Backyard Soccer (Windows, Mac OS Classic)

The second game in the Backyard Sports line, Backyard Soccer has the lovable cast joining a soccer league this time, advancing through three divisions in order to win the Astonishingly Shiny Cup of All Cups Trophy. Those who live in Europe (mostly the United Kingdom) and played this game, however, Backyard Football for its European release is not to be confused with the the other Backyard Football which was released in the same year in the US, as its just a localization of this game.

Unused Text#

Like most Humongous games, there are unused subtitles for all the dialogue in the game's resources. However, like Backyard Baseball, "TextOn=1" does not turn them on this time around. ScummVM is the only possible way to see them.

Debug Mode#

This game, like many other Humongous games, has a debug mode...but due to the nature of this game, there are no debug rooms or item select screens. They only turn on the debug commands. To enable it, add one of the following to hegames.ini:

Striker=15

Striker=42

Striker=69

Striker=666

Striker=999

They will enable the following debug commands:

• Fast Mode - With debug mode enabled, press Ctrl + F to enable fast mode on the original interpreter. It puts everything in turbo speed.
• Room Goto - Press Ctrl + G to bring up the room goto box.
• Object Pickup - Ctrl + O prompts which object number you want to pick up.
• Change Variable - Pressing Ctrl + E first asks for a variable number to change, then gives the value of that variable and prompts the user for a new value to set it to.

Area 51 1/2#

By adding the line

area-103-halves-enabled=1

to hegames.ini, the special field shown above will be available for play in a pick-up game. The field has no unique background audio and instead reuses the background crowd chatter of Pro Sports Arena (the Off the Wall Indoor Invitational Tournament's field) plus some of the audience sounds of the B Division's Parks Department fields, despite there not being any crowds watching the match on this field. It was probably chosen to be cut for being out-of-place in a neighborhood setting.

Collision Map and Unused UI#

By typing "4" in the room goto window or typing "room 4" in ScummVM's debugger, a collision map of one of the fields is shown (it seems to be the Off-the-Wall Indoor Invitational map). It flickers constantly though and hardly seems to serve a purpose. It is also very low-functioning in ScummVM as a developer has stated it requires extra coding that isn't worth it. Additionally, the UI on this screen is from Backyard Baseball rather than Soccer, though it's likely just a leftover.

Season Debugger#

By adding the line

season debugger=1

to hegames.ini, this screen will appear upon signing into a season. It displays the names of all the opposing teams, their colors, formations, strategies, and players, and was likely used as a debugging feature. Interestingly, the Boots are called the Strikers on this screen, indicating that the name was changed at some point during development.

Regional Differences#

To do: Upload a gameplay video of this rare localization. I don't know if it's necessary, but rip the UK English dialogue.

As stated before, when the game hit shelves in the United Kingdom, it was localized and retitled as Backyard Football. As such, all instances of the US term "soccer" have been redubbed and replaced with the UK term "football", both dialogue and graphic-wise.

Revisional Differences#

Like with Baseball '97, the game was reissued on Steam as Backyard Soccer '98, and because of the source code being lost, it runs on a hacked version because of this. Like before, while the experience hasn't changed and kept intact, these small changes are present.

Opening Screens#

Like before, the Mega Cat logo replaced the Humongous Entertainment logo to avoid legal issues with Tommo, Inc. and Billion Soft, and the "It's Junior Sports" screen is replaced with Playground Productions' logo. Sounds for both of the screens remain intact.

"Thanks For Everything" Note#

Like with all further re-releases of the Humongous Backyard Sports games, the credits added a special note for the original developers discussing a bit of the aforementioned legal issues.

To the good people from
Humongous Entertainment

Thanks for everything.

Sorry we removed
every mention of your
company from the game.

Legal made us do it.