Handheld football game 1980s

Basketball, Classic LCD re-release. Basketball Keychain LCD re-release of the original. Battlestar Galactica A. Missle Attack or Space Alert. Football, Classic LCD re-release, 3 variations. This Select-A-Game Machine walks a fine line between "handheld" and "tabletop. It included a vacuum fluorescent display with elements arranged in a 7x16 grid. Entex only released six game cartridges for this system, most notably versions of Pac-Man and Space Invaders.

Photo: Rik Morgan of the Handheld Museum. Nintendo released a deluxe, two-screen clamshell unit based on The Legend of Zelda in The top screen even featured an area for a complex inventory display. Nintendo DS, eat your heart out. Photos: Lette Moloney. By Benj Edwards Aug. This story was originally published on Aug. Nintendo - Super Mario Bros. Photo: Nate Savage. Tandy - Cosmic Fire Away x. We have a number of these, but this is one of the few to make it through all of our tests.

Again, as stated before, we have completely tested this game console and many of the games. Controller cables in good condition with no fraying or 'outer jacket' issues. All buttons seem to function fine.

Ready to connect to TV and play. See ' Copyright Information ' page for details. Looks great with only minor wear and works perfectly. Includes the controller, and three cartridges. Cartridge 4 with quiz book "People and Places". Cartridge 1 " Questions" but no quiz book for cart. Utilizes one 9V-battery.

Battery compartment perfect with no corrosion. Also includes our standard 90 day limited warranty. They're not from this world! It has a LED screen. This game is in great shape. Looks great with only minor, normal scuffing to the back and works like new. Utilizes four AA battery, has no corrosion and still has battery door intact. Also has input for an originally optional AC adaptor not included. Made in Japan.

Mechanical action game, no batteries required. Counters for Balls, Strikes, and Outs. Score board for Home and Visitors. Spring loaded action. Very clean and minimal wear. Works perfectly with normal wear on buttons. Up to 4 players can join in team or free-for-all play. Made in China, Utilizes three AA-batteries. Battery compartment has no corrosion and the lid is intact. Bridge game for beginners up to advanced players. Use with regular deck of cards not included.

LCD display looks good and works perfectly. Made in USA. Utilizes four C-batteries. Looks great and works perfectly. Made in China, South Korea, and Taiwan. Utilizes three AA-batteries. Lots of fun to play. Similar to "Defender". Has some wear to the display silk-screen, but no other issues.

Works great. Uses 4-C cells. Amateur and Pro settings. Very rare game. Includes our standard 90 day limited warranty. Cube It Up challenges you to rotate the multi-colored cube in sync with it's voice commands. When the game calls out a color, you must hold it up until you hear "you've got it".

You score a point every time you follow it's direction correctly. If you can't keep up Cube spins in 2 directions and at randomly selected speeds. Over sound effects and sayings included. Red panel has minor damage to plastic that does not affect game play.

The Mattel "Football" game-Original version. You control the running back". According to legend, the Madden series of football games began with Amtrak. Trip Hawkins, one of the founders of Electronic Arts and an avid sports gamer, first hooked up with John Madden on a train in The location of the meeting was prompted by the hall of fame coach's fear of flying, a condition that necessitated that he keep both feet on terra firma while traveling to broadcast assignments.

Making matters even more uncomfortable was the big man's recalcitrance. He balked at the idea of seven-man football, saying that he wouldn't lend his name to something that wasn't completely authentic.

Technological limitations made this impossible at the time, but EA stuck with Madden anyway. The persistence paid off.

John Madden Football--with a full 11 players per side--was released in for the Apple II computer. This first game served as a launching point that soon propelled the series to other, more enduring platforms such as the Sega Genesis and the PC.

Gameplay was rather simplistic at first. Although John didn't want to compromise the number of players on the field, his first game included just 16 of the 28 NFL teams in existence at the time. Most of the heavy hitters were there, the lineup including traditional powers such as Dallas, Washington, San Francisco, Denver, and Miami and dropping weak sisters such as Tampa Bay and San Diego. Playbooks were basic affairs with elementary formations based on the situation goal line, long, short, special teams, and so on and just a few plays available for each--although the "ABC" window still in use today was present right from the start.

