10
JOHN MADDEN FOOTBALL (1988): MODERN SPORTS VIDEOGAMES KICKOFF
Although this chapter focuses on the highly influential and commercially successful Madden series of football videogames, it's also concerned with sports videogames in general.1 As the sports videogame industry grew and developed, so too did the Madden series—sometimes innovating, sometimes liberally borrowing ideas from others. To put it simply, what's good for Madden is good for the genre as a whole.
Some critics might wonder whether all videogames can be considered sports. After all, nearly all of them have some type of competitive and scoring element. We certainly find a strong sports influence in the earliest videogames. The first true videogame translations of sporting activities are discussed in bonus chapter, “Pong (1972): Avoid Missing Game to Launch Industry,” and include William Higinbotham and Robert Dvorak's Tennis for Two (1958), a custom analog computer game; the sports games for Ralph Baer's Magnavox Odyssey console from 1972 (Table Tennis, Tennis, Hockey, Football, and others); and of course, Atari's arcade Pong from later that same year. Pong's great success with such humble technology inspired more imitators than innovators, and it took a while for sports videogames to expand beyond tepid paddle and ball variations in which designers could simply change the number and size of paddles and balls and call it a different sport. Nevertheless, expand it did, culminating with the Madden games, which became perennial bestsellers and challengers for the top spot on the sales charts every year.
With all of that in mind, first we'll take you through a quick tour of the history of some notable games based on traditional sports: baseball, basketball, boxing, golf, soccer, hockey, tennis, and of course, football, as well as how they evolved, getting into more detail on what makes the Madden series what it is today. Let's begin then with a look at baseball games over the years.
Screenshot from Midway's Tornado Baseball.
The first major baseball videogame was Tornado Baseball, released to the arcade in 1976 by Midway. The game featured an overhead view of the playing field that became the standard for a number of years. The black and white players, foul line, and scores were mirrored against a color overlay. Like many early games, Tornado Baseball required two players. The game's audiovisuals were quite simple: besides the movement of the ball, there was only minimal animation of the stick-figure players and just a simple bat to represent the batter. What the game did have was a nifty control panel, complete with a mini bat-like lever for hitting. The simple two-player gameplay and perspective would reappear in various simplified and enhanced successors, such as the modest RCA Studio II's Baseball (1977) and the Mattel Intellivision's classic and relatively sophisticated Major League Baseball (1980), which was one of the earliest examples of obtaining an official sports association license, though it affected only branding.
The next major change in presentation and perspective came with the 1983 release of Gamestar's Star League Baseball for the Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64. Star League Baseball presented the action from the right-field stands, offering the player a type of isometric view of the action. Unlike overhead views, which typically avoided up-down ball movement in either pitching or hit balls, Star League Baseball embraced it. Several other games would copy this perspective, but the one drawback to this point-of-view, much like overhead, was the relative lack of detail in the pitcher-batter interaction critical to the sport. Games like Hardball! and R.B.I. Baseball would address this issue.
Electronic Arts’ Earl Weaver Baseball (1987) was one of the early efforts to associate a famous name with a game, hoping to give it an edge with fans. The Commodore Amiga version of this game used the computer's built-in speech synthesis instead of digitized speech.
Hardball!, first released by Accolade in 1985 for the Commodore 64, presented the battle between the pitcher and batter from a television-style point of view, which is behind the pitcher, more or less from the perspective of the second baseman. Though this point of view proved popular and was particularly good for pitching, it was not quite as ideal for hitting because it was easy for batters to judge location, but not necessarily depth. R.B.I. Baseball, first released by Tengen in 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, reversed the perspective and made the point of view that of the home plate umpire just behind the catcher. Though modern baseball games typically allow for a myriad of perspectives in their 3D engines, this point of view remains the default because it provides the best balance of visibility for both pitcher and batter. Though R.B.I. Baseball did not have a Major League Baseball license, which would have allowed it to use official branding and team names, it did have a Major League Baseball Players Association license, which allowed it to feature well-known players. Games like World Series Major League Baseball (1994) by Sega for their Genesis console would eventually bring it all together, with every license and top-notch gameplay and visuals. Games like 3DO's High Heat Major League Baseball 2004 (2003; Microsoft Xbox, PC, Sony PlayStation) and Sony's MLB 09: The Show (2008; Sony PlayStation, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PlayStation Portable) would eventually bring it all together in 3D, which was a boon for sports gaming, as the action could be rendered from nearly any angle necessary.
