Football (video game)

The game was designed by Steve Bristow and programmed by Michael Albaugh, with the hardware engineered by Dave Stubben. The game's use of a trackball was inspired by an earlier Japanese association football (soccer) game that had used trackball controls. When the team saw the game, they brought a cabinet to their lab and imitated the trackball controls. but in 2001 Steven L. Kent reported that Stubben attributed the earlier trackball soccer game to Taito. In a later 2017 interview, Albaugh said he was uncertain which company it was from, but remembers it was from a Japanese company. Atari's Football was released in October 1978. ==Reception==

Football was the second highest-earning video game in 1979 in the United States, below only Space Invaders (1978). ==Legacy==

Although not the first trackball game, predated by Sega's World Cup in March 1978, Atari Football is credited with popularizing the trackball. ==See also==