Grandstand The Big Game Soccer
 | |
| The Grandstand wordmark. No freely licensed photograph of The Big Game Soccer has been found | |
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Epoch Co. for Grandstand (Adam Imports Ltd, Harrogate) |
| Type | Tabletop electronic game, two players head to head |
| Released | 1981[1][2] |
| CPU | NEC D553C 136 (μPD553, uCOM-43 family) 4-bit microcontroller[3][4] |
| Memory | — |
| Storage | — |
| Display | Two-colour vacuum fluorescent display[1][4] |
| Sound | Electronic sound effects (box)[1] |
| Input | Four direction keys and a SHOOT button for each player; POWER, LEVEL (AMA/PRO) and PLAYER (1/2) switches[1] |
| Power | Four AA cells[1] |
| OS / Firmware | — |
Grandstand The Big Game Soccer, sold as Kevin Keegan's The Big Game Soccer, is a battery-powered football game for two players facing each other across a vacuum fluorescent display (VFD). It was made by Epoch, who sold it as the Exciting Soccer Game, and was sold in the UK by Grandstand in 1981; GAMAtronic sold it in Germany as Fussball-Spiel.[5][1] Two collector sources describe it as Grandstand's only simultaneous two-player tabletop game.[2][6]
History
[edit | edit source]The Handheld Museum dates Epoch's Exciting Soccer Game and Grandstand's The Big Game Soccer to 1981 and records that Grandstand sold it as "Kevin Keegan's The Big Game Soccer".[5][1] The Centre for Computing History holds an example dated 1981.[2] The museum's photograph of the box shows "Grandstand The Big Game Electronic Soccer" with a Kevin Keegan roundel, and the box text "2-color fluorescent display with shaped players".[1] Grandstand used Keegan to promote its products on television.[7]
The sources disagree on the display. The Centre for Computing History calls the game an "LED tabletop / handheld soccer game", and a dealer's museum page says "Simple LED display".[2][6] The Handheld Museum lists it as VFD, its photograph of the inside shows a glass VFD tube, and the box describes a fluorescent display, so it is a VFD game.[1][4]
Hardware
[edit | edit source]| Part | Detail |
|---|---|
| Maker | Epoch Co. |
| Microcontroller | NEC D553C 136 on Epoch's board; D553C 13x on the photographed Grandstand board, last digit not clear |
| Display | VFD tube across the top of the main board; one team lit red, the other blue |
| Controls | Separate control boards at the left and right ends, each with four direction keys and a SHOOT button; POWER OFF/ON, LEVEL AMA/PRO and PLAYER 1/2 switches |
| Power | Four AA cells in a holder at the top of the case; DC socket at the top right |
Detail from the Handheld Museum's photographs of the game, its display and its inside,[1][4] and from a published repair of Epoch's version.[3]
The Big Game Soccer is not in MAME. The Handheld Museum's photograph of the inside of a Grandstand unit (500 pixels wide) shows the VFD tube on the main board, an NEC microcontroller marked D553C with a serial beginning "13", a four-cell battery holder, the DC socket, and the two players' control boards wired in at each end, with the speaker beside the left-hand board.[4] A Korean collector's 2026 repair of Epoch's Exciting Soccer Game photographs the same layout at higher resolution: the microcontroller is marked D553C 136, the tube sits at V01 with "10AM18T" printed beside it, and the display supply is an NEC D882 power transistor driving a TDK TY-33 transformer, with four electrolytic capacitors.[3] The D553C is the NEC uCOM-43 used in Grandstand's Astro Wars (D553C 153) and in Tomy's games for Grandstand, Grandstand Munchman and Grandstand Caveman.[8] The game program is in the microcontroller's own mask ROM, so a replacement can only come from another copy of this game.[8]
The game
[edit | edit source]No leaflet for The Big Game Soccer or the Exciting Soccer Game has been found. The photographs show a pitch marked HOME and VISITOR with a TIME readout, shaped players lit in red for one side and blue for the other, a LEVEL switch marked AMA and PRO, and a PLAYER switch marked 1 and 2.[1] Each player has four direction keys and a SHOOT button at their own end of the case.[1]
Batteries and power
[edit | edit source]The game takes four AA cells.[1] The photograph of the inside shows a DC socket next to the battery holder,[4] and Epoch's Japanese box offers "four AA batteries or an AC adapter (sold separately)",[3] but no source gives the adaptor voltage or polarity. Four AA cells make 6 V nominal. Check with a meter how the socket connects to the battery holder before connecting any supply; see Grandstand Universal Mains Adaptor for the adaptor Grandstand sold.
Cells left in the holder leak; see Battery Explosion, Capacitor or Corrosion Damage.
Repair
[edit | edit source]The Big Game Soccer has its own repair guides:
- Grandstand The Big Game Soccer General Maintenance: opening the case, the battery holder and DC socket, the two players' controls, the display tube and cleaning.
