Football Fanatic, any news or any finds regarding this game?

[high voltage]

 

It does sound very weird/interesting. Is there any game play or just a stats simulator?

Edited October 14, 2019 by high voltage

[+cvga]

I've seen another thread on this somewhere. If I recall, it's a trivia game where you read the questions out of a book and submit answers via the Atari.

[Rom Hunter]

http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-football-fanatic_34564.html

[King Atari]

So if the game was (as per that link) never released, was that ad just something that was proposed but never actually ran anywhere? It sure looks like it came from an actual newspaper, and with all the info provided, it certainly sounds like the game was 'ready to go'. So did it run and they were just REALLY jumping the gun?

Edited October 15, 2019 by King Atari

[Foxsolo2000]

3 hours ago, King Atari said:

So if the game was (as per that link) never released, was that ad just something that was proposed but never actually ran anywhere? It sure looks like it came from an actual newspaper, and with all the info provided, it certainly sounds like the game was 'ready to go'. So did it run and they were just REALLY jumping the gun?

Well Madden Football had a video ad for the game which many believe was never finished so this one was probably the same, an attempt to drum up enough interest to self fund it.  Just a theory.

[King Atari]

5 hours ago, Foxsolo2000 said:

Well Madden Football had a video ad for the game which many believe was never finished so this one was probably the same, an attempt to drum up enough interest to self fund it.  Just a theory.

 

I get that, and we're certainly all aware of various games being advertised and then never released. This instance just struck me as particularly odd; a bigger company releasing an ad featuring some vaporware coupled with actual releases is one thing, but in this case, it's a small company, pitching one game, and with all the pertinent ordering info (including a phone number for charges) included up front. Just seems that if the game was indeed never released, they put the cart way, way before the horse here.

[high voltage]

So it would've been a cartridge and booklets, if I read this right.

Still, I wonder if maybe one person owns the cartridge/a cartridge of this game?

It could happen....

Edited October 16, 2019 by high voltage

[Nukey Shay]

Could be...but without the associated booklet(s), the thing would be impossible to play anyway.  It sounds like a pretty simple kernel to display a gridiron with just 2 sprites (representing each player's progress).  Given that each question is just a number to look up and the correct answer would be a single byte, the game could have had quite a lot of trivia covered even in 4k.  Even the game code itself would require no changes when being used for alternate teams.

 

The obvious flaw is that nobody wants to fudge around with booklets for a video trivia game.  It could be better self-contained within the booklet.

 

A victim of it's own over-planning.

[+Atari_Warlord]

 

[Foxsolo2000]

So is it confirmed that one copy existed?

 

[Nukey Shay]

Nespola and Kirsch searched for it to share with the community, so something did.  Whether the programmer finished it before they abandoned the project may be a different question.

 

The "after many moves" line does not spark confidence that it still exists, tho.

[+Atari_Warlord]

1 hour ago, Nukey Shay said:

Nespola and Kirsch searched for it to share with the community, so something did.  Whether the programmer finished it before they abandoned the project may be a different question.

 

The "after many moves" line does not spark confidence that it still exists, tho.

 They couldn't remember who the programmer was, but I would guess there is still a copy somewhere.  I keep in touch with him and still hope something will turn up.