Atari Football
1977 · Sports · Arcade
Overview
Atari Football (1977) brought the trackball to arcades: a scrolling overhead American football game where players spin the ball to run plays.
Deep Dive
Designed by Dave Stubben, Atari Football let up to two players call plays and then drive their runners across an overhead field that scrolled to follow the action — one of the first arcade games to scroll. Control came through a trackball, which gave a speed and precision a joystick could not match; spinning it hard enough to wear the part out became part of the game's lore. The trackball went on to define Atari's Centipede and Missile Command.
Developer Story
Atari Football was designed by Dave Stubben and released by Atari in 1977. It was the first arcade game to use a trackball controller, allowing players to scroll the field and move players with speed and precision impossible with a joystick. The trackball became so associated with sports arcade games that it appeared in Baseball, Bowling, and countless other titles. The cabinet featured a large overhead LED scoreboard display.
Did You Know?
- Atari Football introduced the trackball controller to arcade gaming — a format that became standard for sports games for over a decade.
- The game was one of the first to scroll the play field, with the camera following the ball carrier down the field.
- Trackballs in Atari Football units wore out extremely quickly from heavy use, and replacement parts became a significant business for Atari.
- The game's success led directly to Atari's Centipede and Missile Command, both of which also used trackball controllers.
Sources & further reading
- Football (video game) — Wikipedia
