Gridiron Fight

Did You Know?

• Michihito Ishizuka previously programmed the sound driver for Bomb Jack (1984).
• Rie Ishizuka and Michihito Ishizuka had previously worked together on Senjyo (1983) and Bomb Jack.
• The Player 1 (red trackball) side contained two additional push-buttons for choosing between Single or Two-Player games.

Gameplay

Tehkan Gridiron Fight is a two-dimensional top-down scrolling American football game. The player controls the virtual player closest to the ball, using a trackball to set running speed and direction. A single button labeled "Kick" releases the ball with the same force and direction as the player's current run; this button is duplicated on either side of the trackball for left- or right-handed players. Before each play, players choose from formations such as "Sweep" or "Draw", displayed on a seven-segment LED. The ball's height is indicated by its growing larger while a shadow appears on the ground. The screen shows the score and a countdown clock.

Hardware

Two slightly different cabinet shapes were released, one with straighter edges and one with more rounded edges similar to Tehkan World Cup. The game uses two Z80C 8-bit CPUs at 4.608 MHz for processing, and a separate Z80C at 4.6 MHz for sound, along with two AY-3-8910s at 1.536 MHz and one M5205 at 384 kHz. All sound was fed through a mono amplifier, which was known to fail as machines aged. The screen is a horizontally mounted 20" color raster CRT monitor at 256 x 224 pixels and 768 colors. The two 3" optical trackballs are semi-transparent and illuminated blue or red from below.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Gridiron Fight as the second most-successful table arcade unit in their April 15, 1987 issue. Jay Carter of Cash Box magazine compared the game favorably to Atari Football (1978), stating that Gridiron Fight updates its essential elements. He noted it has full color screen action, glowing trackballs, and a full selection of offensive and defensive plays that should create strong head-to-head competition.