How to play Super Challenge Football online
There is no computer opponent, so you need two players.
- Player 1 joystick: arrow keys, fire button = Space
- Player 2 joystick: T, F, G and H (up, left, down, right), fire button = A
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Save and load a game: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
Each team has five men: four linemen and a quarterback on offence, four linemen and a linebacker on defence. The team with the flashing ball has possession. The field is a full 100 yards and scrolls as play moves along it. Each of the four simulated 15-minute quarters starts on the 20-yard line. There is no kicking and no out of bounds. A touchdown counts 7 points, because the extra point is automatic, and a safety counts 2.
Before each snap, both players program their four linemen one after another. A lineman faces his own quarterback or linebacker until he has his orders, then turns to face the other team.
- Offence: press fire without moving the stick to make a lineman the real pass receiver (choose only one). Push up or down to block in that direction, push towards your quarterback to block straight ahead, or push towards the other team to send him out as a decoy receiver.
- Defence: push up or down to rush that way and then go for the quarterback, push towards the other team to take on your man head-on and then rush, or push towards your linebacker to cover your man if he goes out for a pass.
When everyone is set, the offence presses fire to hike. The linemen then carry out their orders, while each player steers the quarterback or the linebacker. To pass, press fire; once the ball is in the air, your joystick steers the receiver so you can run him under it. Interceptions and incomplete passes are both possible.
Tips
- Use the wrap-around. On defence, running off one end of the field brings the linebacker back at the other end, which can put him in front of a quarterback who has got past him.
- Open a hole. Send some linemen blocking up and others blocking down, then run the quarterback through the gap between them.
- Fake the pass. Send several linemen out as decoys. Only one is the real receiver, so the defence has to guess whom to cover.
History
The Intellivision original, NFL Football, came out in 1980 and is often cited as the first football video game with a playbook. When Mattel began releasing games for the Atari 2600 through M Network, this football game appeared in July 1982, the same month as Super Challenge Baseball. Telegames later reissued the cartridge, and it is one of the M Network games in the Atari 50 collection. Modern reviewers have found it more realistic than Atari’s own early football games, although the lack of a one-player mode limits it.
Similar games to play next
- Super Challenge Baseball – M Network’s companion baseball game, also for two players
- Football – Atari’s own early football cartridge
- RealSports Football – Atari’s 1982 answer to the Mattel sports games
- Super Football – Atari’s late-era football game from 1989
- International Soccer – another M Network sports conversion