FIFA Road to World Cup 98 (Saturn)

For the Sega Mega Drive game, see FIFA Road to World Cup 98 (Mega Drive).

n/a

FIFA Road to World Cup 98

System(s): Sega Saturn

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: EA Canada, Climax

Peripherals supported: Saturn Backup Memory

Genre: Sports

Number of players: 1-8

Official in-game languages:

English

Français

Deutsch

Italiano

Español

Svenska

Nederlands

Release	Date	RRP	Code
US	1997-12-18^[2]		T-5025H
DE	1997
ES	1997		T-5025H-50 EAS025013501
FR	1997		T-5025H-50 EAF025013501
PT	199x
UK	1997	£44.9944.99^[1]	T-5025H-50 EAE025013501
IT	1997		T-5025H-50 EAI025013501
PL	199x
BR	199x		191x60

Non-Sega versions
Nintendo 64 PlayStation Windows PC

This short article is in need of work. You can help Sega Retro by adding to it.

FIFA Road to World Cup 98 is a 1997 football game by Electronic Arts released for the Sega Saturn as a sequel (or update) to FIFA 97.

FIFA 98s packaging is localised, featuring players from the local country's national football team.

Gameplay

Though its predecessors also held the FIFA license, FIFA Road to World Cup 98 goes one step further by tying itself into the 1998 FIFA World Cup, including all 172 FIFA-registered national teams which existed at the time (incidentally it would not be until 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa when EA would include all national teams which took part in qualification). 189 club teams from 11 national leagues are also featured, and teams can also be created and edited by the user.

Des Lynam returns to introduce matches, as does commentators John Motson and Andy Gray.

Versions

FIFA 98 on the Saturn was one of EA's final releases for the system, and is noticeably stripped down when compared to its PlayStation counterpart. All full motion video cutscenes render at a lower resolution (with borders), support for Dolby Surround was dropped and much of the graphical detail is missing, with fewer textures, lower quality shadows and simpler (and sometimes non-existent) animations (the latter seemingly at odds with EA's heavily publicised use of then-cutting edge motion capture technology). It does mean the Saturn game takes less time to load, however (though both are trounced by the cartridge-based Nintendo 64 version whose load times are near-instantaneous).

Players are much larger than their rival console counterparts, giving the impression that pitches are smaller than they should be. Many of the omissions can curiously be found in the previous year's release of FIFA Soccer 97.

Localised names

Also known as
Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English	FIFA Road to World Cup 98	FIFA Road to World Cup 98
English (US)	FIFA Road to World Cup 98	FIFA Road to World Cup 98
French	FIFA: En Route pour la Coupe du Monde 98
German	FIFA: Die WM-Qualifikation 98

Production credits

Climax Team

President-Climax: Karl Jeffery
Producer: Scott Sanders
Lead Programmer: ZZKJ
Senior Programmers: Damian Stones, Damian Hammond, Tom Pinnock
Additional Programming: Richard Beavan
Lead Artist: Agust Fridriksson
Artist: Mike Oakley
Audio Conversion: Matt Simmonds
Tester: George Buggins

