Who invented madden video games

Hawkins and Ybarra, interested in making such a game, wanted to apply Madden's expertise from both on and off the field. Madden agreed to participate, but only if the gameplay was as realistic as possible, producing a huge technical challenge to include 22 on-screen athletes running real plays. However, the Apple II did not possess the sophisticated memory and sound, pixel quality, or number of joystick ports for the game that Hawkins envisioned.

Although the gaming community considered the release a modest commercial success and EA felt that it had adequately established itself in the home computer market, the real victory came in when EA developed a second version, this time for the Sega Genesis. Game consoles were an entirely different domain from personal computers such as the Apple II. Now, they really didn't look like players. I mean, the linemen were all kind of the same size and, you know, they didn't block anyone or anything.

But once we were able to get 11 on 11, I knew we had something. What's your favorite memory from the game, the first few years when it was still building and gaming was just starting to grow?

Madden: I think the biggest memory was that we took what we created for a computer game and turned it into a video game. Once that happened, it was a different experience. It was a big step up. We were in the big leagues now, and we had to grow and adjust after that. What do you think of the evolution of the game? Obviously, technology helped from where it was to what it is now. Madden: If it's in the game of pro football, we wanted it to be in the video game.

When I was first involved, it was drawing up plays and players. I let them have my playbook and gave them an understanding of what a playbook is. Then it became a thing where we would pick up players, their words and stuff like that as we went along. But I think the biggest thing was when we received the film from the NFL. Until then we had to go get the plays and the offense and the nomenclature from different cultures.

And sometimes it was a college coach and we got discombobulated there sometimes. Now you can take and copy the real play. And I think as close as you can stay to what the game looks like and the players look like, I think the better the game will be because these players and plays now are so sophisticated. What is the feature that got put in that you enjoyed the most over the years? Was there something you wanted to put in the game that just was not possible?

Madden: You know, I'm a big line guy -- offensive and defensive line. And I think that, every game, you're going to have a quarterback and you're going to have the receivers and a running back. But we're doing a lot better job with the linemen. Linemen look like linemen now. And we can run, we can pull them and run them, and they play. The tackles are bigger than the guards and taller than the guards and so on. We're doing a good job there.

And I think they need to keep it that way and then continue to work on the speed. When you watch an NFL game, they have guys running all over the field on these patterns. And I think that it's important that we continue to get it, the speed of the players. The assignments are getting better with the linemen and the speed of the game is getting better, but I still think we can work on that. How much involvement do you have with the game now and various concepts that have been introduced?

The most involvement that I have now is in conjunction with my current role with the NFL. I am able to provide insight to the EA team as to what the league's rules are and then check everything to make sure that the rules of the game are the same in the video game. That's my biggest contribution now.

At what point did you realize, wow, this game is getting bigger? This is becoming a cultural thing. Did you ever think you would get to the point it is now? They were happy about a lot of things, but one of those things was that they would be in the game. They played the game in grammar school, high school, college, and now they are in it. In , you did an interview in which you said you hoped the game was a way for people to learn the game and participate in the game at a pretty sophisticated level.

Do you feel like that has been accomplished? Where do you want to see it go next? Madden: Yes, that's how they learn the game. And so many players and kids will say that. I mean, at one time, we used to be able to go out and play on the school playground or just a park or something. And those days are over. So, they have to find different ways of playing.

I think the video game gave them that. And that's the way they learn the game and then they can play the game. I also know in talking to my grandson and his friends that they really enjoy the general manager component. Some of these guys like to build their own teams and they're more interested in being professional general managers than being the pro players. I think that we're also developing that guy, and I think the more that we can go in that direction, the better off we're going to be. I've talked with coaches and players who grew up with the game and told me aspects of it either helped them learn or advanced their knowledge of football at a much younger age.

Lions corner Jeff Okudah told me last year that he learned, and got hooked, on football playing Madden as a kid before he ever actually played football. When you hear something like that, what goes through your head? Madden: Well, you know, that gives you the satisfaction that you're doing something worthwhile.

You and everyone involved are putting in the time, and it works and influences people to not only enjoy the game but to be able to play the game. It helps them become better players. And I think that's true of high school, college and the pros. There's a real satisfaction that you see when someone brings it up. And not only do players mention that they first were introduced to football through the Madden game but also coaches.

