How to play RealSports Football online
- Player 1 (blue team): arrow keys to call plays and run, Space bar for the button
- Player 2 (yellow team): T/F/G/H to call plays and run, A for the button
- One or two players: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Player speed handicap: F4 and F9 (the difficulty switches)
Gameplay
A game is a single 15-minute quarter on a 100-yard field. The rules are simplified: there are no kickoffs, fumbles, penalties or time-outs, and nobody can run out of bounds. The clock runs during plays and stops after incomplete passes, scores, turnovers and while the offence calls its play. In the one-player game you are the blue team and the computer picks its own plays.
Before each snap you choose a play with the joystick. On offence, the diagonals give short and long passes to the left or right, left and right give a run, and the button sets up a kick. Press the button again to snap, and once more to pass or kick. After a pass leaves the screen, control jumps to the receiver so you can steer him under the ball. There is only one eligible receiver per play, and you can’t throw over a defender’s head.
On defence you choose between four pass coverages (short left, short right, short with both safeties, long with both safeties) or press the button to blitz, which sends the safeties after the quarterback and leaves you alone in coverage. Punts and field goals are the same play: if the kick goes through the posts it counts as a field goal, otherwise it is a punt with no return.
| Score | Points |
|---|---|
| Touchdown (includes the extra point) | 7 |
| Field goal | 3 |
| Safety | 2 |
The difficulty switches set running speed: in position A your controlled player runs half as fast as in position B. The manual recommends B for everyone and A as a handicap for the stronger of two players.
Tips
- Call diagonal plays carefully. Push straight up or down first, then slide into the diagonal, so you don’t call a run by mistake.
- Roll out towards your receiver. Moving the quarterback to the side where the pattern runs often helps. A defender standing in the ball’s path will block or intercept the pass.
- Steer the receiver. While the ball is in the air you control him, so adjust his path to meet it.
- Kick from close range. Field goals are likely from inside the 20 and unlikely beyond the 40.
- Get a head start when running. The defender you face is slightly faster than the ball carrier, so use your blockers to hold him up at the line.
The story behind RealSports Football
RealSports Football came out in December 1982, alongside a separate Atari 5200 game by Jim Huether that was later brought to the Atari 8-bit computers. According to Zdybel, Atari asked for all 22 players on screen, which he said the 2600 could not do if the players were to move. The finished game uses five a side. AtariProtos preserves an early demo called “Red vs. Blue” that showed animated players running on the spot. The game received a Certificate of Merit for Best Sports Videogame at the 1984 Arkie Awards and was re-released on AtGames’ Flashback Portable in 2018.
Similar games to play next
- Football – Atari’s earlier, two-player-only football cartridge
- Super Challenge Football – M Network’s rival gridiron game
- RealSports Baseball – the RealSports treatment for baseball
- RealSports Soccer – the series’ take on soccer
- RealSports Basketball – an unreleased entry in the same series