Computer Football Strategy (also known as Football Strategy[2]) is a 1983 sports video game that simulates the National Football League from a strategic point of view. It was developed for the Commodore 64[2] and the Atari 8-bit computers.[3] Many retired professional football players have been noted to be content while recapturing their former heroics on this computer game.[4]
Gameplay
The basic choice of teams span from the 1966 Green Bay Packers (the winners of Super Bowl I) to the 1982 Washington Redskins (the winners of Super Bowl XVII - the most recent Super Bowl 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.[5] 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.[5]" 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).[5]
Twenty different plays can be called from the line of scrimmage with ten different outcomes depending on the defensive alignment.[5] The display shows a minimal coverage of the action; with no movement by either the quarterback or the wide receivers.[5] A complete lack of "hurry-up" offences means that each pass takes 15 seconds of game time to complete.[5]
Reception
Football Strategy was a runner up in the category of "Best Computer Sports Game" at the 4th annual Arkie Awards.[6]: 33
