Day 6: Coleco’s Head-to-Head Football at bavatuesdays

Darcy Norman posted about a Retro LED Footbal game a long while back, and in 1980 I got the Coleco Head-to-Head Football game, a handheld video game for two players, and absolutely the most memorable and fun of the handheld video games I got during the late 70s and early 80s. What was amazing to me about this game was that the design actually worked—kicking and passing were clearly and functionally differentiated, and the game play with one or two people was compelling. I loved playing defense as much as I enjoyed offense, and given how far we have come with mobile devices, I would rank this up their with the forerunners of design and conception—it still looks good. Another cool fact about this game I just learned here, is that it was featured in Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams.

Image of Coleco Head-to_Head in Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams

Here is the original commercial:

2 Responses to “Day 6: Coleco’s Head-to-Head Football”

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1 dave cormier Dec 24th, 2009 at 8:01 am

I got one of these handed down to me. Hours and hours of ‘up down forward back back down down’ little red horizontal lights flicking in front of my eyes.

mmm… addiction stayed on tight like a glove.

d.
2 Chris Lott Dec 24th, 2009 at 9:41 am

I had a version of the football handheld that looked like the h2h version you show here, but with only one head. Didn’t look like the one D’Arcy pictured though. That takes me back…