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Great Game! Wasn't there the possibility to transfer your players from the regular "Anstoß"-game into this edition???

yes you could transfer your players. the world cup edition works as a stand-alone version and an add-on. if you own "Anstoss" you could coach your own team as in every manger game (contracts, merchandise, stadium management etc.) and if you are successful you are able to achieve the position as national coach (even refuse it). pretty cool i think.

btw. the sequel Anstoss2 is the best manager game i ever played. unfortunatley it crashes often in multiplayer games. if you can get it anywhere, try it!

this and on the ball league edition are the best in their genre. i really can recomend either of these games to budding soccer managers both games are truly deep.

On the ball 2 world cup edition is an add on so to say, not in a sense that it ads to the original game but in a sense that it's an extension of the second game.

I'm a huge Anstoss fan, which is what this game is called, anstos 1 was the best soccer manager game to ever come out, a true clasic. Before that there were lots of other manager games, but they were simple and boring. anstos was the first series to make this the game which makes them the most money,

In later years they released anstos 2 and it was overwhelminly suces full. They tried to test the market outside germany and reales on the ball 2, league edition and world cup edition but it did fairly miserably and actualy lost them quite some money.

Anstos 3 was the best anstos i ever played, it was crazy, so many detailed options a personal mode where you can become a player, have kids, mary, buy stocks, buy your own team, build up the stadium, build up the land around the stadium with never ending buildings, the grafix were amazing, the game was just phenomenal.

then EA games saw what kind of market share could be gained by soccer manager games and they hired anstos 2 top game creators that made anstos so sucesfull.

Following year ansos 4 came out, and it was a huge flop. the loading took forever all the fun parts of the game gone missing, and they thought that slaping nice grafix on a dul game could make it somewhat better.

so after losing quite some money, they released anstos 2005, which was basically anstos 3 with a new user interface, but it felt like anstos 3 and played like it as well. So the fans loved it but like me mostly were unsatisfied especialy after spending so much money on anstos 4 which made you buy a dvd player. talk about loyalty

Anyhow the market by that time was dominated by EA and their soccer manager series which was quite suces full and managed to deliver a decent product. However the EA series was allways to boring for me, because it didn't have the atmosphere that anstoss series provided, with their humerous tendencies and not taking itself so serious especialy with the options of black market and bribing officials and so on.

so now i'm really excited becasue anstos 2007 just came out, and from what i've read thus far its a huge suces. Hoever its only in german so if you don't speak it well i woudlnt' advise u to get it. They brought back the offe feel and a new feature called the radio and an ranking system for managers all over the world. The grafix are beutiful but whats more important is that the game is finally back on the right path.

check the game at ascaron home page, but unles you have a good friend in germany or family it will be tough to get that game shiped to the us.

well there is the short history of the asntos series or on the ball to which is kind a weird. since anstos means kick of intead of on the ball, but hey.

[Nigga]

Oh, man, thanks for such a deep story of manager games, it was really interesting for me. You know, I'm a big fan of soccer managers and I'm just weird about all the stuff like that! I didn't know, that "Anstoss" has SUCH a rich history, mainly because it's all in German and not so popular in the rest of the world I think.

You know, your post just got me wanting to play those Anstoss series... *sigh* ...though, I don't know German at all...
And I almost hate those EA games - just run-and-kick stuff, nothing more!!!
Also I consider their attempts to create a real soccer manager were just very poor!..

Well, thanks again!

Yeah Anstoß was great, but the bundesliga series from software 2000 were also cool im loving football manager, but i think the time for anstoß is over.. sad but true..

I really liked that game and used to play it for hours and hours and hours and.... :brain:

I have the original OnTheBall game, not the world cup edition. When I start the game, they ask about some kind of code. In the cover of the game it says; "Some games may require you to enter a copy protection code. If relevant, these can be found on a separate code card contained in this pack". Where the f**k do I find this bloody protection code?? Please help me!

Originally Posted by Nigga

And I almost hate those EA games - just run-and-kick stuff, nothing more!!!

I think what the guy was referring to was EA's FIFA Manager series (previously known as Total Club Manager) that's separate from EA's regular FIFA series. EA Sports hired Gerald Koehler, who I think was the lead designer behind the Anstoss series, in order to create something similar for them.

Not surprisingly, Total Club Manager 2003 included many of the features that had made Anstoss 3 the best and most successful game in that series: many detailed options surrounding your team and tactics, a rich array of things to do in your "private life," the ability to give interviews and choose your responses in order to affect your team's morale, etc.

Even though the FIFA Manager games use the same 3-D match engine that EA uses in the arcade-style FIFA games, it's not enough to make the game feel soul-less in comparison to Anstoss 1-3. Even though the graphics in those games might be dated and even though Ascon/Ascaron never received the official license to use real clubs and player names, the developing team understood what it takes to imbue their game with real charm and added little in-jokes that any (German) football fan would "get" immediately.

I haven't played the FIFA Manager series since the 2005 installment, but from what I understand the series tried to move away from the casual manager experience of Anstoss to something more along the lines of Sports Interactive's Football Manager series.