Retro Video Gamer

OK, let's take a look at American Football games (yes, I know soccer is the real football but those will have a separate thread  :)

Intellivision Football was awesome because it let you design your own plays with the keypad (it was limited but amazing for its time).

(http://videogamecritic.com/images/intel/nfl_football.png)

The Intellivision had more than one football title.  As with the 2600, the games evolved with time.  Here are videos of all the titles for...

[align=center:3gqdwwir][size=240]Intellivision[/size][/align:3gqdwwir]

[align=center:3gqdwwir]Football
Gil scores a touchdown. (//http)

Super Pro Football
Super Pro Football Intellivision Gameplay (//http)

Super NFL Football
Super NFL Football for the Intellivision (//http)[/align:3gqdwwir]

I changed the thread title :16:

Quote from: "The Laird"I changed the thread title :16:

I noticed!  I considered writing it that way but since all the titles just say football, I decided to leave the "American" out of it!  Guess not.   

I played a lot of Super Challenge Football on the 2600. Probably my favorite till Tecmo Bowl came along.

I've always been attracted to american football and ice hockey, I remember playing a lot Joe Montana Sports Talk Football 93, I still have the game:

TGPG Lets Play NFL Sports Talk Football '93 Starring Joe Montana.MOD (//http)


Despite its simplicity Blitz! for the Vectrex is a really fun game, specially playing with someone:

Vectrex: Blitz (//http)


Now I'm eagerly waiting the 3DO to arrive to play Madden there, it looks fantastic:

Madden on the 3DO game system (//http)

Nice set of football games there, Alberto.   Here is Football for the...

[align=center:ijflsk1x][size=180]Odyssey 2![/size][/align:ijflsk1x]

[align=center:ijflsk1x]Magnavox Odyssey 2: Football! [Magnavox] (//http)[/align:ijflsk1x]

[align=center:vw6cjddo][size=240]Sinclair ZX Spectrum[/size]

(http://gamesdbase.com/Media/SYSTEM/Sinclair_ZX_Spectrum/Snap/big/American_Football_-_1985_-_Softstone_Ltd.jpg)
American Football - By Argus Press

(http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/575832-fantastic-american-football-zx-spectrum-screenshot-touchdown.png)
Fantastic American Football - By Zeppelin

(http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/220512-american-football-zx-spectrum-screenshot-touchdown-s.png)
Grid Iron- By Softstone

(http://s.uvlist.net/l/y2011/02/81047.jpg)
Head Coach - By Addictive Games

(http://s.uvlist.net/l/y2006/11/13366.jpg)
End Zone - By Alternative Software

(http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/215112-grid-iron-2-zx-spectrum-screenshot-in-game-actions.png)
Grid Iron II - By Alternative Software[/align:vw6cjddo]

[align=center:huah891d][size=240]Atari 5200[/size]

RealSports Football
Atari 5200 Review (49) RealSports Football (//http)

[size=240]Atari 7800 [/size]

Touchdown Football
Atari 7800 Touchdown Football (//http)[/align:huah891d]

I thought it was interesting to see Atari use the name Touchdown Football for the 7800 game instead of RealSports Football, particularly given the release of RealSports Baseball for they system.

That is because Touchdown Football is by Electronic Arts and not Atari!!!

Quote from: "The Laird"That is because Touchdown Football is by Electronic Arts and not Atari!!! :17:

I never knew. Very interesting.

I used to drool over the Madden 3DO pictures in magazines. I always remember it getting good reviews.

Always heard that Madden on the Sega Saturn is really good as well. I have Madden 98 for the Saturn but have never played it. My favorite of the series has to be Madden '94.

Joe Montana was the best till one of my friends found a way to onside kick all the time. Then it became less fun. That prick, will probably carry the secret to his grave. :32:

Quote from: "onthinice"That was the first one in the series and we played Joe Montana II a few times, till we found Madden. Then we never played any of the other American football games. I still secretly played Tecmo Bowl on the Nes. :21:

Quote from: "Alberto 2K"

Quote from: "onthinice"That was the first one in the series and we played Joe Montana II a few times, till we found Madden. Then we never played any of the other American football games. I still secretly played Tecmo Bowl on the Nes. :21:

 :21:

[align=center:2gbcfyas][size=240]ColecoVision[/size][/align:2gbcfyas]

[align=center:2gbcfyas]Super Action Football
Super Action Football - Colecovision (//http)[/align:2gbcfyas]

Quote from: "Alberto 2K"I've always been attracted to american football and ice hockey, I remember playing a lot Joe Montana Sports Talk Football 93, I still have the game:

Now I'm eagerly waiting the 3DO to arrive to play Madden there, it looks fantastic:

Sports Talk 93 was amazing!  I remember playing that for hours against my friend, the announcing blew me away.

