TecmoBowl: Bo Knows 5 Minute TD Runs

[DeToxRox]

Wanna control the clock? Give it to Bo.

hxxp://ebaumsworld.com/2006/07/tecmobowl.html

[Poli]

I didn't copy/paste the link, but I used to run Okoye around the screen over and over again.

[DeToxRox]

the only one who can stop him was lawerence taylor. LT vs Bo = battles.

[Poli]

Dennis Byrd could stop him. Dennis Byrd could do anything.

Ronnie Lott was a bad man as well.

I think the Raiders were the only team I would try to stop the run on every play. Every other team I would pick the pass play on the far right. At least someone else would play pass defense if you chose a pass.

With the Raiders though, screw it. Let them beat you through the air...don't let Bo and Marcus embarass you.

[cthomer5000]

Dennis Byrd could stop him. Dennis Byrd could do anything.

Ronnie Lott was a bad man as well.

I think the Raiders were the only team I would try to stop the run on every play. Every other team I would pick the pass play on the far right. At least someone else would play pass defense if you chose a pass.

With the Raiders though, screw it. Let them beat you through the air...don't let Bo and Marcus embarass you.

yeah, Jay Schroeder and Steve Buerlein didn't scare me at all. Let them throw all day.

[Warhammer]

Screw Techmo, Super Techmo is where it was at!

[stevew]

I remember in John Elway football that the reverse play to the Wingback.....that guy was so f'n fast that you could easily run out a quarter with him.

[miked]

Super Techmo...

Nobody can stop Fulcher and Zander!

Also, Chris Carter=unstoppable.

Of course tops was NO with the attack of the elusive Dalton Hilliard and my personal fave, Ironhead!

[QuikSand]

In Tecmo Super Bowl, I launched the Saints to a playoff career with a rule that the only TDs I could score were with kickoff returns. (The Saints were by far the best team for that, for some weird reason... even Gil Fenerty was a real threat, not to mention the actual talent on tha team)

Heh, house rules even back then.

[Maple Leafs]

Wait, Gil "The Thrill" Fenerty played in the NFL? I never knew that.

[QuikSand]

Yeah, he did a few years with the Saints, even got some starting time for a spell here and there. I still can't say his name without slipping into Chris Berman's thick accented rendition... it's a weakness.

[panerd]

Super Techmo...

Nobody can stop Fulcher and Zander!

Also, Chris Carter=unstoppable.

Of course tops was NO with the attack of the elusive Dalton Hilliard and my personal fave, Ironhead!

Yeah, I had the exact opposite philosphy as Ardent in super tecmo. I would always pick a run play and control Fulcher. If the QB dropped back to pass I could cover every receiver on the field and if it was a run he would usually drop the running back for a loss. I wonder how good last season's Deltha O'Neal would have been in Super Tecmo Bowl?

[Maple Leafs]

Yeah, he did a few years with the Saints, even got some starting time for a spell here and there. I still can't say his name without slipping into Chris Berman's thick accented rendition... it's a weakness.
That's awesome. He was a superstar with the Argos for several years. I think I had posters of him in my room as a kid.

[cthomer5000]

In Tecmo Super Bowl, I launched the Saints to a playoff career with a rule that the only TDs I could score were with kickoff returns. (The Saints were by far the best team for that, for some weird reason... even Gil Fenerty was a real threat, not to mention the actual talent on tha team)

Heh, house rules even back then.

I had a simliar house rule career with the Patriots

1. No advancing the ball on offense. You can punt the ball or kick a field goal immediately, but no offensive plays at all.

Between safeties, and FGs after turnovers or good kick returners, i believe i went 14-2. We got knocked out early in the playoffs though, when the opposition was all "coked up" as my friends and i used to say. Thurman Thomas in the playoffs was scary.

[QuikSand]

The best games, sometimes, were against the coked up opponents. (Never used that phrase before, but it works for me, I know precisely what you mean)

[cthomer5000]

The best games, sometimes, were against the coked up opponents. (Never used that phrase before, but it works for me, I know precisely what you mean)
I wish it had been an option to play at that level at all times. The game could be a genuine challenge deep in the playoffs when teams were playing like that (or when the computer seemed dead-set on keeping you from going 16-0). I mean, even as an experienced player I would occasionally find myself getting upset in the playoffs by a team like the Giants or Bills.

[albionmoonlight]

The best game I have ever played against a computer was beating the Giants in overtime in the Tecmo Bowl with the Oilers.

That Giants defense was insane on coked up mode.

[Pyser]

the giants D was insanely coked up in real life in the 80s, too :)

[MikeVic]

Which team had Ricky Proehl and some RB named... Johnson? I remember using them in my first ever season.

[albionmoonlight]

Which team had Ricky Proehl and some RB named... Johnson? I remember using them in my first ever season.

The Phoenix (not Arizona) Cardinals.

