Tehkan World Cup

Imagine football controlled not by a joystick but by a huge rotating trackball you spin with your palm to send the ball exactly where you want. Tehkan World Cup was one of the first games to bring football into the arcades in a form that laid the foundations for many later titles of the genre.

The game's genius lay precisely in its controls. The trackball allowed intuitive, analog steering of movement and kicks, which gave players surprisingly fine control over the ball at a time when most games made do with eight-way joysticks. The top-down view of the pitch, the fast pace and the option to play two against each other made Tehkan World Cup an extraordinarily addictive and competitive affair. The power of a kick depended on how hard the player spun the trackball, which lent the play surprising depth.

The game was created by the Japanese company Tehkan, known today more by its later name Tecmo. It was a pioneering title that showed football could work in the arcade setting as fast, accessible and exciting fun. Many of the elements introduced here, including the view of the pitch and the emphasis on fast competitive play, appeared in later football games for decades. Tehkan thus indirectly influenced the whole direction football games would take.

Culturally, the game mattered as one of the cornerstones of the football genre in video games. At a time when developers were still figuring out how best to translate the sport into digital form, Tehkan World Cup offered a convincing solution built on clever controls and competition between two players. It thus became an important forerunner of the whole tradition of football games that later grew into one of the biggest sports genres in the industry.

The arcades were the ideal place for such a title, because football is by its nature a contest played against another person. The trackball controls tempted passers-by to give it a try, and duels between two players drew spectators who gathered around the cabinet and cheered. The game wasn't just entertainment but a little social event that played out right there in the arcade.

Today Tehkan World Cup is a fascinating window into a time when the conventions we now take for granted were only being born, and its trackball controls remain unique and, to this day, surprisingly pleasant. For players used to classic controllers it's a small revelation of how natural a feel for the ball a trackball can offer.

As a pioneer of football games, Tehkan World Cup deserves a place in the history of the genre. It showed that football could work in digital form as fast, accessible and deeply competitive fun, and thereby opened the door to the dozens of football titles that came after it and gradually grew into one of the biggest genres in the industry.

Why play: For a nostalgic look at the roots of football games and the unique trackball controls that give the ball a surprisingly natural feel.