EAC Team

Executive Producer: Bruce McMillan
Director, Product Development: Warren Wallssistants
Producer: Marc Aubanel
Assistant Producer: David McCarthy
Development Director: Dylan Miklashek
Original 32Bit Version By: Electronic Arts Seattle
Programming Architect: Penny Lee
Franchise Development Director: Gaivan Chang
Art Director: David Adams
Franchise Art Lead: Jackie Ritchie
Core Production: Andy Abramovici, Brent Disbrow, Robert Kaill, Nick Malaperiman, Heidi Newell, M. James Schulte, Kerry Whalen, Nicholas Wlodyka
Core Team Lead Programmers: Desmond Fernando, Brian Plank, Andrew Routledge, Ted Sylka
Core Team Programmers: Wyatt Cheng, Hong Chin, Jorge Consuegra, Michael Gordon, Chris Khoo, John Lawrie, Kevin Pickell, Jason Rupert, Bartosz Kijanka
Animation Lead: Joe MacDonald
Animator: Cory Slavin
Additional Animation: David Demorest
Additional Art: Terry Chui, Brian Keane, Margaret Livesey, Laura Parr
Audio Speciallists: Omar Al-Kafaji, Neil Biggin, Chris Tailor (CT)
CG Supervisor: John Rix
CG Artist: Craig Hui
Additional CG Art: Dimension's Edge
Video Lead: Tom Raycove
Video Assistant: Dwayne Wudrich
Production Assistants: Catherine Williamson, Iris Benbasset, Jeniffer Campbell
CO-OP Production Assistant: Renton Leversedge
Manager, Motion Capture: Evan Hirsch
Motion Capture Shoot Supervision: David Coleman
Motion Capture: Demian Gordon, Moses Kaplinsky, Daven Coburn, Andrea Donnely, JJ Gonzales, Vince Ng, Peter Saumur, Susan Skerl-Cote
Manager, 3D Tools: Paul Lewis
3D Tools: Bill Craft, Sean Halliday, Frank Henigman, Ian Gilliland, Sallie Melluso, Scott Swan
Manager, Libraries: Rick Friesen
Libraries: James Fairweather, Dave Mercier, Shane Alfreds, Kurt Kennett, Gerry Shaw, Curtis Patzer
Localization Producer: Louise Read
European Localisation Manager: Dominique Goy
Language Testing Coordinator: Matt Eyre
Voice Talent: John Motson, Andy Gray, Desmond Lynam
QA Coordinator: John Santamaria
QA Lead: Gordon Thornton
QA Assistant Leads: Kyle Seller, Mike McCartney
QA Testers: Randy Deluna, Patrick Donaghy, Cristian Isac, Rafael Erana, Ali Mehrassa, Octavio Izaurraulde, Fausto Mazzuto, Ryan Yewell, David Weller, Mark Peters, Carvy Spindler, Edward Chiu
Common Database: Mark Lawson
EAC QA Mastering: Peter Petkov, Jeff Hutchinson, Cary Chao
EAC QA Tech: Bill Kim, Colin Cox, Darcy Gog, Chris Wallace, Paul Breland, Jason Feser, Zech Prinz
Technical Advisors: Mike Mosher, Sam Iacobellis
Product Marketing: Paula Singleton, Margaret Murray, Duncan Magee
Public Relations: Keith Dundas
Documentation: Andrea Engstrom
Documentation Layout: Corinne Mah
Package Art and Design: Nancy Waisanen, Oshiro Design, Allsport USA
EASM Quality Assurance: Jesse Abney, Richard Beresh
Special Thanks: SD Post - UK Studio, Marina Crean, Duncan Backus, Joerg Brand, Bettina Klos, Petrina Wallace, Michael de Plater, Niclas Nordlander, Rob Bailey, Wayne Paugh, Brian Ward, Klly Kooner, Caroline Ancessi, Kiyomi Hisatsugu, Susan Su, Sissel Tangen, Min Choi, Chung Tze Yang, Marni Donnely, Steve Berberet, Tony Garcia, Shannon Manley, Alan Van Slyke, Ron Bolinger, Wes Potter, Tracey Dear
Music Consultant: Jonnie Forster at Tuff Break Sports & Entertainment

Music

Blur
Song 2
- Written by: Damon Albarn, Steven Alexander James, Graham Coxon and David Rowntree
- Performed by: Blur
- ©1997 EMI Music Publishing Ltd.
- All Rights For EMI Music Publishing Ltd. in the United States and Canada Controlled by EMI Blackwood Music Inc.
- Under License from EMI UK
The Crystal Method
Keep Hope Alive
- Under License from EMI Music Publishing
- ©1995 EMI Virgin Songs. Inc. and Drug Money Music
More
- ©The Crystal Method
- ©1996 EMI Virgin Songs. Inc. and Drug Money Music
Now Is The Time (Cloud 9 Remix)
- Under License from EMI Music Publishing
- ©1996 EMI Virgin Songs. Inc. and Drug Money Music
Busy Child
- Courtesy of Outpost Records
- ©1997 EMI Virgin Songs. Inc. and Drug Money Music
- All Songs Written by: Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland
- All Songs Performed by: The Cristal Method
- All Rights Controlled and Administered by: EMI Virgin Songs. Inc.
Electric Skychurch
Hugga Bear
- Written by: James Lumb
- Performed By: Electric Skychurch
- Produced by: James Lumb for Skychurch Family Productions
(P)1997 Skychurch Family Productions