[Terps]

I always used the Giants... Lots of sacks with LT and lots of TD's to Stephen Baker "The Touchdown Maker."

[Honolulu_Blue]

I won $25 my Freshman year of college in a Super Tecmo Bowl league. I took the Chicago Bears and won the whole thing. I ended up beating my roommate (who played the Oilers) in the Super Bowl.

Mark Carrier was the man.

I almost lost the NFC Championship game to the Vikings. I was up by 4. It was the last play of the game. A bomb to Anthony Carter. I ran Carrier all the way back to the endzone. Carter leapt up, caught the ball at around the 9 yard line. Carrier met him at the 5. A mad rush of button mashing commenced, causing both me and my opponent to leap from our seats.

Carter went down.

Game over.

[panerd]

I won $25 my Freshman year of college in a Super Tecmo Bowl league. I took the Chicago Bears and won the whole thing. I ended up beating my roommate (who played the Oilers) in the Super Bowl.

Mark Carrier was the man.

I almost lost the NFC Championship game to the Vikings. I was up by 4. It was the last play of the game. A bomb to Anthony Carter. I ran Carrier all the way back to the endzone. Carter leapt up, caught the ball at around the 9 yard line. Carrier met him at the 5. A mad rush of button mashing commenced, causing both me and my opponent to leap from our seats.

Carter went down.

Game over.

I had a similar experience with the 2nd version of Super Tecmo Bowl for the Sega. Me and my friend were both 17-1 (the customary uncontrollable loss to the computer in like week 10) and were meeting in the super bowl with the Packers vs. Bills. It went to overtime and on the opening kickoff his guy fumbled the ball and Tunch Ilkin picked it up and ran the ball in about 25 yards for the touchdown. The hours my four friends and I had put into the season plus the amounts of alcohol comsumed that night made it one of the most unforgetable video game moments.

[Maple Leafs]

This thread is now about awesome Tecmo stories.

I had a roommate who was not very good at Tecmo (well, actually Super Tecmo). He was playing my other roommate who was quite a bit better. The good player was pretty hyper-competitive, the bad player less so and somewhat goofy.

Anyways, it's late in the fourth quarter and they're tied. This has the good player really annoyed because he can't stand the idea that he's not blowing out the other guy and he knows that we'll never let him hear the end of it if he loses. He's been playing well, the other guy is just getting all the breaks.

Anyways, the bad player gets the ball for first down on his own 20 with about 30 seconds left -- enough for about one play. The good player starts trash-talking him. He's the Raiders, and he's saying things like "I'm going to pick your play, Howie Long is going through your line, he's going to kill your quarterback and he's taking the fumble into the end zone. Bank on it. BANK ON IT!"

(And knowing Howie Long, those of us watching figure there's at least a 50% chance of this happening.)

And the bad player, who's the sort of guy who isn't very good at trash-talking, is just sitting there with a little smirk.

So they pick their plays and line up, and that's when we realize that bad player is in punt formation. He's going to punt it away on first down to make sure Howie Long can't get a defensive TD. And the good player just loses it. He hits pause and just rips into the guy. It was a classic rant, with liberal use of words like "gutless", "coward" and some others that you can probably imagine. And not in the good-nature way -- it looked like there was at least a possibility the guy was actually going to start wailing on him. By the way, the good player outweighs the other guy by like 150 lbs.

So after a few minutes of this, the good players suddenly gets very calm. And then he just stares the other guy in the eye, and announces "I'm taking this kick back for a touchdown". And with that he sits down, looking more focused then I've ever seen. He unpauses, leans in, and gets ready to field the kick.

(At this point the spectators are literally elbowing each other out of the way to get a better view.)

So bad player punts, good player fields it and starts up field. And after about five yards he gets hit, fumbles, and the bad player picks it up and runs it into the end zone as time expires.

Two things happen immediately that I'll never forget. First, the bad player drops the controller and sprints out of the room. I don't even know where he went, but he was gone. Cloud of dust.

And second, the good player begins destroying the room. He smashing potted plants, punching walls, etc. The guy is just enraged. Next door neighbours are peering in windows to see what's going on. And the rest of us are just howling.

It was awesome. If I could go back in time and relive a moment, forget my wedding day. I want to go back there.

[kcchief19]

That is beautiful. That's up there with the night that a buddy of mine started ripping me saying that in NHL '95 on the Sega Genesis that I couldn't play defense, all I did was outscore people. So I bet him that I could beat him by taking only one shot the entire game. If the game stats at the end of the game showed I had taken more than one shot, I lost.

So we start playing and I go into a mode similar to the Tecmo Bo clip above -- lots of passing, skating around in circles like a European player of that era, etc. When I turn the puck over, I check and check frequently, playing tight defense. With about a minute left, I get the puck and the score is 0-0. I set up my patented wraparound goal, shoot and score with 1 second left. My friend politely goes over to the game, turns it off, walks out and we don't hear from him for two days.

