Mount Rushmore of NFL(-ish) Video Games

[TanksAndSpartans]

Great thread! Thanks.

I still play APF2K8 when I can find the time - I love playing with historical players like Deacon Jones, Hugh McElhenny, Joe Perry, Sammy Baugh, Otto Graham, etc.

Also, Tecmo Bowl can be played on a TV like the old days - the Japanese version is available for download on the Wii for 5 dollars. It has to be played with a friend though, one player mode is tedious, but against someone of comparable skill, its a lot of fun.

Mount Rushmore:

-APF2K8 (2K)
-Tecmo Bowl (original), (NES)
-Super Bowl Sunday (Avalon Hill, C64) (Bryan, nice call on this one - first video game I played with actual players)
-Any mid 2000 version of Madden or NCAA Football (EA)

[MatthewToy]

Great thread! Thanks.

I still play APF2K8 when I can find the time - I love playing with historical players like Deacon Jones, Hugh McElhenny, Joe Perry, Sammy Baugh, Otto Graham, etc.

Also, Tecmo Bowl can be played on a TV like the old days - the Japanese version is available for download on the Wii for 5 dollars. It has to be played with a friend though, one player mode is tedious, but against someone of comparable skill, its a lot of fun.

Mount Rushmore:

-APF2K8 (2K)
-Tecmo Bowl (original), (NES)
-Super Bowl Sunday (Avalon Hill, C64) (Bryan, nice call on this one - first video game I played with actual players)
-Any mid 2000 version of Madden or NCAA Football (EA)

I limited the discussion to NFL games but those NCAA Football games were fantastic. Even going back to the Sega Genesis days when it was Bill Walsh College Football. But like Tanks said, the mid-2000s ones in ps2 and Xbox were the best.The argument could be made that they were better football games than Madden. Especially NCAA Football 2005. The gameplay, the recruiting, the atmosphere at the stadiums. It has classic teams as well. Couldn't be edited like Madden's. But the older teams had era specific equipment like maskless or leather helmets and long sleeved jerseys. A nice touch that other sports games never even tried. 2004 was an awesome year for football games.

[MattAusland]

NFL Challenge is the game that had the X's & 0's. Great game- I paid $100 for it back in 1988. I had the season disks (5 1/4 ) for 1984-1991 & then the greatest teams disk which was the one ESPN used to decide what was the greatest team of all time.
I have always enjoyed PC football games & played just about all of them. Super Sunday was also available for the PC so I played that. Also John Elway Football, 4th & Inches, Tom Landry Football, ABC's Monday Night Football, NFL Pro League& All American Football by( Dave Holt), Micro league Football, Ultimate Football & TV Sports Football.
I would rank the Madden PC series (Which unfortunately ended w/ Madden 2008) #3, NFL Challenge #2 & in my humble opinion, the Holy Grail of PC football games: The Football Pro Series. I still play Football Pro 98'- the stats & history that one can accumulate combined with the most realistic game play that I have ever seen is the pinnacle for me.

[JohnTurney]

NFL Challenge is the game that had the X's & 0's. Great game- I paid $100 for it back in 1988. I had the season disks (5 1/4 ) for 1984-1991 & then the greatest teams disk which was the one ESPN used to decide what was the greatest team of all time.
I have always enjoyed PC football games & played just about all of them. Super Sunday was also available for the PC so I played that. Also John Elway Football, 4th & Inches, Tom Landry Football, ABC's Monday Night Football, NFL Pro League& All American Football by( Dave Holt), Micro league Football, Ultimate Football & TV Sports Football.
I would rank the Madden PC series (Which unfortunately ended w/ Madden 2008) #3, NFL Challenge #2 & in my humble opinion, the Holy Grail of PC football games: The Football Pro Series. I still play Football Pro 98'- the stats & history that one can accumulate combined with the most realistic game play that I have ever seen is the pinnacle for me.

That was a good one, I never knew it continued after 1985. What was good is that it recorded the stats, and the tackler, but it didn't complile the tackles. You had to do it by hand. I still remember that if you blitzed and got a sack, it was usually the right defensive tackle who go it. Also, on the tight end strak if you subbed in a WR you could steal a TD. On those disks, they were just files. I always played the 1984 Rams and my roomate played the 49ers. I had to play a perfect game to even compete since the 1984 49ers were 15-1. So, I got a file editor program and went in and changedthe height, weight 40 times and grades on his players. I made Roger Craig like a 5.4 forty, and gave Fred Dean a score of 65 (99 was the high)

Anyway, he couldn't do anything at all, couldn't complete a pass . . . but I fessed up and had kept a backup with the unchanged files.

Good memories.

[MattAusland]

Yes, I can still remember different blitz combinations that were unstoppable- 1-6 was inside charge, 4-6 was a massive all out blitz. My brothers & I would play hot seat (I actually brought my IBM 286 plus VGA monitor w/ me) and had to have house rules were you could only blitz once per set of downs although screens were quite effective.
I remember that around 1993 XOR corporation announced NFL Challenge Premium Edition which would have season play, etc. I promptly sent my $ in but the game became vaporware.

[JohnTurney]

Yes, I can still remember different blitz combinations that were unstoppable- 1-6 was inside charge, 4-6 was a massive all out blitz. My brothers & I would play hot seat (I actually brought my IBM 286 plus VGA monitor w/ me) and had to have house rules were you could only blitz once per set of downs although screens were quite effective.
I remember that around 1993 XOR corporation announced NFL Challenge Premium Edition which would have season play, etc. I promptly sent my $ in but the game became vaporware.

Wow, you had a 286----We had to run ours on 8088. And yes, the screen would kill the 4-6 blitz. It was hard to complete long passes, though the deep square-in and posts . . . had to be Montana or Fouts with a good receiver like We Chandler.

You could copy a team's file and rename it so that you could play exact teams against each other, that way the skill was with the players and no the ratings.

the 3-6 tight end was the play where if you could sub in a fast WR the LBer could cover the go route by the TE

[TanksAndSpartans]

I remembered one more - Intellivision football! Back in the day, most kids had an Atari 2600, but for sports games, Intellivision was the far superior system. And I think football was actually the most sophisticated of the sports games they offered as you actually used the keypad to punch in numbers to create plays. Great game - no player names though.

[JWL]

There was a game for Sega Genesis circa 1993 that was not affiliated with the NFL at all but it touted itself as the most realistic football game to date. It was a funny tout considering that there were not 11 players to a side during action. If I recall correct, it was 8-on-8 football. The gameplay was average for early-to-mid-90s video games. If the gameplay had been spectacular, then I would have played the game more often. The best aspect of the game was that the snow was more realistic than any other football game made up to that time. The snow would fall during the game and marks would be made in the snow by the players. At the time, the Madden game would simply have snow covering the field but snowfall would never occur.

[Gary Najman]

In the 80s there was a game designed for the Apple II PC computers named Tuesday Morning Quarterback. It had the rosters and you put the plays, then the computer wrote what happened.

[bquinn]

Football Pro '96 by Sierra is one of my all-time favorites that I still play with rosters I made for teams from the '70s. I started a franchise league in 1974 and am now in the '77 season.