Your first football game (or earliest memories)

[FC Bayern]

Awesome thread. Right up my alley!

Can't remember which game I first put my hands on, but the one I first played with any regularity (and it may well have been the very first) was Nintendo World Cup on boy Game Boy and NES.

I was obsessed. I used to draw the players all the time too, or draw real life players in the style.

Might use this theme to get a convo going on socials @FC Bayern!

Go for it, big yin 😉 Always love seeing your socials stuff

I'm sure I've a dodgy picture of George O'Boyle in a weird St Johnstone kit, one giant leg and one normal one (I was about 7). Not even a fan of the Saints, so no idea why I drew him of all players 🤣

 

[Flipper the Priest]

Go for it, big yin 😉 Always love seeing your socials stuff

I'm sure I've a dodgy picture of George O'Boyle in a weird St Johnstone kit, one giant leg and one normal one (I was about 7). Not even a fan of the Saints, so no idea why I drew him of all players 🤣

Cheers!

Of all the players too. Top role model... 👃 ❄️

 

[robbieryan]

First memory is playing 'Super League' on the ZX spectrum and not really having a clue what i was doing... but i must have been 6 years old so fair enough. after that my dad got the game 'Professional Footballer' which was very different, it was basically a career mode where your player would have in match prompts to choose what they wanted to do, ie. shoot top corner? lay it off etc and each had a % chance of being pulled off. This was much preferable for me as it was much easier to play on that spectrum keyboard (we didn't have a joystick).

My dad was a bit of a games wheeler dealer and there were always games coming in and out the house, i distinctly remember playing Kick off and Match Day but i must have played half dozen of other games that i don't recall the name of.

That definitely changed when we got the mega drive and i was a bit older, I absolutely loved World Cup Italia 90, Dino Dini Soccer and Sensible Soccer but god i must have made sure we had every single football game on that console. Pele! was a big one for me as was the original FIFA International Soccer which just seemed like such a massive step up at the time. On the management sided I also played a lot of Premier Manager 97 before finally getting a playstation.

I won't list out any more games as i'll be here all day, but what I will say is that I only first came across ISS when i went to my cousins house around 1997/8 and I had brought F1 (the original playstation game) for him and he let me borrow a football game i had never heard of called International Superstar Soccer Pro... not sure if you guys have heard of it either but i ended up playing every single version of that game going forwards

 

[tutu7]

PES3. A friend of my parents' lent me a FIFA2004 box, but the disc inside it was actually PES3. At that time, I didn't even follow football, so I didn't know how lucky I had been. I went on playing it for many years

 

[etb10dmk]

My first football experience was on NES, as I had it when I was on kinder garden, with games like Tecmo World Cup and such though wasn't something special that made me feel about it. The only one from NES that stayed with me back then in my memory as a kid (even if it counts as a cinematic version of football) is Captain Tsubasa, especially the Volume 2 Super Striker with all those special moves, music and that ambience that was exactly like in the cartoons. Loved that one...



From then onwards my games were straight on PC, my first technical football 3D game was Striker '96 for MS-DOS on my first Pentium. I was blown away back then seeing a 3D game rendered so nice on a CRT with those pixelated graphics and presentation. Was my first contact with football via keyboard and mouse.



Then, my first serious relationship with football gaming started with FIFA RTWC '98 when my parents purchased me my first Pentium II 233 MMX. Was the first football game that expanded so much the initial lineup of teams and clubs, playing and trying to qualify with Maldive Islands or whichever national team in the world through the world cup, plus playing with clubs in domestic leagues. The edit mode was so extensive. Later of course I enjoyed a lot and invested even more of my time on FIFA 99 and FIFA 2000 that I also have fond memories. The 3DFX graphics was a thing, and those looked and played spectacular back then.



I still play a bit of those titles from time to time via DosBox Staging and PCem. Such great memories regarding football and gaming with family and friends...

