Tehkan World Cup

Note: This is a different game from the Tecmo World Cup which appeared in the Captain Tsubasa series in 1988 and was called the Tecmo World Cup in North America.

Tehkan World Cup, aka. Tecmo Cup, is the first multi-player soccer game featuring a trackball controller. Programmed by Michishito Ishizuka it was released to arcades in 1985 by Tehkan, Ltd., the former name of Tecmo, Inc. Its arrival coincided with the buildup to the 1986 FIFA World Cup. It featured the then colors of several of the world's top teams such as West Germany, Argentina and Brazil, although it did not mention any team by name. It was most commonly released in a cocktail cabinet form factor, while graphically it offered a two-dimensional birds-eye view of the field that was unique for its time. Its trackball control system contributed significantly to its gameplay which was relatively speedy and exhibited a fluidity something akin to ice hockey, with as little as 3 seconds required to score from kick-off. Two-player action could be highly competitive, with players facing each other across the game space while using sweeping arm movements reminiscent of table tennis. Mechanical reliability proved to be the game's Achilles' heel, as the physical nature of play necessitated regular maintenance on high-wear components.

Source: Wikipedia, "Tehkan World Cup", available under the CC-BY-SA License.