1977 - My First Sports Video Game - Valdarez's Blog

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1977 - My First Sports Video Game Stuck

Posted on December 30, 2009 at 07:41 AM.

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If your on OS, then odds are you're a fairly avid sports fan. As such, do you remember your first sports video game? I have always thought of the Atari game 'Football' as my first sports video game, but when Steve posted today's Other Stuff, he asked what your favorite gadget. I listed my iPhone as my favorite gadget today, but it got me to thinking of the gadgets I have had over the years, especially of the hand held gaming devices I have owned, which led me to rediscover what I now believe to be my first sports video game ever. A hand held LED football game produced by Mattel.

The game was fairly simple, you basically moved up, down, and forward. Each time you ran to the end of the screen, it would warp you back to the start. I can't quite remember if each screen was 10 yards or not, but I do remember you had to run quite a ways to score a TD. As you can see from the image of the game, it displayed the score, the down, the yards to go, and the location on the field.

Interestingly enough, the game was not a NFL product, and it wasn't in any way realistic, yet as a young child who was only beginning to become aware of electronic gaming, it was a mesmerizing device and a enthralling game.

Thirty years later, and we are on the cusp of true NFL Simulation in video games. Can you imagine what the gamers of the future will have available? They'll look back to games such as ESPN NFL 2K5, APF2K8, or Madden 2010 as their first football video game, and odds are good these games will appear just as antiquated then as the Mattel Handheld seems today.

If you would like to learn more about the Mattel Handeld Football game, you can read in depth about the game at the hand held museum.

What was your first sports video game?

Comments

# 1 CreatineKasey @ Dec 30

Tecmo Bowl for the NES. I didn't realize how awesome it was until I played other, less fun football games of that time.

# 2 elgreazy1 @ Dec 30

WOAH! Takin' it back to tha old school!

This was one of the first football games I ever owned http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Tiger/...icFootball.htm and I will say, I never won the Super Bowl.

# 3 65South @ Dec 30

Nice blog V!

My first football video game was Tecmo Bowl for the NES. As an 10 yr old kid, I didn't think it could get any better! My fondest memories though evolved from Front Page Sports Football on the PC by Sierra. I want to say it was 1995/96. Barry Sanders graced the cover of the most in-depth football experience I can remember, lol.

# 4 PhillsPhan26 @ Dec 30

I had on of them, you had to make the dot go foward, up and down and took forever to get to the endzone. Man technoligy came a long ways in thirty three years hasn't it?

# 5 Nomah5 @ Dec 30

I had that one and a soccer one that were hand me downs from my older brother. wow!

# 6 jczar78 @ Dec 30

The first sports game I ever owned was Home Run for the Atari 2600. My first football game was Ten Yard Fight for the NES.

# 7 Steve_OS @ Dec 30

I had that game as well as the basketball and soccer one (if I remember right). Took up a LOT of my free time growing up, LOL.

# 8 RaychelSnr @ Dec 30

All you old men....jeez.

I first played Ten Yard Fight as my first football game, then came Tecmo Bowl. I was initiated to gaming the right way, via NES

# 9 SaintsNATION32 @ Dec 30

10 yard fight & superplayaction football

# 10 TreyIM2 @ Dec 30

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! I had the green version of this one. I think the green one was a later model or just a different look of the same game but it was definitely my very first sports game, ever. My older cousin had it first and I, being such a "copy cat" of whatever he got, begged my mom for one. I remember, before getting mine, how I had NO CLUE what I was doing in terms of field position and kicking field goals versus punts. I would kick ridiculous field goal attempts until he told me when to try for those. It was a learning but I was a youngster. I remember seeing people with the model u have the pic of and would talk ish to them because the green one looked much more "sleek and sexy". Kids would be jealous of my "green football machine" and I would definitely rub it in. The buttons were smaller, too. Memories....

# 11 jyoung @ Dec 30

This was my first:

Before there was Game Boy, there were Tiger handhelds. I had a ton of those back in the day, but this was the only good sports one.

# 12 Leafs @ Dec 30

My first game sounds very similar to Valdarez, Coleco's Head to Head Football. Up, down , forward and back. You could even pass and kick. Thanks for the post. It brought back lots of memories . . .

# 13 superstarshad @ Dec 30

@weeman
Dude! I forgot all about that tiger hand held. My parents purchased that for me one Christmas as well. In response to the article, my first football game was 10 yard fight, followed immediately by Tecmo Bowl.

# 14 Eski33 @ Dec 30

I loved this game as a kid. I also had Head-to-Head football, which was a version of the handheld pictured above but two people could play. I also had Head-to-Head Basketball....The football was the best...Whoever knew that moving red dashes would be so much fun....