Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How can I play?
A: Click 'start a new career', 'Quick start', 'Continue', 'Player options', 'new'. Fill in the form, select a nationality and team, then click on 'create'. If you play as a single player you can re-roll until you are happy with the values, then click on apply.

Q: The game starts in German language. How can I change it to English?
A: Delete the file 'data/options.dat' to reset all options including the language settings or go to the menu 'Einstellungen' (German for 'options').

Q: Do I need to do the whole player creation process? Is there no faster way to create a player?
A: Yes, there is. Click on a team at the league table. In the teams' squad you can go to 'controls' to play the entire team or you click on a player and click on 'controls' at the player information. Then you play an existing player.

Q: Which playing mode should I try?
A: Most players seem to prefer the 'player career' mode. There you can start a player career as a youth player and have no influence on transfers and the first team squad. You only play one player in the play-in-position mode. If you prefer to manage your team and transfer players you should try the 'player-manager' mode.

Q: How can I leave a menu?
A: You can always leave a menu and go back by clicking the right mouse button.

Q: When is the first match?
A: The first league match is in week 7. In some countries there are cup matches earlier.

Q: When I start the game the error 'memory access violation' appears.
A: Be sure that you have installed the latest DirectX version. In some rare cases it can also be that your graphics card driver is not installed correctly.

Q: I still get the error 'memory access violation'.
A: Try updating your graphics card driver. A few drivers still seem to make problems. Right click on your desktop and choose properties, to bring up the Display properties. You can also try turning off the Direct 3D acceleration: Click the Advanced button. Click the Troubleshooting Tab. Change the slider towards the left of the screen - until it is at the point where the description is "Disable DirectDraw and Direct 3D accelerations", and click OK. You should now be able to run the program.

Q: When I still get a 'memory access violation' what graphics card driver can I try?
A: For nvidia graphics cards the nvidia detonator driver versions 61.77 and 66.93 were tested without any problems.

Q: When I start the match only a black screen appears.
A: It's likely that your graphics card has insufficient graphics memory. Shared memory cards and cards with less than 16 MB will not work. These are often used in laptops.

Q: The menus are quite slow. It takes about 3 seconds until a menu appears.
A: There were some problems with a number of graphics card drivers. With the update of 31-January-2005 these problems have been fixed. Be sure to use the latest version of Championship Soccer.

Q: The buttons in the menu start to flicker after a while.
A: This is a known problem of the ATI Radeon 9x00 graphics card drivers. This also might appear in other games. Updating to the latest ATI Radeon Catalyst driver should solve the problem.

Q: Everything is very slow and only runs with 8-12fps, the mouse pointer hangs. Even though I have a fast graphics card.
A: There are some certain detonator drivers that don't seem to work. For example 44.07 can make problems on certain graphics cards while 40.* seems to work very well.

Q: I have slowdowns during the match.
A: Select 'Display properties' from the 'Control panel', go to the tab 'Settings', select 'Advanced', slide the arrow from 'optimal quality' to 'optimal performance'. If this does not help your graphics card is probably too old or does not fulfil the requirements of 16mb graphics memory.

Q: The loading times are very high. Even when I click on a menu it takes a long time until it appears.
A: It's likely that you don't have enough memory or your computer is too slow. 128MB memory should be enough for the game, but 256MB is better. You can try to play with less leagues if the calculation times are too long for you.

Q: The game freezes at the 'EURO Cup' draw.
A: No, the calculation here just takes a bit longer. On some machines it could take about a minute or slightly longer until the calculations are done. Please be patient.

Q: The game hangs up during the match.
A: There's an anti-hang up routine for this case. Wait about 20-30 seconds and the match tries to fix itself before you quit the game.

Q: What can I do when I forgot to save?
A: There are autosave files in the Saves/ folder. Autosave is the save file before the last match, Autosave2 is the save file after the last match.

Q: Can I play it in a window?
A: Yes. Start "soccer.exe /w" from the console.

Q: There are lots of spelling mistakes in the team names.
A: I unfortunately don't own rights for real team and player names. The data is editable. Alex runs a fansite at http://www.aocs.free.fr where users can share their custom created team and player data.

Q: How can I edit the team names?
A: Just take a look at the data/league/ folder and edit the .txt files. Always take a look in the international*.txt file that the team names of both files are the same so that the teams are not created twice.

Q: Can I play the entire team?
A: There are two possibilites. The fast one: go to the league table, click on the team you want to play, click on 'controls' and then you can assign your control device by clicking on 'assign'. The slow way: Use the player options and create a profile. Click on the 'player-manager (team)' mode if you want to play and manage and fill in the form.

Q: What does the free player creation mean?
A: If you create a player in the player options and choose the 'player'-mode or the 'player manager (single)'-mode you can choose the free player creation instead of the realistic career. There you can choose a higher ability, your reputation and some other things. If you want to create your own player but not start as youth player use this option.

