It was crude and immensely addictive. The John Madden franchise started soon afterward on Sega Genesis and, year by year, built on what Tecmo started. By the time I bought my PlayStation a couple years ago, the former Oakland Raiders coach and hardware huckster had climbed to the top of the videogame football heap, and Madden 99 was among the first games I bought to accompany the console. Now it's next-gen time, and even the newest games for the PS look obsolete compared to the power of the PlayStation2. There are no pixels.
Sunsets look real.
When you play in Denver, mountains sit in the background. When you play in a dome, the lights are so bright you have to squint. In previous Maddens, the players' hands resembled fins, with no detail. In this version, not only do you have detailed armbands, turf tape, mesh jerseys, and visors, but the players' helmets reflect the sky or the underbelly of the dome. You can actually see those dome lights in Peyton Manning's helmet.