Armchair Quarterback

Armchair Quarterback is a shareware, single-player, text-based American Football game. Two versions of the game were available: version one was monochrome while version two had a colour option. Apart from that the two versions were virtually identical.

Version two starts by offering the player the choice between colour or monochrome and follows this by offering to show the game's instructions. After selecting two teams from the twenty-eight that are available (full list supplied below), there is a virtual coin toss and the game begins with the player controlling both teams.

The game area is effectively split into five horizontal areas. Note: All text in the game is in upper case.

• The first half dozen lines or so describe the play so the player can expect to see commentary such as
  THE PACKERS ARE PUNTING ... CAUGHT ON THE 15 YARD LINE. 6 YARD RUN BACK
  FIRST DOWN BEARS AT THE 21 YARD LINE

• Just above the centre of the screen is score board which shows which team have possession, which quarter of the game is being played, the game clock which changes with each play, points for each team, 'Down' - i.e. Whether it's 1st, 2nd or 3rd, and what yard line the ball is on

• Just below the centre of the screen is a graphic representation of the pitch showing the position of the ball and the team in possession

• Beneath the graphic are twenty different moves, or plays, such as Draw Play, Field Goal, Punt etc which the player selects to play the game.

Throughout the game the player is instructed to make selections via the cursor keys, in this game that means the 8, 4, 6 & 2 keys of the numeric keypad and not the arrow keys as may be expected.

The teams are Bears, Bengals, Bills, Broncos, Browns, Bucanneers, Cardinals, Chargers, Chiefs, Colts, Cowboys, Dolphins, Eagles, Falcons, 49ers, Giants, Jets, Lions, Oilers, Packers, Patriots, Rams, Raiders, Redskins, Saints, Seahawks, Steelers & Vikings.