While predated by Sega's World Cup, Football is credited with popularizing the trackball controller and is also the first non-racing vertically scrolling video game.

That year Atari released a more challenging four-player version of the arcade game programmed by Dave Theurer, who later created Missile Command and Tempest.

The game was designed by Steve Bristow and programmed by Michael Albaugh, with the hardware engineered by Dave Stubben.

[6][7] When the team saw the game, they brought a cabinet to their lab and imitated the trackball controls.

In a second game option, the player only chooses the formation with the play being carried out automatically according to a pre-selected plan.