3DO Madden is truly great, I think it and Road Rash were the pinnacle games of the system.

For anyone doing a study of the development of USA football on video games, you should consider the role of one Trip Hawkins in it, no matter your opinion of the man. He left Apple Computer in 1982 to form Electronic Arts, with the main purpose of making realistic football games for consoles and computers. In the early days, processing power and available RAM limited his efforts to have 11 freely roaming players on both sides of the ball, but realize that the first Madden licensed game did release in the late 80's. For the record, I am no fan of EA as a company, but Mr. Hawkins did blaze a trail for football games to come. Also, my personal opinion is that the best USA football game ever released was Tecmo Superbowl on good old NES, a game Hawkins obviously had nothing to do with.

[align=center:10tr1xk9][size=240]Atari Jaguar[/size]

Atari Jaguar in HD - Retail - Brutal Sports Football (//http)

Troy Aikman NFL Football - Atari Jaguar (//http)

Atari Jaguar in HD - Unreleased - Arena Football 95 (//http)[/align:10tr1xk9]

I love Brutal Sports Football.  It's just a game where anything goes.  LOL

Quote from: "TrekMD"I love Brutal Sports Football.  It's just a game where anything goes.  LOL

I love winning on deaths! Taking another player's head off with an axe is possibly the most satisfying thing ever 

Quote from: "The Laird"

Quote from: "TrekMD"I love Brutal Sports Football.  It's just a game where anything goes.  LOL

I love winning on deaths! Taking another player's head off with an axe is possibly the most satisfying thing ever  :19:

[align=center:2wy49ffi][size=180]Bally Astrocade[/size][/align:2wy49ffi]

[align=center:2wy49ffi]
Football
Football for the Bally Astrocade (//http)[/align:2wy49ffi]

[align=center:2wy49ffi][size=180]
Arcadia 2001
[/size]
American Football
Emerson Arcadia 2001 - [4] - American Football (//http)[/align:2wy49ffi]

I want that Jaguar Arena '95 game. I love Arena and CFL football and have an EA Arena game for PS2.

I think some smaller company made a CFL game for Windows 98 PC's way back, but never for a console that I know of. 

What about Mutant League Football for the Genesis... or did you UK'ers never get to experience such awesomeness?  It came with such features as being able to bribe (or kill!) the ref.

(http://bulk.destructoid.com/ul/user/2/25509-112646-mutantscreen009jpg-468x.jpg)

[align=center:39s1sksa][size=180]Sega Genesis/Mega Drive[/size]
(there are plenty for this system, so this is a partial set)

Bill Walsh College Football 95
Bill Walsh College Football 95 (//http)

College Football USA 96
College Football USA 96 (//http)

Joe Montana Football
Joe Montana Football (Sega Genesis) Demo Gameplay (1st Quarter) (//http)

John Madden Football
Sega Megadrive / Genesis - John Madden Football 91 (//http)

NFL '95
NFL 95 (Genesis)-Gameplay (//http)[/align:39s1sksa]

[align=center:1gyw4gsr][size=180]More Sega Genesis/Mega Drive[/size]
(there are plenty for this system, so this is a partial set)

Super High Impact
Super High Impact-(Genesis)- Gameplay Part 1 (//http)

Tecmo Super Bowl
Tecmo Super Bowl - Redskins vs. Bills (Genesis) (//http)

Troy Aikman Football
Troy Aikman NFL Football (Sega Genesis / Mega Drive) Intro (//http)

Unnecessary Roughness
Sega Genesis Unnecessary Roughness 95 W ! (//http)[/align:1gyw4gsr]

[align=center:2emu2klb][size=180]Nintendo Entertainment System[/size][/align:2emu2klb]
[align=center:2emu2klb]Play Action Football
NES Play Action Football - NES Gameplay (//http)

10 Yard Fight
10 Yard Fight - NES Gameplay (//http)

Tecmo Bowl
Tecmo Bowl - Nintendo (NES) (//http)

NFL Football
NFL Football - NES Gameplay (//http)

John Elway's Quarterback
John Elway's Quarterback - NES Gameplay (//http)[/align:2emu2klb]

[align=center:21pntq01][size=180]More Nintendo Entertainment System[/size][/align:21pntq01]

[align=center:21pntq01]Tecmo Super Bowl
Tecmo Super Bowl - NES Gameplay (//http)[/align:21pntq01]

[align=center:30pa865r][size=240]Atari Lynx[/size]

Atari Lynx Tournament Cyberball 2072 (1991).avi (//http)

NFL Football sur Atari Lynx (//http)[/align:30pa865r]

Good choices there!  Which one of these do you prefer, Laird?

