What Football Video Games did you grow up with

[Scooch]

Since you mentioned the Commodore64, Sporting News Baseball on that computer was crazy ahead of it's time.

I see you that and raise you Micro League Baseball. That game was da bomb.

And if we're going off into other sports games, the pinnacle was One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird...

 

[Scooch]

Here's the aforementioned Touchdown Football game I played on C64. This is the Atari 7800 version, but they were pretty similar...

 

[Pyle]

I see you that and raise you Micro League Baseball. That game was da bomb.

And if we're going off into other sports games, the pinnacle was One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird...

I friggin loved Dr J/Larry!

 

[Lynch1967]

View attachment 119787 Atari 2600 Football

Pretty lame compared to Madden 2018. We utilized the best technology we had back then. It was better than pong.

That’s about where I was at.
Then there was this before that...

 

[cuse309]

C'mon...I know I'm not the only kid who grew up late 80's early 90's, and played this. It was very primitive. All you did was take kickoffs. You either were tackled, and lost, or ran it all the way back.

 

[cuse309]

or this piece of cutting edge tech.

 

[RandomGuy]

Thanks to the OP.

My son had a good laugh at redu Mutant League Football tonight. Downloaded the Xbox trial. They usually have to earn their video games, but if he likes it, I'll buy him the beta..(Snow day)

When I reminisce, I'm a sucker(he knows it). Another someone is grabbing a game, because of this thread. ;-)

**I love seeing the older games posted(especially analog, electric, pre-90's) Thanks.

 

[RandomGuy]

For anyone else reminiscing about their favorite vid game, you can still play them.(I don't play video games)

Lets not derail the thread, it may require another, but here is some basic info.

Finwad is doing it AWESOME, but for the rest of us. Here is your Tecmo Bowl
Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition - Official Site

IF you are computer savvy, there is a way to play almost every arcade and console game, for free. It's called MAME(Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) Download MAME(been around 20 years). It does nothing. It's a substrate for the chip array/program. Then download the ROM, and load it into MAME. It is legal. You can have every game in a 1980's arcade, as well as the majority of the cartridge games. It takes a little bit of savvy, but if that's your thing...

Many moons ago, my roommate and I were both Computer Science. He built a stand up MAME machine with about 3000 arcade games in it. Complete with detachable non-standard controls, for Berzerk, Asteroids, Centipede, Zaxon etc... If you want to re-live your youth, there is a good chance that the games you all posted, have a corresponding ROM, and you can play the original, without the console, or the game. Research MAME, and they are yours, with your effort,

 

[ForCuseSake]

Mutant League was so great, played that a lot in college on the Sega Genesis.

The upside of having divorced parents was getting game consoles and computers at each house. Had both Atari football and Intellivision football as a kid (Intellivision was much better). Also has a great game called Touchdown Football (I think) for the Commodore 64. Played entire seasons of Super Tecmo Bowl during all-nighters in college. Unfortunately my Pats were atrocious back then so it was impossible to win with them.

Since you mentioned the Commodore64, Sporting News Baseball on that computer was crazy ahead of it's time.

What fantastic memories of Commodore 64 games. Just wanted to add my two favorites - Red Baron & Miner 49er.

 

[ForCuseSake]

For anyone else reminiscing about their favorite vid game, you can still play them.(I don't play video games)

Lets not derail the thread, it may require another, but here is some basic info.

Finwad is doing it AWESOME, but for the rest of us. Here is your Tecmo Bowl
Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition - Official Site

IF you are computer savvy, there is a way to play almost every arcade and console game, for free. It's called MAME(Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) Download MAME(been around 20 years). It does nothing. It's a substrate for the chip array/program. Then download the ROM, and load it into MAME. It is legal. You can have every game in a 1980's arcade, as well as the majority of the cartridge games. It takes a little bit of savvy, but if that's your thing...

Many moons ago, my roommate and I were both Computer Science. He built a stand up MAME machine with about 3000 arcade games in it. Complete with detachable non-standard controls, for Berzerk, Asteroids, Centipede, Zaxon etc... If you want to re-live your youth, there is a good chance that the games you all posted, have a corresponding ROM, and you can play the original, without the console, or the game. Research MAME, and they are yours, with your effort,

I downloaded NESticle about 17 years ago and binged every Nintendo game from my childhood. Edit - googling NESticle is safe; it won’t bring up a Chip/Millhouse rom-com.

