''Computer Football Strategy'' (also known as ''Football Strategy'') is a 1983

sports video game A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with video games, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize playing the sport (such ...

that simulates the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

from a strategic point of view. It was developed for the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

and the

Atari 8-bit computers The Atari 8-bit computers, formally launched as the Atari Home Computer System, are a series of home computers introduced by Atari, Inc., in 1979 with the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The architecture is designed around the 8-bit MOS Technology 650 ...

. Many retired professional football players have been noted to be content while recapturing their former heroics on this computer game.

Gameplay

The basic choice of teams span from the 1966 Green Bay Packers (the winners of

Super Bowl I The first AFL–NFL World Championship Game (known retroactively as Super BowlI and referred to in contemporaneous reports, including the game's radio broadcast, as the Super Bowl) was an American football game played on January 15, 1967, at th ...

) to the 1982 Washington Redskins (the winners of

Super Bowl XVII Super Bowl XVII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Miami Dolphins and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Washington Redskins to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

- the most recent

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

as of the game's release). The game uses a top-down perspective in order to properly simulate the football field. The game shows the football field as a small, thin strip divided into ten-yard lines. Four basic graphics (the blue players playing the role as the defense and the black players playing the role as the offense) are considered to be "simulated American football players." A notable criticism of the game is that having X's and O's would have been more realistic (because coaches use these in real-life football to write playbooks for the team players). Twenty different plays can be called from the

line of scrimmage In gridiron football, a line of scrimmage is an invisible transverse line (across the width of the field) beyond which a team cannot cross until the next play has begun. Its location is based on the spot where the ball is placed after the end ...

with ten different outcomes depending on the defensive alignment. The display shows a minimal coverage of the action; with no movement by either the

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

or the

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

s. A complete lack of "hurry-up" offences means that each pass takes 15 seconds of game time to complete.

Reception

''Football Strategy'' was a runner up in the category of "Best Computer Sports Game" at the 4th annual

Arkie Awards ''Electronic Games'' was the first dedicated video game magazine published in the United States and ran from October 15, 1981, to 1997 under different titles. It was co-founded by Bill Kunkel, Joyce Worley, and Arnie Katz. History The h ...

References

{{Avalon Hill 1983 video games Atari 8-bit computer games Avalon Hill video games Commodore 64 games CP/M games Microcomputer Games games Multiplayer and single-player video games NFL video games Sports management video games TRS-80 games Video games developed in the United States