For love and Tecmo...

Super Tecmo Bowl, the greatest football video game... EVER.

There are things every boy growing up in America during the 1990's experienced and looks back with fond memories - little league; the first time you heard Ice, Ice, Baby; Kathy Ireland on the cover of Sports Illustrated; roller skating parties; recess. However, there is one memory that sticks out to me above all others that was pivotal to my development, both as a person and as a football player. It's a little game called TECMO SUPER BOWL on the original Nintendo Entertainment System.

While other boys were busy guiding a plumber past turtles and through pipes utilizing an incredible vertical jump (Super Mario Bros.) or placing geometric figures in order (Tetris), I was honing my skills with Montana to Rice, juking with Barry Sanders or Bo Jackson, or going deep with mysterious "QB Bills." * Yes, Super Tecmo Bowl was a classic as the first video game to have the official license by both the NFL and the players association, which meant it could use actual teams and names. You could play an entire season with the actual NFL schedule, racking up ridiculous stats and guiding your team to the (hence the name) Super Bowl. Unlike other games at the time, on Tecmo the players ran fast; and the fluff was all cut out -- there were only 8 plays, no injuries or substitutions on defense, and any time something important happened (punt, kick, catch) a cool little cut-in video would show the action. For me, it was football bliss.

To say Tecmo has a cult following is an understatement. Hackers have updated the game with modern players, and fans are constantly posting videos on the web. Here, as an example of "what happens when someone has too much time on their hands" is a recreation of Brandon Stokley's amazing catch - or immaculate deflection as some are calling it - from the opening weeks of the 2009 NFL season.

Now, not all parts of the game were realistic - both in the players and the strategy of the game. Case in point: BO JACKSON. We all know that "Bo knows football," yet in real life Bo Jackson never rushed for 1,000 yards in an NFL season. However, the makers of Tecmo Super Bowl were so impressed by the guy who posed wearing only shoulder pads and a baseball bat, that they gave his player a 99 rating for speed, giving him the opportunity to rush for 1,000 yards in a single game. Bo Jackson in Tecmo was the equivalent of Usain Bolt running against six-graders. Add in the fact that when carrying the ball, a "zig-zag" pattern keeps any "must run in a straight line" tacklers from catching you, and you have some crazy situations. Check out this video:

Bo Jackson goes 99 yards... and eat up an entire quarter of clock. Enjoy!

The reason I bring this all up is that in my quest for off-season diversions, I began thinking about good ol' Tecmo Bowl so I decided to type it into Google. Suddenly, a link appeared that read, like seeing a mirage in the desert, "Play Tecmo on your Mac." Curiosity led me to click on this link, and 20 minutes later I was teeing up the 1991 San Francisco 49ers against the Buffalo Bills. It was glorious.

(The actual way you do this is by downloading an emulator, which is the official term for a program that let's you play a video game system, such as the original 8-bit Nintendo System. Once this program is downloaded, you can then search for files called ROMs that are the actual games. In fact, there are websites - and I'm not vouching for their legality - that have the entire roster of all video games ever created. Emulator plus ROM = crazy fun. I'd post a link but I'll leave that up to you...)

Now for the bragging part - I'm unstoppable with the 1991 San Francisco 49ers, much to the delight of Daniel Dieplinger and Alban Egger (both huge fans in the Tirol region.) Here's a little breakdown of the league stats, through week 11 of the emulated season:

Montana is holding his own, with 63 TD passes...

... and a few more yards than his nearest competition.

... and a quartet of Niners at the top of the receiver standings... BLISS!

~ J. Twice

* A funny anecdote to the game is that a few players in the NFL wouldn't allow the game to use their real name. These players instead were listed by their position and team. Jim Kelly was QB Bills and Randall Cunningham became QB Eagles.