The Evolution of Madden | Thoughts From the Mind of a Cheezhead

Just so everyone knows, most of the information I'm using for this blog comes from here (it has pics of all the games plus some info on it, you might want to check it out).

Madden Football started wayyyyyy back in 1989. It was a '89-'90 title. The cover, well, I really couldn't tell you that it was John Madden on the cover. It was out for Sega (which I know mostly for having Sonic the Hedgehog, very cool game from back in the day). This, unbelievably in '89 (but now unbelievable that it was unbelievable back then) was the first ever football game to use a real 11 on 11 football game.

Madden 1991 still (as you probably expect) wasn't that impressive for today's standards. Still for Sega, it initiated the 3D-playing surface, and brought out a passing system.

The '92 title was still developing what is now considered basic parts of a Madden NFL football game. They added weather conditions, instant replays, and injured players getting picked up by ambulances.

1993: a lot of FN users are born around here, give or take a few years. This game added some additions such as player taunting and a no-huddle offense. Not really anything big in today's world.

1994 was the year that Madden started to break through in my mind. Why? Well because even though they were around since 1989, this game was the first Madden title that had an NFL lisence. The first ever Madden game where the Packers and Vikings were a team and you could see the Bears logo.

More hurdles were cleared in the next year's game. This was the first Madden game to ever use actual NFL players. The first year John Elway was John Elway. The 1995 game was probably a really high point in football games then, but this is still what we would call basic stuff.

So, Madden 96 rolls along in. What can possibly be better than last year's game? How about Tiburon taking over and a brand new Create-a-Player feature? Now you really want to get Madden!

'97 couldn't possibly be better than '96's game, right? Wrong. There are now high-resolution graphics and a salary cap when you customize rosters (ugh, I wanted to make a super-team!). Oh, and this year the game is sold on the Playstation, not just Sega.

Now it's the 10th year since Madden came along in the video gaming industry. This is the earliest Madden game I've ever had. Too bad I sold it; the entrance video is the Packers winning the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots. Anyway, this game is on the Nintendo 64 now, and it was today's AI.

1999: 10 years ago from the title being released soon. This is the earliest game I still have. That's right; it's the year of the Cyber Athlete at EA Sports. Which is when they make things more realistic (but still cheesey when you play it today). And what else? There's franchise mode!

2000 is the start of a new millenium and the last year John Madden has his face on the cover of his game. This game brings to the table new player celebrations and a bigger playbood.

Like I said, the link above is where most of the information I got this comes from, credit goes to them.

I'm running out of time so I'll do the 2001-2008 issues in another blog.

Thanks for reading.