The first notable basketball game was Atari's trackball-controlled Atari Basketball, released to the arcade in 1979. Atari Basketball was a one- or two-player one-on-one full-court basketball game, shown from an angled side view. The side view would be a commonly used perspective over the years, though some games showed the full court at all times and others showed half or scrolling courts. Electronic Arts would release Julius Erving and Larry Bird Go One-on-One in 1983 on the Apple II (later for many other platforms), which featured an angled top-down half court game of one-on-one. Although the game played great and had neat touches, like a breakable backboard that caused an angry janitor to come out and sweep up the debris, it was most famous for being one of the first sports games to both involve and use the likenesses of actual sports stars, taking into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of each. The success of the game certainly predicted the demands of future sports videogame fans in regard to the modeling and usage of their favorite athletes. Of course, there have been many team-based basketball games over the years, including Konami's Double Dribble (1986) arcade game, famous for its scrolling court and cutscenes showing spectacular plays, and Electronic Arts’ long-running NBA Live franchise, which besides the typical assortment of current teams, players, and signature moves, in the 2009 edition features daily player updates that modify tendencies, rosters, and hot and cold streaks based on their real-world counterparts.
Box back for Julius Erving and Larry Bird Go One-on-One.
Screenshot from Activision's Boxing for the Atari 2600 Video Computer System.
Boxing has been one of the most consistently translated sports, making an appearance on even the most obscure platforms, though it has never achieved anywhere near the popularity of its close cousin, the fighting game (described in Chapter 17, “Street Fighter II (1991): Would You Like the Combo?”). Notable titles include Activision's Boxing (1980) for the Atari 2600 VCS, which displayed the action from an overhead view; Mattel's Boxing for its Intellivision, which displayed the action from the side; 4-D Sports Boxing (1991; Commodore Amiga, PC, and others) from Distinctive Software, which featured a crude, but effective free-form 3D fighting engine; and Sega's Greatest Heavyweights (1993) for their Genesis console, which featured licensed likenesses of famous boxers, a close-up side view of the top half of the boxers, and a rotating ring. Of course the biggest challenge with boxing games is balancing button-mashing action with the sport's inherent strategic elements, and one of the best at combining these has been Electronic Arts’ Fight Night series, which began back in 2004. Fight Night sets the bar for boxing videogames high, offering a robust and responsive 3D fighting engine, custom and licensed boxers, career modes, and the usual polish of EA Sports titles.2
Box back for INTV Corporation's surprisingly advanced successor to Mattel's PGA Golf, Chip Shot: Super Pro Golf, released in 1987 for the Intellivision
Golf would seem at first glance to be one of the more difficult sports for early hardware to simulate, with its myriad clubs, distances, and long and short driving and putting games. Of course, as our discussions throughout this book have shown, it is not always necessary to re-create a complete experience to have a fun videogame, and in fact golf titles were available fairly early on. Atari's Golf (1978) for their VCS and Mattel's PGA Golf (1979) for their Intellivision are two good examples. In Atari's title, there are nine different full screen holes that switch to a closer view when it becomes necessary to putt. Mattel's title, besides having licensed branding, takes a similar approach to Atari's, save for changing the point of view when putting. What really differentiated PGA Golf, however, was its surprisingly advanced features for the time, including aiming, swinging (don't slice!), and ball trajectories—all in the interest of avoiding standard hazards like sand traps, roughs, and trees. The videogame golf experience would remain virtually unchanged until Access’ Leader Board Golf, first released in 1986 for the Commodore 64. Leader Board Golf featured a third-person behind-the-golfer viewpoint, with the course redrawn each time the ball changed its resting location. Leader Board Golf would eventually morph into the long running Links series. Incredible Technologies’ Golden Tee series of popular arcade games debuted in 1989, eventually making the successful transition from 2D to 3D gameplay. With its intuitive trackball controls and solid pacing, the Golden Tee games continue to be popular bar fixtures, even inspiring regular tournaments. Like many of the other sports in this chapter, Electronic Arts presently has the strongest showing in golf videogames with their PGA Tour series, which started back in 1990 on the PC. It later became the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series starting in 1998 on the PC and Sony PlayStation. The latest Tiger Woods games feature an assortment of control schemes, tournaments, and real-time events based on the platform's internal clock and showcases the expected group of licensed professionals.
