Retro Bowl College: what changes when the team is a campus
Retro Bowl College keeps the part of Retro Bowl that people actually play — you throw every pass by dragging away from the receiver and letting go — and swaps the pro front office for a college one. There is no salary cap; there is a Scholarship Fund, topped up each year by alumni endowments and by donations from your players when they go to the Pro Draft. There is no draft either: at the end of each season you go through Admissions, where other colleges are bidding on the same freshman prospects and the pool shrinks every time you sign someone. Players have four years — Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior — and a Junior who is good enough will ask to declare early, which doubles his donation to the fund if you let him go.
The campus is the other half. Each player has a Major, a Minor and a Campus Society, and a GPA that moves with the bye-week choices you make: Study Time raises grades, extra training raises form, media days raise the fans' mood. Let a starter's GPA slide and the Dean suspends him; let it slide further and his scholarship is revoked and he is gone. The build here is the HTML5 version 0.9.8.0, served from retrobowlcollege.co, so your save lives in this browser and the game runs at the Chromebook's frame rate without an app store.
Controls & mechanics
| Action | Control | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Throw | Click and drag away from the receiver, release | The drag sets the arc and the distance; the throw goes where you point when you let go |
| Bullet or lob | Right-click while aiming | Switches between a low, fast pass and a high one that sails over a linebacker |
| Hand off | Click the blue circle at the snap | Gives the ball to the running back; W and S side-step while he runs |
| Scramble | Throw the ball backwards | The quarterback tucks and runs; drag forward to dive for the extra yard |
| Kick | Click twice | First click stops the power bar, second stops the direction arrow — time both near the middle |
Coaching the campus, not just the game
- Spend the fund on a quarterback and one receiver: The Scholarship Fund is small in year one. A high-rated QB and a single fast receiver win more games than four average recruits, and the game only asks you to control the passer anyway.
- Take Study Time on the bye week: When the bye-week dilemma offers academic tutoring, take it. A team with high GPAs stops throwing suspension dilemmas at you, and a suspended starter mid-season costs more than one week of form.
- Let your Junior star declare early: It feels like losing him a year early, but the fund receives double the donation, and that money is the difference between a two-star and a four-star freshman class.
- Raise the fund cap at the Athletics Office: When the fund is full, donations spill over to other programs. Coaching Credits spent on the fund limit are the best long-term buy in the office.
Key features
- Admissions instead of a draft: You compete with every other college for the same freshman list. Sign fast or watch the prospect you scouted go to a rival.
- GPA, Majors and Societies: Every player has a Major, a Minor and a Campus Society; grades move with your bye-week choices and low grades end careers.
- The Retro Bowl passing game: Drag-to-throw, bullet or lob, hand-offs and QB scrambles — the play-by-play is the same one that made Retro Bowl.
- Saves in this browser: The HTML5 build is served from retrobowlcollege.co and keeps its save in local storage; come back on the same Chromebook and the season is where you left it.
Game info
- Title: Retro Bowl College
- Developer: New Star Games
- Category: Football
- Platform: Web browser (HTML5)
- Version: HTML5 0.9.8.0 · single player · saves in the browser
Pro tip: On defense you only watch, so build the roster the other way round from the pro game: one elite quarterback, two receivers with high speed and catching, and spend what is left on a kicker. A reliable kicker turns every stalled drive into three points, and the two-click kick is the easiest skill in the game to be perfect at.