©1997 Lumpy Spacetime Music (ASCAP)

Flag artwork provided under license by Dream Maker Software.

Source:

In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: FIFA Road to World Cup 98 (Saturn)/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Gameshow (TR) #32: "Kasım 1997" (1997-xx-xx)

Print advert in Morgunblaðið (IS) #1998-02-27 (1998-02-27)

Print advert in Gameshow (TR) #36: "Mart-Nisan 1998" (1998-xx-xx)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average

Publication

Version

Score

Ação Games (BR)

30

^[3]

Computer & Video Games (UK)

0

^[1]

Electronic Gaming Monthly (US)

NTSC-U

66

^[4]

Fun Generation (DE)

PAL

50

^[5]

Joypad (FR)

PAL

50

^[6]

MAN!AC (DE)

PAL

79

^[7]

Mega Console (IT)

NTSC-U

70

^[8]

Mega Force (FR)

PAL

95

^[9]

Mega Fun (DE)

PAL

78

^[10]

Sega Magazin (DE)

PAL

82

^[11]

Sega Saturn Magazine (UK)

PAL

58

^[12]

	60
Based on 11 reviews

FIFA Road to World Cup 98 (Saturn)

Saturn, US
Cover
Disc Manual

Saturn, UK
Cover
Manual

Saturn, FR
Cover
Manual

Saturn, DE
Cover

Saturn, ES
Cover

Saturn, IT
Cover

Saturn, PT
Cover

Saturn, BR
Cover

Technical information

ROM dump status

System

Hash

Size

Build Date

Source

Comments

?

CRC32
MD5
SHA-1

492,555,840

CD-ROM (DE)

T-5025H-50 V1.000

?

CRC32
MD5
SHA-1

456,883,056

CD-ROM (EU)

T-5025H-50 V1.000

?

CRC32
MD5
SHA-1

454,608,672

CD-ROM (FR)

