How football has inspired some of our best games

FROM the earliest days of home computing, the link between football and gaming has been strong. The British love of the game naturally transferred to the computer screen, giving every armchair critic the opportunity to take his team to glory, whether it was Non-League Chelmsford City or the mighty Manchester United.

Loosely speaking, the beautiful game has inspired three types of online gaming: arcade games, football management games and other football-related offerings such as slots and platform games.

Arcade-style games 

The earliest games look primitive by today’s standards, but if you are over the age of 40, then just take a look at the screenshots from games such as 1983’s International Soccer for the Commodore 64. You are certain to get a warm feeling of nostalgia, and chances are that you will be searching online for an emulator on which to relive your youth!

While younger observers might mock, games such as these provided the basis for today’s super realistic games, including FIFA. Looking at them again today, the graphics and effects on those old C64 games were actually pretty good for their time!

Football management games 

Football Manager has to be one of the most classic games of any genre, not just football or sport. It must also be one of the most long lived – the original game came out in 1982, and Football Manager 2017 is selling as strongly as ever. The graphics and complexity might have increased, but in essence, the game follows the same values as the 1980s original. It is a winning formula that has provided hours of entertainment to multiple generations – surely the sign of a great game.

One of the biggest draws to the latest iteration is the facility to download your local Non-League team and guide it from obscurity to worldwide fame.

Football slots games

Online casinos have risen enormously in popularity over the past few years, particularly since the debut of the smartphone era. If you are browsing the many free spins no deposit UK games available, then you will see a number of football-inspired games there too. One of the most popular is Champions Cup, the perfect opportunity to combine a great slots game with your love of football.

Football platform games

If you are still not convinced of the all-pervading nature of football and gaming, then take a look at Soccer Kid. Released for the Amiga in the early 1990s, this platform game required players to guide a boy and his trusty football through various levels, defeating an alien pirate and all manner of other adversaries on his way.

A symbiotic relationship

Football and gaming go together like chips and ketchup. This symbiotic relationship has endured from the earliest days of text-based games on the BBC Basic and Spectrum and the platform games of the 1990s to today’s online casinos and arcade games, which are as realistic as watching a real match on TV. Every advance in gaming has always taken inspiration from the nation’s favourite sport.