17). OAKLAND Oakland try their best on defence as their offence isn't half bad. 18). SAN DIEGO They have a game winning set of rushers but whether the defence can hold is anouther question. 19). SEATTLE No wishing to be cruel to the poor souls who like this team but in this game they are naff (Not my doing)! A great quarterback is let down by slow recievers and a rubbish running game. Defence is also below average which make this team a challange to win with. 20). CINCINNATI Average offence with a slow defence make Cincinnati a poor team. 21). CLEVELAND Pretty much a good all-round team. 22). HOUSTON Good potential on offence but fail to use it. An average defence struggles a bit with speed. Sub-average special teams. 23). PITTSBURGH Great offence and stunning plays on defence make Pittsburgh a tough team to mess with. 24). BUFFALO They try their best! Seriously though they are an average team in Necessary Roughness not too much of a handful. 25). INDIANAPOLIS A great defence and the odd explosive play from their offence. Never rule Indianapolis out of a game. 26). MIAMI Great Special teams, let down by poor offence and defence. 27). NEW ENGLAND Above average defence and a good offence make New England a threat in any game. 28). NEW YORK B Average offence and defence. Luck usualy is on the side of New York B. Note:- The above summarys are what I have seen while playtesting the game. Although the games usually run to form however the great thing about Necessary Roughness is that the same thing hardly happens twice. -----*----- THE SQUAD -----*----- Each team has a 45 man squad which consists of the following players - 1 Left Tackle 2 Left Guards 2 Centres 2 Right Guards 1 Right Tackle 4 Wide Receivers 2 Tight Ends 3 Running Backs 2 Full Backs 3 Quarterbacks 2 Left Ends 2 Nose Tackles 2 Right Ends 2 Left Outside Linebackers 2 Left Inside Linebackers 2 Right Inside Linebackers 2 Right Outside Linebackers 2 Left Corners 2 Right Corners 2 Strong Safetys 1 Free Safety Each player in the 45 man squad is named and has attributes in Skill, Speed and Strength which affect them differently in different places and in different situations. For more detail on the positions and how the attributes affect the players see the Doc file provided on positions. -----*----- FORMATIONS -----*----- There are 4 different formations on offence, 9 on defence and 2 on special teams. The formations on offence are as follows - 1). The I Formation This is usualy used to gain short yardage. It has a FB and RB in the backfield.The RB, a WR and a TE run pass routes on pass plays. 2). The Pro Set Formation The Pro Set is a balanced formation with two running backs to the left and right side of the quarterback. 3). The Shotgun Formation This is a pass orientated formation with recievers galore. The quarterback stands some five yards back from the line of scrimmage so he has time to read the play and fire a pass off. 4). The T formation The quarterback has the option of three running back to hand the ball off to. It only has one reciever so chances of passing the ball are poor. The defencive formations are as follows - 1). 4-3-4 Balanced formation. This is used when it is not possible to guess what type of play the offence will call. 2). 3-4-4 Extra linebacker gives a better defence against a run but with only 3 linemen there is not much of a pass rush therefore giving the quarterback more time to pass the ball. 3). 7-3-1 This is used for defending short yardage for instance a goalline situation. Pass receivers are always well marked. 4). 6-3-2 A variation of the 7-3-1 formation which gives more protection against a pass play. 5). 3-3-5 A variation of the 3-4-4 formation but this time giving a better defence against a pass. 6). 3-2-6 This is used when a long pass is certain to be called by the offence. 7). 4-2-5 The Nickle Defence. Like the 3-2-6 formation this protects against a possible pass play. 8). 4-5-2 The Prevent Defence. A more effective pass rush. 9). 7-2-2 A more balanced short yardage formation. Kickoff, and punt are the other formations both of which are special teams. The computer will select your starting quarterback for you and will also allocate members of your squad into the positions in each formation. This is done randomly so even if you pick the same team twice it would be highly unlikely that you would play with exactly the same squad members in exactly the same positions in exactly the same formations twice. -----*----- PICKING WHICH QUARTERS TO PLAY IN -----*----- In Necessary Roughness you do not have to play the whole match if for some reason you don't want to. You can use the mouse or joystick to move the cursor and choose which quarters you wish to play in. The computer will play the remaining quarters for you. NOTE - the computer will