[b]SWOS 96/97 Mod 2.5 - Argentina's Apertura and Clausura, Australia, New Zealan

A long time ago - in 2004 - in a galaxy far, far away, where the Internet was only just leaving behind the sound of the modem, artificial intelligence was the stuff of science fiction novels and video games were sold in elegant cardboard boxes in shops, yours truly - together with Ali Erdinc Koroglu, Jan Wickberg, Martin Binet, Zlatko Karakas, Ross Mayhew and Steve Smith - founded the Swos Working Group ( web.archive.org/web/20040831085727/http://swos.erdinc.info/ ) in honour of our all-time favourite video game: the 1996-1997 edition of Sensible World of Soccer. We were driven by a dream: to make that game even better by adding a few competitions whose absence we felt especially keenly. The Italian Serie C (split into C1 and C2), where players who would later become international stars, such as Simone Inzaghi and Gianluca Zambrotta, were playing, and the South American cups, above all the legendary Copa Libertadores, which, in an age when football on TV was still a novelty and far from plentiful, held for us the charm of exotic, faraway things. We would have loved to play these competitions above all in career mode, the SWOS players' absolute favourite: partly because in season mode and in the preset competitions we had already managed to add them, in a new edition of SWOS that was going to be called Swos 2024. The work was done by reverse engineering and hex editing; I remember the thrill of discovering the routines that add competitions, but also the bitter frustration of not being able to make them work in career mode, which would freeze every time. Today, in the year of grace 2026, I wanted to settle the score with this personal story that never left me over these two decades: the regret of having come close to a dream and never quite making it. After all, I told myself in an attempt at consolation, I ended up becoming a web and mobile developer; reverse engineering 1996 x86 code had already been a miracle, and hardly any of the many modern modders had managed the feat.

Today, thanks to AI, which has changed the very idea of programming forever, the feat is accomplished: you can now download the patch that adds, in every language of the game, Serie C1 and C2 to the Italian league, with the original squads of the time, and above all adds, for South America, the Copa Libertadores, the CONMEBOL and the Supercopa, with the entry rules of the day. And, as the icing on the cake, the Intercontinental Cup could not be missing. What matters to me, though, is not only the result but also the explanation of how we got there through AI. So here we publish, in English and Italian, the complete documentation of the method followed to create the patches, which finally revealed to me what we had not understood back in 2004, and which I hope will inspire other developers and lovers of the most beautiful video game in the world to expand its career mode even further. An immense thank you to the work of Zlatko Karakas, whose fundamental disassembly of the original executable I found after so many years of absence ( github.com/zlatkok/swos-port ).

This patch is dedicated to the memory of Steve Smith, an extraordinary compiler of updated squads for SWOS, who left us far too soon. And to everyone who hopes to see, sooner or later, a dream come true, even one that has lasted 22 years…

— Davide Lorigliola

What the patch adds

• Italy with 4 divisions: Serie A, B, C1 and C2 (18 clubs each), with the real 1996-97 clubs, squads and coaches. No end-of-season freeze.
• South American club cups: Copa Libertadores (groups + knockout), Supercopa and Copa CONMEBOL, in the menus, in the world view and in career mode. Qualifiers come from the South American standings every season, with the holder rules of the time.
• Intercontinental Cup: in December, Champions Cup winner vs Libertadores winner, updated every season and saved with the career.
• Works with all four executables of the CD: ITALIAN.EXE, ENGLISH.EXE, FRENCH.EXE and GERMAN.EXE.

Download and install

1. Download swos-9697-mod-patcher.html from the release page: github.com/aminta/swos-9697-mod/releases/tag/v1.0
2. Open it in any browser (it works offline, nothing is uploaded) and drop your language's executable and DATA\TEAM.020 from your SWOS 96/97 folder.
3. Download the patched files and copy them into the game folder (TEAM.020 into DATA), after backing up the originals. Start a new career.

The patcher contains only differences, no game files: you need your original copy of the game. It checks every file before and after patching, so a different edition or an already modified file is refused instead of producing a broken game.

Technical manual (how it was done)
English (ENGLISH.EXE addresses): aminta.github.io/swos-9697-mod/
Italian (ITALIAN.EXE addresses): aminta.github.io/swos-9697-mod/it.html
Source code and build tools: github.com/aminta/swos-9697-mod

Notes

• Italian version tested in depth over several seasons; English, French and German tested in career mode to season end.
• Experimental: the Intercontinental Cup for clubs from countries with a league cup (e.g. English clubs) uses the play-off slot and has not been tested in a real career yet.
• In 1996-97 Serie C1 had 2 groups and C2 had 3: the mod uses a single 18-team group for each.

Feedback, bug reports and saves that misbehave are very welcome, here or on GitHub.

Huge thanks to Zlatko Karakas for the swos-port disassembly, and to everyone who kept SWOS alive all these years.

Version 2.5 is out: four leagues rebuilt the way they really worked in 1996-97, in career mode.

Argentina: Apertura, Clausura and the promedio

• The Primera plays the Apertura and the Clausura as two separate tournaments of 19 rounds each; the table is reset in between.
• The Apertura champion stays in the management record: "CLAUSURA (AP: INDEPENDIEN)".
• The Libertadores and CONMEBOL places come from the aggregate table (Apertura + Clausura), as in reality.
• Relegation by promedio, exactly as the AFA did it: average over the last three seasons, real 1994-95 and 1995-96 history, saved with the career.

Australia: NSL 1996-97

• 14 clubs with Perth Glory and Collingwood Warriors, real squads rebuilt from every line-up of the season, 1996-97 coaches.
• The NSL Cup with its real bracket and the two state select XIs.
• NSL Finals: two-leg semi-finals, single-match Grand Final, and the play-off winner is the champion in the record.

New Zealand: NSSL 1996-97

• 10 clubs, 4 points for a win, and penalties after every draw with a bonus point for the winner, as in 1996-97 ("WIN 4-3 ON PENS" in the game list).
• Top-4 play-offs, plus the Northern, Central and Southern regional leagues with 10 real 1996 clubs added.

USA: MLS 1997

• The 10 clubs of 1997 with real names, coaches and squads.
• No draws, as in MLS: penalties, 3 points for a win, 1 for a shoot-out win.

Where the game cannot reproduce the real format we say so in the release notes (for example: the NSL and NSSL finals series with the "double chance", penalties instead of the MLS 35-yard shoot-out). A new career is recommended.

Thanks to the people who kept these leagues' history online: the ozfootball.net archive (Thomas Esamie and the other authors), Jeremy Ruane's The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website, Transfermarkt, Wikipedia and RSSSF. If you are an author and want something changed, just tell us.

Download: github.com/aminta/swos-9697-mod/releases/tag/v2.5 (patcher in your browser, CD or GOG version; drop in your executable, TEAM.020, TEAM.044, TEAM.062 and TEAM.073)
Technical manual: aminta.github.io/swos-9697-mod/ - Italian: aminta.github.io/swos-9697-mod/it.html