"Time is right" for Speedball 2 remake

By Robert Purchese Published 16 March, 2007

The Bitmaps pipe up.

Bitmap Brothers' managing director Mike Montgomery has told Eurogamer that now is the right time for a Speedball 2 remake, one that will go head-to-head with the biggest and best the games industry has to offer.

"No one has yet made a clone of Speedball 2 that works," Montgomery told us. "I have been asked so many times to bring back Speedball 2 and now the time is right. With all the enhancements we're adding, it will appeal to old and new players."

"The key to Speedball 2 is that it's quick to learn and immediately fun to play. Get a few beers, pizza, and some friends, then you can have a great competition all night."

The secret to its promised success is the online master plan, which is designed around a unique game-centre, speedball2.com. This acts as both a communication and information platform for the title, offering news, matchmaking, and a marketplace to buy new armour and equipment for your team.

"Players not only read the latest news on the message board, they also see a list of their friends connected and the list of public games created. They can directly get in touch with their friends and send an invitation to a player or a clan," he added. "On the marketplace within Speedball2.com players will be able to acquire features like special armour, items and weaponry, or purchase cool merchandising and fan articles."

"I expect to see players getting together in all parts of the world, joining each other in clans to compete in world tournaments."

The game is due out in the autumn and we can expect a demo this summer. Whilst this remake will only be available on PC, Montgomery says he has designs for each console and that it won't be long until we hear about them.

Originally released on the Amiga back in 1991, Speedball 2 is a brutal futuristic sport played by two teams of nine with a steel ball on a steel court. There are virtually no rules, so fierce melee attacks that smash through the opposing lines and faces are a solid and text-book tactic.

Keep an eye on the Speedball 2 website for emerging information.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (56) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Royal Fool #1 5 years ago

    Bitmap Brothers is still around?

  • Arganoid #2 5 years ago

    I'm quite surprised to read this. I recently updated the Wikipedia page for the Bitmap Brothers with the following information after looking at the Tower Studios and Companies House websites:

    "Two former core members of the company - Mike Montgomery and John Phillips - have gone on to found Tower Studios (along with Sensible Software founder Jon Hare), and state their involvement with Bitmap Brothers as having ended in 2004.

    As of 2006 it appears that the company is no longer in business. While it retains a website, there have been no updates to this (or game releases) since 2003. Companies House lists Bitmap Brothers as having been dissolved in September 2006."

    Are they back from the dead, or was their apparent demise just a big misunderstanding?

  • samk #3 5 years ago

    "Speedball 2 is a brutal futuristic sport played by two teams of six"

    Teams of nine, isn't it?

    [link url=http://www.bochum-city.com/ebay06/03-1/screens/sp eedball2-1.gif
    ]http://ww w.bochum-city.com/ebay06/03-1/s...[/link]

    Looking forward to this, as long as they keep it 2D and don't try to make it "better" by going 3D.

  • Overlush #4 5 years ago

    Bring it on :)

  • Arganoid #5 5 years ago

    Mind you, the Speedball 2 website says the game is being done by Frogster Interactive.

  • quantumsheep #6 5 years ago

    Wouldn't it make more sense to get some cash in via an XBLA version first? One with Xbox Live mutliplayer added (a la Worms?).

    I mean, if it was a faithful amiga port we'd ALL buy that, right?

  • Arganoid #7 5 years ago

    More info from the Speedball forum:

    Frogster Interactive Pictures AG is a German publisher and focused on the German market. We talked a lot with Bitmap Brothers, so they allowed us to work with the license "Speedball 2". We gave are working with a bigger developer together to get the best possible Speedball 2 remake. Bitmap Brothers work close together with our developer. So they are the "Co-Producer" of the game.

  • Steroyd #8 5 years ago

    Wait a sec... Speedball 2 wouldn't be THE sequel to THE Speedball game i absolutely loved on my old DOS computer would it? o_O

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #9 5 years ago

    Teams of nine, isn't it?

    You're quite right! Seems I was thinking Speedball.

    I'll be in the stocks later for a good pelting.

  • skillian #10 5 years ago

    Oh yes, the time is right. Can't wait for this.

    I see no reason to keep it 2D tho - it should be a proper remake, not just an update with sharper textures.

