But Wait There's More

After I chronicled my own personal history with football video games, and marveled at how quickly the graphics have improved, I discovered the personal attachement that so many people hold for other video games in the past. With that in mind, here's a brief run down of some other football video games that I didn't have the privledge of enjoying as much as the others. Oh and I'm sure that I've still managed to overlook your favorite game...sorry.

Atari 4-Player Football

Here's what I've learned from this 1978 flyer:
The season never ends with Atari Sports
This was a video football attraction.
Not only did they introduce a whopping 5 plays including field goals, but they also invented an offensive position: "video receiver."

10-Yard Fight for NES

This has been referred to as the first "slightly realistic football video game." I'm not sure if that leaves the possibility open that there was a "moderately realistic" game that came before this. Perhaps the sound effects inspired those in the Tecmo Bowl series.

4th and Inches

This game was released on 4 exciting platforms: Amiga, Apple II, Commodore 64 and Dos. This game put the strategy in action/strategy...but I'm not sure where the action came from.

John Elway's Quarterback for NES

Who needs real NFL teams or players when you can get John Elway on the cover? And why have uniforms in colors other than red or blue? Although they did overcomplicate things by having a mind boggling 9 offensive plays. Luckily Tecmo Bowl would show them you really didn't need all those plays.

Tecmo Bowl for NES

2 passes, 2 runs. I mean who needs that many? Why even have plays? Why not just hike the ball and let the players vibrate around like it's electric football?

Cyberball

The thing I remember about this arcade game was that if you didn't get a first down, the ball - which was a bomb - exploded. Thus, you lost posession. Oh, and I also remember pushing in quarters in the Godfather's Pizza arcade.

What I didn't remember was this bananas description courtesy of mobygames.com:
"At one time, the game of American Football was not played by average humans, but in the year 2006, an all-pro player was caught with a bionic knee... By 2022, the game was played not by humans, but robots, and the usual pig skin ball was replaced with a 350 pound bomb to spice things up."

I don't want to jinx his career before it starts, but my money is on Reggie Bush. Either that, or as a direct result of the Madden cover curse, Alexander is found to have the bionic knee.

Mutant League Football for Sega Genesis

If the game isn't being played by robots, it might as well be played by mutants on a booby-trapped playing field. I'm almost surprised this wasn't branded as Mortal Kombat Football.

Troy Aikman NFL Football for Sega Genesis

Clearly this game tried to make up for it's lack of NFLPA license, by overpromoting their NFL team license. We get it. It's the NFL. And Aikman connects with WR#88!

NCAA Football 06

This game introduced a Race for the Heisman mode, but the best part is that while you make the journey from high-schooler to Heisman winner, you upgrade your girlfriend. So of course, when you walk-on your girl is a total butterface.