use its own gameplan and may or may not make the best decisions for your team.) You can play the whole match, play one half, play one quarter, play in overtime only (if there is any that is!), or just let the computer play the whole game for you. I would recommend that you start off by playing just the first quarter and letting the computer play the rest of the match. This will get you used to the game and the time involved in playing a quarter. From there you can then decide how much of the game you wish to play. -----*----- FLIPPING THE COIN -----*----- You will now be asked to select heads or tails. Use the Joystick or mouse to move the cursor and fire/mouse button to select. If you win the toss you will be asked if you wish to kickoff or receive the ball. The team that kicks off in the first half will receive the ball in the second half. use Left and Right on Joystick/Mouse Buttons to select and press Fire/Space Bar when you are done. You will not see the kickoffs if you are not playing in the First and Third quarters. NOTE - Who kicks off in overtime is decided randomly. -----*----- VIEWING THE ACTION -----*----- You are able to watch every play as the two teams take to the field fully kitted in their own unique kits. The numbers at the sides of the field and the thick lines indicate every 10 yards. The thinner lines between these indicate every 5 yards and each line on the 'Hashmarks' indicates a yard. The ball will be kicked off or the ball 'Hiked' to start the play and then all hell breaks loose. -----*----- DETAILED COVERAGE -----*----- A more detailed explaination as to the chaos you have just witnessed is given by the NRTV commentator George 'From' Idaho. George will tell you who did what, where, how far and anything else important. For Example - Everett receives the snap and drops back. Everett passes to Anderson. Complete. Anderson then runs 21 yards for a touchdown! George also gives the teams scores. The team highlighted in red is the team that has possession of the ball. Pressing the fire button / mouse button / Space bar will allow you to proceed. -----*----- YOUR JOB AS HEADCOACH -----*----- It is your job as Headcoach of your team to choose the play that will best help your team to win the match. To help you with this you will be kept up to date as to the quarter you are in, the time remaining, where the ball is positioned, what down it is and what you need for a first down. If you are on offence then you have easy access to information about your offencive and special teams formations. This information includes players name, position within the formation, skill, speed and strength. You can view your plays on a chalkboard and check up on the match statistics. -----*----- CHOOSING YOUR PLAYS ON OFFENCE -----*----- This is very simple. You will see a 'Play No.' just above the middle of the screen and the name of the play will be show at the bottom of the screen. Along the top part of the screen is a host of options. You select the option you require by moving the cursor, using either mouse or joystick and pressing fire to choose. The options are as follows - 1). NEXT Allows you to move to the next play. There are 34 plays on offence. Play number 33 is always Field Goal and play number 34 is always Punt. 2). PREV Moves you to the previous play. 3). INFO Gives you information on your formation. It will tell you who is playing at what position within the formation along with thier attributes for Skill,Speed and Strength. 4). VIEW Toggles between viewing the play on the chalkboard or not. NOTE - You cannot see Field Goal or Punt on the chalkboard. 5). STATS Gives you the match stats for both teams. The format for this is as follows - SCORE FIRST DOWNS RUN PLAYS ATTEMPTED/YARDS PASS PLAYS ATTEMPTED/COMPLETED PASS YARDS TOTAL YARDS SACKS FIELD GOAL ATTEMPTS/COMPLETED EXTRA POINT ATTEMPTS/COMPLETED PUNTS/AVG YARDS 6). PLAY Plays the next down. NOTE - Pressing 'Esc' calls a Timeout, Each team has three timeouts a half. The same applies for the defence. Although you may not notice it on this version of Necessary Roughness there are 7 types of blocking by the offencive line - POWER - Strait Ahead. ANGLE - Linemen slant and block to left or right. WEDGE - Three blockers take out the nose tackle. LEAD - One running back lead blocks for the other. DOUBLE TEAM - Two linemen take out one defender. CROSS BLOCK - Two linemen exchange cross then block. ISOLATION - A defender is left to be hit by a running back. There are 12 pass routes for wide recievers - HITCH SHORT OUT SLANT DRIVE CURL OUT FLY OUT AND FLY IN COMEBACK POST CORNER There are 9 'Holes' for running backs to aim for and there are 9 pass routes for running backs to run on passing plays - FLAT CHECK THRU CIRCLE SLIP SHORT FAN IN OUT RIM All of these may not be used