John Madden Football
From Sega Retro
John Madden Football | ||||||||||||||||||||
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System(s): Sega Mega Drive | ||||||||||||||||||||
Publisher: Electronic Arts | ||||||||||||||||||||
Developer: Park Place Productions | ||||||||||||||||||||
Genre: Sports | ||||||||||||||||||||
Number of players: 1-2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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John Madden Football, known as John Madden American Football in Europe, is an American football game developed by Park Place Productions and published by Electronic Arts. It is the second in the long line of Madden titles, which have been released annually since the creation of this game. The previous game, also called John Madden Football, was released in 1988 and is largely unrelated to this one, aside from the similar themes; that game received a sequel of its own after this one, in 1991 (John Madden Football II)
John Madden Football for the Mega Drive can be seen as "Madden '91", being followed by John Madden Football '92, '93, '94 and so on. Every game has been named after John Madden, American football player, coach and commentator.
Contents
History
Development
Having seen success and rapid growth in supporting the home computer market, Electronic Arts chose in 1989 to make the move into video games, and more specifically, the Sega Mega Drive. However EA were not keen on paying royalties to Sega (roughly $8-$10 USD per cartridge), and so invested time and money in reverse engineering the console in an attempt to circumvent these policies.
However, unlike Nintendo's efforts with the NES, bypassing the security system of a Mega Drive required the use of the word "SEGA", the thinking being that unauthorised use of this trademark would give grounds for Sega to sue companies which attempted to reverse engineer its console (something that was famously challenged when Accolade attempted a similar feat). To avoid this, EA made a proposal to Sega that the fee be reduced to $2, with the overall fee not exceeding $2 million USD. Sega agreed due to fears EA would sell the information to other companies, and the process would reportedly save EA $35 million in the next three years.
While EA released several computer-to-Mega Drive conversions during 1990, this new John Madden Football was seen as its first major contribution to the video game market. However, Sega were also keen to exploit the 1990 holiday season (and newly acquired license with NFL quarterback Joe Montana) with an American football game, using Activision's Hard Yardage as a base. The project however was struggling and was set to miss its deadline, so Sega approached EA to sell John Madden Football as Joe Montana Football.
EA refused, but gave Sega a watered down engine for Joe Montana Football (which still proved successful).
Legacy
John Madden Football was an enormous success for EA, and is seen as an industry game changer - one of the first steps to take back market share from Nintendo in North America.
Elsewhere in the world, John Madden Football and its sequels have been less successful as the sport does not tend to resonate outside of the US, however EA has applied the annual release system to other sports titles, namely NHL, FIFA, PGA Tour Golf and NBA Live.
Production credits
- Designed by: John Madden, Scott Orr, and Richard Hilleman
- Developed by: Park Place Production Team
- Programmed by: Jim Simmons, team member
- Graphics Design by: Steve Quinn, team member; Brian O'Hara, team member; Art Aliva, team member; Cynthia Hamilton, Paul Vernon
- Music and Sound by: Rob Hubbard
- Production Assistance by: Troy Lyndon, team member; Michael Knox, team member
- Produced by: Richard Hilleman
- Associate Production by: Michael Brook
- Assistant Production by: Ed Gwynn
- Thanks to: Sandy Montag and the Maddens
Magazine articles
- Main article: John Madden Football/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
also published in:
- Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #27: "October 1991" (1991-xx-xx)[7]
Artwork
Physical scans
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Based on 28 reviews |
Technical information
ROM dump status
System | Hash | Size | Build Date | Source | Comments | |||||||||
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✔ |
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512kB | 1990-07 | Cartridge (US/EU) | ||||||||||
? |
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1990-11-07 | Page |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 ACE, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-12-xx), page 165
- ↑ Mean Machines, "December 1990" (UK; 1990-12-xx), page 19
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Electronic Gaming Monthly, "December 1990" (US; 1990-xx-xx), page 21
- ↑ GamePro, "January 1991" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 62
- ↑ File:CGW US 089.pdf, page 83
- ↑ Supergame, "Maio 1992" (BR; 1992-05-xx), page 36
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "October 1991" (US; 1991-xx-xx), page 78
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 ACE, "February 1991" (UK; 1991-01-08), page 67
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Complete Guide to Consoles, "Volume IV" (UK; 1990-11-xx), page 31
- ↑ Computer & Video Games, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-12-15), page 70-72 (70)
- ↑ Computer + Video Giochi, "Febbraio 1991" (IT; 1991-xx-xx), page 66-68 (66)
- ↑ GamePro, "January 1991" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 58-60 (60)
- ↑ Hobby Consolas, "Octubre 1991" (ES; 1991-xx-xx), page 32/33 (32)
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Joystick, "Janvier 1991" (FR; 199x-xx-xx), page 108
- ↑ Mean Machines, "December 1990" (UK; 1990-12-xx), page 16-19 (16)
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Mean Machines, "February 1992" (UK; 1992-01-27), page 74
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 MegaTech, "Xmas 1991" (UK; 1991-12-06), page 78
- ↑ Player One, "Janvier 1991" (FR; 199x-xx-xx), page 32/33 (32)
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Power Play, "1/91" (DE; 1990-12-14), page 174
- ↑ Raze, "February 1991" (UK; 1990-12-20), page 70/71 (70)
- ↑ Sega Power, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-12-06), page 34/35 (34)
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Sega Power, "October 1991" (UK; 1991-09-05), page 53
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Sega Pro, "Christmas 1991" (UK; 1991-12-12), page 67
- ↑ Supergame, "Maio 1992" (BR; 1992-05-xx), page 36-38 (36)
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 120
- ↑ The Complete Guide to Sega, "" (UK; 1991-05-xx), page 47
- ↑ Console XS, "June/July 1992" (UK; 1992-04-23), page 131
- ↑ Computer & Video Games, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-12-15), page 66
- ↑ Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide, "" (UK; 1993-11-18), page 62
- ↑ GamePro, "January 1991" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 60
- ↑ Hobby Consolas, "Octubre 1991" (ES; 1991-xx-xx), page 32
- ↑ Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming, "January 1993" (UK; 199x-xx-xx), page 92
- ↑ Mega Play, "March/April 1991" (US; 1991-04-xx), page 45
- ↑ Mean Machines, "December 1990" (UK; 1990-12-xx), page 16
- ↑ Mean Machines Sega, "October 1992" (UK; 1992-09-xx), page 139
- ↑ Player One, "Janvier 1991" (FR; 199x-xx-xx), page 32
- ↑ Raze, "February 1991" (UK; 1990-12-20), page 70
- ↑ Sega Power, "January 1991" (UK; 1990-12-06), page 34
- ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 66
- ↑ Supergame, "Maio 1992" (BR; 1992-05-xx), page 37
- ↑ Tilt, "Février 1991" (FR; 1991-0x-xx), page 76
- ↑ VideoGames & Computer Entertainment, "January 1991" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 36
- ↑ Zero, "February 1991" (UK; 1991-0x-xx), page 90
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