Just three gameplay modes were featured, although these included an intriguing season option and a sudden-death game perfect for multiplayer fun or a quick time killer against the computer. Big John was awfully excitable in the late '80s. The series didn't stay primitive for very long.

John Madden Football 92, which came out for both the Genesis and the Super Nintendo though the latter version was inferior at first and would remain so for some time , improved the graphics with visible weather conditions such as snow and rain, added the 12 teams that were missing in the previous installment, and introduced three to four defensive and run-and-shoot offensive formations.

Two versions were produced the following year--a standard John Madden Football 93 and a Championship Edition intended solely for rental, which included EA's take on 38 classic NFL clubs and a pair of All-Madden rosters. Digitized comments from the man himself were featured in both games, along with improved AI and expanded stat tracking. Madden for the Sega Genesis, circa All of the teams and logos were brought on board, in addition to the 38 great teams from the previous year's Championship Edition and another 12 franchise all-pro rosters.

Larger players used a more vibrant color palette, and enhanced animations were obvious in tackling situations. A significant number of plays were added to the playbooks, although the standard formations were left unchanged.

Plays could be flipped now, however, and a bluff option when playcalling let you fake out human opponents. This version likely stands as the best ever produced in the series for the Sega Genesis. Later games were very good, but none wholly matched what the 94 game brought to the table at the time of its launch.

Madden 97 on the PlayStation. You can't categorize the season as anything but a step back. While adding the NFL Players Association license with the right to use all of the proper player names on current rosters and changing the name to a stripped-down "Madden NFL" , EA dropped the classic teams--possibly because they were stocked with retired players no longer represented by the union.

At any rate, this was a huge loss to gamers. Making things somewhat better was the optional removal of the passing window, a number of new defensive plays, the use of realistic playbooks, and the inclusion of a depth chart that let you preset substitutions for certain formations. It didn't exactly set the sales world on fire, though it did give a nod toward the future with highly detailed graphics and the chance to get a closer look at the on-field action.

The following year wasn't any better. Production problems caused the cancellation of a planned Sony PlayStation version at the last minute, while the planned first PC edition was postponed until the following year when it arrived as an incomplete bargain title alongside the full-priced Madden The Genesis held the line, though, and even revamped the playbooks and added a player editor. Monumental changes got the franchise back on track in the model year.

The series made a strong debut in late for both the PlayStation and the PC, with fantastic visuals that included video introductions with the entire Fox TV broadcast crew and a 3D graphics engine on the field with motion-capped players.

Classic teams made a return as well. Playcalling was similar to that seen on the Genesis in prior years, though on-field strategy was augmented with a complete management suite. The whole package was tarnished somewhat with spotty AI, which made the computer extremely vulnerable to the long passing game.

Genesis, Super Nintendo, and PC versions were also produced, though most of the attention was deservedly on the PlayStation game. Madden 98 spread the series to more systems than ever, different versions of the game coming out for the Genesis, Super Nintendo, Saturn, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, and the PC. AI improvements were the biggest change witnessed, making the computer much more of a credible opponent, particularly on the PC.

This would prove to be the series' swan song on both the Super Nintendo and the Genesis, though the second release for the PlayStation and an impressive Nintendo 64 debut showed that the torch was being passed to good hands.

A look at an early PS2 version. A good 3D card allowed PC gamers to experience one of the best-looking titles on the market, complete with detail right down to the rolls of fat on a lineman's belly. Players could finally take control of their favorite clubs over multiple seasons in franchise mode.

The designers finally reacted to Sports' NFL GameDay and improved control response and the available moves, making for on-field action that felt a lot like the real thing. If you weren't comfortable with all this gamepad mashing, the one-button option let you break the thing down to the basics.

Efforts in the following two seasons amounted to little more than treading water. Both the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 were nearing the ends of their respective life cycles, so the versions produced for those systems seemed a touch behind the times.

