| Year | 1989 |
|---|---|
| Platform | DOS |
| Released in | United States |
| Genre | Sports |
| Theme | Football (American), Licensed Title, Real-Time |
| Publisher | Electronic Arts, Inc. |
| Developer | Electronic Arts, Inc. |
| Perspectives | 2D scrolling, Diagonal-down |
| Dosbox support | Supported on 0.61 |
Description of John Madden Football
Old american football simulation co-designed by famous sportscaster John Madden. The first game in EA's long-running Madden series. I guess different versions of this game have been available on almost every platform - with the Mega Drive version being the most famous of them all. Graphics look very poor even for its time, but the game concentrates more on tactics than pure action.
Overall, a decent football game that should please fans of the sport, although this PC version is not the best one. Too bad only 16 teams are presented in the game. Should be played in real DOS mode as beeper sound usually doesn't work right in Windows' DOS emulation. If you like this one, also check out its follow-up John Madden Football II, also on this site.
Review By HOTUD
External links
Captures and Snapshots
Comments and reviews
Football Historian 2025-08-06 0 point
This antiquated looking game is amazing with the playbooks we created. The original playbooks had serious flaws. Some plays work too well, other are too often bad failures. We also tweaked the rating system. The ratings of the players does not correspond to expected performance in-game. We rated approximately 2000 players from 1970-1979, with ratings that vary based on season performance. We draft teams and the game play is amazing and realistic in terms of results. The only issue is that there are too few QB sacks. The other glitch is that if a defensive player intercepts and then fumbles the ball, it screws up the stats. You must play this game in coaching mode and let the computer control the players for realistic results. It makes the game require football knowledge for drafting and coaching. An expert with a joystick on the current Madden would likely get destroyed by someone with better football knowledge in this game on coaching mode. There are a few other quirks with the game, reverses to WR and TE don't work, so we don't have reverses. This game engine is amazing if your looking for strategy while watching the sprites run around on the field as opposed to a more boring text box strategy game.
megadev 2015-05-02 0 point DOS version
This game was never that good as an action/arcade game, but it was awesome as a coach/gm game (for it's time of course). You can create your own plays, playbooks, players, and teams. We ran a 12-16 team league for almost 4 full seasons, with a full draft, 12 game season and playoffs. Go Toons!
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DOS Version
222 KBApple II Version
- Year: 1989
- Publisher: Electronic Arts, Inc.
- Developer: Electronic Arts, Inc.
Commodore 64 Version
- Year: 1989
- Publisher: Electronic Arts, Inc.
- Developer: Electronic Arts, Inc.
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