From the first Pong clones to today’s realistic simulations, football (or ‘soccer’ for our US readers!) games have featured regularly on our game consoles and home computers. Bitmap Books’ book, A Tale Of Two Halves: The History Of Football Video Games, documents these, demonstrating the changes in graphics, gameplay and tactical interactivity throughout the years. For this month’s entry in the Bitmap Books’ Blog, Graeme ‘Wizwords’ Mason looks back at eight football games that altered how we viewed, and played them.
Football (Binatone TV Master) 1977
Ready To Kick Off
Football began, as with many sports, as a Pong variant, of which the Binatone TV Master was one of many home consoles based around the classic arcade game and its own alternates, such as Taito Soccer (1973). They all presented Pong’s familiar one-screen block-and-punt gameplay, reducing the open area behind each ‘goalkeeper’ to create a goal. A halfway line was usually the only other distinctive feature in this abstract interpretation of the beautiful game. See also Super Soccer by Allied Leisure Industries and Ramtek Soccer (pictured).
Atari Soccer (Arcade) 1979
Shadow Soccer
This cocktail cab arcade game from Atari was one of the first significant shifts away from Pong football games, displaying its broad-shouldered footballers from above and in a horizontally scrolling environment. With four players per side, including a goalkeeper, and proper pitch markings, football finally broke out of its conceptual beginnings, albeit retaining the spooky black and white hues of Pong.
Pelé’s Soccer (Atari 2600) 1980
Keep Your Shape
Pelé’s Soccer, released on the Atari 2600 in 1980, is a clear upgrade on the earlier Pong clones, presenting almost human-like figures set in a triangular formation in an overhead, bird’s eye view. The game also scrolls vertically as the two sets of players constantly harangue each other, and you get fireworks every time a team scores. Which is nice.
RealSports Soccer (Atari 2600) 1983
Track Your Runners
Sticking with the Atari 2600, football (or soccer, if we must) shifted formation to horizontal scrolling with this second soccer game for the console. Chastened by Mattel’s aggressive Atari-baiting advertising campaign for its Intellivision Sports Network, the RealSports series improved existing games while introducing some new sports, such as volleyball. RealSports Soccer, released just before the Stateside crash ended video game development for a short period, transforms Pelé’s Soccer’s oblique footballers into actual recognisable characters, independently striding across the side-on game area. Someone’s kidnapped the goalies, though.
International Soccer (Commodore 64) 1983
From Flat To Not-Quite-So-Flat
While the overhead bird’s eye view remained popular throughout the Eighties – most notably Sensible Soccer precursor MicroProse Soccer and the original Kick Off – Andrew Spencer’s fast footie action game International Soccer introduced a new side-on playing field in a semi-forced isometric perspective. Players can move up and down the pitch and create new angles for their goal attempts, and the viewpoint inspired probably the most famous progenitor of the style, Jon Ritman’s Match Day series.
Footballer Of The Year (various) 1986
The Best Seat In The House
A handful of football games focused on a particular aspect of the beautiful game – namely, up front or in goal. Gremlin’s Footballer Of The Year (as featured in both A Tale Of Two Halves: The History Of Football Video Games and A Gremlin In The Works) puts the player in the studded boots of a lone striker, forging a career into the big leagues and internationally. Most of a striker’s duties – from holding up play to leading defenders out of position – are forgotten except for their primary function, scoring goals. As a result, you only get to see the business end of the pitch, the opposition goal, from behind your striker.
FIFA International Soccer (various) 1993
Diagonal Delight
The majority of action football games today owe a debt to Electronic Arts’ smash hit FIFA International Soccer. Taking the side-on style of Match Day and its ilk, FIFA swings the screen anti-clockwise, forming a new dimension for football video games. While beneath the glitz and glamour it wasn’t much of a football game, the style stuck for several years.
Actua Soccer (PlayStation, Saturn, PC) 1995
Into The Third Dimension
Premiering in 1995, Actua Soccer revolutionised football video games, introducing several concepts commonplace today. Firstly, instead of purely animated footballers, Actua Soccer uses motion capture to add an extra degree of realism to its gameplay, famously rendering 3D figures from a trio of Sheffield Wednesday players. A fully rotatable 3D stadium with a crowd and a roving, fluid camera that zoomed in and out set a new, technically stunning standard for football video games. As with Footballer Of The Year, Actua Soccer features in two books from Bitmap Books, A Tale Of Two Halves: The History Of Football Video Games and A Gremlin In The Works.
Thanks for reading the latest entry in the Bitmap Books Blog. Don't forget you can read all about these iconic football video games and more in Bitmap Books’ fantastic A Tale Of Two Halves: The History Of Football Video Games by football-obsessed game journalist Richard Moss.
