Great Football

n/a

Great Football
System(s): Sega Master System, Mega-Tech
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Genre: Sports (American football)
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code JP 1987-04-29 ¥5,0005,000 G-1321 US 1987-07 5058 EU 1987 MK-5058-50 FR 198x 250F250 MK-5058-50 UK 1988-09 £22.9522.95 MK-5058-50 UK 19xx £? ?

Great Football (グレートフットボール) is a sports game developed and published by Sega for the Sega Master System and the Sega Mega-Tech arcade system. The game is part of the Great series of sports games. It is based on American football (Great Soccer, released two years prior, was based on the sport known as football in most of the world). A Sports Pad version was also released in America as Sports Pad Football.

Gameplay

Great Football is a very basic American football game played from a top-down perspective with a horizontally oriented field. Games consist of four quarters that are 15 minutes long (though the game time runs three times faster than real time). There are no fouls. On the title screen, one-player games are started by pressing on the first control pad, and two-player games are started by pressing on the second control pad.

In one-player games, the player starts the game in the fourth quarter with the computer team ahead by a random number of points. The player has the length of the quarter in which to beat the computer's score. If the player completes a set of four downs without gaining 10 yards, rather than awarding possession to the computer team (as in real football), the player is penalized 10 yards and given a new set of downs. Thus, the player is always on offense, and the only way the computer can score is if the player's team is tackled in their own end zone for a safety or if the computer intercepts a pass and runs it back to their end zone for a touchdown.

In two-player games, players play a conventional game of four quarters, starting at the beginning of the game with neither player having any points. The second player opens the game with the kick-off, so the first player starts on offense. As in real football, if the player on offense completes a set of four downs without gaining 10 yards, the other team gets possession of the ball.

	Kickoff
	At the beginning of the game, the defending team kicks the ball down the field from the 35-yard line to the offensive team. This is done automatically. In one-player games, the computer kicks off after a conversion play (since the player is never on defense); in two-player games, the scoring team kicks the ball after a conversion play.
	Playbook
	Only the offensive team picks plays. There are nine plays; the first four are pass plays, and the next four are rush plays. The ninth play is a punt or a field goal attempt, which only appears if within the 45-yard line. After a touchdown, the scoring team chooses a conversion play to attempt to earn one point from a field goal or two points from passing or running the ball into the end zone. Before each down, the game cycles through every play, and the player chooses a play by pressing when it is highlighted. In two-player games, the game continues cycling through all of the plays even after a play has been selected, in order to conceal the selected play from the opponent (though it does this in one-player games as well).
	Defense
	Defense is only played in two-player games. The team on defense must try to prevent the offensive team from gaining yards or scoring. The team member that is closest to the ball (who is indicated by a solid-colored arrow) runs in any direction using the D-Pad. The other team members move automatically. The team member can attempt to tackle a member of the offensive team by pressing or . If the team member is on top of a member of the other team who is receiving a pass, the pass is intercepted. The player can block a punt or a field goal by pressing to have the team members converge.
	Offense
	The team on offense must try to gain at least 10 yards toward the defending team's end zone in four downs in order to receive another set of four downs. The team member with the ball (who is indicated by a solid-colored arrow) runs in any direction using the D-Pad. The team member can pass the ball by holding the D-Pad in any direction and pressing . This is also how punts and field goals are performed. During a pass play, after the hike, the quarterback can pass the ball by pressing or scramble (run instead of passing) by pressing .

Teams

There are 12 fictional teams, divided into two leagues. In one-player games, the player must select an opponent from the same league as the chosen team. In two-player games, each player chooses a team from different leagues.

League select

League	Team
AFC	Spartans
	Dukes
	Sharks
	Bombers
	Foxes
	Huskies
NFC	Bucks
	Wildcats
	Boomers
	Knights
	Beavers
	Gators

Magazine articles

Main article: Great Football/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Pixel (GR) #66: "Máios 1990" (1990-xx-xx)

Physical scans

Master System version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score Complete Guide to Consoles (UK) 73 Complete Guide to Consoles (UK) 67 The Complete Guide to Sega (UK) PAL 67 Computer Action (DK) 25 Console XS (UK) PAL 60 Computer & Video Games (UK) 82 Génération 4 (FR) 69 Mean Machines (UK) 55 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 67 S: The Sega Magazine (UK) PAL 70 Sega Power (UK) PAL 50 Sega Pro (UK) 70 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 60 Soft Today (DK) 40 Tilt (FR) 55

	61
Based on 15 reviews

Great Football

Master System, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Master System, US
Cover
Manual

Master System, US "Made in Taiwan" variant
Cover
Manual

Master System, EU
Cover

Master System, EU ("No Limits")
Cover

Master System, EU (Sega®)
Cover

Mega-Tech version

Mega-Tech,

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 2055825f MD5 2cf4d65cb09c276a96ad73e724fb825c SHA-1 a768f44ce7e50083ffe8c4b5e3ac93ceb7bd3266	128kB		Cartridge