- Grandstand The Big Game Soccer Troubleshooting Guide: power-on, a symptom table, the known repair, and the display.
- Grandstand The Big Game Soccer Capacitor Replacement Guide: the four electrolytic capacitors on the main board.
What is known about repairing it:
- No service manual, schematic or leaflet has been found. The only published repair is of Epoch's version, which would not power up: all four electrolytic capacitors were replaced (C01 330 µF 16 V, C06 47 µF 50 V, C07 220 µF 16 V, C10 10 µF 16 V), and a small transistor and a resistor were also changed.[3]
- There are two sets of controls on two separate boards, one at each end of the case, connected to the main board by wires.[4] If one player's keys fail and the other's work, the fault is on that player's board or its wiring.
- The game runs on four AA cells, like Grandstand Invader From Space and Grandstand Cosmic Invader; Grandstand's later Epoch tabletops, such as Grandstand Crazy Monster, take four C cells.[1][9]
Documentation
[edit | edit source]No leaflet, manual or schematic for The Big Game Soccer or Epoch's Exciting Soccer Game has been found.
Related pages
[edit | edit source]- Grandstand The Big Game Soccer General Maintenance
- Grandstand The Big Game Soccer Troubleshooting Guide
- Grandstand The Big Game Soccer Capacitor Replacement Guide
- Grandstand Universal Mains Adaptor
- Grandstand Invader From Space and Grandstand Crazy Monster: the other Epoch tabletops in this batch
- Grandstand Astro Wars: another Epoch game on an NEC D553C microcontroller
- Category:Grandstand
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 Handheld Museum, "Grandstand The Big Game Soccer" (retrieved 2026-10-18): 1981, VFD, four AA batteries, licensed from Epoch (Exciting Soccer Game); photographs of the game (direction keys and SHOOT button at each end; POWER, LEVEL AMA/PRO and PLAYER 1/2 switches), the lit display (HOME, VISITOR, TIME; red and blue players) and the box ("The Big Game Electronic Soccer", Kevin Keegan roundel, "Exciting electronic sound effects", "2-color fluorescent display with shaped players").
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Centre for Computing History, "Grandstand The Big Game Soccer", CH77112 (retrieved 2026-10-18): "LED tabletop / handheld soccer game. Grandstand's only simultaneous 2 player tabletop game." Date 1981.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 analo9, "1981 에포크 VFD 휴대용 축구 게임기 (EPOCH Exciting Soccer)", Naver blog (in Korean), 28 April 2026 (retrieved 2026-10-18); also on YouTube as "EPOCH Exciting Soccer LSI Game repair". Repair of an Epoch Exciting Soccer Game that would not power up, with 38 photographs examined at full size: the Japanese box (code no. 36070; four AA batteries or an AC adapter sold separately); the main board with an NEC microcontroller marked "D553C 136", the tube at V01 beside the printed "10AM18T", an NEC D882 at S03 and a TDK TY-33 transformer; the four electrolytics removed (330 µF 16 V at C01, 47 µF 50 V at C06, 220 µF 16 V at C07, 10 µF 16 V at C10) and replaced; a C945 transistor and a resistor shown removed; the game working afterwards.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Handheld Museum, "Game Guts", photograph Grandstand-BigGameSoccerGuts.jpg (500 x 377 pixels, retrieved 2026-10-18): glass VFD tube on the main board; NEC microcontroller marked D553C with a serial beginning "13", last digit not legible; four-cell battery holder; DC socket at top right; separate control boards at left and right; speaker at the left.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Handheld Museum, "Epoch Exciting Soccer Game" (retrieved 2026-10-18): 1981, VFD, four AA batteries; "Sold in the U.K. by Grandstand as Kevin Keegan's The Big Game Soccer and in Germany by GAMAtronic as Fussball-Spiel".
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Retro Games, "Grandstand" museum page (dealer's collection page, retrieved 2026-10-18): "The Big Game - 1981. Soccer game. Simple LED display. Grandstands only simultaneous 2 player tabletop game."
- ↑ Play It Again project, "Grandstand" (retrieved 2026-10-18): the Grandstand name was used by Leslie Kenyon's Adam Imports business in the UK; footballer Kevin Keegan was recruited to promote Grandstand products on television.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 MAME source, hh_ucom4.cpp (retrieved 2026-10-18). Chip list of NEC uCOM-4 games: uPD553C serials include 153 (Epoch Galaxy II, Grandstand Astro Wars), 160 (Tomy Pac Man, Grandstand Munchman) and 209 (Tomy Caveman); ROM dumps taken from the microcontrollers themselves. No Epoch soccer game is listed.
- ↑ Adam Imports Ltd, Grandstand Crazy Monster directions, copyright 1983. Hosted here as File:Grandstand Crazy Monster Instructions.pdf: p. 1, four Duracell MN 1400 (C) batteries.
