Football (video game)

Football (released as NFL Football) is a multiplayer sports video game produced by Mattel and released for its Intellivision video game system in 1979. The players each control a football team competing in a standard four-quarter game. Like Mattel's other sports video games, NFL Football did not use any official National Football League team names or player names, even though Mattel obtained a license from the NFL and used the league's logo in its box art.

Gameplay

The player controls a five-man football team, actively controlling one team member at a time, with the computer controlling the rest. As in traditional American football, the player's team must score more points than the opponent's team within the time limit of the game. The game consists of four quarters, each a simulated 15 minutes in length, and takes place on a horizontally scrolling 100-yard simulated football field.

Player 1 always starts the game on offense and receives the opening kick-off from Player 2; at the start of the second half, Player 2 will receive the kick-off from Player 1. NFL Football is played in the same basic manner as a regulation game of football, with the offense being given four downs to advance the ball a minimum of ten yards before losing possession of the football to the opposing team. At the start of each down, the players use their controller's keypad to input a formation and a play for that down; descriptions and diagrams of the plays were printed in the game's instruction manual and not visible on-screen. When both players have entered their formations, play resumes.

Ball (association football)

A football, soccer ball, or association football ball is the ball used in the sport of association football. The name of the ball varies according to whether the sport is called "football", "soccer", or "association football". The ball's spherical shape, as well as its size, weight, and material composition, are specified by Law 2 of the Laws of the Game maintained by the International Football Association Board. Additional, more stringent, standards are specified by FIFA and subordinate governing bodies for the balls used in the competitions they sanction.

Early footballs began as animal bladders or stomachs that would easily fall apart if kicked too much. Improvements became possible in the 19th century with the introduction of rubber and discoveries of Vulcanization by Charles Goodyear. The modern 32-panel ball design was developed in 1962 by Eigil Nielsen, and technological research continues today to develop footballs with improved performance.

History

In 1863, the first specifications for footballs were laid down by the Football Association. Previous to this, footballs were made out of inflated leather, with later leather coverings to help footballs maintain their shapes. In 1872 the specifications were revised, and these rules have been left essentially unchanged as defined by the International Football Association Board. Differences in footballs created since this rule came into effect have been to do with the material used in their creation.

American football

American football (referred to as football in the United States and Canada, also known as gridiron elsewhere) is a sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with control of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with or passing the ball, while the team without control of the ball, the defense, aims to stop their advance and take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs, or plays, or else they turn over the football to the opposing team; if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs. Points are primarily scored by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins.

American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of association football and rugby football. The first game of American football was played on November 6, 1869, between two college teams, Rutgers and Princeton, under rules based on the association football rules of the time. During the latter half of the 1870s, colleges playing association football switched to the Rugby Union code, which allowed carrying the ball. A set of rule changes drawn up from 1880 onward by Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football," established the snap, eleven-player teams, and the concept of downs; later rule changes legalized the forward pass, created the neutral zone, and specified the size and shape of the football.

Group

Group may refer to:

Groups of people

In science and technology

In mathematics

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Other uses in science and technology

Other uses

Stratigraphic unit

A stratigraphic unit is a volume of rock of identifiable origin and relative age range that is defined by the distinctive and dominant, easily mapped and recognizable petrographic, lithologic or paleontologic features (facies) that characterize it.

Units must be mappable and distinct from one another, but the contact need not be particularly distinct. For instance, a unit may be defined by terms such as "when the sandstone component exceeds 75%".

Lithostratigraphic units

Sequences of sedimentary and volcanic rocks are subdivided on the basis of their lithology. Going from smaller to larger in scale, the main units recognised are Bed, Member, Formation, Group and Supergroup.

Bed

A bed is a lithologically distinct layer within a member or formation and is the smallest recognisable stratigraphic unit. These are not normally named, but may be in the case of a marker horizon.

Member

A member is a named lithologically distinct part of a formation. Not all formations are subdivided in this way and even where they are recognized, they may only form part of the formation.

1994 Group

The 1994 Group was a coalition of smaller research-intensive universities in the United Kingdom, founded in 1994 to defend these universities' interests following the creation of the Russell Group by larger research-intensive universities earlier that year. The 1994 Group originally represented seventeen universities, rising to nineteen, and then dropping to eleven. The Group started to falter in 2012, when a number of high performing members left to join the Russell Group. The 1994 Group ultimately dissolved in November 2013.

Role

The group sought "to represent the views of its members on the current state and the future of higher education through discussions with the government, funding bodies, and other higher education interest groups" and "[made] its views known through its research publications and in the media".

University Alliance, million+, GuildHE and the Russell Group were its fellow university membership groups across the UK higher education sector.

Members

1994 Group position in league tables