The very first videogame (*cough*)

Since the first Madden football title appeared in 1988, EA’s gridiron series has become a bona fide gaming phenomenon, shifting an obscene number of units.

However, its achievements stretch even further than that, if John Madden himself is to be believed. LA Times journalist Alex Pham asked the retired broadcaster how the series first came about, and got a rather alarming answer for her troubles:

LA Times: How far has the video game evolved since the days [EA founder] Trip Hawkins … approached you in 1986 to do a title?

Madden: When Trip Hawkins and I started, there were no videogames. He was going to make a game you could play on the computer. The reason I joined him was that I wanted to make something that could teach football. Then it took us years to get to that point.

Hear that, Spacewar!? NO VIDEOGAMES. Oh suuuure, you can suggest 1962 was before 1988, but we all know it wasn’t.

Seriously though, John Madden is either hitting senility early, or isn’t very knowledgeable about one of his main sources of income: videogames. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and suggest it’s the latter.

See also: Madden NFL 10: Review Round-up

[LA Times, via Kotaku]