FIFA Road to World Cup 98 (Saturn)

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

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FIFA Road to World Cup 98
System(s): Sega Saturn
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Canada, Climax
Licensor: Fédération Internationale de Football Association, International Sport and Leisure
Peripherals supported: Saturn Backup Memory
Genre: Sports (football)
Number of players: 1-8
Official in-game languages: English Français Deutsch Italiano Español Svenska Nederlands
Release Date RRP Code US 1997-12-18 T-5025H DE 1997 ES 1997 T-5025H-50 EAS025013501 FR 1997 T-5025H-50 EAF025013501 PT 199x UK 1997 £44.9944.99 T-5025H-50 EAE025013501 IT 1997 T-5025H-50 EAI025013501 PL 199x BR 199x 191x60
Non-Sega versions Nintendo 64 PlayStation Windows PC

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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
Spanish	FIFA: Rumbo al Mundial 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)

All Rights Reserved Used by Permission

Flag artwork provided under license by Dream Maker Software.

© 1996 Dream Maker Software

All Rights Reserved

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 Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Ação Games (BR) 30 Computer & Video Games (UK) 0 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 66 Fun Generation (DE) PAL 50 Joypad (FR) PAL 50 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 79 Mega Console (IT) NTSC-U 70 Mega Force (FR) PAL 95 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 78 Sega Magazin (DE) PAL 82 Sega Saturn Magazine (UK) PAL 58

	60
Based on 11 reviews

FIFA Road to World Cup 98 (Saturn)

Saturn, US
Cover
Disc Manual

Saturn, UK
Cover
Disc Manual

Saturn, FR
Cover
Manual

Saturn, DE
Cover

Saturn, ES
Cover

Saturn, IT
Cover

Saturn, PT
Cover

Saturn, BR
Cover
File:Manual-saturn-fifa-98.pdf Manual

Technical information

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