Q: How are the controls of my player if I play with keyboard?
A: Cursor keys to move; shift or ctrl to shoot.

Q: I hardly can pass. The game needs an auto-pass option.
A: I know that the controls are not very easy at the beginning. Especially if you don't play with gamepad/joystick but with keyboards. I'm playing with these controls for a very long time and can promise that they are really good if you have played for a certain time. It takes some time to understand all possibilities. Make use of the practice function in the manager main menu.

Q: Why does the AI sometimes make poor matches?
A: The AI moves of the players are calculated in real-time. There are no programmed moves like in many other soccer simulations. The AI always tries to find a new way to be successful. The disadvantage is that they sometimes make poor matches, the advantages is that they still try new things after having played some houndreds of matches.

Q: I get no offers from other teams.
A: There was a bad finetuning in the first beta releases. It's fixed now in the current version.

Q: But I still get no offer.
A: The managers from the computer teams tread you like other players. If they think that your not good enough and have too low skills for the league they are playing in they still don't buy you.

Q: Do the offers that I get depend on the skills of my player?
A: No. The offers that you get depend on your performances in the matches that you play. If you play very well with low skills you will get the same offers as if you play very well with high skills. The skills of your player have absolutely no influence.

Q: How is the value of my player calculated?
A: The first market value of your player depend on the starting skills of your player. The development of your value depends on your performances and your player's skills in the player information have no further influence. But your market value also depends on the reputation of the team that you play for.

Q: Can I view computer matches? Is it possible to scout for players before you buy them?
A: Yes, you can. By clicking on the result of matches which not have been played yet appears a 'view' indicating that you want to view a computer match when it's played. This way you can watch how a player plays before you buy him.

Q: I've clicked on practice but there are no players at the pitch.
A: If you have selected one-player control your player starts left of the screen. A pointer indicates where your player stands if he's off the screen. Move right until your player appears.

Q: The match is running too slow/too fast.
A: You can turn it slower and faster with + and - on the NumPad while you are playing. Also you can set the maximum gamespeed in the options.

Q: The game is too easy/too hard.
A: Turn it slower (easier) or faster (harder).

Q: I am already playing it on a very fast level. The game is still too easy.
A: In the play-in-position mode the game is more difficult than in the team mode. You can set a difficulty when you create a new player (player or player-manager/single player mode) in the 'free player creation' mode. For experienced players I recommend to use the setting 'very hard'. All other options in the 'free player creation' you don't need to touch for a realistic career. Your player's skill will develop harder at a higher skill.

Q: How can I substitute?
A: If you are playing player-manager or manager you can press F1 for the home and F5 for the away team to substitute.

Q: How can I order?
A: On the homepage at http://www.championshipsoccer.net

Q: Do I get a free keyfile if I send a mail to the author?
A: No.

Q: But I'm really poor.
A: Sorry, I said no.

Q: I can translate the game to xyz. Do I get a keyfile for it?
A: No. But I can put your name into the thanks list in the about.

Q: Why does the game only cost 16.95 EUR? That's not much for such a comprehensive game.
A: I am trying to reach a larger number of users to build up a bigger fan community.

Q: How can I order?
A: ShareIt takes credit card, bank account transfer, cash and cheque.

Q: Are minor updates and bugfixes included?
A: Yes, of course.

Q: How long does it take until I receive my keyfile?
A: When you order with credit card it usually takes between 30 minutes and 2 days. I'll send the keyfile as soon as possible.

Q: I ordered the game two days ago and haven't received a keyfile yet. What to do?
A: Use the contact form at the homepage to mail me including your real name. Maybe something went wrong with the email (for example your address did not work or the mail got lost). If you didn't pay via credit card: bank account transfer, cash and cheque takes a bit longer.

Q: I've found a bug. Where can I report it?
A: Please use the forum at http://forum.championshipsoccer.net and post it in the bug reports.

Q: Why do I need Championship Soccer when there are other soccer games with super-realistic graphics?
A: Championship Soccer is written for long-time motivation. In most of the commercial games the AI is scripted. That means after having played a couple of matches you'll note that the computer always repeats the same moves and running-ways. In Championship Soccer the moves are calculated on the current match situation in real-time. The disadvantage is that it requires a slightly higher cpu load and the AI can also make bad moves. The advantage is that the AI will still try different ways to score after you have already played hundreds of matches. The main feature of the simulation is the player career mode. There you play in position as a single soccer player. You will be able to transfer and if you play well nominated for your national team to win the World Cup someday. These are the advantages of Championship Soccer compared to the commercial soccer simulations. After you have played a couple of matches you will notice that the graphics are not that important anymore but the other features. Don't think that the game is simple although it might look quite simple at the first impression! You will need to take some time to take a closer look at the simulation and play a few matches. If you only try it for five minutes and then put it away you will miss quite a lot, I can promise that.