Software:Madden NFL '96

From HandWiki
Short description: 1995 American football video game
Madden NFL '96
Developer(s)Tiburon Entertainment
High Score Productions
Publisher(s)EA Sports
Composer(s)Tommy Tallarico
SeriesMadden NFL
Platform(s)Genesis, Super NES, Game Boy, Game Gear, DOS
Release
  • NA: November 10, 1995
  • EU: November 30, 1995[1]
1996 (Game Gear, DOS)
Genre(s)Sports
Mode(s)Single player, multiplayer

Madden NFL '96 is a football video game designed for the 1995 NFL season, licensed by the NFL. Publisher Electronic Arts intended for it to be the first licensed NFL game for the PlayStation, but the PlayStation version was delayed and ultimately cancelled, with the game being published only for previous-generation consoles, PCs, and handhelds. Compared to previous Madden NFL games, the AI has been boosted and can now hurry in two-minute drill situations, spike the ball, and cover the receivers with better efficiency. In addition to the 16-bit console and portable versions, a DOS version was also released under the title of Madden NFL Football: Limited Edition in 1996.[2]

The game was well-received by critics, with the improved A.I. garnering the most praise. It was the last to explicitly be endorsed by the NFL on Fox, although a knock-off/rendition of the NFL on Fox theme would continue to be used in Madden for several years afterward.

Gameplay

The Create a Player feature is added, which includes position-specific mini-games that determine the ability of the player.

The game is the first in the Madden series to include secret "classic" teams. Each time a player wins Super Bowl XXX, the victory screen reveals a code for the winning team, such as BYBYLA for the recently relocated Oakland Raiders. Having both debuted in 1995, the Jacksonville Jaguars unlock an All-Madden super squad, and the Carolina Panthers unlock a playable NFLPA team made up of free agents and user created players. Each of the established 28 teams unlock the lineup from their historical best season, ranging from the 1960 Philadelphia Eagles to the 1986 New York Giants. The classic teams have golden logos, historical stadiums, but the rosters consist of jersey numbers only, no names.

PlayStation version

Madden '96, developed by Visual Concepts, was originally planned to be the first NFL game on the PlayStation shortly after the console's launch in 1995.[3] The programmers based the code on the 3DO game John Madden Football, rather than the Genesis Madden NFL games, because John Madden Football was written in C, the default programming language of the PlayStation.[4] Features were to include customizable playbooks, penalties, weather conditions, and playing surfaces, and commentary from John Madden, Pat Summerall, James Brown, and Lesley Visser.[5] But after several delays, the game was canceled because it did not meet EA's quality assurance standards.[6][7][8]

Though EA announced a delay from the fourth quarter of 1995 to the third quarter of 1996 for the game's release,[9] executive producer Scott Orr says he made the final decision to cancel the PlayStation version because it had become clear that it would not be ready in time for the 1995 Christmas shopping season. He judged that Christmas was crucial enough to football video games that Madden NFL '96 would have no chance in the market if it missed the season.[10] Reasons the development team were not able to make the original deadline included a lack of familiarity with the PlayStation hardware, initially mediocre technical support from Sony, and the short time frame allowed for development (8-9 months).[4][10] A member of the PlayStation version's development team, speaking under condition of anonymity, commented, "Part of the problem was that we were trying to do too many new things for the first time. We'd never done a 3D game before. We'd just purchased our first copy of Alias. We'd never done a CD product before. We'd never programmed in C before."[4]

The cancellation of the PlayStation version was seen as a major blow to the Madden NFL series right as it was being confronted by the first serious challenger to its dominance in years, the NFL GameDay series. Nonetheless Bing Gordon, executive vice president of marketing for Electronic Arts, said cancelling the game rather than shipping a product EA could not be proud of was the right decision, and argued that decision was vindicated by the massive success of Madden NFL 97.[4]

The video sequences starring Madden and Summerall were repurposed for Madden NFL 97.[10] Visual Concepts would go on to make the NFL 2K series of games.