Box back for Links: The Challenge of Golf (1992) for the Video Information System (VIS) platform. The multiclick swing system was the de facto standard until fairly recently.
Commodore's International Soccer for the Commodore 64.
Soccer, better known outside North America as football, has of course received countless treatments over the years. One of the earliest recognizable videogame conversions was Atari's Atari Soccer (1979), which—like their other early sports titles—made excellent use of the trackball for more realistic control. Supporting up to four simultaneous players, Atari's game presented the black-and-white action from an overhead left-right perspective, and featured well-paced two-on-two (plus goalies) play. A good portion of the playfield was shown onscreen at one time, with scrolling as needed. Commodore's colorful International Soccer (1983) for the Commodore 64 used a similar scrolling technique, but this time presented the action from an angled side perspective, which allowed for the ball to bounce in a more realistic-looking fashion, as well as increased the number of players on the field. The popular Sensible Soccer series from Sensible Software, first released in 1992 on platforms like the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga, used a zoomed-out, top-down overhead view, and offered full season, quick play, and management modes. Electronic Arts’ FIFA series debuted in 1993 and initially featured a zoomed-in, angled, isometric perspective, though on the marquee 3DO version, it sported greatly enhanced 2D graphics and a pseudo-3D camera. Perhaps the most popular soccer game today is Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer series, which was also known by the name Winning Eleven. The latest versions of the game, which include a bewildering array of features, continue to receive accolades. IGN's Alex Simmons mentions the series’ “instinctive controls, the way you almost feel at one with your team when you're playing well.”3
Hockey was perhaps the most popular sports variation on Pong outside of tennis, so there were of course many games released in the paddle and ball format both in the arcade and at home that called themselves “hockey.” However, the first major realistic hockey game appeared on the Intellivision in 1980, in the form of Mattel's visually rich NHL Hockey. It was a two-player game of three-on-three hockey, plus goalies, all shown from a single-screen angled side perspective. Nintendo's Ice Hockey, released in 1988 for the NES; Bethesda Softwork's 1989 Wayne Gretzky Hockey (Commodore Amiga, NES, and others); NHL 2K (starting in 2000 on the Sega Dreamcast); and Electronic Arts’ long-running NHL series (starting in 1991 on the Sega Genesis) competed for the affections of hockey fans. Although NHL started out as a popular companion to the Madden series on the Sega Genesis with a similar top-down overhead view, eventually morphing into the feature-rich 3D experience it is today, NHL 2K was always based on a 3D engine.
Sensible Soccer was one of the more popular games for the Commodore Amiga platform. Its smooth animation, superb audio, and bright graphics even made it popular with many gamers who didn't enjoy the sport.
Konami's Blades of Steel arcade game from 1987.
Tennis videogames often made use of a left-right overhead perspective that became increasingly popular, though in its more common top-down form. Tennis videogames are often thought of as “Pong with window dressing,” but that's a bit unfair to the freedoms many such interpretations of the sport (particularly later ones) offer. We again turn to the Atari VCS and Mattel Intellivision for two very different early interpretations. On the VCS, Activision released Tennis (1981), which features a simple angled top-down view of the action for one or two players. Although there are no out-of-bounds shots and each of the players automatically hits the ball, the angle can be controlled based on player location. On the Intellivision, Mattel released Tennis (1980), a two-player game with an angled side view that offered full control over each player, as well as ball velocity and placement. Many future games would experiment with both the viewpoint and level of interaction, with most choosing some type of modified top-down view and full control over both the player and racket. There are two main series worth talking about that are still going strong today: Virtua Tennis and Top Spin. Sega's Virtua Tennis started out as an arcade game in 1999 and soon made its way home. The series is known for its quick, intuitive gameplay and—in the home versions—its quirky training minigames. PAM Development's Top Spin started out in 2003 for the Microsoft Xbox before seeing release on other platforms, and featured a robust create-a-player mode and online play. Both series make a point of licensing the likenesses of famous tennis players to round out their feature sets.
