Seven Pieces of Abandonware Part 1

      Abandonware is software that has been left to rot by the companies that made it. Forgotten and neglected by corporate entities. Abandoned. This week we talk about seven PC games from my childhood that I loved.

Today’s Abandonware Game is NFL Challenge.

      NFL Challenge was a barebones, symbol based football game. What made it unique and memorable was the literal X’s and O’s and that the game put you int he position of the Coach, calling the plays and matching wits against the opponent. It came out in 1985bnand was by a company I had never heard of before or since, XOR.

      My best friend’s dad (or older brother) got this game for the IBM Clone. And being from a football household I fell in love instantly. I was not good with the arcade style games, but let me think and choose then the computer does what I ask? I was good at that.

      One of my favorite parts of the game was watching the X’s and O’s run the plays. The O’s were offence and the X’s were defense. The football would sit so nicely inside the O, and when there was a turnover, the ball looked cool inside the X.

      Video Game rights were cheap back then so they had all 28 NFL teams with their proper names. The skills that ran the game were just kept in a txt file so we could have fun with the game once we needed a better challenge or to goof off.

      Go download and play NFL Challenge.