on the gameplan on this version but see the Doc file on version 1.1 for more info. (Does around 270166100000000000 play combinations sound appealing ?) -----*----- CHOOSING YOUR PLAY ON DEFENCE -----*----- There are 540 different combination of plays on defence. You are required to choose your combination by using the left and right mouse buttons or left and right on the joystick to rotate through the options and fire or 'Space Bar' to select. You will have to choose the following in this order - FORMATION SPECIALS SHIFTS COVERAGE BLITZ 1). Formations I have already covered defencive formations in full so go back and read that. Choose the formation that you think will be of most use. 2). Specials There are five different types of 'Specials' you can choose, they are as follows - I). STACK - In a stack a linebacker lines up directly behind a lineman so that the offence does not know which way he is coming, so causing blocking problems. II). STUNT - Two defenders will exchange rushing routes by looping around each other after the ball is snapped. III). SLANT - A planned charge to the left or the right, this upsets the offence. IV). PINCH - The linemen 'Pinch' against an offencive lineman rendering him helpless. V). NONE - No specials. 3). Shifts. In a shift the linemen can shift to the weakside of the offence this is known as 'Undershift'. They can also shift to the strongside of the defence, known as 'Overshift'. They can also stay as they are. 4). Coverage. There are two types of coverage - I). ZONE - A defencive player is resonsible for any receiver entering his zone. II). MAN TO MAN - Each defencive player is given a player on the offence or not. 5). Blitz When the defence choose blitz they increase their pass rush. A blitz can come from a linebacker, cornerback or even a saftey. The combination of what you choose will form how the defence will react on the field. Pressing 'Esc' atany time will call a timeout. -----*----- SCOREBOARD -----*----- After each quarter you will be shown the scoreboard which, surprise surprise, shows you the scores from each quarter and the total score. -----*----- STATISTICS -----*----- After the game you will have the chance to see statistics for both teams and for both sets of players. The statistics are pretty much self explanitory. Sadly there are no statistics for running backs who recieve the ball on a pass play. After this you will go back to the 'Pick Your Team' part of the game. -----*----- CREDITS -----*----- Programming Bits - Chris Sadler Design & Research - Chris Sadler Graphical Bits - Chris Sadler Musical Bits - Lee Pedder Playtesting the game till we dropped dead - Chris Sadler Neil Tyler Scott Wilson David Abbott Back Seat Programmers - Scott Wilson Neil Tyler Assistance - Scott Wilson Neil Tyler Russell Lewis Russell has just set up a P.D. library :- Public P.D. 44 Moreton Rd North, Luton, Beds LU2 9DP. Support P.D -------------------------******---------------------- NECESSARY ROUGHNESS V1.0 (C)1993 Chris Sadler Music (C)1993 Lee Pedder Necessary Roughness V1.0 is shareware. Necessary Roughness V1.0 is freely distributable. A shareware fee of £5 is requested anything more would be a greatly appreciated, shocking surprise !!! Program Written Using AMOS v1.34 Program Compiled Using AMOS COMPILER Graphics Drawn on Delux Paint III Icons Drawn Using Icon Master Music Written in OctaMED. 'Scoreboard' font from Blue Fose Fonts #1 -------------------------******---------------------- -----*----- FACTS AND FIGURES -----*----- I wanted a program with depth. Did I get it? Well we know there are 28 teams and each team has 45 members in its squad and each member has 3 attributes ranging from 3 to 9, a difference of 6. Then any one of those 28 teams can play one of 27 others. They have 34 plays on offence and 540 combinations on defence. I think it's time to do a spot of working out now - 28 teams to choose from 27 teams left to play 45 members in squad 3 attributes each 6 being the range of these 34 plays on offence 540 combinations on defence ___________ 11242930000 combinations altogether! I think you will agree that that is depth for you, but it dosn't end there what about the fact that each formation is filled by different people each time? Or the pass routes, blocking and most of all the random factor involved that makes every play different, every players instincts different every time they go out onto the field! Mind blowing stuff indeed. (Version 1.1 has more!) I'm satisfied with the depth in the game that I wanted and I'm not finished yet! How would the following sound to you if it were released into P.D. - Data Disks with updates of players and teams or teams from seasons gone by (1986-1987 or 1989-1990 players for example) - Draft Day Disk (for version 1.1) - Training Camp (for