The simulator and ROMs took up practically no space back then and we’re an awesome distraction during grad schoool a few years later. It’s probably the second biggest reason why I’ve never bought a modern game console today (wife & 3 kids are the biggest reasons for not owning one now).

I can only imagine how many new ROMs and more sophisticated simulators are available today.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

This may show some peoples ages, but was curious. When I wasn't playing football with friends, or at school, I was playing football on my Nintendo. What football games did you grow up playing? For those of you that grew up before the Atari Football game in 1978, you may include that vibrating shock hazard football game if you'd like.
I played mostly Tecmo Bowl on the original Nintendo. Once Madden 94 vame along on the Super Nintendo though...it was all over. I remember thinking that there was no way the graphics could ever get better than this:

I also remember being addicted to Bill Walsh College Football 95. Syracuse's option attack was unstopable by the way.
Bill Walsh College Football 95

Video games? LOL..

I am a fossil.

My two favorite football games growing up were Vince Lombardi football and NFL Strategy.

I also loved playing All-Star baseball.

I think Mattel electronic baseball and football games were my first two "video" games and I got those in either middle or high school.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

This may show some peoples ages, but was curious. When I wasn't playing football with friends, or at school, I was playing football on my Nintendo. What football games did you grow up playing? For those of you that grew up before the Atari Football game in 1978, you may include that vibrating shock hazard football game if you'd like.
I played mostly Tecmo Bowl on the original Nintendo. Once Madden 94 vame along on the Super Nintendo though...it was all over. I remember thinking that there was no way the graphics could ever get better than this:

I also remember being addicted to Bill Walsh College Football 95. Syracuse's option attack was unstopable by the way.
Bill Walsh College Football 95

BTW, OT to original post, but anybody else on here play the Avalon Hill games?

My favorites are War at Sea (when I was a kid - easy to play), Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, War in the Pacific and Midway...

 

[orangencpolice]

Intellevision - B17 Bomber. Now I know I am showing my age. I loved that game and can't be the only one on here. If I am then I guess I was a nerd as a kid.

 

[Pyle]

Intellevision - B17 Bomber. Now I know I am showing my age. I loved that game and can't be the only one on here. If I am then I guess I was a nerd as a kid.

You were not alone. The digitized hillbilly voice in the beginning was classic and had me hooked as a little guy. Also a favorite for me on Intellivision was Utopia.

 

[Ryand877]

Don't forget John Elway Football too.

 

[Pyle]

I downloaded NESticle about 17 years ago and binged every Nintendo game from my childhood. Edit - googling NESticle is safe; it won’t bring up a Chip/Millhouse rom-com.

The simulator and ROMs took up practically no space back then and we’re an awesome distraction during grad schoool a few years later. It’s probably the second biggest reason why I’ve never bought a modern game console today (wife & 3 kids are the biggest reasons for not owning one now).

I can only imagine how many new ROMs and more sophisticated simulators are available today.

Well I don't mind flying my nerd flag pretty high. You can get emulators all the way up to PS2 gen but you need some pretty jacked up video cards to run them. Most standard PCs can go as high as PS1 with little effort. That means Gamecube/N64/Sega Saturn/etc all all available as well. My 7 year old Mac Book Air can run a PS2 emulator but my 2 year old HP with built-in video can not so YMMV.

 

[Pyle]

Don't forget John Elway Football too.

Shame on you. That game was a travesty.

 

[Ryand877]

Shame on you. That game was a travesty.

I enjoyed that game, even the arcade version. I can't remember specifics, but there was a cool cheat where you could run super fast. Still like original Tecmo/Super Tecmo more.

 

[Dino2112]

How do you not mention Bo Jackson on those Tecmo Bowl Games? He was by far, the single greatest video game athlete ever. Abolutely unstoppable. So was Barry Sanders. I remember to save your season back then, you had to write down about a 20 digit alphanumeric code. I also remember the frustration of trying to enter the code to resume your season, only to find out you wrote down the code wrong.

