Football Video Games as a Learning Tool for Referees

Before Mario slid down the first flagpole or our little vector ships blew apart digital asteroids, gamers could nestle up to an arcade cabinet and play a game of football. Over the past 35 years, developers have offered up a wide range of football video games that span hardcore simulations to full-on arcade madness.

One of the earliest was เล่นบาคาร่า เพื่อชัยชนะ Atari’s RealSports line in 1982, which offered a number of sports titles, including NFL Football. The game was a primitive affair, with the player controlling just one of five teams, and the visuals tended to flicker. The field was regulation-size, but lacked hash marks and sidelines. There were nine offensive and defensive formations, but the playbook was surprisingly basic, featuring only a few plays for each.

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However, it wasn’t long before the Atari company was trounced by its archrival, Mattel, and its more advanced Intellivision line of games, the first to introduce the concept of playcalling. In the case of the NFL Football title, you controlled the offense’s five players in the formation of your choosing. You could choose between a run-and-shoot, pass-oriented, or defensive set and then program the computer to either stage the play or prevent it.

Things got a lot more sophisticated with John Madden’s 92, which introduced three to four offensive and defensive formations for each team as well as a choice of three to four plays for each of the offense’s six positions. The game even included a sudden-death mode for multiplayer action or a quick time killer against the computer.