  • reality_cheque #11 5 years ago

    @Steroyd: Speedball 2 (the sequel I loved to the game you loved) was out on the Amiga like a million years ago :p

    If they remade the Amiga version for XBLA I would pay 1200 points without even thinking about it. And then still buy the full 'new' game when it came out.

  • NewYork #12 5 years ago

    Speedball 2 remake will use the power of... THE INTERNET.

  • Thamuhacha #13 5 years ago

    >I see no reason to keep it 2D tho - it should be a proper remake, not just an update with sharper textures.

    I beg to disagree ... that's EXACTLY what it should be.

    Keep improvements to stuff like: textures, shadows, player models ... etc and add more teams, more players, better customisation, being able to play more than 2 seasons and so on

    Very much keep the top down 2D style, the one button control, the music and the "ice cream!"

    Any attempt to go fully 3D like the dreadful "Speedball 2190" or whatever it was will be met with a protest march. On my own if need be.

    Edit - Reality Cheque: have you got the Gameboy advance port?
    Edited by 2 at 16/03/07 @ 11:54

  • Raya #14 5 years ago

    There was a speedball 3d game a few years back on PS2. It was supposed to be a follow up but the bitmaps disowned it. It flopped big time. Can't remember the name though. Speedball doesn't work in 3D. If they use 3D graphics but keep the 2D style game play it will rock.

    Here's hoping

  • hidden_asbestos #15 5 years ago

    What was wrong with Speedball 2100 on PSone, I heard it was bad, but why - was it just the hardware was not able to cope with it?

    Also - the time is right for Xenon 1 and 2 remakes on XBLA

  • samk #16 5 years ago

    "Any attempt to go fully 3D like the dreadful "Speedball 2190" or whatever it was will be met with a protest march."

    Absolutely. In such a fast-paced game like Speedball, by the time you will have turned around in 1st/3rd person the ball can have gone from one end of the pitch to the other.

    2D all the way. Some games simply don't work as well in 3D. Worms is one of them, Speedball is another.

  • MORZTAN #17 5 years ago

    @Thamuhacha

    I sure as hell will be protesting right beside you!

    This game has a great reputation, and for a good reason. Can't imagine the game work as well in 3D. But mayby they can prove me wrongo

  • Salubrious_K #18 5 years ago

    What about Speedball 2 for XBLA! That's what I want to hear them announcing

  • rudedudejude #19 5 years ago

    Be careful with this one Bitmaps!!

    Don't bloody HAM it up like that Sensi remake was HAMMED up.

    Do it once and do it bloody right!

    'Frogster Interactive'

    Alarm Bells are ringing, willy.

  • SBfistfun #20 5 years ago

    The time is right = We can't think of any new ideas, so lets use and old one.

  • Darren #21 5 years ago

    How come everytime I read anything about a classic Amiga developer, they're planning to remake one of their old games? Why don't they try making something... ummm... NEW instead? :?

  • wolfen #22 5 years ago

    2D or 3D has little impact on the game as long as they do it right. Slowing down the game to include all pointless polygon animations doesn't cut it in the same way as mirrored sprites or players that all look alike.

    I just don't like where this is going. Seems too much of a micro-transactions farm.

  • UNSCmasterCHEF #23 5 years ago

    What platform?

    XBLA 2d is my bet!

  • [menace] #24 5 years ago

    Speedball can easily work in 3D - as long as they keep the same (forced) perspective view.

  • scowat #25 5 years ago

    Post deleted at 16:41:01 08-02-2012

  • reality_cheque #26 5 years ago

    @Thamuhacha - no I haven't, it is any good? I don't have a GBA currently, but if it runs on the DS Lite ok then I guess I'll be getting one after all :D

  • urban #27 5 years ago

    HELL YES

  • Thamuhacha #28 5 years ago

    >@Thamuhacha - no I haven't, it is any good? I don't have a GBA currently, but if it runs on the DS Lite ok then I guess I'll be getting one after all :D

    Runs just fine on the DS lite. Be aware, the controls are just as difficult as you remember. The AI is just as poor (I love it when the keeper just turns 180 and throws it into his net) and Super Nashwan are still proper c***s.

    But as an exercise in rose tinted retro gaming then it's hard to ignore. I got it for £10 ages ago, but I can only find it for £18 on Amazon now. Maybe check Ebay?

  • T4RG4 #29 5 years ago

    "Time is right" = they need some money right? Bitmap Brothers = letting someone else develop because they dont really exist anymore. Frogster Interactive... oh dear.