version 1.1) Mind you I have to fit all of this around my college course! If you have any suggestions, comments, bug spotting, ect then please write to me as I'd like to hear from you. -----*----- THE RULES OF AMERICAN FOOTBALL -----*----- American Football can seem complicated to start with but once a few basic rules are grasped it all falls into place. American Football is played on a field which is marked out with lines every 10 yards, smaller lines every 5 yards and other lines for every yard so forming a 'GRIDIRON'. Like in most other sports the objective is to score more points than your opponent and therefore win the game. Primaraly the objective is to take the ball into your opponents Endzone, scoring a TOUCHDOWN worth 6 points. A touchdown is followed by a conversion kick known as the EXTRA POINT conversion is it is worth one point. Touchdowns are not the only method of scoring in American Football. The offence can elect to kick a FIELD GOAL which is worth three points if completed. A teams defence can also get points by way of a SAFETY. A safety is where the player with the ball is tackled in his own endzone by the defence. The game is played in four quarters each lasting 15 minutes. Play is started by one team kicking the ball to the other team. The team who receive the ball become the OFFENCE while the team defending are known as the DEFENCE. The team who receive the ball in the first half will have to kick off in the second half. The offence now has to move the ball towards the endzone. The offence is given four chances known as DOWNS to move the ball forward 10 yards. In each down both the offence and defence will call PLAYS from their GAMEPLAN, the offence will try to select a play which will get them the maximum yardage while the defence has to try call a play that will minimize the offencive gain. If the offence gains the required yardage then they get a FIRST DOWN which means they will have anouther four plays to move the ball. For example - 1st down and 10 yards to gain (Known as 1st and 10) on the 30 yard line. The offence calls a pass play and picks up 7 yards. So now it's 2nd and 3 on the 37 yard line (because they picked up 7 yards they only need three more for a first down.). The offence calls a running play but the play is stopped for a loss of 2 yards. 3rd and 5 on then 35 yard line. The offence passes the ball 32 yards before the play is stopped. They have got more than the necessary yardage so they pick up the first down. Even though there are four downs it is highly unlikely that an offence will risk running a play on fourth down as if they fail to get the yardage needed then the ball is handed to the defencive team. A team will only play on fourth down if the yardage needed is short or they are behind on points. It is more likely to see the offence either PUNT the ball away or try a field goal if they are in range. A timeout may be called by either of the teams at any time. Each team has three timeouts per half. Timeoiuts are used usually at the end of each half to stretch out the clock and score. The clock is also stopped if the quarterback throws an incomplete pass or if the ball goes out of bounds. If the scores are tied after the four quarters then the match goes into OVERTIME lasting 15 minutes where the first team to score wins. If the teams are still drawn at the end of overtime then the game is declared a draw unless it is a PLAYOFF game in which one team must win, therefore play goes on until someone scores. Knowledge of the above rules is enough to see you through while playing Necessary Roughness or watching American Football. If you want to go into more depth then there are a lot of good books that you can read on the subject. -------------------------------------------------------------------- The following is a guide to punts and field goals PUNT - Punting the ball does give the opposition the ball but they usually have to start in a less favourable position on the field. If an offence attempted to play the ball while deep in their own half on fourth down and give the ball away then the opposition is in a good position to score. However, if the ball is punted away the opposition will not be in such a good position. FIELD GOAL - If in range of a field goal then an offence will elect to do this. If completed it is worth 3 points however if it is not completed then the opposition will take over from where the kick was taken. A field goal attempt does not have to be on fourth down so if time is running low at the end of a half then you can still try for a field goal. -----*----- STRATEGY AND TACTICS -----*----- American Football is like a game of chess. The offence and defence are forever trying to out-think their opponents. Tactics vary from team to team and from coach to coach but