 

[FC Bayern]

PES3. A friend of my parents' lent me a FIFA2004 box, but the disc inside it was actually PES3. At that time, I didn't even follow football, so I didn't know how lucky I had been. I went on playing it for many years

PES3 was my first PES game (if you don't include ISS Pro Evo on PS1). I was mostly a Fifa player up until then, and that game changed my view

 

[hitmanuk]

I have a few I remember
Match day 2 speccy 48
Microprose soccer C64
Emlyn Hughes C64
Kick off C64
International superstar soccer (amiga I think)
Kick off 2 and all the add ons amiga
Iss n64
Iss ps one
All the winning elevens ps2

 

[FC Bayern]

I have a few I remember
Match day 2 speccy 48
Microprose soccer C64
Emlyn Hughes C64
Kick off C64
International superstar soccer (amiga I think)
Kick off 2 and all the add ons amiga
Iss n64
Iss ps one
All the winning elevens ps2

Everyone seems to have been into video games long before me 🤣 I might have to try some of these older games on emulators someday, if I can figure them out

 

[Madmac79]

My first football experience was on NES, as I had it when I was on kinder garden, with games like Tecmo World Cup and such though wasn't something special that made me feel about it. The only one from NES that stayed with me back then in my memory as a kid (even if it counts as a cinematic version of football) is Captain Tsubasa, especially the Volume 2 Super Striker with all those special moves, music and that ambience that was exactly like in the cartoons. Loved that one...



From then onwards my games were straight on PC, my first technical football 3D game was Striker '96 for MS-DOS on my first Pentium. I was blown away back then seeing a 3D game rendered so nice on a CRT with those pixelated graphics and presentation. Was my first contact with football via keyboard and mouse.



Then, my first serious relationship with football gaming started with FIFA RTWC '98 when my parents purchased me my first Pentium II 233 MMX. Was the first football game that expanded so much the initial lineup of teams and clubs, playing and trying to qualify with Maldive Islands or whichever national team in the world through the world cup, plus playing with clubs in domestic leagues. The edit mode was so extensive. Later of course I enjoyed a lot and invested even more of my time on FIFA 99 and FIFA 2000 that I also have fond memories. The 3DFX graphics was a thing, and those looked and played spectacular back then.



I still play a bit of those titles from time to time via DosBox Staging and PCem. Such great memories regarding football and gaming with family and friends...

Man I used to play Captain Tsubasa too, although on Snes! Was such a lovely blend of RPG and football, especially for who grown up with the anime.

By the way, I think you solved my long time mistery! I'm pretty sure the game I was playing at my cousins home that I couldn't name was the same Striker 96 you knew as well😍!

 

[Sami 1999]

FIFA RTWC 1998 was my first ever football game that my dad brought with his PC along with some other games. While the gameplay doesn't really hold up much and there were already other better games at that time which I later found out, this game still holds a special place and I still play it from time to time just for the heck of it.

Being that said, it was fun to press E and brutalize opponent players and get a red card. It was also fun to tackle goal keeper and get a red card. So yeah, in a way, FIFA 98 is still more fun than current FC games just because you can actually fool around and have more fun. Andy Gray and John Motson are also my favourite commentators [the others being Clive Tyldesley later on].

And finally, the game menu presentations were at peak in the late 90s-early 2000s in my opinion. It was flashy asf.

 

[etb10dmk]

Man I used to play Captain Tsubasa too, although on Snes! Was such a lovely blend of RPG and football, especially for who grown up with the anime.

By the way, I think you solved my long time mistery! I'm pretty sure the game I was playing at my cousins home that I couldn't name was the same Striker 96 you knew as well😍!

During my childhood didn't had a SNES to experience there Captain Tsubasa, so my transition was directly from NES to PC, being a huge step actually. Now I can experience them on Steam Deck via the EmuDeck emulator and are still very good (way better than the NES versions) but nostalgia took me to that memory. In the end this was the NES version of Tsubasa that I remember, not the one from my previous post (don't know why were two different versions with the same name).



Striker '96 was an unique game that most of kids experienced it on early childhood along EURO '96 if you remember that was in some way similar. Wasn't that polished or advanced comparing to other games, but was memorable enough just for the fact alone that used pixelated sprites on a 3D environment...