Make Bo your punter and fake punt -run the bottom sideline and Get Bruce Smith fastest def player , i'd play him as a LB that way he could blitz or cover( hands of stone)

 

[FrancoPizza]

THIS! To all you Tecmo fans out there, this game was far superior. Don't care if it was 'slower'. Original Tecmo gave you the choice of 4 plays. This had an entire playbook including option plays. Tecmo Super Bowl was the ultimate when it finally came out but original Tecmo was like playing arcade football. NES Play Action was the first real football sim in my book and was the pre-cursor to Madden.

Nothing beats the original Tecmo Bowl. The game only had 4 plays, but we quickly figured out that you can disguise coverages by dropping a linebacker. It really stresses the ability to check down and also run occasional QB draws to keep the human defender off-balance. There's also an art to slowing down an elite runner like Bo Jackson. It can be done. And the interceptions only occur if you throw a bad pass to a guy that's not open and fail to check down. Crazy concept.

Fantastic game.

 

[Pyle]

Nothing beats the original Tecmo Bowl. The game only had 4 plays, but we quickly figured out that you can disguise coverages by dropping a linebacker. It really stresses the ability to check down and also run occasional QB draws to keep the human defender off-balance. There's also an art to slowing down an elite runner like Bo Jackson. It can be done. And the interceptions only occur if you throw a bad pass to a guy that's not open and fail to check down. Crazy concept.

Fantastic game.

Nostalgia fails you. You didn't pick real defense, you picked one of the other team's plays to defend against. It's a fancy version of rock-paper-scissors with 1:30 quarters, only nine players, etc. NES PlayAction included real playbooks, real 11 man teams, stamina, etc. Tecmo bowl was a great game, one of the best, but better football experiences were available. If you just wanted to push up/down with Bo Jackson all day then be my guest.

 

[FrancoPizza]

Nostalgia fails you. You didn't pick real defense, you picked one of the other team's plays to defend against. It's a fancy version of rock-paper-scissors with 1:30 quarters, only nine players, etc. NES PlayAction included real playbooks, real 11 man teams, stamina, etc. Tecmo bowl was a great game, one of the best, but better football experiences were available. If you just wanted to push up/down with Bo Jackson all day then be my guest.

It’s not nostalgia - I still play it with my family. But back to your point - think about it - trying to guess the play is what real strategy is about at its core. Human players develop tendencies for different situations.

Ive played all the newer and fancier football games. They’re more “realistic” from a sim standpoint, but when the ball is snapped the human element is not nearly as influential as it is was in the earlier days of tecmo and madden. Tecmo always felt like you were directly competing 1-on-1 with the other player both before and after the snap. The modern games I always felt like I was just 1 of 22 players on the field, especially on defense. My impact on the outcome felt greatly diminished. I felt like a coordinator sitting in the booth instead of being right in the middle of the action.

 

[Pyle]

It’s not nostalgia - I still play it with my family. But back to your point - think about it - trying to guess the play is what real strategy is about at its core. Human players develop tendencies for different situations.

Ive played all the newer and fancier football games. They’re more “realistic” from a sim standpoint, but when the ball is snapped the human element is not nearly as influential as it is was in the earlier days of tecmo and madden. Tecmo always felt like you were directly competing 1-on-1 with the other player both before and after the snap. The modern games I always felt like I was just 1 of 22 players on the field, especially on defense. My impact on the outcome felt greatly diminished. I felt like a coordinator sitting in the booth instead of being right in the middle of the action.

I think you hit the nail on the head and proved my point completely. The original Tecmo was arcade football, not a football sim and clearly you enjoyed that more. On the other hand I like to do things like setup play action, make reads against the defense, worry about players getting tired, etc. To me the diminished experience is taking all of that away. In the original Tecmo you could make tacklers miss simply by pressing up/down repeatedly when they tried to dive at you, until one of their guys takes his sprint pill and chases you down from half-way down the field with blinding speed. I'm not saying it's not a fun game but for me it was surpassed quickly by NES PlayAction and later my Genesis Sports Talk Football '93 featuring Joe Montana lol. I will add that Tecmo Super Bowl, while still Aracade style, added the elements of a full season with playoffs and was an absolutely awesome game.

 

[orangezen]

with the felt football ... you really couldnt control much

 

[Pyle]

with the felt football ... you really couldnt control much

Floyd Little sighting at 2:30!