Field Goal

Field Goal is an American football-themed arcade video game produced by Taito Corporation in 1979. Taito Corporation is a Japanese arcade game publisher owned by Square Enix Holdings. The company also develops home and commercial video games, mobile phones, and supplies Japan with American coin-op games. Most arcades in Japan are owned by Taito and they are named after the company. Popular games developed by the company include Arkanoid, Space Invaders, Astro Race, Lunar Rescue, and Bubble Bobble. Other sport themed arcade games by Taito are Super Speed Race V, Top Bowler, Ball Park 1, and Ball Park 2.

Field Goal is a sports-themed video game title, which is part of a genre of arcade games that is one of the oldest in the industry. These types of games are created to challenge players’ ability to focus and respond fast while trying to simulate a particular sports game. They are mostly set on a field or track. A lot of arcade game developers have created video games similar to football, basketball, hockey, tennis, and soccer games. Sometimes these games feature teams playing against each other or only one player trying to nudge the ball into the net.

Initially, Atari Inc. released a similar game title called Breakout, features bricks of different colours in multiple rows and you must hit as many bricks as possible to score points. Breakout also features a paddle used to bounce off the ball. Field Goal is a clone of this game as both titles have a lot of game characters in common. It is not unpopular for arcade game companies to steal each other’s idea during the early days because then, copyright rules were less strict. During this time, multiple arcade companies came out with similar games.
Field Goal can be played by a maximum of two players, although each will take turns to play. Characters in this game include a paddle, a ball, helmets, a goal post, and a player image that randomly appears and run around on the screen. To score points, you must hit either the helmets, the goal post (at the top screen area), or the player image.

You have control of the paddle when you’re playing the game; a tiny ball bounces off the paddle and hits blue, yellow, or red helmets, depending on how well you are able to control the paddle. When the ball hits a helmet, the helmet disappears from the screen and your score increases. A new set of helmets will roll in when the previous ones are all cleared from the screen. Periodically, your player image will appear on the screen, running around to make hitting it a bit difficult. When the ball hits the image, points will be scored and added to the rest of the goal scored. Red helmets are worth 20 points, yellow helmets give 30 points, and hitting the blue helmets earns the player 40 points. The points you score when your player image is hit by the ball is calculated by multiplying the number on its uniform by 100.
Field Goal is specially created for football fans. The theme, characters, and rule of the game co-exist to entertain a typical American football fan. Using a paddle as a propeller instead of incorporating your personal character seems a bit sketchy and off but to an extent, it does the job of bouncing of the ball quite well. The paddle is also easy to move from one end to another.

As for the graphic design, the screen is predominantly green (to simulate a football pitch), with helmets in three different colours and a tiny yellow ball. The game does not offer too many colours and this makes the screen plain and simple, imitating the perfect look for an arcade sports game. The audio effect features the sound of the ball hitting different angles of the screen, your player image being hit, and balls rolling in at the start of the game. There is no background sound or tune. This game should not be confused with Field Goal Kicking game, which is also another arcade sports game. In fact, there are lots of arcade games with the same title, you may want to double check the publisher of each one before you start playing.