Madden Marks 20 Years of Gridiron Gaming
Tom Rock - Newsday
Jun 30, 2008
Shaun Alexander already was one of the most accomplished players in the NFL. He'd led the league in rushing and touchdowns, been named MVP, gone to three Pro Bowls and played a big part in the Seahawks' roll to Super Bowl XL. But that wasn't enough to impress some people.
Getting his picture on the cover of a 5-by-7-inch box was, though.
"My 13-year-old cousin comes up to me and says, 'Man, you must be pretty good,'" Alexander recalled while discussing his selection as the cover boy of Madden NFL 07.
That's one example of how the video game -- EA Sports' Madden NFL, celebrating the release of its 20th edition this summer -- has in some ways matched and in some circles even surpassed the popularity of the real-life game.
For two decades fans have been able to experience a sliver of life on an NFL field, wearing an NFL headset or working in an NFL front office. From meager beginnings, with digital blobs awkwardly scooting across a playing surface colored with the uniform green of a pool table, to the most recent edition, in which the rippling muscles of tangled linemen can be discerned and the blades of grass wave in the breeze, Madden has established itself not only as the grandfather of sports video games but the Godfather. More than 70 million copies of the game have been sold. And it isn't only fans who play. "Every day," Alexander said when asked how often the game is played in an NFL locker room.
"I think it's brought more of a camaraderie," Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, the 2005 cover athlete, said of the impact that the video game has had on NFL players. "It keeps a lot of the guys together. You don't realize how much time you spend together until you start playing that Madden game and you've played two games and five hours have gone by."
Serious stakes
But don't think they play for funzies. Not even for simple bragging rights. There are some serious stakes when NFL players and their competitive natures step onto the virtual gridiron.
Quarterback Daunte Culpepper admitted he'd lost a number of mortgage payments on the game but said he'd won a few as well. And former running back Marshall Faulk recalled playing against a rookie free agent one year and losing. Faulk had to give the young player the keys to his Bentley for a week.
By all rights, this year should unveil the 22nd version of Madden. It was scheduled for release in 1987, but as a seven-on-seven game. When EA Sports approached John Madden for not only his name recognition but his input, the former Raiders coach sent them back to the digital drawing board.
"It had to be 11-on-11, it had to be real," Madden said. "I would not put my name on this game if it wasn't real."
It took two years of redevelopment to create the first 11-on-11 video football game. In 1989, John Madden Football debuted for Apple II computers and sold more copies than any other sports game at the time. But despite the immediate popularity, the prevailing wisdom at EA and from retailers was against a sequel.
Producer Rich Hilleman and EA CCO Bing Gordon decided that sports games, and football in particular, needed annual updates in statistics and rosters. "We wanted to prove that statistical validity was very important to our new way of doing sports games as simulations," Gordon said.
The following year, "John Madden Football" was released for Sega Genesis. The new system allowed the look and feel of the game to be altered with isometric views and 3-D playing fields.
It's still the authenticity that sets Madden apart. Phil Frazier, the executive producer of the forthcoming Madden 09, said he and his team spoke not only with dozens of players and head coaches but with coordinators, general managers and even agents.
"It's really about learning the stuff that we don't get to see as fans of the game," Frazier said. "When we talk to a GM, we like to talk about the nuances of trading, of the free-agency shenanigans. It's very complicated."
Sticking with the original sequel concept of updated information, this year's game also will feature the ability to update rosters online. Frazier said they had to lock their rosters about two weeks ago, so when the game hits shelves Aug. 12, Michael Strahan still will be playing for the Giants and Cedric Benson still will be a running back for the Bears. But, by connecting the game system to the Internet, gamers can get up-to-date rosters immediately. Those rosters will be updated every two weeks throughout the season, too, so if a player goes on injured reserve or a team picks up a free agent, it will be reflected in the game.
Madden 09 also features something called an Adaptive Difficulty Engine, which has been dubbed the Madden IQ. It senses the football savvy of gamers and adjusts the game accordingly. Someone with limited knowledge of how football is played will be given fewer choices and fewer maneuvers to make. An advanced player will be given more free range.
