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History of Madden Football
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By Nolan Holmes

In a business that is now used to annual releases of franchise sports product, it is hard to remember the landscape prior to the introduction of the Madden series. Conventional wisdom at the time was that you could only sell one version of a sports game to the consumer, and anyone who suggested multiple yearly iterations of a product would have been laughed out of town. Celebrity endorsements were also a rarity, with only the very biggest stars, such as Magic Johnson, commanding any kind of interest. And forget about official licenses from major sporting entities. The leagues were inflexible in their demands, asking for huge percentages of the money generated and for guarantees that were out of proportion to the marketplace potential.

 
Madden bursts through the chalkboard
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Former Raider coach John Madden was a well-regarded commentator at the time, with a growing reputation. He was popular as a product spokesperson, most notably in a series of commercials for Miller beer in which he parodied his own reputation by bursting through walls and doors. Truth be told, Madden was a strange person to pick to launch a football franchise. Legend has it that EA CEO Trip Hawkins had to track Madden down in a parking lot to make the pitch to him about the product line. Obviously, Hawkins was successful, and the first Madden game appeared on the Apple II in 1989. True to his reputation, the box cover had Madden bursting through a chalkboard. In 1990, the legendary Scott Orr brought John Madden Football to the Genesis. Whether the team knew it was making history is debatable, but one thing is certain - it had started the greatest sports franchise in the history of home console gaming.

Now show me John Madden Football Next