''John Madden Football'' is a football video game originally released for the

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

, in 1988 in video gaming, 1988 following the success of ''Earl Weaver Baseball''. It was later ported to MS-DOS and the Commodore 64. It was followed by the 1990 Sega Genesis John Madden Football (1990 video game), video game of same name, and went on to become the yearly ''

Madden NFL ''Madden NFL'' (known as ''John Madden Football'' until 1993) is an American football sports video game series developed by EA Orlando for EA Sports. The franchise, named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden, has ...

'' game series. It is sometimes called ''Madden '88'' or ''Madden '89'' to distinguish it from later games in the series. This game features many customizable aspects including conditions, time of quarters, player fatigue, player injuries, and penalties. Unlike future ''Madden'' games, this version does not feature season play. It has only single games, and no actual NFL teams are included due to the lack of

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

NFLPA The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) is the labor union representing National Football League (NFL) players. The NFLPA, which has headquarters in Washington, D.C., is led by executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. and president J ...

licenses for authentic teams, player names, and stadiums. However, some teams are based on real teams. One could also create a team from scratch in this game. The cover was also used on All-Madden Edition of ''

Madden NFL 23 ''Madden NFL 23'' is a 2022 American football video game developed by EA Tiburon and published by EA Sports. Based on the National Football League (NFL), it is an installment in the ''Madden NFL'' series and follows the release of '' Madden NFL 22 ...

'' and was made by Chuck Styles.

Development

Inspired by

Strat-O-Matic Strat-O-Matic is a game company based in Glen Head, New York, that develops and publishes sports simulation games. It produces tabletop baseball, American football, basketball, and ice hockey simulations, as well as personal computer adaptation ...

Sports simulator games, Trip Hawkins had long wanted to make a football game.

Joe Montana Joseph Clifford Montana Jr. (born June 11, 1956) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. Nicknamed "Joe Cool" and "the Co ...

and

Joe Kapp Joseph Robert Garcia Kapp (March 19, 1938 – May 8, 2023) was an American football player, coach, and executive. He played college football as a quarterback for the California Golden Bears. Kapp played professionally in the Canadian Footbal ...

were initially approached in 1982 to endorse it, but both refused—Montana was already working with

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...

on a rival football game while Kapp proved to be outside of the company's budget. He eventually approached

John Madden John Earl Madden (April 10, 1936 – December 28, 2021) was an American professional football coach and sports commentator in the National Football League (NFL). He served as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders from 1969 to 1978, leading them ...

two years later and the company hatched out an agreement. Madden was interested in the prospect of the resulting project being used as a teaching tool. One sticking point for Madden was that 11 players had to be on each team, which was difficult due to technical limitations. EA had initially proposed that the game be played between two teams of six or seven, however Madden refused to endorse such a game. Due in part to this, as well as a legal issue involving

Bethesda Softworks Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a Division (business), division of Media Technology Limited. In 1999, it became a subsidiary of Z ...

-whom EA hired to work on parts of the game, the development eventually took three years. At the time among the company the title became known as "Trip's Folly", with both employees of EA as well as Madden assuming that the game would be cancelled.

Reception

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...

'' reviewed ''John Madden Football'' favorably for providing both a simple "Quick Mode" of arcade-like play, and a deeper "Standard Game" with detailed player statistics and user-created plays.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1988 video games Madden NFL Electronic Arts games Commodore 64 games Commodore 128 games Apple II games Sega Genesis games DOS games EA Sports games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in the United States