On an Amtrak train from Denver to Oakland on a cloudy day in 1984, founder of Electronic Arts, Trip Hawkins, and game producer Joe Ybarra met with former Super Bowl-winning coach and now broadcaster and sports commentator John Madden. Madden had agreed to lend his name and football expertise to a computer football simulation game dreamt up by Hawkins. The game was already in development and Hawkins had been searching near and wide for a credible person to endorse it.

The dream of a football simulation game had been with Trip Hawkins since his teen years. As a kid, he played wingback on a Flag Football squad and was an avid football fan. When a teenager, he fell in love with the newly introduced Strat-O-Matic Football, a statistically-based tabletop paper and pen board game simulating the play of American football. The game inspired him and during his high school years, he started his first business trying to create his own take on Strat-O-Matic. His next-door neighbor in La Jolla, California, was former AFL president Milt Woodard, who encouraged Hawkins to send a proposal to Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt. While Hunt wasn’t interested, Hawkins borrowed $5,000 from his father, ordered the needed parts, and set up an assembly line in his family’s living room. His intricate football simulation dubbed Accu-Stat Pro Football was advertised in NFL game programs but ultimately failed when it hit the market in 1972-73. Hawkins realized his creation was too difficult with players having to crunch too many numbers, taking out the fun.

The vision for a football simulation game persisted when Hawkins enrolled at Harvard University. Here he discovered the school’s DEC PDP-11 minicomputer computer, a system spanning multiple rooms. Using the PDP-11, he developed his first digital football simulator, using the computer to manage the intricate mathematical aspects of the game that earlier had negatively affected the accessibility and enjoyment of his tabletop game. His simulation predicted that the Miami Dolphins would defeat the Minnesota Vikings 23–6 in the 1974 Super Bowl, extremely close to the actual result of 24–7.

During his time at Havard, Hawkins ended up designing his own undergraduate major in Strategy and Applied Game Theory. While his work was done on an expensive minicomputer, he knew that it was only a matter of time before computers, affordable and turnkey moved into people’s homes. In the summer of 1975, he foresaw that it would take seven years for computers to advance sufficiently and become widespread enough among consumers to support a gaming business – he was right.

Following Harvard, Hawkins earned his MBA at Stanford University in 1978 and the same year joined Apple Computer as employee number 68. With big ambitions, he earned the nickname junior Steve Jobs, codified the company’s unique, oft-imitated startup culture, and became Director of Strategy and Marketing. He led the company’s planning and execution in the office desktop market and helped grow the company to a Fortune 500 leader with 4,000 employees. He made millions in stock options and cashed out in 1982. The time was now right, as predicted, to follow his dream of creating a game company where software would be heralded as a new art form. Electronic Arts was a reality, founded out of his own pockets.

The failed attempt at a tabletop football simulation game during Hawkins’ high school years was about to rise from the ashes, this time in bits and bytes, as an amendment to how far he had come. As development began, his company took off and various other projects were undertaken, produced, and published. The first shipped games were presented in stylish album jackets celebrating both artists and designers as rockstars. A marked departure from the anonymous unacknowledged individuals coding Atari 2600 cartridges, making Atari millions. Hawkins had been to Los Angeles and studied at the feet of recording mogul Jerry Moss. Learning the importance of acknowledging the creators and making impactful marketing for an ever-evolving market.

Hawkins’ football simulation needed someone to not only give invaluable insight into the sport and its intricate strategies but also someone with a popular and credible face for marketing. San Francisco 49ers‘ legendary quarterback Joe Montana, Hawkins’ hero and first pick, was already tied to conglomerate Atari for a competing game. The second pick, former Vikings and New England Patriots quarterback and newly inserted coach at the University of California, Berkeley, Joe Kapp wanted royalties that his young company couldn’t provide.

Now winding through the majestic Rocky Mountains on the way to California with Ybarra and Madden, Hawkins made his pitch, the same he had delivered in the parking lot outside Madden’s Bay Area office months ago. Madden was intrigued but knew nothing about computers or games for that matter. He figured if Hawkins had made up his own major in computer games at Harvard and later worked for Apple Computer, the first computer company in history to do a billion dollars in revenue, he must be a true computer genius.

Madden was a former football player. Born in 1936, in Austin, Minnesota, he played college football at California Polytechnic State University and later joined the National Football League, NFL, as a draft pick for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1958. Unfortunately, his playing career was cut short due to a knee injury, leading him to shift his focus to coaching. As the head coach of the Oakland Raiders, he won the Super Bowl XI in 1977. His coaching style was known for its intensity and passion, and he became one of the most successful coaches in NFL history.