 

[etb10dmk]

FIFA RTWC 1998 was my first ever football game that my dad brought with his PC along with some other games. While the gameplay doesn't really hold up much and there were already other better games at that time which I later found out, this game still holds a special place and I still play it from time to time just for the heck of it.

Being that said, it was fun to press E and brutalize opponent players and get a red card. It was also fun to tackle goal keeper and get a red card. So yeah, in a way, FIFA 98 is still more fun than current FC games just because you can actually fool around and have more fun. Andy Gray and John Motson are also my favourite commentators [the others being Clive Tyldesley later on].

And finally, the game menu presentations were at peak in the late 90s-early 2000s in my opinion. It was flashy asf.

Not to mention that great intro being so epic with all those photorealistic players juggling on screen then blending directly into gameplay was just spectacular. Also, before starting the match were those awesome stadium intros and then players walking on the field and preparing for the match with those advanced animations, or at the end of the match seeing how the team celebrates or being desolated. Then, the referees with that huge personality going towards you talking, then walking away, then going again straight to you point the hand at you as a warning. FIFA RTWC '98 was so advanced for its 97-98 period...

 

[PES4eva]

This exact version is the one I remember playing first, 97/97 version perfected it but this is the first one I remember playing

 

[MadbaLL]

fifa 94 or 95 on pentium 486.

 

[Energia]

I'm starded with Konami always... on my first home computer :
Philips MSX VG-8020
KONAMI was the leader of videogames for MSX standard computers

 

[millossobek]

My first football experience was on NES, as I had it when I was on kinder garden, with games like Tecmo World Cup and such though wasn't something special that made me feel about it. The only one from NES that stayed with me back then in my memory as a kid (even if it counts as a cinematic version of football) is Captain Tsubasa, especially the Volume 2 Super Striker with all those special moves, music and that ambience that was exactly like in the cartoons. Loved that one...

@etb10dmk @Madmac79

How to forget this game!! I remember my friend used to have a Spanish hacked translation of Captain Tsubasa, and it had all the animations!
Kojiroh was called "Steve Hyuga"
Tsubasa was called "Oliver Atom"
I distinctly remember Hyuga's Tiger shot!! Also called N-T Tigre in South America!! 🐯
Hours upon hours of fun



Awesome soundtrack too!!

 

[ryanvitoriano]

I'm the third of three kids in my family, and my older brother being 10 years older than me, he was a teenager when i first started understanding things (a.k.a. gaining conscience of things). He had this PS2 (which is still here at home!) in which he used to play many games, and the first soccer one i've seen him play was FIFA 09 when i was three. Sadly i don't remember playing that game because i was just too young lol. As for the first game i've really played, that would be PES 2012, when i was 5. We didn't have a mc at the time (i got it for children's day 2014), so i just played tournaments and quick games. Since then i am proud to say that i have played every PES and FIFA in existence (either via PC/emulators and PS4 for the newer games)!

 

[Dreamfinder]

I am hesitating between FIFA 97 or 98, I don't remember exactly, in PSX. However, the ones I enjoyed the most were PES 3 and FIFA 2004 in PS2, in fact PES 3 was the reason I switched to the PES series. I liked the previous ISS/PES games, but this was key.

Nice thread.

 

[paokkerkir]

First football game that fiddled around with, Nintendo Soccer on the Famicom (famiclones were very common in Greece in the 90s).

First game I actually played extensively, ISS Pro 98. Me and my father had grand battles in this game.

After that I think I have tried almost every footie possible, old or new, but never went away from ps1 and ps2 PES. Still there.

A game I enjoyed a lot in this early period were JL-WE2000 - full in Japanese, I don't know how or why we got this but I had mapped every setting possible with ISS Pro Evo, and had a notebook with japanese drawings and translations .

Outside of ISS/WE, This is Football 2 on the PS1 was played a lot because it had the school teams, as well as FIFA 2000/2001 with the Greek league, these games were never deemed "serious" from me, but gameplay and the db errors aside I enjoyed them for what they were.