| This is a face to face American Football simulation. Paydirt started life in the early 1970s as a Sports Illustrated title. It was taken over by Avalon Hill who had a world renowned mathematics statistician work on the game system. The beauty of the system he developed was its simplicity. There are far more complicated football simulation games that take far longer to play to achieve a far less realistic result and feel of the game than Paydirt manages. Basically, each player has a card that represents a particular NFL team. One side of the card represents the offense and the other side represents defense with some additional tables for the special teams. Each play one side chooses from a possible 9 offensive plays whilst the defense tries to counter by choosing a suitable defensive formation. Special dice are rolled to determine the effectiveness of your call and the results of the offense and defense are cross referenced to see what the overall result of the play was. That is pretty much the game system described right there. Of course, factors such as penalties, fumbles, interceptions and quarterback traps are all included in the game system but without adding any additional layers of complexity. If you understand the rules of football, you will quickly understand the rules of Paydirt. What is particularly great about this game is the way that it captures the feeling of an actual football game. As the team charts are based on the actual statistics of the teams that played in that particular year, the charts reflect the strengths and weaknesses of each of the teams. And yet, it manages to not be too predictable, upsets are still more than possible as even the lowliest team can perform on the night if the right calls are made at the right time. Avalon Hill continued publishing Paydirt until the early 1990s when the business was sold off to Hasbro. It is still possible to pick up copies of Paydirt on ebay Unfortunately, there were no more sets of teams made by Avalon Hill after 1993. Luckily, there are many diehard fans of the game still out and about. In addition to still playing the game, many of these fans produce their own team charts and game aids. This page is a place to collect some of those additional resources.
Althouh the game is out of print, people still produce charts and even computer versions of the game. Ron Pisarz produces Data Driven Football which is basically a compturised version of the game. However, not only does it play well in its own right, but it can also help you play out entire seasons - you can follow a particular team as face to face games and let Data Driven Football do all the other games for you. Alternatively, another good way to use it is to whittle down the teams to the play off stages and then playing face to face for the final games. |
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Paydirt Starter This folder will provide you with everything that you need to try Paydirt for yourself. Thanks to Darrin Hunter |
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PC Paydirt Install the wonderful and free Paydirt emulator. It includes the 1983 and 1986 seasons. Thanks to Benedict Bruynseels |
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PC Paydirt Seasons All of the teams for all four seasons of 1981, 1983, 1986 and 1988. Thanks to Benedict Bruynseels |
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Data Driven Football This is Ron Pisarz's website dedicated to his PC version of Paydirt / Redzone Game. |
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Paydirt Yahoo Group This is an email discussion Group dedicated to discussing matters relating to Paydirt |
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NFL History This site has some good write ups and schedules of games from previous seasons. |
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Bowlbound Yahoo Group This is an email discussion Group dedicated to Paydirt's College Football sister game |
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Redzone Darrin Hunter produces team charts for more recent NFL teams. |
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Redzone Paydirt Yahoo Group This is an email discussion Group run by Darrin Hunter in support of his Redzone team charts of more recent teams |