Things were perhaps a little better with the PC, although the quality there went down in before rising again in It looks like the so-called Madden "curse" has finally been broken, and it's all Ray Lewis' fault.

After a string of subpar performances by Madden cover athletes during their cover seasons, Lewis broke the mold by posting his typically stellar defensive numbers in , while remaining relatively injury-free for the entire year. This wasn't always the case, however. Take a brief look at the last few years of Madden and the detrimental effect starring on the cover has resulted in:.

After making his mark as the first NFL player to star on a Madden game, George's Titans missed the playoffs in , and George failed to make the 1,yard rushing mark. The Minnesota field general started only 11 games in due to injury, and he threw for 19 fewer touchdowns than in Some would argue the Vikings star's curse continued into , as Culpepper managed an even lower QB rating and threw the most interceptions of his career.

Louis Rams offense. Faulk only managed yards in , the first time he rushed for fewer than 1, yards since His explosive play makes viewers think that anything can and will happen every time he touches the ball. Unfortunately, after making his video game cover debut on Madden , a broken leg suffered during the preseason kept Vick sidelined for the first 11 games of the year. And let's not even start with all the Ron Mexico stuff Madden NFL Cover Star: Ray Lewis Though the heart and soul of the Ravens' defense managed only one sack and no interceptions in , his tackling numbers were right in line with his career average.

The linebacker missed only one start in and appears to be preparing for yet another season of being a rookie quarterback's worst nightmare. McNabb is surely one of the game's most exciting athletes--a guy that can get it done on the field with his legs and his arm--but his poor performance in last year's Super Bowl against the Patriots along with curious allegations of gastrointestinal problems from certain loudmouth teammates makes us wonder if the curse has been broken after all.

We suppose we'll have our answers once the regular season kicks off. In , Madden celebrated its 10th anniversary, as well as its chart-topping 13 million games sold. And there are no signs that the powerhouse franchise is slowing down. That year saw the release of undisputedly the best version of the game ever on both the Sony PlayStation 2 and PC. Adjustable AI sliders made Madden fully configurable, enhancing play for anyone that felt the default settings weren't quite accurate.

The season featured another outstanding addition to the series for the PlayStation 2, although PC gamers were somewhat annoyed that all they received was a year-old port of the first PlayStation 2 effort. Madden also marked the first appearance of the series on Microsoft's Xbox console, and though the debut didn't exactly set the world on fire, it was only a matter of time three years, actually before the maker of the black-and-green console and EA Sports finally put their differences aside and made nice.

Up until Madden , networked play had been strictly reserved for the burgeoning PlayStation 2 set, and if it took a few years before the publisher worked out all the kinks a process that still continues today , it was clear that making sports games without some sort of online presence would no longer be acceptable in the modern-day sports gaming world.

With the NFL Fever series struggling to get a foothold on the Xbox, and with the NFL 2K series making solid appearances on both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, the and entries of Madden really found the series hitting its stride on the next-generation consoles.

The following year saw the debut of Madden , a game that will likely be remembered for the incredible playmaking abilities of the game's cover star, Atlanta Falcons' quarterback Michael Vick. Vick was darn-near unstoppable in the game, a fact that irked many online players searching for opponents whose strategy consisted of something more than simply calling QB draws or rollouts and letting virtual Vick take over the game.

The irony? Vick fell victim to the so-called "Madden curse" during his cover-athlete season, suffering a broken leg and only starting four games that year.

The digital Vick was a force to be reckoned with in This importance of online play was no more apparent than in the full-scale makeup session staged by Microsoft during E3 After trotting out the likes of Carmelo Anthony, Muhammad Ali, and Madden cover star Marshall Faulk onstage, the announcement that football gamers had been anticipating for months, if not years, was made: EA would bring Madden along with a host of other games to Xbox Live.

It wouldn't be the only big change for Madden , because, after years of focusing its development efforts on the offensive side of the ball, it was time, it seemed, to get the defense involved. This was true not only of the cover star, Baltimore Ravens legendary linebacker Ray Lewis, but also of a new spotlight on defensive controls in the game.