T-5025H-50 V1.000

References

Electronic Arts sports games for Sega systems
American Football
John Madden Football (1990) \| John Madden Football '92 (1991) \| John Madden Football '93 (1992) \| John Madden Football: Championship Edition (1992) \| Mutant League Football (1993) \| Madden NFL '94 (1993) \| Bill Walsh College Football (1993) \| Bill Walsh College Football '95 (1994) \| Madden NFL '95 (1994) \| Madden NFL 96 (1995) \| College Football USA 96 (1995) \| Madden NFL 97 (Mega Drive) (1996) \| Madden NFL 97 (Saturn) (1996) \| College Football USA 97 (1996) \| Madden NFL 98 (Mega Drive) (1997) \| Madden NFL 98 (Saturn) (1997)
Baseball
Tony La Russa Baseball (1993) \| MLBPA Baseball (1994) \| La Russa Baseball 95 (1994) \| Triple Play 96 (1995) \| Triple Play: Gold Edition (1996)
Basketball
Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs (1990) \| Bulls vs Lakers and the NBA Playoffs (1991) \| Jordan vs Bird (1992) \| Team USA Basketball (1992) \| Bulls versus Blazers and the NBA Playoffs (1993) \| NBA Showdown '94 (1994) \| NBA Live 95 (1994) \| NBA Live 96 (1995) \| Coach K College Basketball (1995) \| NBA Live 97 (Mega Drive) (1996) \| NBA Live 97 (Saturn) (1996) \| NBA Live 98 (Mega Drive) (1997) \| NBA Live 98 (Saturn) (1997)
Golf
Zany Golf (1990) \| PGA Tour Golf (1990) \| PGA Tour Golf II (1992) \| PGA Tour Golf III (1994) \| PGA European Tour (1994) \| PGA Tour Golf II (1995) \| PGA Tour 96 (1995) \| PGA Tour 97 (1996)
Ice Hockey
NHL Hockey (Mega Drive) (1991) \| NHLPA Hockey '93 (1992) \| NHL Hockey '94 (1993) \| Elitserien 95 (1994) \| Mutant League Hockey (1994) \| NHL 95 (1994) \| NHLPA Hockey (1994) \| Elitserien 96 (1995) \| NHL 96 (1995) \| NHL Hockey (Game Gear) (1995) \| NHL 97 (Mega Drive) (1996) \| NHL 97 (Saturn) (1996) \| NHL 98 (Mega Drive) (1997) \| NHL 98 (Saturn) (1997)
Racing
Mario Andretti Racing (1994) \| Andretti Racing (1996) \| NASCAR 98 (1997)
Rugby
Rugby World Cup 1995 (1994) \| Australian Rugby League (1995)
Soccer
FIFA International Soccer (8-bit) (1993) \| FIFA International Soccer: Championship Edition (1994) \| FIFA Soccer 95 (1994) \| FIFA Soccer 96 (Mega Drive) (32X \| Saturn \| Game Gear) (1995) \| FIFA Soccer 97 (Gold Edition) (1996) \| FIFA Road to World Cup 98 (Mega Drive) (1997) \| FIFA Road to World Cup 98 (Saturn) (1997)
Misc.
EA Sports Double Header (1992) \| IMG International Tour Tennis (1994) \| Toughman Contest (1994)

[:File:CVG_UK_195.pdf_p94-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Computer & Video Games, "February 1998" (UK; 1998-01-14), page 94

[https:.2F.2Fweb.archive.org.2Fweb.2F19990221172240.2Fhttp:.2F.2Friehlspot.simplenet.com.2Fvgame.2Fnew.2Fsaturn.html-2] ttp://riehlspot.simplenet.com/vgame/new/saturn.html (Wayback Machine: 1999-02-21 17:22)

[:File:AcaoGames_BR_128.pdf_p11-3] Ação Games, "Junho 1998" (BR; 1998-xx-xx), page 11

[:File:EGM_US_104.pdf_p120-4] Electronic Gaming Monthly, "March 1998" (US; 1998-0x-xx), page 120

[:File:FunGeneration_DE_1998-04.pdf_p78-5] Fun Generation, "04/98" (DE; 1998-03-06), page 78

[:File:Joypad_FR_073.pdf_p101-6] Joypad, "Mars 1998" (FR; 1998-xx-xx), page 101

[:File:MAN.21AC_DE_1998-04.pdf_p77-7] MAN!AC, "04/98" (DE; 1998-03-11), page 77

[:File:MegaConsole_IT_45.pdf_p78-8] Mega Console, "Febbraio 1998" (IT; 1998-xx-xx), page 78

[:File:MegaForce_FR_62.pdf_p52-9] Mega Force, "Avril/Mai/Juin 1998" (FR; 1998-0x-xx), page 52

[:File:MegaFun_DE_1998-03.pdf_p80-10] Mega Fun, "03/98" (DE; 1998-02-04), page 80

[:File:SegaMagazin_DE_53.pdf_p18-11] Sega Magazin, "April 1998" (DE; 1998-03-11), page 18

[:File:SSM_UK_28.pdf_p70-12] Sega Saturn Magazine, "February 1998" (UK; 1998-01-14), page 70

[2]

[1]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

FIFA Road to World Cup 98 (Saturn)

From Sega Retro

Contents

Gameplay

Versions

Localised names

Production credits

Magazine articles

Promotional material

Physical scans

Technical information

ROM dump status

References