For the kids of the 80s the first approach to videogames took place in the arcade. Within a few years, Italian cities were filled with these commercial establishments where many children, both at school and in the afternoon, gathered to play. Being a country of football fans, among the most popular video games there were certainly football ones. Over time many families decided to buy a computer, so children and adolescents instead of going to the arcade, not always safe places, stayed at home to play with consoles such as the Commodore 64, Amiga 500, Atari 1040, Sega Master System, Nintendo etc. . The list would be very long …
The first football video game that comes to mind is Mexico ’86. I still remember today when between the end of the eighties and the early nineties I went with friends to the games room to challenge them, with the token that cost 150 lire. Italy wore the yellow jersey and to make the lob there was the pedal. Hours and hours spent around that cabin lookig at each other football results.
Two other games that I remember with pleasure are Kick Off and Microprose Soccer. Those tournaments at the Amiga 500 are unforgettable, the floppy disk loaded and the magic began!
I have vague memories, having played a few times, of World Cup Italia ’90, a Sega Master System game dedicated to the 1990 World Cup. With Amiga and Atari 1040 I also had the opportunity to try Peter Beardsley’s International Football, a videogame dedicated to the 1988 European championships. .
The videogame that perhaps more than any other marked the generation of those born between the end of the seventies and the first eighties is definitely Sensibile Soccer. The game is not exceptional from a graphic point of view, but exciting because we were finally able to read all the teams from Serie A, Serie B, and the national teams. We finally had the opportunity to play transfer market and bring our favorite team to the final of the European Cup. Indelible memories!
Then came the epic of Fifa games, but here we were already grown-ups, perhaps the most beautiful of the nineties was Fifa ’98. Also worth mentioning are Super Nintendo’s Virtual Striker and International Super Star Soccer Deluxe, the latter considered by many fans of the genre to be the best football videogame of all time.
Obviously the names of videogames dedicated to football in that period are innumerable, I wrote the ones I played with a certain continuity during my childhood and adolescence. I have certainly forgotten someone, so if you have any suggestions for me, I will gladly listen to you.
From the famous and long-running EA Sports series we choose only one title. And of course let’s take FIFA 98, the one that most stimulated our hunger and thirst for delinquency. The most beautiful chapter, the one in which we could give vent to our worst instincts by hitting hard the keys of our keyboard or those of our joypad. The one in which we could drag a dirty, putrid and impudent national team up to the victory of the 1998 World Cup in France.
They may also have made the most beautiful graphics, made the game realistic and simulated all the great: but the emotions that FIFA ’98 gave us no other game has given us anymore.
