On-Field Football

Gamestar

Moving into the void left by the video game crash of 1983-1984 was the Commodore 64. The modest computer system replaced consoles for many gamers, mostly because of its versatility. Along with having the capability to play great games, its keyboard and floppy disk drive made it more useful to have around the house than the one-dimensional console units.

Gamestar sports titles had a unique look.

Regardless of the added applications, the Commodore 64 became best known in the mid-1980s as a top gaming platform. This was due largely to the great variety of games available, from arcade adaptations such as Ms. Pac-Man and Dig Dug to sports titles such as the renowned Summer Games series and Accolade's revolutionary Hardball. Football was a big part of the latter category, although the sport never achieved the stature of its baseball and Olympic rivals--possibly because there was no single franchise pigskin title on the Commodore 64 for fans to focus on. Still, there were a number of lesser ones.

Leading the way was On-Field Football from Gamestar, a company that served as the EA Sports of the Commodore 64 for a time in 1984 and 1985. This game paled in comparison with sister titles On-Court Tennis and On-Field Baseball, though it was still a worthy replacement for the console football titles of the same era. All of the basic rules of the game were respected, although there was the expected reduction in the number of players on each side. Teams were made up of just four players per side, though a certain amount of intrigue and longevity was provided by the ability to choose a starter from the two names listed beside each position. These players were rated in different skill categories that showed up in how they performed on the field, adding an element of simulation to each contest. Playcalling was quite intricate for the time. The many different formations and routes assigned to each player represented sort of a middle ground between the crude efforts of the early 1980s and the more ambitious titles (like 4th and Inches, covered below) coming down the road in a few years.

Touchdown Football presented a different point of view.

Visuals were fairly good, but they were still limited in that peculiar way that defines all games designed for the Commodore 64 in the early 1980s. Like the other Gamestar sports titles, On-Field Football used small players drawn with a minimum number of sprites so that animation would be quick and smooth. The overall effect was something that was a long way from lifelike in terms of appearance but somewhat closer to reality in the way that it moved. One of the benefits of this approach was that the models were obviously abstract representations of real football players. Unlike other football games, On-Field Football never attempted to look like the real thing, so the fact that it didn't wasn't so jarring. The setting was equally artificial, albeit in a good way that included stands filled with flashing colors, serving as spectators. A regulation-length field scrolled up and down and included goalposts. On-Field Football served as a nice bridge between the likes of NFL Football for the Intellivision and later games such as Gamestar's own Touchdown Football and GFL Championship Football (which included a revolutionary first-person camera mode and was also released for the Atari ST), as well as Accolade's 4th and Inches (see below). Its numerous innovations, most notably the incorporation of players with variable skill levels, set a standard that would be followed for the remainder of the decade. This also represented a more commercially viable blend between the popular arcade approach to football and the management-style simulations that began to show up for the Commodore 64 and other computer systems around the same time. Titles such as SSI's Computer Quarterback and Avalon Hill's Football Strategy blazed a trail that is still being followed today with the likes of Front Office Football and Action! PC Football.