Electronic Arts Sports Network

Background

EA Sports was originally founded in 1991 as the "Electronic Arts Sports Network" (EASN), but it was changed to EA Sports in late 1992 to avoid getting sued by ESPN.

Contents

1st Logo (1991-1993)	2nd Logo (1991-1993)	3rd Logo (1992-1993)

1st Logo (1991-1993)

Visuals: On a black background, a slightly modified version of the 1982 Electronic Arts logo (this time, the cube is pink, the sphere is gold and the pyramid is light blue with "ELECTRONIC ARTS" stacked below it) zooms in and through the screen, then the EA logo appears once it's done. Then 8 squares, each with a sports player and a different color (gold with a baseball player, pink with a golfer, purple with an American football player, light blue with a basketball player, orange with an Olympic runner, green with a hockey player, blue with a tennis player and red with a soccer player), zoom out into each corner of the screen:

The gold square with the baseball player goes to the top left.
The pink square with the golfer goes to the middle right.
The purple square with the football player goes to the bottom center.
The light blue square with the basketball player goes to the middle left.
The orange square with the Olympic runner goes to the top right.
The green square with the hockey player goes to the bottom right.
The blue square with the tennis player goes to the top center.
Finally, the red square with the soccer player goes to the bottom left.

A second after the squares are all in place, the EA logo turns into the EASN logo (a blue rectangle with "EASN" in a futuristic font with the "A" having a small jut at the left of it, on a white rectangle with "ELECTRONIC ARTS SPORTS NETWORK" stacked below it) while all the sports pictures turn into one sport picture (depending on the game). Then the EASN logo zooms in through the screen, turning it blue.

Variants:

The Genesis version has a different animation. The still EA logo doesn't zoom in and the pictures of sports players slide in instead:

- Golfer slides into the middle right.
- Tennis Player slides into the top middle.
- Soccer Player slides into the bottom left.
- Baseball Player slides into the top right.
- Hockey Player slides into the bottom right.
- Runner slides into the top right.
- Football Player slides into the bottom center.
- Finally, Basketball Player slides into the middle left.

Then all the players turn into a Basketball Player. After the animation is finished, the EASN logo flashes on the EA logo.

On John Madden Football, all other sports pictures turn into a Football Player picture.
On PGA Tour Golf, all other sports pictures turn into a Golfer picture.
On basketball-related titles including Bulls Vs. Blazers, all other sports pictures turn into a Basketball Player picture.
On some later titles (including later copies of Bulls Vs. Blazers), the EASN logo is replaced by the EA Sports logo with "ELECTRONIC ARTS" below on a white square. Plus on Super NES, when the logo zooms in, the screen becomes red instead.

Technique: 16-bit animation.

Audio: A sports news report-like theme. While the players appear, a beat note plays each time the player zooms into a position.

Audio Variant: On Bulls Vs. Blazers, the beat note sound is different (which sounds like a basketball bouncing in a low tone).

Availability: This appears on the Super NES versions of John Madden Football, PGA Tour Golf, and Bulls Vs. Blazers (the Sega Genesis version has the EA Sports logo instead). It is also seen on Bulls Vs. Lakers, Jordan vs. Bird: One-on-One, and Team USA Basketball for Genesis.

2nd Logo (1991-1993)

Visuals: On a white background, there is the EASN logo from the previous logo. Below it is a black rectangle with the text "ELECTRONIC ARTS SPORTS NETWORK" and underneath is the text "PRESENTS".

Variant: The logo would often appear in-credit on several games.

Technique: A still, spite-based graphic.

Audio: None, or the opening theme of the game.

Availability: The standard logo appeared on the DOS version of 4D Boxing. It also appeared as an in-credit entity on John Madden Football II for DOS, the Game Boy version of Jordan vs. Bird: One-on-One, and NHL Hockey for Sega Genesis (aka EA Hockey in Europe and Pro Hockey in Japan).

3rd Logo (1992-1993)

Visuals: There is the EASN logo from before, but "EA" is now red while "SN" is blue. This time, it's rotating around. Each logo appears one by one from the top-left making way to the bottom-right. Plus, each logo is in all 9 corners of the screen.

Variants:

On the Amiga version of John Madden Football and the Super NES version of John Madden Football '93, the rotating EASN logo appears in the center. Plus, each EASN logo appears one-by-one from the top-left all the way around to the middle-left. Each EASN logo morphs into a blue square each with different sports pictures in gold style one-by-one:

- Baseball on top-left.
- Tennis on top-middle.
- Golf on top-right.
- Hockey on middle-right.
- Basketball on bottom-right.
- Runner on bottom-middle.
- Soccer on bottom-left.
- Football Player on middle-left.

All sports pictures become a Football Player, who then throws the football like a quarterback. The Super NES version has sped-up animation, and still images for the sports players when it morphs.

On the Genesis version of NHLPA Hockey '93, there are five hockey pucks (with the NHLPA logo) on a screen. Each puck has the EASN logo rotating around it.

Technique: 16-bit animation.

Audio: None or the game's title theme.

Availability: It appears on John Madden Football '93 for Super NES and Sega Genesis and NHLPA Hockey '93 for Genesis (although the SNES version doesn't have the logo, it starts with the game's title).

Electronic Arts Sports Network

EA Sports

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