    Expect crapness (Sensi was lost forever IMO).

    Maybe they'll make something good... who knows. Just doubt it personally.

  • Markusdragon #30 5 years ago

    The time is right?

    Right after the guy who wrote the original Speedball 2 soundtrack's death?

    Bollocks to that!

  • Nova5lag #31 5 years ago

    There was a speedball 3 in production a while back. I remember feeling like it really had a Unreal Tournament Vibe. It looked ace and the 3D-ness of it all was nice. BUT I dont know how it would have played online... like would each player in the team be controled by one person. ???

  • skillian #32 5 years ago

    In such a fast-paced game like Speedball, by the time you will have turned around in 1st/3rd person the ball can have gone from one end of the pitch to the other

    Well I'm certainly not suggesting the game should be played in first person!

    But there's no reason it shouldn't be updated to 3D, in much the same way as John Madden.

  • in5ane #33 5 years ago

    With the sort of passionate fans Speedball has, this remake is bound to fail :)

    And surely they need to drop the beers and pizza nonsense from games PR. Pizza means hands are too greasy for a pad so you put the TV or a movie on. Beer makes you want to go out and leave the house. Or the fiancé puts a kibosh on anything like this happening in the first place because ER is on. This is how it works in my house anyway.

  • reality_cheque #34 5 years ago

    @Thamuhacha: Sweet, I'll pick up a copy - even 18 quid is a bargain imo :D

    And if the AI keeper had the ball for more than 2 seconds before you smashed his face in, you're playing it wrong :p The winning tactic for me was always:

    1) Get the ball
    2) Throw it to the opponent in front of you
    3) Smash him in his stupid face
    4) Repeat 1-3 until in front of open goal
    5) Score
    6) Rinse and repeat

    With the added advantage that you'd take so many of their players out of action by the end of the first half they'd end up bringing the crippled ones back on again!

  • Thamuhacha #35 5 years ago

    >1) Get the ball
    2) Throw it to the opponent in front of you
    3) Smash him in his stupid face
    4) Repeat 1-3 until in front of open goal
    5) Score
    6) Rinse and repeat

    It's a good tactic. But it didn't work if the other team were harder than you :-(

  • LetsGo #36 5 years ago

    "we have no money, the time is right"

  • reality_cheque #37 5 years ago

    I never bothered finishing a season, so I never fought people harder than me :)

  • dirigiblebill #38 5 years ago

    Did anyone ever play that 3D Speedball rip-off on ps1? Can't remember the name.

  • smelly #39 5 years ago

    Oh do something new ffs. What's with all this retro bullshit of late?

    Prediction: Live sensi soccer will be shite, but EG will still give it 10/10.

  • Carrybagma #40 5 years ago

    Why not call it Speedball 3?

    /is simple

  • bloodflowers #41 5 years ago

    smelly: So I suppose Crackdown didn't just come out, or any of the other new releases littering the shelves of your local game shop. However - someone wants to remake a (good) old game? OMFG NO STOP THE RETRO SHITE.

    Idiot.

  • smelly #42 5 years ago

    I think you're missing my point

  • guvner #43 5 years ago

    Your point is that Speedball 2 is "retro bullshit"?

    Bullshit.

  • Machetazo #44 5 years ago

    ">1) Get the ball
    2) Throw it to the opponent in front of you
    3) Smash him in his stupid face
    4) Repeat 1-3 until in front of open goal
    5) Score
    6) Rinse and repeat "

    Looks a bit like my approach to most Deathrow matches, does that. Except the other teams usually ARE harder than my Convicts, unfortunately! (really ought to have had a team recruit system like the one in UT2004) It's funny seeing them send the military's packing, though. :D The two games seem similar...Are they, even if in structure? (I know D was in 3D, Speedball, not.)

    I've never played Speedball, but I've seen lots of people become very passionate about it, so I look forward to giving it a try if I can, as I enjoy most future sports games. My main reference for the Bitmaps is The Chaos Engine, and I remember reading they were remaking that; but I hope that TCE factors into the firm's as-yet-to-be-revealed console plans in some way, so I can more easily check it out. :)

  • Curry_mad #45 5 years ago



    .......Ice Cream!

    Can't believe them words have only appeared once in 45 posts about Speedball2. Nice one Thamuhacha!