Quote from: "TrekMD"Good choices there!  Which one of these do you prefer, Laird?

I personally hate both games, there are very few Lynx games that suck but both of these do!

Quote from: "The Laird"

Quote from: "TrekMD"Good choices there!  Which one of these do you prefer, Laird?

I personally hate both games, there are very few Lynx games that suck but both of these do!

LOL  I find Tournament Cyberall curious because the players are robots.  Other than that, it doesn't amuse much but I prefer it only for that reason. 

I also find Cyberball interesting because of the robots/sci-fi element.  I've tried to really get into, most recently on the Midway Arcade Origins - Tournament Cycberball 2072, but after a couple of goes my interest begins to quickly wane.  A shame because the idea is great.

Here's another historic American Football game from the C64.

4th & Inches - I loved this when I was a kid.

4th & Inches (//http)

I had this too
(http://www.stadium64.com/covers/american/americanfootball3.jpg)
A pretty simplistic, but nevertheless fun, game.  I had that BugByte release only I stuck a large, round, metallic silver and green NY Jets sticker on the front of the cassette inlay.

And I also discovered these whilst looking for 4th & Inches.  I've never played them so can't comment first hand. 

First, ABC Monday Night Football.  It looks a fairly comprehensive interpretation of American Football given that it's on an 8 bit machine.  The YT host rates the gameplay of this over John Madden.
ABC Monday Night Football on C=64 (//http)
It was released in '89 which is late in the C64's life.  The machines popularity was certainly on the slide here in the UK due to the arrival of the 16 bit computers.  I've not managed to find any evidence that this saw a UK release on the C64.  Versions were also released for the SNES, PC & Amiga.

Here's the SNES version complete with unintentionally humorous digitised crowd booing!
ABC Monday Night Football - SNES (//http)

EA's John Madden games also got in on the C64 scene, unbeknownst to me!  I couldn't find a vid so a large and scary picture of the big man himself will suffice.

(http://gamesdbase.com/Media/SYSTEM/Commodore_64/Box/big/John_Madden_Football_-_1989_-_Electronic_Arts.jpg)

Hey, thanks for posting these C64 football games.  Had never heard of them.  I wonder how much they paid ABC to get the rights to use their name!

That Madden picture is scary!!!! 

ABC Football looks pretty impressive I have to say.

Quote from: "TrekMD"Hey, thanks for posting these C64 football games.  Had never heard of them.  I wonder how much they paid ABC to get the rights to use their name!

No problem.  All part of the fun being on RVG :) 

There's a lot more here >> http://www.stadium64.com/covers/american/american.htm (//http)  Looking through all of these I only recognise Ocean's 'Super Bowl' and Firebird's 'On Field Football'.  I can't remember very much about either game though.

I imagine the licence to use the 'Monday Night Football' name must have been pretty extreme!  I wonder if this the only time there's been a game with this name?

Quote from: "The Laird"That Madden picture is scary!!!! 

You're not wrong!

I find it intriguing that that Monday Night Football game for SNES couldn't even manage an NFL license. Maybe Data East spent so much money to get the ABC name that nothing was left over to pay the NFL?

Quote from: "sloan"I find it intriguing that that Monday Night Football game for SNES couldn't even manage an NFL license. Maybe Data East spent so much money to get the ABC name that nothing was left over to pay the NFL?

That sure is curious.  Or perhaps they didn't feel it was worth the money for some reason.

Quote from: "The Laird"[align=center:2u2r5epw][size=240]Atari Lynx[/size]

Atari Lynx Tournament Cyberball 2072 (1991).avi (//http)

NFL Football sur Atari Lynx (//http)[/align:2u2r5epw]

Wonder what a port of Madden would have looked like?

[align=center:26wzr009][size=240]NEC PC Engine / TurboGrafx[/size]

TG16 TV Sports Football (//http)

Turbo-CD - John Madden Duo CD Football (//http)[/align:26wzr009]

Always wanted a Turbo CD, just to play Madden.

