https://www.polygon.com/2018/6/1/17418680/madden-nfl-30th-anniversary > Thirty years ago today, on the shelves of your local computer store, catalog showroom or the Babbage’s in the mall, John Madden Football made its debut. Madden NFL is more than just the longest-tenured sports video game series today. It remade expectations of the genre on the whole, and gave fans a new way to relate to the players and sports they enjoy. And it made a coach’s name synonymous with his sport, which is a hell of a legacy. > The first Madden didn’t suggest it would amount to such a cultural or even marketplace impact. It sold all right, but the fact it had 11 players on both sides — a first for a football video game, as Tecmo Bowl on the NES only had nine — overwhelmed most computers of the day. And the game, though working with real plays and pro football strategies, was still so complex that many fans found it inaccessible.