below is a simple guideline to tactics on Necessary Roughness. - When you are on offence use the INFO command together with the VIEW command to pick the best plays and single out your best players. This can also be used to work out the range of your kicker and punter. - The computer WILL play on fourth down if necessary so be carefull - Watch the clock as time can creep up on you - Field position is everything in American Football, I hope the following diagram will help you to decide what type of play to choose. _______________________________ | | | YOUR ENDZONE | | | G |-----------------------------| G |11111111111111111111111111111| |11111111111111111111111111111| |22222222222222222222222222222| 10 |-----------------------------| 10 |22222222222222222222222222222| |22222222222222222222222222222| |22222222222222222222222222222| 20 |-----------------------------| 20 |33333333333333333333333333333| |33333333333333333333333333333| |33333333333333333333333333333| 30 |-----------------------------| 30 |33333333333333333333333333333| |33333333333333333333333333333| |33333333333333333333333333333| 40 |-----------------------------| 40 |33333333333333333333333333333| |33333333333333333333333333333| |33333333333333333333333333333| 50 |-----------------------------| 50 |33333333333333333333333333333| |33333333333333333333333333333| |33333333333333333333333333333| 40 |-----------------------------| 40 |33333333333333333333333333333| |33333333333333333333333333333| |33333333333333333333333333333| 30 |-----------------------------| 30 |33333333333333333333333333333| |33333333333333333333333333333| |33333333333333333333333333333| 20 |-----------------------------| 20 |44444444444444444444444444444| |44444444444444444444444444444| |44444444444444444444444444444| 10 |-----------------------------| 10 |44444444444444444444444444444| |55555555555555555555555555555| |55555555555555555555555555555| G |-----------------------------| G | | | OPPONENTS ENDZONE | |_____________________________| KEY - 1). The offence has to get to at least the 5 yard line while the defence should put as much pressure on the offence as possible and attempt to force a safety. 2). The offence can begin to open up a bit but must not be too cocky as losing possession in this area would almost certainly give their opponents the oppertunity to score. The defence should still pressure the offence but must also be wary of big plays. 3). It is in this area that the offence will come to life they should attempt to strech the defence to the full. 4). The defence should become tighter in this area as a scoring chance is on hand for the offence. The offence should try and force the yardage needed for a touchdown while still attempting to strech the defence. 5). Its glory or shame for the offence but the defence should be defending their endzone with their lives. - Don't waste your timeouts. Use them to strech the clock if you are behind on points. - Don't attempt to play on fourth down unless you are in a safe field position if you should loose the ball. I hope the above will help you in playing Necessary Roughness or in understanding American Football a bit better. ******************************************************* * * * NECESSARY ROUGHNESS VERSION 1.0 * * * * (C)1993 Chris Sadler * * * ******************************************************* -----*----- SHAREWARE BIT -----*----- Necessary Roughness Version 1.0 is shareware. To register please sent £5 made payable to Chris Sadler. Now I know that most of you won't want to part with your money unless you see some results. So what do you get. You get Necessary Roughness Version 1.1. 'Wow!' I hear you cry already. 'I pay £5 and get a 1 instead of a 0 at the end of the title!'. Well to be honest, you do get that but you will get far more besides. For a start Version 1.1 allows you to play a full 16 week schedule playoffs and championships. Version 1.1 allows you to select your team taking into consideration injuries and previous performance. Version 1.1 comes with a stats program which allows you to analize every team and every player in the league so you can see what you are up against in matches to come, or just see who's the best. As a registered user you will get information on any expansion or data disks that are being planned for release. Version 1.1 comes with a Gameplan Designer. You can design a gameplan to suit your teams needs, to suit the match comming up or to suit the way your favourite team plays in real life. With the above programs you can play each match of the season, looking at your next opponents statistics so you can alter your gameplan to get the best performance out of your team. Sound good ? Then register now - Necessary Roughness V1.1, Chris Sadler, 2 Wellesley Ave, Walmer, Deal, Kent CT14 7SJ. -----*-----