NFL Football

Intellivision (Mattel)

The popularity of home video gaming and the rise of the Atari 2600 didn't go unnoticed. Mattel began investigating the possibility of developing a rival system in 1977 and soon realized that components and design schematics were readily available. After some initial misgivings about going head-to-head with Atari and its Time-Warner parent and a brief foray into handheld gaming, the decision was made to proceed, and the Intellivision was born in 1979.

George Plimpton asks you to make a comparison.

Mattel's take on a home video game system was much different than Atari's. For starters, technology was more of an issue. General Instruments provided a superior CPU, and greater effort was made to ensure that the Intellivision could display more complex visuals and emit higher-quality audio. This refinement was used as the primary selling point--the company decided to market itself to adults and set up its system as the mature alternative to kid-oriented Atari and its arcade licenses, like Space Invaders. Sports gaming was used as the primary weapon in this PR fight. Snooty author George Plimpton was recruited as a pitchman for the Sports Network series of games, which included titles based upon all of the major and not-so-major sports (from baseball to auto racing), with football being the most prominent.

Intellivision's NFL Football deserved this attention when it went into wide release in 1980, as it was far more advanced than its Atari counterpart. There was really no way to even compare the two, as Plimpton had asked, since despite the close proximity of their respective release dates, a huge gap separated them on the evolutionary ladder. The chunky players of Atari's Football were replaced with models that looked more like real people, with arms and legs that moved and animation that mattered. Tackles weren't just automatic upon a brief touch of the ball carrier; here, you had to actually line the enemy up or risk having him scamper away. The field scrolled sideways, allowing a more realistic depiction of a regulation field that clocked in at the usual 100 yards and featured end zones. There were no goalposts, though field goals could still be kicked by booting the ball over the center of the goal line. Players could go out of bounds, make interceptions, hammer the opposing ball carrier for a safety, punt on fourth down, and so on.

Playcalling was equally ambitious. The Intellivision's numeric pad controllers were designed to allow for more intricate gameplay, and NFL Football benefited greatly from this. Plastic controller overlays and playbooks covered the nine offensive and nine defensive formations available in the game. Each was designed to stage or prevent specific plays and was very effective. Pull one over on the defense, and you could spring a long gainer. Pull a surprise on the offense, and you could be welcoming your opponent to sack city. About the only limitation was the lack of solo play against the computer.

NFL Football in action.

Perhaps the most astounding thing about NFL Football was its longevity. It was so far ahead of its time that it served as a worthwhile diversion for football fans through the end of the decade. Even though Intellivision remained in limited production until 1990, it was never deemed necessary to develop another football game for the system (though INTV bought Intellivision assets from Mattel and updated the source code in 1986 to include a one-player mode and released the ensuing game as Super Pro Football). This would have been a difficult challenge at any rate, since years passed before other programmers were able to catch up and provide something even remotely similar on the virtual gridiron.

The groundmark game remains enjoyable even now, via official emulation programs such as Intellivision Lives! for Windows and Intellivision Classics for the Sony PlayStation. Intellivision itself may not have been as influential on the development of video game culture as the Atari 2600, but its legacy of superior sports games endures, particularly in regard to NFL Football.