By making use of the right analog stick, dubbed the hit stick, players could finally have a modicum of control over making big defensive plays, mostly in the form of laying out a ball carrier with a vicious hit.

The ability to make subtle and effective defensive adjustments using the defensive hot routes, a feature bolstered by the game's ever-improving defensive AI, gave further credence to Madden being one of the best-playing games in the history of the series. Madden 's hit stick sent ball carriers sprawling. As tough as the competition was on the gridiron in Madden , the battle between EA Sports and its toughest sports business rival, Take-Two, came to a head when a pricing war broke out between the two companies.

The publisher-developer reluctantly reacted by slashing the price of not only Madden, but also several games in its sports lineup. As is the case in any price war, the sports gaming fan was the big winner during the pricing tiff between the two companies. Little did anyone know, however, that EA had plans for a much bigger strategic reaction to this market incursion by its competitors. That deal was followed up shortly by another licensing blow that would rock the sports gaming world, a mammoth year deal between EA Sports and ESPN.

In the span of these two announcements, EA Sports had flexed its considerable financial muscle and had claimed sole rights to not only the most important and lucrative American sports license, but also the biggest name in sports broadcasting in the country. More importantly, it had snatched both away from the hands of its direct competitor, a strategic move we're still feeling the effects of today. The street theme didn't quite work for football the way it did for hoops.

Outside of this cutthroat business, EA Sports found time to offer up a unique vision of the game of football: the brightly-colored, arcade-inspired NFL Street series. Real, recognizable NFL personalities there are no helmets in streetball, after all mixed with fictional street pigskin players to create an arcade football game that had the same hard-hitting arcade action of Blitz, though without the kind of objectionable content that would draw the ire of the NFL.

A PSP game based on the sequel, featuring online play and more minigames and atrocious load times , arrived in early Which brings us to and the just released Madden NFL Just as Madden reintroduced the gaming world to defense, Madden 06 takes a fresh perspective on an aspect of the series that hasn't changed in a decade or more: the passing game. By implementing an illuminated passing cone that represents each quarterback's specific cone of vision and is tied to his particular awareness rating , the publisher-developer is adding a new layer of complexity and, in theory, depth to how things play out on the virtual gridiron.

Among its other new features, Madden 06 features an entirely new method of playing the game: NFL superstar mode. This is a feature that puts you in the driver's seat of your own personal NFL rookie as you take him from spring practice, through the NFL Draft, and on to a career as a superstar athlete The next generation of football? With a stranglehold on all things football the publisher has also signed exclusive agreements to solely publish both NCAA and Arena Football League games , where does EA go from here?

While it's far too early to speculate on where Madden NFL 07 will head Oh hell, a little speculation can't hurt. Details on the next-gen versions of Madden are scarce at this point. Beyond a cool-looking commercial aired during the NFL Draft and a brief glimpse at the incredible graphical quality of the game at this year's E3, we don't know what to expect from the game.

The commercial seemed to hint at some new directions for the menus and playcalling systems for the game, and you can expect plenty of camera angles and broadcasting tricks that make the most of the game's stunning visuals. Will the game use the passing cone, offensive truck stick, and NFL superstar mode, all of which are new features in this year's Madden game? Will it be a slimmed-down version of Madden 06 that's been designed to whet our appetites for next year's main course?

Or will we be treated to modes and features that are entirely new One thing we do know for sure: The mighty Madden brand name is in it for the long haul.

EA announced in its most recent earnings call that it's signed a year deal with John Madden to use the venerable coach's likeness and name for its football series. As for other questions regarding the next generation of Madden football games, the Xbox launches in the fourth quarter of this year. So we should have our answers soon. The finest quarterback in NFL history finally lent his name to a football game as he was nearing the end of his career in San Francisco 49ers great Joe Montana signed on the dotted line with Sega that year, and the result was one of the longest-running console football series of all time.

