Atari Football II

An old black and white American football game where the player characters are represented as X’s and O’s. Players select either offensive or defensive plays and then control one of the characters on each team by rolling a trackball
Atari Football was released in October 1978.

Two versions were released; this 2-Player model and another for 4 players as “Atari Football [4-Player model]”.

Atari Football was first created in 1974 by Steve Bristow and originally called ‘X’s and O’s’. It was shelved when Bristow started on “Tank”, then resurrected 3 years later. This game was the first true video sports game and also the first Atari game to utilize a trackball controller.

The large trackball used by this game is the same one used by “Atari Baseball”, “Atari Basketball”, and “Atari Soccer”, as well as the Upright and Cockpit versions of “Missile Command”.

Approximately 14,000 ‘2-player’ versions were produced.

An Atari Football unit appears in the 1980 movie ‘Midnight Madness’, and 2 Atari Football units (2 and 4 players) appear in the 1982 movie ‘Tron’.

An Atari Football machine was shown at the 2003 classic arcade games show ‘California Extreme’ in San Jose, California.