Jump to content

Football(1978 video game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected fromAtari Football)
Football
Arcade flyer
Developer(s)Atari, Inc.
Publisher(s)
Designer(s)Steve Bristow
Programmer(s)Michael Albaugh[3]
Platform(s)Arcade,Atari 2600
Release
Genre(s)Sports
Mode(s)Single-player,multiplayer

Football(also known asAtari Football) is a 1978American football video gamedeveloped and released byAtari, Inc.forarcades.Players are represented by X's and O's. While predated bySega'sWorld Cup,Footballis credited with popularizing thetrackballcontroller and is also the first non-racingvertically scrolling video game.[4]It was distributed in Japan byNamcoin 1979.

Footballwas the second highest-earning arcade video game of 1979 in the United States. That year Atari released a more challenging four-player version of the arcade game programmed byDave Theurer,who later createdMissile CommandandTempest.

AnAtari VCShome version ofFootballwas published in 1978.[5]It uses blocky representations of players instead of Xs and Os. In 1982, Atari replaced it withRealSports Football.

Gameplay

[edit]

Development

[edit]

The game was designed by Steve Bristow and programmed by Michael Albaugh, with the hardware engineered by Dave Stubben. The game's use of a trackball was inspired by an earlier Japaneseassociation football (soccer) gamethat had used trackball controls.[6][7]When the team saw the game, they brought a cabinet to their lab and imitated the trackball controls.[7]

An earlier association football game that used trackball controls wasSega'sWorld Cup,released seven months earlier in March 1978,[8][9]but in 2001Steven L. Kentreported that Stubben attributed the earlier trackball soccer game toTaito.[7]In a later 2017 interview, Albaugh said he was uncertain which company it was from, but remembers it was from a Japanese company.[6]

Atari'sFootballwas released in October 1978.[2]

Ports

[edit]

On the Atari VCS, two teams of green and white players, each of four men, playing against each other. In a first game-option, before each play the player can select a formation, and then during each play the player controls their movement as a unit using the joystick controller. In a second game option, the player only chooses the formation with the play being carried out automatically according to a pre-selected plan. A third game-option is similar to the second except that the user may kick or punt at any time.[10]

Reception

[edit]

Footballwas the second highest-earning 1979 in the United States, below onlySpace Invaders(1978).[11]

In his October 1979 review of the Atari VCS version of the game inCreative Computing,David H. Ahlgave the game a positive review. He praised particularly the gameplay which he described as "boast[ing] lively action".[10]

Legacy

[edit]

Although not the firsttrackballgame, predated bySega'sWorld Cupin March 1978,[8][9]Atari Footballis credited with popularizing the trackball.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ab"Foot Ball".Media Arts Database.Agency for Cultural Affairs.Retrieved31 May2021.
  2. ^ab"Production Numbers"(PDF).Atari.1999. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 10 May 2013.Retrieved19 March2012.
  3. ^Stilphen, Scott (2017)."Michael Albaugh interview".Atari Compendium.Retrieved2 May2021.
  4. ^Words: GamesRadar US on October 8, 2010 (2010-10-08)."Gaming's most important evolutions".GamesRadar.Retrieved2013-02-13.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^"Football".Atari Mania.
  6. ^abStilphen, Scott (2017)."Michael Albaugh interview".Atari Compendium.Retrieved2 May2021.I saw a soccer game with one (I remember only that it was Japanese, and a soccer game. Taito is plausible).
  7. ^abcKent, Steve L.(2001).The ultimate history of video games: from Pong to Pokémon and beyond: the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world.Prima. p. 118.ISBN0-7615-3643-4.Contrary to a popular notion,Footballwas not the first game to use a trak-ball controller. According to Dave Stubben, who created the hardware for AtariFootball,Taito beat Atari to market with a soccer game that used one. According to Steve Bristow, when his engineers saw the game, they brought a copy into their lab and imitated it.
  8. ^abSega Arcade History.Famitsu DC(in Japanese).Enterbrain.2002. p. 34.
  9. ^ab"WORLD CUP ( ワールドカップ )".Sega(in Japanese).Retrieved2 May2021.
  10. ^abAhl, David H. (October 1979)."Atari Video Computer Cartridges - Football".Creative Computing.5(10):38.Retrieved4 September2019.
  11. ^"Video Games".RePlay.November 1979.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Football_(1978_video_game)&oldid=1248230328"