Raising football IQ
The game play is remarkable and new maneuvers and camera angles are always popping up. But what makes Madden different from other sports video games is the playbook. No other game allows its participants to call the play and then execute it. It's brought an increased knowledge to football fans of all ages.
"My 13-year-old knows more than I did at that age about 4-3, 3-4 defenses, Cover-2, Cover-3," said Faulk, now an NFL Network commentator. "They know what man [coverage] is, what robber is. They play the game so much, they understand what different schemes are and what people are using."
Faulk said his son is so advanced that last year he went to a game in which the other team kept throwing the ball with success. "He's like, 'I don't know why we don't just run Cover-2, Dad,'" Faulk said, chuckling. "I'm like, well, because you're 12 and everybody just gets a man."
Even NFL players who have their noses buried in actual NFL playbooks are impressed by the depth and diversity of the Madden playbooks. Lewis, who will be playing for a new head coach in Baltimore this season, joked that he played the 09 game as the Ravens so he could get an idea of the kind of plays his actual team might be running this year.
Surprisingly, most NFL players don't play as themselves. The ability to select a random team is a popular feature in locker rooms. But the first thing a player usually does, according to Frazier, is go to the roster and check out their ratings. "The second thing they'll do is call us and complain that they're not quite fast enough," Frazier said.
EA Sports is now hard at work on Madden 2010, which undoubtedly will be unveiled next summer. It's a year-long process, Frazier said, of developing technology and paying attention to any changes in the actual game of football.
"Games like Grand Theft Auto, they can have a bad year and they may lose some of their luster," Frazier said. "Madden hasn't had that, and we have to do that every single year, not every three years."
Soon, in the next year or so, the game will begin to include NFL players who are younger than the franchise itself. For 20 years now, it's been bringing NFL football to people who otherwise wouldn't get to experience it, along with those who know what it's like to play in front of thousands of fans on Sundays in the fall. It's taken the X's and O's of football and added triangles and squares. And it's creeping closer and closer to that coveted realism every year.
"It's everything in the NFL," Faulk said, "minus the soreness."
Well, except for those poor, overworked thumbs.
Significant Moments in The History of Madden NFL Football
1989 -- "John Madden Football" debuts for Apple II computers, the first ever 11-on-11 football video game.
1990 -- "John Madden Football," a sequel with the same name, is made for Sega Genesis systems and features isometric views and 3-D playing fields.
1991 -- New play-calling and passing modes make the game even more realistic.
1992 -- Players can be injured in the game; an ambulance comes out to remove the hurt players.
1993 -- The addition of all-time greats allows for more teams while the player ratings further add to the realism of the game.
1994 -- EA acquires the NFL license, allowing the use of team names and logos. Players can play the same schedule as their favorite NFL team with the debut of Season mode.
1995 -- The NFLPA licenses the game, allowing the names of players to be used.
1996 -- Training Camp mode allows gamers to create a player and develop him into a star.
1999 -- Franchise mode is added with a salary cap, giving gamers the chance to run an entire organization.
2001 -- Eddie George is the first NFL player to appear on the cover in the United States (Garrison Hearst and Dorsey Levens were on European versions); the PlayStation2 allows designers to create faces more similar to real-life players and coaches.
2003 -- Madden goes online, allowing gamers from around the world to compete with each other.
2005 -- The Hit Stick is added along with defensive playmaker controls, changing how defense is played. Ray Lewis becomes the first and only defensive player to appear on the cover.
2007 -- Madden Hall of Fame Edition is released and includes clips of Madden from his coaching days as well as his most popular calls from the broadcast booth.
2008 -- Hit Stick 2.0 is introduced and gives players more tackling options. A Spanish-language version is released.
2009 -- Brett Favre is on the cover of the 20th anniversary edition of the game. A special collector's edition features "NFL Head Coach 09" as well as classic Madden NFL game play.
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