The first Madden on Genesis

[Anthony1]

If anybody here listens to podcasts, and loves the original John Madden Football for the Sega Genesis, I'm talking about the one that came out in early November 1990. The one that basically started this whole Madden phenomenon.

If anybody really remembers that time, please, check out this podcast:


Soundcloud link

iTunes link

If you just want to hear the Madden part of the show, skip to 1 hour and 13 minutes into the podcast

[cedwebb]

My Madden story: some details a little fuzzy as I was 12....37 now. Anyway somehow me and my older brother got ahold of the game before our parents bought us the system, I remember setting the game up on my dresser before we had the system counting down the days till we we got the console and were able to play. I have bought the game every year since then. It's a tradition to say the least.

[Anthony1]

Quote: Originally Posted by cedwebb

My Madden story: some details a little fuzzy as I was 12....37 now. Anyway somehow me and my older brother got ahold of the game before our parents bought us the system, I remember setting the game up on my dresser before we had the system counting down the days till we we got the console and were able to play. I have bought the game every year since then. It's a tradition to say the least.

Man, it must have been cool just to look at that cartridge and wait for your Sega Genesis to arrive.

I was totally in love with Madden back in the Genesis days, especially Madden '93. I think I would put Madden '93 in the top 5 of best football games of all time. The first game was so groundbreaking though. It really kinda came out of nowhere. There really wasn't much advertising for it.

There were ads in Gamepro and EGM, but only a small number of people were looking at those mags back in 1990. Madden arrived like a sneak attack.

[cedwebb]

Quote: Originally Posted by Anthony1

Man, it must have been cool just to look at that cartridge and wait for your Sega Genesis to arrive. I was totally in love with Madden back in the Genesis days, especially Madden '93. I think I would put Madden '93 in the top 5 of best football games of all time. The first game was so groundbreaking though. It really kinda came out of nowhere. There really wasn't much advertising for it. There were ads in Gamepro and EGM, but only a small number of people were looking at those mags back in 1990. Madden arrived like a sneak attack.

To me and my brother it was the coolest thing we had seen. We were and still are huge football fans and your right, the anticipation was crazy. Was a big deal to us for sure .

[Turbojugend]

Me and my buds would stay up until ungodly hours playing the original John Madden Football on Genesis (and Tecmo Bowl on NES before that). I was blown away by the fact that they actually had snow in Madden, I remember playing a Pittsburgh vs. Buffalo game in the late, late hours and thinking that video game graphics couldn't possibly get any better than that.

[Milkmoney11]

Just turned 40 couple weeks ago. Similar memories. How about this one...

Did anyone have Madden for the Commodore64? It came out a couple years before Madden came out on the Genesys. It had 6 teams if I remember correctly were the 70's Steelers, the 80's 49ers, the 85 Bears, an All Madden team and an All-Time time who had guys from like the 40's and 50's. They didn't have any licensing so they couldn't use the players names. For instance, Walter Payton was called "Sweetness".

The graphics left a lot to be desired but the game was groundbreaking because it had many of the same player attributes still used today. You could also create your own players, create your own plays and playbooks, and it recorded stats.

Around the time I was playing the C64 game the Lions (my team) had switched to the Run N' Shoot and had Barry. I created the team and the offense on the game and was putting up record numbers because the Computer AI didn't really know what to do with 4 wide receivers every play.

Man, I loved that game so much I got a "backup copy" for Christmas one year just in case the disk stopped working, which was pretty common in those days.

[NEOPARADIGM]

Thread lacks pics!





This was my first Madden:



Man, talk about a nostalgia blast. Will listen. Thanks OP.

[Milkmoney11]

Here's the C64 cover