They say that they became interested in coaching through the modern game. What would you want to see placed in the game in the future that isn't there now? Madden: You know, again, talking to my grandsons and their friends, what they like to do is control players, and I like the feature where they can control the pass-rusher. That is a big feature for them. And then I think that the more control over the more players that they have, the more fun it's going to be. And so, I think that if I were looking for anything again, and this is what the players are looking for, it would be to control more players.

This might be an out-there question a little, but if the Madden game had been around when you were a coach, what would you have thought of it? Would you have tried to use it in some way? Madden: You know what I would do? I would kind of do the same thing that I thought when we first started this -- I would have a couple of young guys that are good, good Madden players, and hire them and put them on my staff.

And each week I would have them play our opponent. And then I would run our players against their defenses and their defenses against our players.

And I'd have them just check that out and then write up -- this was good, this was bad, had trouble here and trouble there. I don't know how much I would use it, but that's what I would do. Madden: Well, it just makes me so proud that I've been part of it for so long. I mean, other guys, they just put their name on a game. This has been part of what I've done since I got out of coaching. And it's one of the things that I'm known for and one of the things I'm very proud of.

On a personal level, when you're approached by younger people, do they usually want to talk more about the video game, your coaching or your broadcasting career? Madden: You know, it's funny when you can tell how people know you. The people that know me as a coach will call me Coach. For instance, listen to this version of the Madden video game…. And now listen to a CBS broadcast from that same year, So I surrounded the field with guys with Sennheiser gun mics to get the sound of the line and all that stuff.

At the same time, madden was sounding more and more like a tv broadcast itself. Because you have to have a lot on the table every year for somebody to buy the game again and again. And so they just started adding all kinds of things. Whoever wrote that tell him [cutting sound]. That thought never enters a mind ever, ever, ever, ever.

These are really some really stupid things. DONNY MOORE: We got to a point where you know we had to get some really football savvy you know people that have played the game and maybe even coached a little bit or whatever to help sort of help us with our writing…. I thought it was cool that I was in a video game and when it came down to Madden, it was real cool. Every day I play. Whenever I go home I play. Play all weekend. I play before I go to the stadium on game days.

I want to make it to the NFL just to play in this this right here. More than I want to play in the NFL…]. Instead, it was a player: Eddie George. I remember it being a huge fight for attention because you have all these people licensing the NFL and then trying to get their attention and time to help promote their games. And so it became like a bloodthirsty war at that point. In , 2K is trending really well. It looks and plays at this point basically better than Madden. I remember working on a proposal to bring the latest version of 2K to Gameboy Advance I think it was.

And then news broke that Electronic Arts with all this pressure from every company around them locked in the NFL as an exclusive license. It was like a nuclear bomb going off in the game industry.

I knew things were bad because our call it was supposed to have got canceled immediately. It was weeks until we heard from them again. All these people who assumed they be able to renew their license with the NFL had to basically drop everything that they were doing. You had development houses cancel their games. And in some places go out of business.

Overnight Madden reclaimed the throne without having to lift a finger on the development side. Now, Madden faced a different kind of challenge. How do you develop a game that every year can improve upon the last year? And Madden has consistently set the standard. When you see a player in the game you recognize that player. They have a face down to the sweat, down to the helmet the scrapes on the helmet, the mouth pieces… Even down to the shoelaces.

That makes the franchise probably equal to if not more than the value of Lucasfilm and Star Wars. I heard they had going Santonio [Holmes] out there going…. That was Emmitt Smith years ago when he played for the Dallas Cowboys and he was in a locker room, in the Cowboy locker room, and some guys were playing.

And that is on my business card. This is where the magic happens…]. Anthony White has worked on them for over a decade. What defensive coverage are they running this play for?

You know that should always be an option too that your fullback can motion either way. I just want you to know that I appreciate the work, the time, the effort, the knowledge, the passion and everything that you put into the Madden video game. So thank…]. Touchdown Denver unbelievable. Oh my goodness. They learned about football through Madden as much as they learn by playing it. And people like John Madden were very instrumental in enabling video games to become a central part of modern culture.