Madden 09

Today marks the first important event in the onset of football season. Moreso than the draft, training camp, pre-season games, water-cooler prognostication, or--in some abodes--opening day, the annual release of EA's Madden NFL Football video game signals official football fervor across the nation. After work today, the missus and I went to Wal-Mart, and I bought the new game--Madden '09, with Brett Farve on the cover (in his Green Bay jersey, no less, as EA was hoping to break the "Madden Curse" by displaying a retired player, but then, about a month ago...). We picked up the kids from day-care and came home. Just as the younguns began eating their snacks and watching Danny Phantom, I put the new game in the console and kicked the kids, crying and screamin, from the living room. This was my time. I've been waiting for it since February, and it's almost as good as Christmas.

The Madden football franchise has been around for twenty years now, and non-contact football games even longer. I've been playing electronic football games since I was six, and I thought that today, thirty-one years later, would be a good time to briefly review the history of the electronic football game through images and video. As far as the written history, the fine folks at Gamestop detail the games' evolution far better and more thorough than I could, and they do it here:The History of Football Games.

For brevity's sake, I'll just outline a chronology. Make sure and play all the videos. Once upon a time, I sure did.

1947 - Electric Football (Tudor Games)


1977 - Mattel Handheld


1980 -Coleco Handheld


1978 - Atari 2600 Football


1983 - Intellivision Football


1987 - John Elway Quarterback


1990 - Play Action Football (NES)


1991 - Tecmo Super Bowl - Bo Jackson...up the middle.


1995 - Madden for Super NES


1998 - Madden for Playstation


2001 - Madden for Playstation 2


Ahh...brings back some fond memories of beating the stuffing out of Ronnie Rouse, John King, and whoever else happened to drop by the pad during football season. Speaking of the pad, I shall return there now, and begin a new franchise. I think the Chiefs will do nicely. They've got a strong base of youthful players, a $40 million cap, and they need a coach who can guide them in the right direction. It's time to burn the midnight oil.