| Peter Shilton's Handball Maradona | |
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| Developer(s) | Argus Press Software Ltd.[1][2] |
| Publisher(s) | Grandslam Entertainments Ltd.[1][2] |
| Platform(s) | Amstrad CPC[1] Commodore 64[1] ZX Spectrum[1] |
| Release date(s) | Commodore 64: Amstrad CPC: ZX Spectrum: |
| Genre(s) | Traditional soccer/football simulation[1][2] |
| Mode(s) | Single-player[3] Multiplayer[3] (up to two players) |
| Media/distribution | Cassette[4] |
Peter Shilton's Handball Maradona (referred to in-title as Peter Shilton's Football) is a multiplatform traditional football simulation video game that was released exclusive in 1986 exclusively for the European Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.
This video game allows players to control legendary goalkeeper Peter Shilton who made 125 appearances for the English men's football team[5] (which remains a team record to this very day).[1]
This game was slightly inspired by the miraculous play at the 1986 FIFA World Cup.[1] International football legend Diego Maradona would make the infamous shot as his first goal before making a "legitimate" second goal later in the game.[1] Just by making the handball goal unpenalized, Maradona would eventually become a household name in Argentina (in addition to the rest of the world). Had the foul been given, the goal would have been disallowed and England might have gone on to win the 1986 World Cup[6] (which eventually went to Argentina after they defeated West Germany by a score of 3–2 in the 1986 FIFA World Cup Final).
During the course of the game, the player has to play against the 16 top-flight English football teams of 1986 (with the player being allowed to choose from the same list of 16 teams) while trying to improve the skill of his players through saving potential goals.[1] Each match consists of a series of friendly games with no season or career mode unlike the modern football simulation games.[1][7][8] The game can support the full names of football squads like the Wolverhampton Wanderers and the West Bromwich Albion (who have very long names) despite the memory limitations imposed by the 8-bit computer technology.[9]
Games are permitted to end in ties because of this rule.[8] Elements of the game are remarkably similar to the be-a-pro mode that would become popular more than 20 years later on the FIFA series created by EA Sports (especially FIFA 11[10] and its successors). Like in real football, the game is divided into two halves where the player gets to make about three to four saves per half. The Commodore 64 version has some extra sound effects and some digitized speech.[1] All the speech does on the Commodore 64 version is to announce the title, the saves that the player makes, and the goals that the player allows.[11]
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