Joe Montana Football and its successors helped establish the Sega Genesis as the premier bit console system on the market, particularly for sports gamers. Joe was still a young man in Such a move likely hadn't been planned. Joe Montana Football was actually designed to appeal to sports gamers across the board, coming out in for numerous platforms, including the Genesis and the PC.

Its biggest impact was as a Genesis title, however, the series surviving into the late s despite direct competition from the Madden line. Initially, there was no comparison. It was particularly weak on the PC, hampered with buggy code, awful graphics that incorporated an annoying side view of the field, and a playbook that was nearly nonexistent.

Early visuals in the Montana series were primitive. Nothing in the original suggested that a sequel was anything but a losing proposition, though Sega commissioned one regardless. The resulting Joe Montana II: Sports Talk Football was a minor hit for the Genesis in , however, thanks in large part to the use of a continuous audio commentator for the first time. This synthesized play-by-play man would use basic one-liners such as "The blitz is on!

Though the vocal quality was crude, it added a broadcast sheen to gameplay that hadn't been previously attempted. Other aspects were similarly advanced. The playbook boasted more than 50 plays, the in-game camera zoomed in and out during the action when appropriate, and you could team up with a friend to take on the computer. NFL 97 on the Sega Saturn was the end of the line.

Voice samples soared to more than in the first sequel. Using this as a selling point faded in subsequent seasons, however, as did the aging Joe Montana's effectiveness as a pitchman. Game series quality hit the skids at the same time as Joe's completion percentage went south in Kansas City. NFL 94 had some good qualities, including refined zooming-in during play, but NFL 95 seemed unfinished, with choppy graphics and lots of slowdown. But there was one positive: As bad as NFL 97 was, it didn't scare Sega away from football games altogether.

NFL 2K for the next-generation Sega Dreamcast console system made it clear that the company still had what it took to create an excellent gridiron simulation. Sega returned to football gaming in a big way in As part of the launch festivities for the company's heralded next-generation Dreamcast console system, NFL 2K was released. Indeed, the game hit shelves with almost as much fanfare as the system received, with preview buzz all but proclaiming that this would be the best football game of all time.

NFL 2K made the Dreamcast a system to be reckoned with. Those pundits weren't far from the mark. Though die-hard Madden and GameDay addicts might still defend their respective series of choice as the ultimate in football gaming, critics were simply blown away by NFL 2K. We awarded it one of the highest review scores ever awarded at GameSpot--Ryan MacDonald gave it a lofty 9.

This score was well deserved. Computer AI was tremendous. Each of the clubs came with custom playbooks that they used to the hilt, playing up their strengths and attempting to hide their weaknesses in the same fashion that their counterparts did each Sunday afternoon in the real world. Meaning that you could expect a shootout in games against the St.

Louis Rams and a low-scoring, ground-control affair when up against the New York Giants. Every team displayed characteristics that were fully discernible by any follower of the real NFL. And better yet, all of the teams displayed smarts when it came to clock management. Watching the computer quarterback take a knee in the dying seconds was a satisfying sight--even if you were on the short end of the scoreboard. Better visuals and career play made NFL 2K1 an improvement. This accurate "feel" was further accentuated with a precise control system.

Gamepad response was excellent, a quick tug on the analog stick allowing you to move players exactly where you wanted them to go. Full use of the Dreamcast controller's buttons allowed the full range of motion on the field, incorporating stiff-arms, jukes, and jumps into every player's repertoire.

Visual detail reached an unprecedented level of expertise. Players were given the recognizable faces of their NFL inspirations and motion-capped animation that gave each game the appearance of a TV broadcast.

Plays even withstood the "slow-motion test. Unlike editions of Madden released around the same time, balls were handed off, thrown, and caught exactly according to the laws of physics. Stadiums were modeled after the real thing, with each park having the proper artwork and fans along with team-specific signage.

