Experience Points Side Quest 2 – Tecmo Super Bowl

Experience Points – Memories of a Lifelong Gamer is a series of blog posts that I’ve undertaken to record some of my fondest memories of nearly 40 years of gaming.

Variations on a Theme

In late 1987 I started paying attention to NFL football. My dad watched it every Sunday and Monday and I started watching too. Like many people, I inherited my favorite sports team from my dad: the Washington Redskins. He had been watching since the early 80’s and loved the team back then. So we started watching Redskins games together any time we could. In 1987 the Redskins fielded a pretty strong team led by Doug Williams, and The Hogs, that incredible offensive line. That season the Redskins made it to the Super Bowl and defeated the Denver Broncos 42-10 in a great comeback victory.

By 1991 NFL football was one of my favorite interests. I knew every team, their division alignment, most of the star players, a lot of the coaches and in any given year I could tell you which teams were doing well and which weren’t. These were the days of Joe Montana, John Elway, Warren Moon, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly and Boomer Esiason. Barry Sanders, Christian Okoye, Thurman Thomas, and Craig Heyward. Jerry Rice, Art Monk and Sterling Sharpe.

I had become good friends with James and Jeff earlier that year and we were all excited at the beginning of the 91-92 season. James is a Cincinatti Bengals fan, who were a rather strong team at the time and had just been to the Super Bowl a couple years prior. Jeff is a Miami Dolphins fan, who at this time were the best team to have not made it to a Super Bowl. And I still loved the Washington Redskins. All of our teams had a real shot at the playoffs and the Big Game. We even rooted for each others’ favorite teams when we could, which was easier by the fact that they weren’t rivals and were in separate divisions.

By December of 1991, the Bengals had had an awful season and the Dolphins performed well but struggled to get the wins in a mediocre season. But the Redskins were the most dominant team in the league, steamrolling everyone. I was flying high on Redskins Spirit!

But something else happened in December of 1991: The release of Tecmo Super Bowl. It was like nothing I had ever seen.

The original Tecmo Bowl was fun, but it only had 12 teams that were named only after the cities or states (so just “Washington” instead of “Washington Redskins”) and vaguely used the team colors and no symbols. The player names were real, however. The game had only 9 players on the field, and a playbook of only 4 plays.

Tecmo Super Bowl expanded on this immensely, and we couldn’t believe how much was there.

• All 28 teams of the time, with full names, colors and symbols
• Expanded rosters of 30 players
• Full 1991 NFL schedule
• Realistic Playoff format
• Customizable playbooks with 8 plays and many more to choose from
• Fumbles, time outs, coin tosses, player health and injuries, substitutions
• Cutscenes of passes, catches, jumps and dives
• Stat tracking and record keeping
• Pro Bowl teams
• More!

This was simply astounding for 1991. The game also looked great and was incredibly fun and addictive, and just about every kid my age who liked football was hooked.

We played season after season of “Tecmo” as we had come to call it. Sometimes we would finish one in just a few days. That’s actually an accomplishment considering there were four of us playing most of the time and we were still sharing time with the TV and the NES with Jeff’s siblings. But it was winter now and we spent less time outside and more time playing Tecmo.

We played one particular season that involved at least 6 neighborhood kids. Maybe more but I can’t quite remember. I’m not sure all the kids were able to keep up with the whole season, but for a while it was total mayhem.

We loved trying to beat each others season records. We took pride in never kicking a single punt. We all got so good that the only reason we would fail to go 16-0 in a season was if we had to play each other (which of course happened regularly). We learned how to defend against every team and every play. We figured out the AI’s tricks, and of course raged on those rare occasions when the AI simply decides you are going to lose. These games felt as important to us as the real NFL season. Victories were celebrated, losses lamented. We actually kept track of who played in and won the Super Bowl every season, in our own little Tecmo World.

Back to NFL football for a moment. On January 26, 1992, the Washington Redskins easily beat the Buffalo Bills to win Super Bowl 26, with the very team that I had almost always used in Tecmo Super Bowl. I couldn’t have been more thrilled, and I think the adrenaline rush propelled me into many years as a die hard Redskins fan. I’m my humble opinion, that 1991 Redskins team is the most underrated Super Bowl winning team in history and are in fact one of the best ever.

