Woo hoo! It’s Madden Day! Time for me to, well, plan a trip to Best Buy to pick up the game. Yeah, I know, I can stay up to midnight for Harry Potter but not for Madden. Call it old age, call it a need to go to work in the morning, call it an unnerving feeling of being a sensible adult. At some point video games should not be the focal point of one’s life.
But as the above image shows, video games have been at the center of my entire life. For those of you not old enough to remember that is a picture from the original Atari game called quite simply “Football”. No team names, no jerseys, hell, you only had four players to a side three of whom would block and go out for passes on the same play. I wouldn’t want to guess how many days I spent playing this game with my little brother, always ending up in a fight because he would take full advantage of being able to control the pass while in the air. I’m not kidding, as opposed to having the pass go in a straight line you could control it and angle it, thus causing physically impossible plays to occur. It upset my eight year old logical mind greatly. Well, that and losing to a five year old.
My favorite football game of all time was one not many people played. It was a computer game called Front Page Sports Football and it was without a doubt the most realistic game I ever played. It sucked as an arcade game but if you wanted strategy and play calling and the ups and downs of running a team this was the game for you. I knew this wasn’t going to be your typical game when after my first game I received notification that my free safety and best defender had suffered a career ending injury. That puts things in perspective.
I pretty much lived and died with this game for much of college. You had various league options (including a NFL sim) but I would typically take the 12 team league and convert it into the Big 10. Well, the Big 10 plus New Illinois, a team I built after getting sick of losing as the Illini, which isn’t much different from real life. I led my New Illinois [Very Politically Incorrect Nickname Redacted, let’s just say that we played at Custer Memorial Stadium] team in an out and out vendetta against the rest of the league. As you could draft and build your team to cater to your playing style I ended up with the four best linebackers in the league and corners who could cover but were slow as hell. This led to my brilliant “blitz the linebackers on every down” gameplan where I just dared the other team to try to stop it. There was nothing better than Rory O’Connell, my star middle linebacker, clobbering a quarterback and injuring him.
(Yes, I remember the name of a fictional player in a video game I played over a decade ago. One of my favorite sports moments real, simulated or pro wrestling, was when I was down four with thirty seconds to go and Rory caused a fumble and Gary Black, my cover corner who couldn’t run, picked up the ball and ran it in for the winning touchdown. I probably shouldn’t admit any of this in public.)
The other brilliant part of this game was the full offense and defense play building capability. My little brother, always one to exploit a flaw when available, developed a full wishbone offense that could barely be defended. On top of that he actually drew up the Daffy Duck formation, which is a real play where the center and quarterback line up on one side and the rest of the team is on the other. Quick pass to a running back or receiver and a guaranteed first down. That’s how cool this game was and it ran on a mid-90’s PC.
Now I basically pick up Madden occasionally and NCAA Football always. I manually update the Notre Dame roster though this year I’ve been a little slow at it. Mainly because I don’t think I’ll be able to lead them to a national championship. Still, there will always be something cool about playing a football video game. I know people will ask when will I grow up but I’ve been playing video games since I was seven years old. I’ve been playing almost as long as I’ve been reading books and to be honest, I wouldn’t think of giving either of them up.
But as the above image shows, video games have been at the center of my entire life. For those of you not old enough to remember that is a picture from the original Atari game called quite simply “Football”. No team names, no jerseys, hell, you only had four players to a side three of whom would block and go out for passes on the same play. I wouldn’t want to guess how many days I spent playing this game with my little brother, always ending up in a fight because he would take full advantage of being able to control the pass while in the air. I’m not kidding, as opposed to having the pass go in a straight line you could control it and angle it, thus causing physically impossible plays to occur. It upset my eight year old logical mind greatly. Well, that and losing to a five year old.
My favorite football game of all time was one not many people played. It was a computer game called Front Page Sports Football and it was without a doubt the most realistic game I ever played. It sucked as an arcade game but if you wanted strategy and play calling and the ups and downs of running a team this was the game for you. I knew this wasn’t going to be your typical game when after my first game I received notification that my free safety and best defender had suffered a career ending injury. That puts things in perspective.
I pretty much lived and died with this game for much of college. You had various league options (including a NFL sim) but I would typically take the 12 team league and convert it into the Big 10. Well, the Big 10 plus New Illinois, a team I built after getting sick of losing as the Illini, which isn’t much different from real life. I led my New Illinois [Very Politically Incorrect Nickname Redacted, let’s just say that we played at Custer Memorial Stadium] team in an out and out vendetta against the rest of the league. As you could draft and build your team to cater to your playing style I ended up with the four best linebackers in the league and corners who could cover but were slow as hell. This led to my brilliant “blitz the linebackers on every down” gameplan where I just dared the other team to try to stop it. There was nothing better than Rory O’Connell, my star middle linebacker, clobbering a quarterback and injuring him.
(Yes, I remember the name of a fictional player in a video game I played over a decade ago. One of my favorite sports moments real, simulated or pro wrestling, was when I was down four with thirty seconds to go and Rory caused a fumble and Gary Black, my cover corner who couldn’t run, picked up the ball and ran it in for the winning touchdown. I probably shouldn’t admit any of this in public.)
The other brilliant part of this game was the full offense and defense play building capability. My little brother, always one to exploit a flaw when available, developed a full wishbone offense that could barely be defended. On top of that he actually drew up the Daffy Duck formation, which is a real play where the center and quarterback line up on one side and the rest of the team is on the other. Quick pass to a running back or receiver and a guaranteed first down. That’s how cool this game was and it ran on a mid-90’s PC.
Now I basically pick up Madden occasionally and NCAA Football always. I manually update the Notre Dame roster though this year I’ve been a little slow at it. Mainly because I don’t think I’ll be able to lead them to a national championship. Still, there will always be something cool about playing a football video game. I know people will ask when will I grow up but I’ve been playing video games since I was seven years old. I’ve been playing almost as long as I’ve been reading books and to be honest, I wouldn’t think of giving either of them up.
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