Does Anyone Remember? First Football Sim Ever?

[boilermaker]

My dad has passed away, so I can't exactly ask him what the title of this was, but I remember distinctly as a kid that he had a computer game that I'm wondering what the title was....I'm wondering if anyone can actually recall this game and tell me a title...

The game was definately from the era of few colors on your computer monitor. I'll say circa 1984. At the beginning of the game, you could choose from all of the real NFL teams in existence at that time, but I believe the only real distinction between any of the teams were simply the color of the text thereafter...and the color variety was something like red, blue, orange, and green. Maybe white. The formality of a coin flip at the beginning of the game seemed like a nice novelty for the time.

But the essence of the game was both simple and neat: you had a menu of plays to choose from, regardless of whether on offense, defense, or special teams....and the play would actually be played out by 2-d X's and O's. I remember vividly, as a small kid, discovering there was an AI flaw that virtually guaranteed you a first down if you picked "SHOTGUN C POST".

Anyways, I'd just like to think of that game as a pioneer for our favorite genre. Choosing plays and watching it unfold on a 2-d "match engine", and all back in the Reagan years. What was that game? Anyone have a faint idea what I'm talking about?

[MJ4H]

try XOR football

[Warhammer]

AWESOME GAME! I remember my friend and I hacked the teams and had a draft. He was the "Indianapolis Colts" and I was the "Buffalo Bills" because no one in their right mind would choose either team otherwise.

[boilermaker]

Originally Posted by MattJones4Heisman

try XOR football

Wow, a little searching around with that and that's exactly what I was looking for (specifically called XOR "NFL Challenge"). Thanks!

Somebody wrote a better description of it here:
http://www.tgr.com/weblog/archives/000291.html

What a classic game that was...

[Rizon]

I only remember one for the Apple IIc. You could choose run left, right, up the middle, or pass deep, pass medium or pass short. And other stuff on defense.

[dawgfan]

XOR football was great fun. But it wasn't the first. The first one I can recall (and it may not have been the actual first one) was Tuesday Morning Quarterback by EPYX. I can remember playing as the Bengals (I have no clue now why I picked them) but I was thumping other teams big time behind Ken Anderson, Pete Johnson and Archie Griffin.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by Rizon

I only remember one for the Apple IIc. You could choose run left, right, up the middle, or pass deep, pass medium or pass short. And other stuff on defense.

I'm betting that was Tuesday Morning Quarterback.

[Cuckoo]

Wow, I had completely forgotten that. But I used to play that way back when also.

[govols]

Here is the first one I really played a lot... Superbowl Sunday... I remember if you ran a 3 back formation and the long pass it was a touchdown 90% of the time. We would have games with 1000+ yards passing all the time if we allow that play.

hxxp://s64.emuunlim.com/gameinfos/superbowlsunday/superbowlsunday.htm

[hawk4669]

Ahhh many great memories on my C-64 with that one. Plus, it had EXPANSIONS! I remember the 1986 expansion disk with my beloved Jets! Good stuff!

I might have to fire up my still fully functionaly Commodore and give that one a whirl again.



Cheers!

[lighthousekeeper]

4th & inches from accolade

ahhhh.......memory lane.......

joe dakota
jerry attrick
rilly quick
mack truck


all i know about football i learned from that game.

[hawk4669]

Have that one too....at the time, the holy grail of football games.

I prefered the other QB rather than Dakota...more mobile. Wilson was it?

Cheers!

[MikeVick7]

How about Head Coach for Macintosh from around the late 80's?

[kingfc22]

My friend and I would play that game almost everyday after school. Later we got into FPS and we would stay up all night taking turns playing our our games.

[Solecismic]

First one I played was called NFL73. Back in the days of dumb terminals, teletypes and acoustic couplers. Undoubtedly written in 1973.

[hawk4669]

FPS series....one of the best ever.

Travesty what happened to the last game in the series...what with the recall, etc.

I kept my copy....just for sentimental value...and as a reminder.

Cheers!

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

AWESOME GAME! I remember my friend and I hacked the teams and had a draft. He was the "Indianapolis Colts" and I was the "Buffalo Bills" because no one in their right mind would choose either team otherwise.

Hell, yeah, I loved editing the roster files. Of course, it was totally unrealistic, the Buccaneers could go undefeated during the course of a season with 1988 rosters. Of course, maybe I just trumped up the Bucs.

I could get a 1,000 yards out of both James Wilder and Lars Tate. I knew I was destined to be an NFL coach one day because of those skills.

[JeffR]

Anybody remember the name of an arcade X and O's game that looked a lot like XOR Football, circa the mid-late 80's? I remember a tabletop version being in my local arcade all too briefly, then never saw it anywhere again.

[dawgfan]

Originally Posted by JeffR

Anybody remember the name of an arcade X and O's game that looked a lot like XOR Football, circa the mid-late 80's? I remember a tabletop version being in my local arcade all too briefly, then never saw it anywhere again.

The one that used the track ball? I remember it, and I remember cursing the hell out of it for all the pinched skin I got from that fucking track ball.

[JeffR]

Yeah, that's the one. *Big* trackball, too.

[Glengoyne]

on XOR. I distinctly the Joy and the despair when "46 Screen Pass" was revealed as the offensive play. If you called the wrong D,some sort of blitz, and the offense hit the screen. It was magic. For the offense that is. Huge gains...Os with numbers just running wildly and endlessly down the field. Then there was the time when you were on offense, and went with the big gamble screen pass...but the defense had gone with an underneath zone.

[Nwobhm]

Originally Posted by lighthousekeeper

4th & inches from accolade

ahhhh.......memory lane.......

joe dakota
jerry attrick
rilly quick
mack truck


all i know about football i learned from that game.

I played this one to death. What i remember the most about it was that the running game was more or less useless, and that computer AI couldn't defend post patterns very well, leading to ridiculous scores.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by dawgfan

The one that used the track ball? I remember it, and I remember cursing the hell out of it for all the pinched skin I got from that fucking track ball.

Pshaw, try huge bruises on the palms of your hands from slamming on the track ball trying to outrun the defenders on a breakaway.

Still in all, maybe my most fun gaming ever though. Loved that game to death.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by Dutch

Hell, yeah, I loved editing the roster files. Of course, it was totally unrealistic, the Buccaneers could go undefeated during the course of a season with 1988 rosters. Of course, maybe I just trumped up the Bucs.

I could get a 1,000 yards out of both James Wilder and Lars Tate. I knew I was destined to be an NFL coach one day because of those skills.

Not surprising, those unrealistic beliefs. I mean, you do believe that the republican party is the best party after all.

I kid a fellow Buccaneer fan.

James Wilder was a warrior and still in my Buccaneer ring of honor.

Leroy Selmon
James Wilder
Ricky Bell
Hardy Nickerson
Derrick Brooks ( why wait until he retires? )

That's my five man ring of honor anyway. If I had more slots I'd fill them but 5 is right for this. If I could put in few more though they would be

Dave Pear
Batman Wood.
Jimmy Giles
Doug Williams

Don't know if you were a fan that long ago though.