We continued to play Tecmo for a few years, sometimes even during the summer, but it was always more often in the fall. Even after the debut of 16 bit systems, we still played Tecmo on the NES for football action. We tried other games but none of them matched the fun.

Jeff’s brother Jason even went on a Tecmo binge where he obliterated every passing and receiving record we had ever set. He used the Green Bay Packers, passed on every single down and always passed to Sterling Sharpe. He almost always used the same one or two plays, and always shot for the end zone. I wish I could remember the numbers, but it was an incredible accomplishment that none of us ever topped.

Tecmo Super Bowl on the SNES

I’m going to get ahead of myself chronologically in this side quest. In 1993 I got a Super NES (more on that in a future post) and in the very same year, much to my surprise and delight, a new version of Tecmo Super Bowl was released!

As much as James, Jeff and I had been swept up by the world of 16 bit games on the Sega Genesis and Super NES, this classic would once again come to dominate our winter days. I got it for Christmas of 1993 and I spent many cold winter days huddled around the TV in our kitchen playing game after game of Tecmo Super Bowl ’93. It was a cold winter in ’93-’94 and I remember having lots of snow and ice storms and many days home from school. Believe me, I didn’t miss a single opportunity to play Tecmo Super Bowl. I was so happy that it was just a graphically enhanced TSB with a few extra features, updated rosters and schedules.

TSB on the Super NES had some great new features. It had three seasons from 1991-1993, new weather conditions (my favorite new addition), touchbacks, the chance to block punts and dive plays, not to mention the enhanced graphics, sound and music. As much as I love the NES version, I actually prefer the SNES version’s graphics and sound.

Tecmo Super bowl II and III

We never saw a copy of TSB 2, but we saw it in a magazine. What we didn’t realize was that it had been a very limited production, so it was pretty rare. But Jeff happened to score a copy of Tecmo Super Bowl 3. We were very excited about it.

But something about it just didn’t work. It had amazing new features, like defensive formations, player trading and free agency, real life NFL records that you could try to beat, and even the ability to create and develop your own players that got new stats almost like an RPG. We played it and we even had fun playing it, but it was just never quite as good as the original. It had lost its charm. It was too different. It just wasn’t the same game. It is a perfect example of how a video game can be an improvement on paper, but somehow loses its appeal at the same time.

Sometimes games reach a pinnacle and hit a sweet spot before the “ideal” version can be made. There’s just something about it, hitting at just the right time to be the best combination of realism and video game play. Tecmo Super Bow got it. TSB 2 and 3 were too late.

Tecmo Bowl Kickoff: Missed Potential

Fast forward 15 years. It’s 2008 and a new Tecmo Bowl game has been announced for the Nintendo DS. This was unexpected and definitely welcome news after so long without a new Tecmo game.

I was really hyped about it. Tecmo was not able to get the NFL/NFLPA license due to EA Sports owning exclusive rights to it. But Tecmo did the next best thing: they allowed the player to customize the default teams and rosters, including renaming everything, assigning your own colors and customizing the playbooks. What this meant was that Tecmo gave you a way of creating your own league or recreating an existing league like the NFL. This sounded tremendously fun to me.

I had been playing the Fire Prowrestling games for about 5 years by this time. These games will have their own Side Quest much later on, but for now, just know that they had no official pro wrestling association license, but because the game was made in Japan, they were able to get away with very close facsimiles to real pro wrestlers from Japan, Mexico and the US. FPW’s primary claim to fame, however, was it’s flexible and extensive edit system that allowed the player to customize almost everything about the game.

Tecmo Bowl Kickoff appeared to be ready to offer players the same thing, so I was beyond excited for this title. I knew the teams and players would be fictitious but I was already planning on how I would rename every single team and player and edit them to make this league reflect whatever reality I wanted.

This feature fell short just a bit. Almost everything was editable, including team player names, stats, colors and symbols, but the color palette was very limited and there were only a handful of symbols available. What this meant was that for some teams I had to compromise on colors, including my favorite team, the Redskins. There just wasn’t a red color that was close enough. However, at the end of the day I could live with this.

What I found to be the greatest disappointment was my discovery that all games that did not involve a player were not simulated according to any team or player stats. Every game simply chose one of a handful of score combinations which meant that the results of every single were were completely random. This resulted in most teams finishing 7-9, 8-8 and 9-7 as statistically there was a 50/50 chance of any team winning, regardless of player stats. Teams that were technically terrible could make the playoffs and great teams could go 6-10 if they were unlucky.