After retiring from coaching, Madden transitioned to a career in broadcasting where he became a popular and highly regarded NFL commentator, working for various networks. His charismatic persona and insightful commentary promoted his status in the football world. When Hawkins approached Madden with the vision of creating a realistic football simulation game, Madden liked the idea and considered its possibilities as a coaching and teaching tool but was somewhat hesitant as he was not familiar with video games and was concerned about the potential impact on his image. The game’s success, or failure would be forever tied to his name. Hawkins was persistent, this was his third attempt at finding an endorser, and managed to convince Madden of the project’s potential.

Due to the limited processing power in home computers, Hawkins had been working with the idea of seven-on-seven football, rather than the 11-on-11 used in the NFL. Technical limitations or not, Madden was not having it, if his name was to be on the game, it had to be pro football, real football with 22 guys on the screen, Hawkins somewhat reluctantly agreed.
Madden lent his expertise to the game’s development, providing input on the gameplay and ensuring its authenticity by insisting on a realistic and strategic approach to football in the game. He wanted the game to reflect the intricacies of the sport, including the strategies, plays, and overall experience of coaching and playing football.

The game had been in development since 1982 and the aging Apple II was already operating at its capacity. In 1984, Madden’s involvement heightened the pressure on designer and programmer Robin Antonick. Compounded by the need to fulfill Madden’s many specific requests and visions for the game set within the constraints of an aging computer system with limited processing power, memory, and disk storage, added to the challenge with the biggest hurdle being Madden’s insistence on teams with 11 players each. Development extended for an additional three years, nearly three times longer than the average game during the era. The lengthy development time eventually led Madden to believe that the project had been canceled and within Electronic Arts, the John Madden Football project earned the moniker Trip’s Folly.

In 1986, Electronic Arts enlisted the assistance of Bethesda Softworks to help complete the game but complications arose due to legal issues related to Bethesda’s own football game, Gridiron! A deal was made wherein the John Madden team could utilize Bethesda’s advanced real-time physics engine, developed by founder Christopher Weaver, contingent upon Gridiron! being published by Electronic Arts. The intention behind Electronic Arts’ involvement, whether solely for technology acquisition, remains unclear. Nevertheless, Electronic Arts withdrew from the publishing agreement but continued to utilize the engine. Subsequently, a lawsuit ensued, with Bethesda filing a claim for $7.3 million in compensation, impeding the development further.
The impact of bringing in Bethesda remains uncertain in terms of whether it hindered or benefited the overall project. Ultimately, despite the challenges, Ybarra and his team successfully completed the game in 1988 with the help of San Francisco Chronicle writer Frank Cooney, who had designed his own figurine-based football game using numerical skill ratings and a copy of the 1980 Raiders playbook.

The first installment of John Madden Football was released on June 1st, 1988 for the now-aging Apple II.
The idea of a computerized football game had been dreamt up by Hawkins and development had started back in 1982.
In 1984 John Madden joined the project and it would take another three years before the game was completed.
John Madden Football was groundbreaking at the time for its realistic representation of football gameplay as it focused on strategic elements such as playcalling, team management, and player performance.

An NFLPA Players Disk was released for the IBM PC, Apple II, and Commodore 64 in 1989.
The disk contained 1987/88 NFLPA Player teams, along with 86 3-4 defensive plays and 22 custom offensive plays.
A 1989 Player Disk was released in 1990.

John Madden had insisted on 11 players on each team, just like in the NFL, pushing the aging Apple II system to its limits.
The game looked and played exceptionally well for an Apple II game but at the time of release, newer and more capable platforms, like the IBM PC and Commodore 64 had taken over the consumer market.

John Madden Football was well-received for its attention to detail. The emphasis on football statistics, numerical data, strategic elements, and sophisticated playbook design did not necessarily cater to the mainstream consumer but appealed to enthusiasts of the sport who could appreciate its intricacies. By the time the game finally was ready for prime time, several other successful football games were already in the hands of consumers. While none of the competing games featured the realism of Electronic Arts creation, they had something to their benefit, a more accessible and enjoyable approach to the gameplay.

While not achieving blockbuster sales figures, John Madden Football successfully carved out a niche among consumers on the aging Apple II platform, and ports to the IBM PC and Commodore 64 were Subsequently introduced the following year. While maintaining the original play design, the newer and more capable systems offered an improved gameplay experience.

John Madden Football was ported to the IBM PC and Commodore 64 and released in 1989.
Some IBM PC releases included the 1987/88 NFLPA Player Disk with later releases also including the 1989 Player Disk (released in 1990.)

The IBM PC release from 1989 played much faster than the Apple II version, allowing for a better gameplay experience while keeping the original play design.