[align=center:n8igunyu][size=240]3DO Real[/size]

Madden on the 3DO game system (//http)

[size=240]Sega 32X[/size]

Sega 32X - NFL Quarterback Club (1995) (//http)[/align:n8igunyu]

ATB's Gameplay: College Football's National Championship for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive (//http)

College Football's National Championship II USA (//http)

Sega Mega CD & Sega CD Joe Montana NFL Football U (//http)

Look like really good games. I played a lot of Bill Walsh College Football on the Sega CD.

Y, the College Football's National Championship I and II games are my favorite football games of the 16-bit era. I have played the Bill Walsh games along with Madden (use the same game engine), but find them somewhat slow and clunky compared to Sega's offerings. I always loved the speed and smoothness of the action on CFNC, and still love playing them now and again.

Never played them. I am big fan the original Sega controllers. A, B, C and start. What more could you ask for when playing a sports game?

[align=center:v7p075rr][size=240]Sega Dreamcast[/size]

NFL 2k - HD - Dreamcast (//http)

Dreamcast: NFL Blitz 2000 (//http)

Let's Play NFL 2K2 Sega Dreamcast HD (//http)

Let's Play NFL 2K2 Sega Dreamcast HD (//http)[/align:v7p075rr]

NFL 2K series on the DreamCast is still some of the best American football.

^
I agree. It really is a shame what football games have become under the EA monopoly. Sony/989 made some really good football games as well.

[align=center:32k8c9yl][size=180]Sega Master System[/size]

Great Football
Great Football - Sega Master System (//http)

American Pro Football (this review is funny)
Sega Master System - American Football (//http)

Walter Payton Football
Walter Payton Football (Sega Master System) - RetroCopy Intro (//http)

Joe Montana Football
Joe Montana Football USA, Europe - Sega Master System (//http)[/align:32k8c9yl]

[align=center:qke3jy6u][size=240]Atari ST[/size]

(http://www.atarimania.com/st/screens/afl_pro_football_102_7.gif)
AFL Pro. Football - By Brendan O'Brian

(http://www.atarimania.com/st/screens/american_football_%5Bno_publisher%5D_4.gif)
American Football - By Parkhurst Software

(http://www.atarimania.com/st/screens/head_coach_10.gif)
Head Coach - By Coda Software

(http://www.atarimania.com/st/screens/tv_sports_football_10.gif)
TV Sports Football - By Cinemaware

(http://www.atarimania.com/st/screens/cyberball_4.gif)
Cyberball - By Domark/Tengen

(http://www.atarimania.com/st/screens/gridiron_bethesda_software_4.gif)
Grid Iron! - By Bethesda Softworks[/align:qke3jy6u]

Great video about American Football! Thanks for sharing, TrekMD!

Looks like a nice mix for the Atari ST!

[align=center:3den088y][size=180]Nintendo 64[/size]

Madden 64
Madden 64 - N64 Gameplay (//http)

NFL Blitz 2000
CGRundertow NFL BLITZ 2000 for Nintendo 64 Video Game Review (//http)

NFL Quarterback Club 2000
NFL Quarterback Club 2000 - Nintendo 64 (//http)

There are additional versions of the same titles for the system but I just posted one of each.  [/align:3den088y]

[align=center:1ywqv6uh][size=240]SNK NEO GEO[/size]

FOOTBALL FRENZY - EXPERT MODE - FINALS HD (//http)[/align:1ywqv6uh]

[align=center:2r0wlsab][size=180]Sony PlayStation 1[/size]

Football Forever
WE2002-FOOTBALL FOREVER PS1 (//http)

This is Football
This is Football - Gameplay PSX (PS One) HD 720P (Playstation classics) (//http)

This is Football 2
This is Football 2 - Gameplay PSX (PS One) HD 720P (Playstation classics) (//http)

NFL Gameday '98
NFL Gameday '98 Head to Head - Saints @ Jets | What am I doing? (PS1) (//http)

NFL Blitz
NFL BLITZ [PSX] - Eagles vs. Chiefs (//http)[/align:2r0wlsab]

At least in my area, people sold there Saturn systems to get football on the Playstation.

Those games do look pretty good but I'm not sure I would have sold the Saturn for a PS1. 

Quote from: "TrekMD"Those games do look pretty good but I'm not sure I would have sold the Saturn for a PS1. 

3 of those games you posted are not Grid Iron games!

The Playstation had Madden and American football is a phenomenon unto itself. If EA had released Madden sooner on the Saturn, I think it might have stood a better chance of success.