It's big football game time. Many are probably setting up their parties, placing bets, and a lot of fans outside of Philadelphia and Kansas City are hoping neither of these teams win. Before the big game kicks off, I flashback to the first football game I remember, and my introduction to the sport. It was about 1985, and RealSports Football made its way into our household.
Just known as "Football" in our household (there was a "Football" on the 2600, which we also owned), this game was a part of the RealSports line, along with Volleyball, Soccer, Baseball, Boxing, and Tennis. The lead programmer was Robert Zdybel, who has been programmer in the video industry since 1981, and has worked on games released at recent as 2008 (Spider-Man: Web of Shadows for the Wii, PC, and Xbox 360). Released in 1982 (very close to my birthday in December, in fact), it's a very simplified iteration of the game of football that we found rather fascinating, despite some of its shortcomings. Par the course for many sports games on the Atari 2600.
Well, it LOOKS like football. Certainly captures the game in its more primitive form; green field, number and yard markers, teams with opposing colors. It's genuinely astounding how much time my brothers, cousins, and I invested in this. yeah, the amount of players are a touch inaccurate, but it gets the job done. There is a ton of flickering, the middle linebacker (or linesman?) blinks in and out of existence, but the animation is pretty fluid.
When it comes to controls, it can be a little bit finicky with the mechanics. RealSports Football has some liberties with collision detection and pass accuracy. If a pass isn't wildly flying in no direction at all within the general vicinity of a receiver, then it's served up on a platter for an interception or deflection. It takes a little time for me to get the hang of how and where I'd like to pass the ball, as you immediately take control of the nearest receiver. And after catching a successful pass, it feels like there's no breakaway speed, as defenders are on you like a swarm of Africanized bees. Ah, the days before a turbo button...
As there's no running back, there's no hand-off, so maybe RealSports Football was progressive in foreseeing the mobile quarterback. I find it a touch humorous that a game labeled "RealSports" has no out of bounds or penalties. On defense, you can select from several plays like a full blitz, left/right CB cover, or prevent. Special Teams is a little funky, as there's no difference between punting or field goal kicking. And on the punt, nobody retrieves it for a return, it's just whistled dead. Same with interceptions.
As an Atari 2600 game to play with pals, there can be some fun to be had here. I'd say overall, it's a fairly average Atari sports title that does a fairly serviceable job of emulating the gridiron game on this machine. Super Challenge Football is a little better, but I have fond memories of this one and was a family favorite.
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