1977 - My First Sports Video Game - Valdarez's Blog

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1977 - My First Sports Video Game Stuck

Posted on December 30, 2009 at 07:41 AM.

(21)

If your on OS, then odds are you're a fairly avid sports fan. As such, do you remember your first sports video game? I have always thought of the Atari game 'Football' as my first sports video game, but when Steve posted today's Other Stuff, he asked what your favorite gadget. I listed my iPhone as my favorite gadget today, but it got me to thinking of the gadgets I have had over the years, especially of the hand held gaming devices I have owned, which led me to rediscover what I now believe to be my first sports video game ever. A hand held LED football game produced by Mattel.

The game was fairly simple, you basically moved up, down, and forward. Each time you ran to the end of the screen, it would warp you back to the start. I can't quite remember if each screen was 10 yards or not, but I do remember you had to run quite a ways to score a TD. As you can see from the image of the game, it displayed the score, the down, the yards to go, and the location on the field.

Interestingly enough, the game was not a NFL product, and it wasn't in any way realistic, yet as a young child who was only beginning to become aware of electronic gaming, it was a mesmerizing device and a enthralling game.

Thirty years later, and we are on the cusp of true NFL Simulation in video games. Can you imagine what the gamers of the future will have available? They'll look back to games such as ESPN NFL 2K5, APF2K8, or Madden 2010 as their first football video game, and odds are good these games will appear just as antiquated then as the Mattel Handheld seems today.

If you would like to learn more about the Mattel Handeld Football game, you can read in depth about the game at the hand held museum.

What was your first sports video game?

Comments

# 16 bhurst99 @ Dec 30

I had the same game along with Mattel baseball and hockey. I played hours on those games. I would hear the beeps and blips in my sleep.

# 17 e0820 @ Dec 31

I had the Mattel Football also, not sure if I got it before or after my Magnavox Odyssey 2. So either handheld football, soccer or basketball was my first or Odyssey 2 Bowling/Racing (2 on one cartridge) was my first.