    Bring it back/Don't bring it back, not fussed either way. Think the GBA was the best platform for it recently (and I reckon SWOS would have cleaned up on the GBA too), what with it's pick-up and have a few goes style of play.

    But PC only at first? Would have thought a console would be a better starting point? Wonder if the developers have seen or played PES online and thought "Hmmm. Speedball2 Online?!"

  • gamecat #46 5 years ago

    where the hell has `Replay' got to as well?

  • mcwildcard #47 5 years ago

    Best news for ages, as long as it's not ruined.
    Now if only someone would do a sequel to M.U.D.S.

  • Daikon #48 5 years ago

    @hidden_asbestos

    When did you last play Xenon 2? It hasn't aged very gracefully I'm afraid.

  • smelly #49 5 years ago

    >Your point is that Speedball 2 is "retro bullshit"?


    Yip. Go back and play it on an emulator now..

    Fact is, nowadays it wont stand up against other sports games. Even hardcore fans of a lot of sports games, be it soccer, nhl or nfl, etc, get the most enjoyment from playing their favourite teams. Take away the big teams/names from the latest fifa and no-one would bother with it.

    Something like speedball 2 is one of those games which existed in the 80's purely because in comparision most games of its ilk were shite, and it could be easily copied on floppies and past around the playground.

    The closest you could get to playing a good american football game was something like this, because cpu power wasnt strong enough to do the real sport justice.

    Everyone keeps going on about how bitmap brothers and jon hare were legends. I saw it was probably bullshit, otherwise they'd still be coming up with new and inventive games (rather than relying on old ip's of days gone by).

    Makes you wonder whether the people who took all the credit for these titles were the actual people who came up with the games and did the work on them...

    But yet, just me saying stuff like that will resort in needlessly agressive coments.

    Edited by 1 at 18/03/07 @ 09:05

  • spongebob #50 5 years ago

    Bitmap Brothers games excelled best in how they looked and sounded. Their games had some of the best pixel art in games and some of the best music and sound design back then. Many of their games were quite dull to play, however.

  • Barry619 #51 5 years ago

    Good news, but as some have already said, if the orginal, unchanged Speedball 2 doesn't come out on XBLA etc i shall be very unhappy

  • kangarootoo #52 5 years ago

    @smelly

    Whilst I might agree that many old games wouldn't stand up against peer comparison today, when you start saying that the old classics were also shite at the time I think you are straying down a wobbly path.

    You do realise that "shite" is not a scientific unit of measurement right? If Speedball 2 was one of the best games available in its day (and it was regarded as such by a great many) then it simply wasn't shite. You can't dismiss games by comparing them to titles that can't possibly exist within the time frame of your comparison.

    By that measure I could rate the gfx of the very best games available as shite because they aren't as pretty as the games we will be able to buy in 30 years. Or I could say that the AI of all games is awful, because in a thousand years from now we might have games that are sentient.

    Subjective comparison is just that, "subject based". And when comparing games subjectively (which is all you can do) the subject matter in question is games, the game being compared and its peers.

    Now I think bloodflowers was a bit of an overstroppy dick with you and I can understand your rection, but in your haste to refute him/her I think you have started talking nonsense.

    If you didn't ever like Speedball 2 then fair enough, but you can't really dimiss it by making impossible comparisons. Because when gamers go shopping, or when they sit down to play a game, it is reality that determines whether they have fun or not.

  • smelly #53 5 years ago

    "when you start saying that the old classics were also shite at the time I think you are straying down a wobbly path. "

    When did i say that?


    "If you didn't ever like Speedball 2"

    Where did i say that?
    Edited by 1 at 18/03/07 @ 20:37

  • smelly #54 5 years ago

    .. which is also overrated :-)

  • kangarootoo #55 5 years ago

    @smelly

    "Something like speedball 2 is one of those games which existed in the 80's purely because in comparision most games of its ilk were shite, and it could be easily copied on floppies and past around the playground."

    I took that to infer you were saying that Speedball 2 was in fact a poor game, but was only rated well because its peers were even worse. If thats not what you meant then please clarify as I'm not quite sure anymore.

  • smelly #56 5 years ago

    No. I said most other games of its ilk were shite. I didnt say it was shite.

    At the time it was quite good, i enjoyed it. I had many a game of it around my friends house.

    Nowadays though, in compairsion to what is available now.. thats a different story.

    But it seems like (Along with tmnt and sensi soccer) you just cant say anything bad about these games without making children cry.