Football (1978 video game)
Football (also known as Atari Football) is a 1978 American football video game developed and released by Atari, Inc. for arcades. Players are represented by Xs and Os. While predated by Sega's World Cup, Football is credited with popularizing the trackball controller and is also the first non-racing vertically scrolling video game. It distributed in Japan by Namco in 1979.
| Football | |
|---|---|
Arcade flyer | |
| Developer(s) | Atari, Inc. |
| Publisher(s) |
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| Designer(s) | Steve Bristow |
| Programmer(s) | Michael Albaugh |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Atari 2600 |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Sports |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Football was the second highest-earning arcade video game of 1979 in the United States. That year Atari released a more challenging four-player version of the arcade game programmed by Dave Theurer, who later created Missile Command and Tempest.
An Atari VCS home version of Football was published in 1978. It uses blocky representations of players instead of Xs and Os. In 1982, Atari replaced it with RealSports Football.