Play-by-play commentary reached a new height. The no-name broadcast team may have lacked the Fox TV glitz of John Madden and Pat Summerall, but it made up for its anonymity by nailing nearly every play with dead-on observations. Specific, varied references and quick response time sold the illusion that you were listening to real people commenting on a football game. If you've played any Sega football game, the names Dan Stevens and Peter O'Keefe are forever emblazoned on your brain like a bad Vietnam flashback.

The twosome provided in-game commentary for every single entry in the 2K franchise, as well as provided some of the stupidest, yet most strangely entertaining, commentary ever shoved into a sports game. However, did you know that neither of them is actually real?

Indeed, Dan Stevens and Peter O'Keefe are entirely fictional characters voiced by a pair of veteran voice actors. Stevens was voiced by an actor named Jay Styne. Styne is a video game voice acting vet who voiced prominent roles in games like Skies of Arcadia and Syphon Filter 2.

Voice actor Terry McGovern took on the role of O'Keefe, a wisecracking ex-ball coach with a penchant for food analogies. McGovern's been all over the place, taking actual onscreen roles in movies like Mrs.

Doubtfire , American Graffiti , and even Star Wars he got to utter the famous sandtrooper line, "These aren't the droids we're looking for". But he's also got a ton of video game and cartoon voice acting credits to his name, voicing stunticon Wildrider on the Transformers animated series and Launchpad McQuack on Duck Tales. The Stevens and O'Keefe characters were designed to be sort of a spoof of modern-day football callers, though not so much so as to be purely comedic.

O'Keefe's "You can't coach that! His love of food was probably another goof on the same commentator. As for Stevens, just think of any other straight-man play-by-play guy ever to hit the booth and you've got a perfect amalgamation of all of them in his nasally exclamations.

Though the two had never called an actual football game together, Styne and McGovern had a phenomenal chemistry that made their work sound about a billion times more authentic than most professional commentators that do the same thing on TV only worse. We can only hope that one day 2K Games opts to make another football game and decides to bring the infamous pair of Stevens and O'Keefe back to the commentator booth.

Unfortunately, NFL 2K didn't launch the football gaming juggernaut that was expected of it. NFL 2K1 came out as planned--and was even an improvement upon its predecessor--but the Sega Dreamcast that hosted the series bombed at the sales counter, failing to make much of an impact against Sony and Nintendo.

As a result, the system was shelved at the beginning of Games would still be produced for the platform for a limited time, though it soon became obvious that such support would be minimal. Months after the Dreamcast release of 2K2, PlayStation 2 and Xbox ports of the game were released on a staggered schedule with the Xbox version hitting stores just before that year's Super Bowl.

Though neither version managed Madden-level numbers, the debut of the 2K franchise on non-Sega consoles was a significant improvement. The features that had made the game so great on the Dreamcast, such as the excellent gameplay engine, wonderful sense of presentation, and great game modes like online play and franchise, were refined to a brilliant level of quality. Though the GameCube lacked the online as did the Xbox version, at least for a short while after its release , all three versions of the game were just as polished as the other.

Furthermore, 2K3 marked an important debut for the franchise: namely, the addition of the official ESPN license.

Though the presence of the ESPN name and branding was only really noticeable in text menus and on in-game stat overlays, it gave the Sega brand of football something it had lacked when compared to EA's game: a real-life sports name to help lend credibility to the franchise. To some degree, it worked, as sales continued to improve over the previous year's iteration.

Sadly, Sega was still getting spanked badly by Madden. NFL 2K3 offered incredible detail. Opting to drop the 2K name from the title but still keeping it on the box in a less-than-prominent fashion , Sega's ESPN NFL Football was designed to be a different kind of football game.

Once again including all the features that Sega fans fell in love with, this game brought to the table brand-new methods of play--some good and others Though the usefulness of collecting posters and other weird bric-a-brac is debatable, many of the other collectibles were a welcome addition, adding plenty of extra value to the package.

The other big debut, however, wasn't quite the slam-dunk feature that Sega seemed to be hoping for. Going so far as to announce this new mode at a special press event at the ESPN restaurant in New York City, Sega's highly touted first-person-football mode just didn't quite come together as well as it could have.