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History of Madden Football
  Intro
Madden
Madden 92
Madden 93
Madden 94
Madden 95
Madden 96
Madden 97
Madden 98
Madden 99
Madden 00
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John Madden Football
Date: 1990
System: Genesis

The Basics
Football enthusiasts had little to cheer about in the early days of video gaming. While baseball had an occasionally good title, football fans had stinkers like 10 Yard Fight, one of the finalists for worst video game ever produced. The revolutionary passing mechanic of the ABC window debuted along with the standard Madden offensive and defensive formations.

The Details
The first Madden game featured three modes of play: a regular season, a playoff, and sudden death. The first two should be self-explanatory to any fan, while the third mode was the equivalent of an overtime period, where the first team to score won.

Surprisingly, only 16 city teams were included, plus the stereotypical All-Madden team. While this made the playoff tree easy to configure, numerous fans around the country were out of luck because their team was not represented.

Introduced were the standard offensive sets that players would first come to love and then tire of over the next ten years. Goal line, far, near, pro formation, and shotgun sets were available, with a number of plays in each. Various squads of players were available, each one with a different emphasis - hands, speed, size, or normal attributes. On defense, the choices were limited to a big (which looked and played like a goal-line defense), 4-3, and nickel and dime. However, a level of sophistication was added to defense with the choice of cover, read, and control plays.

 
The Receiver will have to hustle to prevent the interception
Click for more shots
You couldn't exactly tackle, but if one of your players ran into an opponent, both of them would fall down. Generally, and ultimately historically with Madden, passing was easier than running.

The featured teams were Atlanta, New York, Washington, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Miami, New England, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Minnesota, and Los Angeles.

The Verdict
It is amazing in retrospect how limited Madden 91 was. Not only didn't the game have any kind of
NFL or player license, but it was disappointing that only 16 teams were featured. And yet it was so much better than anything that had appeared before it.


Now show me John Madden Football 92 Next