Electronic Arts’ NHL Hockey series has proven a videogame mainstay. Shown is NHL 95 (1994) for the Sega Genesis.
Gamestar's On Court Tennis (1984) was a highly accessible game, mostly because the computer automatically controlled the competitors’ movement about the court. All the player had to do was focus on hitting the ball.
Screenshot from Atari Football.
The first major football videogame was another black-and-white Atari arcade game with trackball control, Atari Football, released in 1979. Supporting two or four players controlling Os (offense) and Xs (defense) from an overhead, scrolling left-right perspective, the game offered quick action and a choice of plays. Mattel led the way at home again with NFL Football, another two-player 1980 release for the Intellivision that featured the same field perspective as Atari Football, but showed its colorful animated players from the side. NFL Football also featured a large number of plays to choose from. Tecmo's Tecmo Bowl arcade game, released in 1987, utilized the same type of perspective and look as NFL Football, except with a closer, more zoomed-in camera, and far better graphics and sound. Tecmo Bowl’s most notable feature in its fast-paced game-play was the ability to shake off would-be tacklers. However, it would be its first home release for the NES in 1989 that gave the Tecmo Bowl series legendary status among competitive arcade sports game fans, who would make shaking off defenders into an art form. In fact, the stir that Tecmo Bowl created on the NES contrasted sharply with the release of a game from Electronic Arts for computers called John Madden Football from the previous year that went mostly unnoticed.
Imagic's Touchdown Football was a popular six-on-six football game for multiple platforms. IBM PCjr version shown.
At the time of Madden’s development and release, the computer gaming market was not in a position to support a breakout hit computer game as we think of them today. The primary development platform, the Apple II, though still popular, was no longer a particularly lucrative market. The even more popular Commodore 64 was also in decline, and the PC was still not a particularly capable audiovisual platform. With Electronic Arts not yet heavily vested directly in the console market, a system like the NES was not an option. That left a year or two until Electronic Arts’ investment in the Sega Genesis platform as their direct entry point into consoles (i.e., as a big fish in a small pond) would really pay off with the system that Madden became most identified with and first became a best seller on.
John Madden Football on the Apple II.
Famously, even on the modest Apple II platform, John Madden insisted that for him to lend his name, the game must have full 11-member football teams facing off against each other, which was no small feat for any platform, let alone the aging 8-bit technology. By the time the game made it to the Sega Genesis in 1990 (ports for the Commodore Amiga and Super Nintendo would follow), the game's famous view from above and behind the quarterback would be set,4 along with audibles, variable field conditions, and password-protected games. However, the game still lacked any other license besides Madden himself.
John Madden Football ’92, released in 1991 for the Sega Genesis,5 introduced instant replay, weather conditions, two-player cooperative play, injuries, and additional play modes. There was still no NFL or NFL Players Association license, so the developers were able to take liberties with the property, including having a reckless ambulance appear to cart off an injured player. The terms of future licensing agreements with the professional football associations meant that humorous touches like that would no longer be an option.
Screenshot from John Madden Football ’92 for the Sega Genesis. John Madden is forever associated with football videogames. The franchise bearing his name still represents the cutting edge of sport-to-console adaptations.
John Madden Football (1993) for the 3DO was a high point for the platform.
John Madden Football ’93 (1992) and Madden NFL ’94 (1993),6 both for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, continued adding features, with the latter release finally getting a full NFL team license—hence the change in name. Madden NFL ’95, released in 1994, was the first version to feature the full names of most NFL players (not just their numbers), with full-season stat tracking. It was also the first version in a while to see release on multiple platforms again, including the Nintendo Game Boy, Sega Game Gear, Sega Genesis, and Super Nintendo.
Even the NEC Turbo Duo received John Madden Duo CD Football (1993). Similar to the 3DO version, the NEC release featured occasional video cutscenes.
