Instructions Plug your joystick into port 1 for one plater, and both ports if two are playing. Load up the disk and Frank Gifford talks and welcomes you to ABC Monday Night Footnall. You have several options including wheather you want to see the cheerleaders (big choice, huh?), play trivia at halftime, etc...easy to understand. You have various play modes: 1 Player Practice 1 Player Exhibition vs. Computer 2 Player Exhibition Head To Head 2 Player Exhibition as Teammates 1-4 Gamer Playoff 1-10 Gamer Playoff Demo Mode There are 28 teams (just like the pros). Move the joystick up or down to move the cursor next to the team you want, then push the fire button. You can get to the main menu anytime the scoreboard screen is up by hitting RUN/STOP. You then get a choice of taking a timeout or going to the main menu. At the main menu you can change different options: Quarter Length Playmaker Utility (make your own plays) Team Modification Utility New Game Return To Game Exit To Basic To pause at any time hit RUN/STOP. Hit it again the resume play. Player colors are always going to be read and blue and the computer selects the colors. Penalties and injuries can happen. On both offense and defense the uniform of the player you control changes color. If you 're the blue team, your man turns light blue...if you're the red team, you're man is purple. Also the player you control has a yellow triangle icon above him. When it's a potential receiver you're controlling, the triangle icon will flash. The joystick controls in all 8 directions plus the fire button. After you and your opponent choose plays, everybody goes to the line of scrimmage. You're behind the QB if you're on offense, and you do not control the snap...the center hikes it as soon as the QB says hike..so be ready. At the bottom of the screen are six helmets with position abbreviations inside, such as QB, HB, LWR, etc. The helmet whose person you control is highlighted. When you get the ball and if you want to pass, hold down the joystick button. This lets you scroll through the various helmets who are potential receivers. When the player you want to pass to is highlighted, let go of the button and you'll see that player's point of view. If he is open and you decide to pass, quickly tap the fire button again and the ball will come his way (you have control of him and now and the computer automatically takes care of passing it to him.) If he's covered and you want to throw to someone else, hold down the joystick button again and you'll return to the QB perspective and have the chance to choose another player the same way. Remember though, the rush is on and you don't have all day. If no one is open, you can keep it with the QB and have him run, or he can throw it out of bounds by tapping the fire button when his helmet is highlighted. To Run: You automatically choose a running play by holding down the fire button before a bd during the sanp from center. Wheather it's a handoff or a lateral depends on the formation and the play you choose. You and off or lateral by holding down the fire button while holding the joystick left or right...the ball goes the the player that's running the same direction you point the joystick... if both are going the same direction, the ball goes to the one running the widest. Two Player Offense: If you and a friend are playing as teammates, one of you automatically will be the QB and the other will be a receiver. If you choose to pass, the ball will go to to your teammate and after the pass is complete, the first player will switch to control the teammate nearest the receiver (to help block). Defense: On defense you control one player at a time, starting off with the nose tacle at the line of scrimmage. After the ball is snapped you can control anybody on defense by hitting the fire button. This lets you scroll through all the players and pick one. If you don't choose and and you didn't rush the QB, then the computer automatically makes you the defensive player closest to the ball. If it's a passing play...once the ball is passed you become the defensive player nearest the intended receiver. If you're good, you can intercept the pass, or you can tackle the receiver after he catches the ball. If you hit the joystick button when playing defense and chasing someone, your player will dive. Picking Plays It's easy. From the scoreboard screen the offensive plays are shown on either top or bottom, and the defensive plays are in the other location. They're divided into three categories, short, medium and long. If none of the plays suits you, move your joystick down or up and the display will scroll to new plays. Once you have a play, move the joystick left if you want the short play, leave it centered for the medium play or psuh ir right for the long play...in any case...push the fire button while holding the joystick the proper direction and your play will be chosen. When the scorebaord screen comes up for play selection, the offense has 45 seconds to choose the play (the 45-second clock), so be aware of that. Also, the defense has 5 seconds to pick a play, or until the offense picks a play. If the defense fails to chose in time, the computer will automatically pick the medium yardage play shown on the screen. If the offense fails to choose within 45 seconds, you get a delay of game 5-yard penalty. One thing to remember...your play will not be highlighted on the screen...this prevents the other person from knowing which play you've chosen. For special situations such as kick-offs punts, field goals, etc. The computer will automatically put up the appropriate play choices for you...you just select which one you want. If you don't want to do any of those plays, just scroll forward and select another play (like on 4th and 1 or 2.) Field goals are a bit tricky. There's a "power meter/accuracy meter" that appears at the bottom of the screen. First, the power meter will start to turn blue from left to right. You should tap the joystick button as soon as the meter turns completely blue. Now the accuracy meter appears on the bottom of the screen...it fills up from right to left by turning red. Just above the meter in the middle of the screen is a little football icon. You want to stop the meter by hitting the fire button when the red is exactly in the middle, directly below the football icon (kind of like leaderboard golf, etc.). If you let it go to far right, the kick goes to the right...to far left results in the kcik doing the same. When you are close to the goal line, the meter goes slowly and it's easier to be accurate...but when you are farther away the meter goes much faster, making it harder to kcik an accurate field goal (pretty realistic, actually!). Playmaker Utility It is important to make sure to choose an action for every player, or else that player will just stand around on your play. You can change existing plays, or create brand new ones from scratch. You can save your playbook to another formatted disk and load it up whenever you want to...lots of capability. Don't forget the league option...there's 28 teams just like the pros, divided into two conferences, Each conferences has two divisions, east and west. At the startup, you can choose to get into league play, which means the best teams will make it into the playoffs and eventually the championship. You can choose between and 1 to 4 team playoff schedule or a 1 to 10 team playoff schedule. Playoff games cannot be played as teammate games, they have to be head to head or vs. the computer. If you choose the 1-10 team playoff mode, your season will consist of four games leading to the championship battle.