Simulation was ruined with this simple problem. There were no strong teams, like the 49ers or Houson Oilers in Tecmo Super Bowl. You could end up with a playoff bracket that was ridiculously easy.

Two player action was still fun, and I enjoyed a number of online games with my friend Trevor. I had a lot of fun recreating teams and leagues of old, including one amazing league of teams from 1924-30. These teams had very old school legends like Jim Thorpe and Paddy Driscoll and teams such as the Hammond Pros, Pottsville Maroons and the Providence Steamroller. The screenshot below shows a few starters for the Canton Bulldogs, including the legendary Jim Thorpe.

The Greatest Game I Ever Played

There is a very active ROM hacking community for Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES. Apparently I am not the only player for whom TSB offered the ideal combination of realism and video game style gameplay. Every year there is an “unofficial” updated Tecmo Super Bowl NES ROM created with updated rosters, stats and schedules. ROM hackers even managed to add two additional teams and the new division alignment that was created in 2002.

The greatest game of Tecmo I’ve ever played was not in 1993 or 1994. It wasn’t on the SNES or Tecmo Bowl Kickoff on the DS. It wasn’t even the original NES version. It was a hacked ROM of the 2012 roster (which was current at the time I played this season).

I still enjoyed playing a season of Tecmo almost every year. I was a Browns fan now, years after the Redskins had been sold to Dan Snyder and the team became exactly the sort of team I despise. It was a sort of crisis of conscience where I just couldn’t support the team I had followed for so many years. Their principles, the commercialization and the style of ownership was just not the same team I grew up watching.

I opted to root for the underdogs and for a team with Ohio history: the Cleveland Browns. These days (2020 as of this writing) I really don’t follow NFL football at all. I don’t like the new rules that encourage fast paced, high yardage passing games, I don’t like the focus on entertainment and I especially don’t like the exorbitant salaries demanded by big name players.

Along with non-chalantly rooting for the Browns in the NFL, I also started using the Browns in Tecmo seasons. Yet despite my waning interest in real professional football, it would be this 2012 Browns team that would lead me to the greatest game of Tecmo Super Bowl that I ever played.

The season itself went as usual. I think I lost maybe a game or two, but mostly dominated the rest. I walked through the playoffs and made it to the Super Bowl against the Atlanta Falcons. This would go on to be the most exciting game of not just Tecmo, but of any sports game that I ever played. Here is the rundown, which I have kept in a text file for 8 years (as of this writing).

Falling Behind Early

I lost the coin toss and Atlanta elected to kickoff. That mean I would be kicking off at half time and I hated that.

I was absolutely dominated at the start. I was forced to punt in the first drive. Yes, that’s right, I actually punted. I don’t remember for sure, but it may have been the first time I had punted all season. But this was the Super Bowl and Atlanta was here to play. I had no choice.

The Falcons then proceeded to drive down the field and score like I was a chump. That’s ok, I can come back from one touchdown. I’ve done it many times.

The Falcons kicked off. I started driving down the field but had to punt yet again. And much to my horror, Atlanta scored easily yet again.

We went back and forth for the rest of the first half without scoring. Toward the end of the half, I got another possession and drove down to the red zone. I was really hoping to get one more score in so I could have at least one escore in going into the second half, but Atlanta busted a few of my plays and the time ran out.

I was down 14-0 in the Super Bowl at halftime. I was now much less sure about winning this game. I hadn’t lost a Super Bowl to the AI since the early 1990’s. This reminded me of how the Redskins were down 10-0 against the Denver Broncos in the 1988 Super Bowl 22. But I wasn’t sure I could make that kind of comeback against this AI. AND, I had to kick off.

In the third quarter I finally got some momentum. I actually scored twice consecutively and held the ATL offense. The score was tied, 14-14 at the end of the third quarter.

Thankfully I held ATL again and forced them to punt. Here was my chance to finally take the lead. But sadly, Atlanta’s defense was really tough and I had to punt for a third time. I finally had a great few plays on defense and actually scored a safety to bring the score to 16-14. Best of all, I would get the ball back and have a chance to increase my lead enough that Atlanta would have to score twice to beat me.

