''RealSports'' is a series of sports video games originally developed and published Atari, Inc. The first games were released in 1982 for the Atari 2600, then the series expanded to the Atari 5200, Atari 7800, and

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

. By the early 1980s, Atari's initial sports releases for the VCS—'' Home Run'' and ''

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

''—were dated in terms of visuals and gameplay, and targeted by an

Intellivision The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel, Mattel Electronics in 1979. The name is a portmanteau of "intelligent television". Development began in 1977, the same year as the launch of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. I ...

ad campaign from Mattel. The ''RealSports'' series was an attempt by Atari to revitalize the sports game lineup for their consoles.

Development

Atari's development of the ''RealSports'' series was prompted by an aggressive

1980 advertising campaign fronted by George Plimpton criticising the graphics and gameplay of Atari's sports games for the Atari 2600. The advertisements negatively compared Atari's sports games to Mattel's ''Sports Network'' series of games, the world's first sports video games franchise. The first three games in the series were ''

RealSports Baseball ''RealSports Baseball'' (also known as ''Super Baseball'' and simply as ''Baseball'') is a 1982 sports video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. originally for the Atari 2600. It was also launched on the Atari 5200 and 7800 machines. A v ...

'' (October 1982), ''

RealSports Football ''RealSports Football'' is a 1982 American football video game made by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 2600. Versions for the Atari 5200 and Atari 8-bit family followed in 1983. It is part of the ''RealSports'' series of games. ''RealSports Football'' ...

'' (December 1982), and ''

RealSports Volleyball ''Realsports Volleyball'' is a volleyball video game written by Bob Polaro and Jim Huether for the Atari 2600 and published by Atari, Inc. in 1982. Polaro also programmed the Atari 2600 port of '' Defender''. Development ''RealSports Volleybal ...

'' (November 1982). The baseball and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

offerings were essentially upgrades on existing games for the 2600, whilst the volleyball game was to be the first volleyball-theme game released for an Atari platform. ''

RealSports Soccer ''RealSports Soccer'' (also known as ''Soccer'', ''Football'' and ''RealSports Football'') is a 1983 sports video game developed and published by Atari for the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200 platforms, concentrating on the sport of association footba ...

'' and ''

RealSports Tennis ''RealSports Tennis'' is a tennis simulation video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200 and Atari 8-bit family in 1983. It is part of the ''RealSports'' series of games. Gameplay Before the game starts, pla ...

'' followed before the

1983 video game crash The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...

halted development of further ''RealSports'' games whilst Atari remained under the management of Warner Brothers. Following Atari's sale to Jack Tramiel in 1984, two further ''RealSports'' games were released. ''

RealSports Boxing ''RealSports Boxing'' is a boxing based video game developed by Atari and released in 1987 for the Atari 2600. It is part of the ''RealSports'' series of games from Atari. The game has a side view of the ring, allowing the player to move up and d ...

'' was released in 1987, whilst a further update of ''

'' for the Atari 7800 platform was released in 1988 as the final ''RealSports'' game. A basketball game, ''RealSports Basketball'', was announced but never officially released for the original Atari platforms, though it was later included on AtGames ''Flashback'' consoles.

List of games

Reception

The ''1984 Software Encyclopedia'' called the ''RealSports'' series an effective update to Atari's sports game offerings. In 2018, the British magazine '' Retro Gamer'' assessed the ''RealSports'' franchise positively compared to Mattel's ''Sports Network'' series for the Intellivision in a head-to-head comparison.

Legacy

The intellectual property rights for the game series passed to Hasbro Interactive and were subsequently bought by Infogrames in 2001, which was subsequently re-named Atari SA. Games from the series were re-released by Infogrames on the 2005 ''

Atari Anthology ''Atari: 80 Classic Games in One!'', known as ''Atari Anthology'' on consoles, is a video game collection developed by Digital Eclipse and published by Atari Interactive. The title is a compilation of 80 video games previously published by Atari, I ...

''. Games from the series were then subsequently re-released for the

Atari Flashback 3 The Atari Flashback series are a line of dedicated video game consoles designed, produced, published and marketed by AtGames under license from Atari SA. The Flashback consoles are "plug-and-play" versions of the Atari 2600 console. They conta ...

in 2011, which was the first console of the ''Flashback'' series made by the AtGames company. As of 2021, games from the series have been included on all subsequent ''Flashback'' consoles, including the ''Flashback 4'', ''5'', ''6'', ''7'', ''8'', ''9'', and ''X''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:RealSports series Video game franchises introduced in 1982 Video game franchises Atari 2600 games Atari 5200 games Atari 7800 games Atari 8-bit family games Video games developed in the United States