This game was announced in an issue of Home Computer Weekly back in 1985 and was to be sponsored by Sir Bobby Charlton.
It was promised that the game was to be very accurate and also featured input from Sir Bobby himself! … However, apart from a mention that it was being released on the BBC Micro first and the C64 and Spectrum later, it only surfaced on the BBC Micro and neither the C64 or Spectrum.
The game didn’t seem to be that well received, and we originally thought that perhaps the developer went bust shortly after the BBC Micro version was launched. However, owner of D.A.C.C, Derek Ashton got in touch and confirmed that the company didn’t go bust and continued on for many years until Derek’s retirement a few years ago. Derek had gone on to do very large scale database systems for banks, healthcare companies and even Microsoft.
Derek didn’t recall announcing a C64 version of Bobby Charlton Soccer, but we hope to learn more from Derek soon to update these pages.
We know little more than this at the moment, but maybe you can help?
Contributions: Derek Ashton
Hi, my name is Derek Ashton.
I was the owner of DACC Limited and I was the designer and team lead for the development of the Bobby Charlton computer soccer game, released for the BBC micro and the Electron computer around 1983 / 4.
My company did not go bust and was active until only a few years ago, when I retired, and was highly successful in the production of very large scale database systems for banks healthcare companies and even Microsoft.
I don’t recall announcing a version of the soccer game for other game consoles but I did write my very successful 747 flight simulator for many machines including Commodores, Ataris, Spectrum, etc.
Thanks Derek, i’ll update the page quickly and will send you a quick message.
I have an untouched, unplayed copy of it for the BBC Micro.
Yeah, it seems the BBC Micro made it out in good numbers, and the game you can download readily. Just the C64 version currently missing unfortunately.