I drove down the field. Slowly but surely, eating lots of time, I made my way to the red zone again, ready to score. However, Atlanta held their ground and I lost it on downs. That’s ok, I was in the red zone so I had good field position.

I actually came very close to another safety. The Atlanta QB (Matt Ryan, as I recall) was in the end zone and just as I dove to tackle him, he threw the pass. Oh, not good. But wait, it is intercepted! I may have missed the safety, but I was very close to the red zone again!

I fought and scraped but could not make progress. I made it within 15 yards or so, but lost it on downs. Remember, at this point I was only ahead by 2 points. I was not content with a field goal because of how easily Atlanta could overcome that difference.

To my horror, Atlanta threw a huge pass for a touchdown on the next play. I was now down 21-16, with only 1:36 left on the clock.

Folks, that is not much time in Tecmo. In a real NFL game if there’s 1:36 left on the clock, you have enough time to go to the bathroom, grab a beer, make a quesadilla and give your mom a call before the game is over. But in Tecmo that’s another story. Some of this time would be spent on the kickoff. I knew my chances of having a big kickoff return were extremely slim and it would use a lot of time, and time was what I needed. I also knew my chance of a fumble during the return were NOT slim, and I couldn’t afford to lose the ball or that would be game over.

So I took the kickoff and immediately ran out of bounds behind the 20. Over 80 yards to go and just over 1 minute Tecmo time to do it. I seriously doubted I was going to win this game by this point. But I wasn’t about to give up.

On the very first play, I chose to pass. I needed lots of yards fast and I knew that was my only hope. The ball snapped and I watched the play unfold. Much to my surprise Mohamed Massaquoi was WIDE OPEN! I passed it quickly because I didn’t want to give the AI driven defensive backs a chance to zoom in at Mach 2 to disrupt the completion. He caught the ball and I ran it as far as I could. It was a huge play that got me to the 20 yard line.

Next I tried a short range pass that also works nicely as a QB sneak. Nobody was open, so I ran Brandon Weeden for a short 5 yards to about the 16 yard line.

But there was a big problem. That play ate up more time than I expected, and there were only 17 seconds left in the game. I knew this last play was it. I had one shot at this.

I was not confident in the running game, so I picked one more pass play.

The ball was snapped. Peyton Hillis was open with 10 seconds left. I threw it to him and he caught it at about the 10 yard line. I started running and got hit by a defensive player. The clock hit 0. I broke the tackle and kept running. Got hit again, broke the tackle again, kept running. More defensive players are rushing in.

I kept running to inside the 5. An Atlanta player dive tackles Hillis, which cannot be broken if it hits. And it hits.

BUT WAIT! As he descends in his fall, Hillis stretches his arm out defiantly, reaching with every fiber of his being, stretching ligaments and tendons beyond their natural limits, grimacing with sheer determination. The ball breaks the plane of the end zone before he is down!

TOUCH DOWN BROWNS!!!

I win the Super Bowl 23-21 in the most dramatic fashion I’ve ever played, 21 years after it was first released.

Ok so I couldn’t actually see Peyton Hillis do those things in the game, in my mind that’s what happened, and it’s true that I did get tackled at the goal line and the ball broke the plane for me to get the score. Those are also actual screenshots that I retrieved from save states of the game that I have had for the last 8 years. I had to use my phone to take photos of the screen because the emulator doesn’t have a screenshot function.

It will be hard to top this. I doubt it, but possibly some day.

My Own Tecmo Bowl?

Having become an independent game developer, I have often tried to think of games that I would like to see but that nobody is doing. It’s one of the reasons I’m developing Ballad of Thuriana. But it has now crossed my mind several times to build my own version of a Tecmo style football game.

I would start with something not unlike Tecmo Bowl Kickoff, with fictional default teams and rosters, but that are completely customizable. I would want a lot more customization abilities, such as the following:

• More colors (RGB would work just fine here)
• More icons/symbols for team logos
• The ability to add custom logos
• Multiple different division alignments based on NFL history
• The ability to export players and teams to be shared with other players
• Rule customization (Canadian, NCAA, XFL, conversion/PAT rules, etc)

But otherwise I’m not sure I would want much to change in gameplay. Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES, SNES and DS hit a sweet spot for me.

What would YOU like to see in a Tecmo Super Bowl style game?

Up next I will begin a few topics that will span one of the most exciting eras of my video gaming past: The 16-bit Wars.