Madden NFL ’95, released in 1995 for the Nintendo Game Boy, PC, Sega Game Gear, Sega Genesis, and Super Nintendo, added classic teams and a create-a-player feature. Interestingly, a Sony PlayStation version was planned, but was canceled when Sony demonstrated an early version of the surprisingly advanced NFL GameDay, a series that would remain competitive through the PlayStation 2 era before being canceled.
Box back for Sony's NFL 98 (1997) for the Sony PlayStation.
Madden NFL 97 (1996) was the first version to be created for the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation, though versions were released for the Nintendo Game Boy, PC, Sega Genesis, and Super Nintendo as well.7
Madden NFL 98 (1997) was the last version released for the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, and Sega Saturn platforms, with Electronic Arts continuing to produce new versions for the PC and Sony PlayStation, and adding the Nintendo 64 with the release of Madden NFL 99 (1998). Most notable in those releases was the addition of a franchise mode, which allows play across multiple seasons and involves off-season draft picks and trades. Madden NFL 2000 (1999) added the Apple Macintosh and Nintendo Game Boy Color to the platform mix.
With the release of Madden NFL 2001 (2000), Electronic Arts would begin the tradition of featuring a current athlete on the cover instead of John Madden.8 Year after year, new games and platforms would follow, with online features, presnap adjustments, special defensive hits that might cause fumbles, and many other features added to the mix to make each new year's release sound more exciting than what cynics basically called “the same game with just a few graphical tweaks and roster updates.” The biggest addition to Madden NFL 09 (2008), for instance, besides greatly improved graphics and expected gameplay tweaks, is the option to play in online leagues, allowing up to 32 players to compete in a simulated season.9
Box back from Visual Concepts’ NFL 2K1 for the Sega Dreamcast. Sega's sports games were extremely well done, but the lack of support from Electronic Arts helped doom the Dreamcast.
Madden NFL is the bestselling videogame sports franchise in history, spawning countless competitive tournaments and television competitions. It's no wonder that we chose John Madden Football as the greatest and most influential in its class. Although critics will argue that the “Madden Model” of typically incrementally improved new annual releases has hurt videogames in general,10 the simple fact of the matter is that Electronic Arts has hit on a formula that works. As long as Madden's rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth fanbase continues to clamor for each new release, other videogames and their creators will have no choice but to look to the series for how to release new versions of their own games on a regular basis. Even if Madden’s development did not happen in a vacuum, it's been as successful as any single game or series at giving the public exactly what they want, in this case evolving sports videogames to fall in line with the public's tastes from anonymous arcade fare to big-name-licensed sports simulations.
1With the exceptions of vehicle racing, which are discussed in Chapter 14, “Pole Position (1982): Where the Raster Meets the Road,” and casual and extreme sports games, which are discussed in bonus chapter, “Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (1999): Videogame Ollies, Grabs, and Grinds.”
2Though considered sports entertainment rather than an actual sport, the evolution of wrestling games have many parallels to both fighting and boxing videogames, with a similar important and beneficial transition from 2D to 3D. One of the best 3D evolutions of wrestling has been the WWE SmackDown! series, which began back in 2000 and featured the usual mix of licensed wrestlers, customization, and assortment of moves.
3See http://ps3.ign.com/articles/828/828327p1.html.
4Contrasting the mostly overhead perspective of the previous versions.
5John Madden Football II would be released independently for the PC the same year, with impressive updates of its own, but it did not receive the same notice as the Sega Genesis version.
6An advanced one-off version for the 3DO platform was produced this same year, with the title of John Madden Football, as well as a one-off version for the NEC Turbo Duo, titled John Madden Duo CD Football.
7A one-off version for the Nintendo 64, Madden Football 64, was released in 1997 and was a step back for the series, containing only a player license.
8Do a web search on “Madden curse” for some fun trivia regarding each game's cover athlete.
9Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 versions only. The other releases for the Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 2, and Sony PlayStation Portable are all different games.
10Perhaps the biggest offender pointed to is the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series discussed in bonus chapter, “ Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (1999): Videogame Ollies, Grabs, and Grinds.”