Years after the PlayStation version's cancellation, a playable early development build of the game leaked onto the internet.[10]

Reception

The two sports reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the Genesis version scores of 9.5 and 9.0 out of 10, stating that "EA listened to players and has come up with the best 16-bit football game ever made." They praised the "hard as hell" AI and the addition of speed bursts.[11] A reviewer for Next Generation deemed it "a definite improvement from last year's poor effort", citing the more solid player graphics, faster play, and tougher AI. He further remarked that while Sega's Prime Time NFL was still the best football video game in single player, Madden NFL '96 was the best two-player experience. He gave it four out of five stars.[12] GamePro found the AI a somewhat mixed blessing, remarking that "The mean and nasty A.I. will answer the prayers of hardcore Madden players, but it will surely frustrate rookies and bandwagon fans." They also deemed the new Scouting Combine feature "an excellent idea that could nonetheless use some tinkering." However, they praised the rendered character sprites, the widened camera views, and the new moves, and gave the game a recommendation.[13] They judged the SNES version to be superior to the Genesis version due to its faster animation and inclusion of drills specific to each position, and called it "the top-ranked SNES football cart".[14]

GamePro panned the Game Boy version in a brief review, stating, "This Madden features no NFL license, old lineups, and none of the improvements made to the '96 SNES version. The small sprites will cause eye strain, player control is difficult, and passes sound like bombs falling from the sky." They made many of the same criticisms of the Game Gear version, which they noted had better control but was still "a below-average attempt to bring football into the handheld arena."[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Madden NFL 96 Release Information for Genesis - GameFAQs". http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/genesis/data/366825.html. 
  2. ↑ "Madden NFL Football: Limited Edition for DOS (1996)". Blue Flame Labs. https://www.mobygames.com/game/madden-nfl-football-limited-edition. 
  3. ↑ "Electronic Arts to ship six PlayStation titles in first 60 days; nine new titles to launch before Christmas.". September 6, 1995. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Electronic+Arts+to+ship+six+PlayStation+titles+in+first+60+days%3b+nine...-a017373437. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "What the Hell Happened?". Next Generation (Imagine Media) (40): 42. April 1998. 
  5. ↑ Air Hendrix (January 1996). "Madden Takes the Field on the PlayStation". GamePro (IDG) (88): 128. 
  6. ↑ "IGN Presents the History of Madden". August 8, 2008. http://retro.ign.com/articles/896/896893p3.html. 
  7. ↑ "PlayStationMuseum.com - Madden 96". http://www.playstationmuseum.com/Games/GRAVEYARD/BTA-018.htm. 
  8. ↑ David Short (March 1996). "Madden '96 in '97?". Electronic Gaming Monthly (Ziff Davis) (80): 121. 
  9. ↑ Dan Elektro (May 1998). "Vapor Trails". GamePro (IDG) (116): 42. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Paprocki, Matt (2017-08-22). "The asterisk on Madden's annual release legacy" (in en-US). https://www.polygon.com/features/2017/8/22/16175256/madden-nfl-96-playstation-canceled-ea-sports-history. 
  11. ↑ "Box Score: Madden NFL '96". Electronic Gaming Monthly (Sendai Publishing) (76): 248. November 1995. 
  12. ↑ "Madden '96". Next Generation (Imagine Media) (12): 195. December 1995. 
  13. ↑ Slo Mo (December 1995). "Madden Genesis Gets Tough for '96". GamePro (IDG) (87): 115. 
  14. ↑ Slo Mo (December 1995). "Madden SNES: Another Championship Season". GamePro (IDG) (87): 114. 
  15. ↑ "ProReview: Madden '96". GamePro (IDG) (91): 86. April 1996. 
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
  • No URL found. Please specify a URL here or add one to Wikidata.

Template:Atari



Warning: Default sort key "Madden NFL '96" overrides earlier default sort key "Mobygames".



Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Software:Madden_NFL_%2796&oldid=726636"