In the Autumn of 1989, Electronic Arts held its initial public offering. Hawkins offered Madden to buy as much stock as he wanted at the initial price of $7.50 per share. Madden declined saying, “Hell, I’m just a football coach… I gave you my time. I’m not giving you my money.” In the 10 years that followed, the value per share 10 folded. Madden later stated that this was one of his biggest mistakes.

Although the combined sales figures for the different John Madden Football versions weren’t astronomical the game successfully cultivated a dedicated following. Hawkins had remained staunchly anti-console throughout the ’80s but started to amend his stance in the latter part of the decade. He still didn’t like the idea of doing business with Nintendo and its strict licensing policies, but he was intrigued with competitor Sega, who now boasted a technologically superior 16-bit system, the Sega Genesis.

Glimpsing opportunities but unwilling to pay licensing fees, Hawkins assembled a team to reverse engineer the system, allowing his company to produce unlicensed games for it. He eventually revealed his intentions to Sega and offered a partnership to combat Nintendo. Sega, afraid of Hawkins selling the research to other third-party companies, agreed and made Electronic Arts a partner.

Hawkins commissioned Antonick to begin building a version for the Sega Genesis all while enlisting Park Place Productions, for $100,000, to develop a faster and more arcade-oriented version of American Football. In contrast to Electronic Arts’ prior emphasis on realism, the different approach of the Park Place venture, prioritizing fun and arcade-style action would come to have adverse consequences for Antonick. The Park Place development team comprised largely of former Cinemaware developers, many of whom had previously collaborated on TV Sports: Football, a game that had been competing with John Madden Football and had shown the potential of easy approachable fast-paced gameplay.

With Park Place Productions’ game showing potential to become a hit, Electronic Arts decided to scrap Antonick’s Sega Genesis version of John Madden Football. Instead of writing off Madden’s hefty prepaid royalties, it was decided to put his name on the Park Place project instead. And so, for purely financial reasons, the project that Electronic Arts had Park Place develop as its anti-Madden football game wound up becoming the foundation of Madden NFL as we know it today.

When Park Place Sega Genesis version was released in 1990 featuring a polished aesthetic and an entirely revamped gameplay style, the game quickly grew into a massive success. In anticipation of selling 75,000 copies, significantly surpassing any previous home computer version, Electronic Arts had agreed to increase Madden’s royalty rate.
The Genesis version exceeded all expectations and sold 400,000 copies, greatly boosting the popularity of Sega’s new 16-bit console. Subsequent iterations of the game continued to improve and refine the formula, expanding the audience and firmly establishing the franchise’s position in the gaming market.

John Madden Football transitioned into the Madden NFL series with the desire to reflect the current NFL seasons. The name change began with the release of John Madden Football ’92, signaling a shift toward annual releases that would coincide with the NFL season. The change allowed the game to stay current with player rosters, team statistics, and other real-world developments in the NFL.

The Madden NFL series gained a massive fan base and became a commercial juggernaut, with each new installment consistently ranking among the top-selling video games annually. The combination of realistic gameplay, strategic depth, and the endorsement of one of the most respected figures in football, John Madden, all contributed to the series’ widespread popularity. The Madden NFL series is now an integral part of the sports gaming landscape and in its first 30 years, the franchise has sold more than 130 million copies and generated more than $4 billion in gross sales. In 2005, Madden signed a $150 million deal securing EA Sports to use his name in perpetuity.
Madden was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2006. In 2009 he retired as a broadcaster but would continue to lend his expertise and creative input to the Madden NFL series.

In 2011, Antonick sued Electronic Arts for allegedly breaching a development contract he had signed in 1986 that entitled him to royalties on derivatives of the original Apple II version. In 2013 a California federal judge found Antonick’s case presented adequate evidence and awarded him with a $11 million verdict. A few months later the judge then entered into a judgment as a matter of law. This conclusion favored EA and the court found that a reasonable juror could not come to a decision that the source code of the Sega Genesis Madden games infringed on the source code for the original Apple II version. As such there was not sufficient evidence to support the case in Antonick’s favor.

On a Tuesday morning in December of 2021, John Madden unexpectedly passed away at the age of 85. The EA Sports series would continue to use his name, iconography, and license and announced that all editions of Madden NFL 23 would pay tribute to Madden’s legacy by featuring him on the cover. The cover for the next-gen version would showcase a picture of Madden celebrating his victory as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders in the 1977 Super Bowl XI, while the All Madden Edition cover would be based on the iconic design of the first installment from 1988.

Sources: Wikipedia, NY Times, ESPN, USA Today, SB Nation, Stanford Magazine, Read-only Memory…