He also accused of me of playing better when I was distracted, mainly talking on the phone. We were playing one night and he was beating me pretty good, so I picked up the phone and called somebody to put his theory to the test. I scored seven unanswered goals. After the last one, he rips the phone out of my hand, screams into the phone "Matt can't talk right now, he's playing hockey," and hangs it up.

Good times.

[cthomer5000]

In my last year of high school a friend and I had the most ultra-serious Tecmo career going. I had a a binder in which we tracked season records and our all-time GM records. We even videotaped the Super Bowls (i wish we still had this, but im 99% certain he lost it).

I loved a challenge but he tended to stick with teams he knew (I think he was the Giants in all but 2 seasons of like 15-16 hardcore ones we played). Each week the other person would play as the opponent, meaning if you played well enough you could keep the other guy out of the playoffs entirely and ensure yourself a clear run to the title. Even though I chose some really lousy teams, he never managed to keep me out. Our most epic season was our 3rd (I remember this so vividly).

I was the New York Jets and he the Giants. I clawed my way to a division title with the rotating cast of RBs and whichever QB was hot at the moment. As the season progressed, a linebacker I still to this day have never actually heard of in real life, Joe Mott, kept making absurdly big plays. A safety here, an INT there, a fumble return for TD there. Late in the season I start talking this guy up as if he is Lawrence Taylor, even though we both know his ratings are awful and his success had just been a fluke.

Playoffs come around, and this is where our house rules change. Since the computer steps up their game in the playoffs, the opponent is not human controlled. It's you versus the AI. I grind my way through the AFC (it's really not easy being the Jets against a coked up... well, anyone, in Tecmo). As the Giants he plows through the NFC and we're set for an epic crosstown Super Bowl.

The first half is low-scoring, but dominated by the Giants. I'm pretty certain it was 10-0 Giants at the half, and they get the ball again to start the second. This is where the magic starts. We kick deep to start the second half, and one of our white guys crushes Dave Meggett, he fumbles the ball, and we recover inside the 10. Without any evidence, I immediately declare that Joe Mott caused the fumble. I'm out of my chair and talking shit, trying to convince myself we can do wthis against a much better team. We punch it in the endzone and it's now 10-7 with basically the entire second half to play.

Giants punt, Jets punt, Giants punt. The 4th quarter begins, and we embark upon a lengthy, lengthy drive. Converting a number of 4th and shorts, figthing tooth and nail for every yard with our crap running backs, running screen passes, hitting the tight end, etc. I'm confident we can go all the way, but we're simply running out of time. We're forced to attempt a field goal (a total crapshoot against LT) as time nearly expires, and miraculousy we hit what was probably a 45 yarder (was it Pat Leahy?). This drive itself became legendary for it's abusrd use of clock (I was letting that bitch tick down after every play). I mean, I burned 5+ minutes and only traveled about 60 yards... that's what happens when it's a literal 10 yard fight on every posesssion. But anyway, it's 10-10 and we're going to OT.

Jets win the toss and we once again embark on an abusrd drive. Converting all our 3rd and 2s or 3s... and I can see my friend is just losing his mind at his ability to stop this crap offense. Knowing I got crazy lucky to to have made that last field goal, we're determined to get to the endzone. I know we convert at least one 4th down on there, and I know Ken O'brien scrambleed a few yards for an epic first at one point (there is NOTHING more suspensful than the measurements when you truly don't know where the game is going to spot it). And after what must have been a 16+ play drive, Freeman McNeil takes a swing pass into the endzone and the Jets have pulled off an abusrd upset, all spurred by the fumble Joe Mott (in my opinion) forced. It became the stuff of legends, and was probably the single most memorable game we ever played against each other.

[Poli]

Was there anything more sucky than the nose tackle "dive through the middle"? Mercy, when that was working you couldn't do anything unless you were in shotgun.

My favorite play was probably the strong toss. If that receiver decided to get dirty, he was going to break a couple of defender's legs.

[cthomer5000]

My favorite play was probably the strong toss. If that receiver decided to get dirty, he was going to break a couple of defender's legs.

I loved those cut blocks, absolutely nothing you could do as a defender to stop it.

[Travis]

This thread is now about awesome Tecmo stories.

I had a roommate who was not very good at Tecmo (well, actually Super Tecmo). He was playing my other roommate who was quite a bit better. The good player was pretty hyper-competitive, the bad player less so and somewhat goofy.

Anyways, it's late in the fourth quarter and they're tied. This has the good player really annoyed because he can't stand the idea that he's not blowing out the other guy and he knows that we'll never let him hear the end of it if he loses. He's been playing well, the other guy is just getting all the breaks.

Anyways, the bad player gets the ball for first down on his own 20 with about 30 seconds left -- enough for about one play. The good player starts trash-talking him. He's the Raiders, and he's saying things like "I'm going to pick your play, Howie Long is going through your line, he's going to kill your quarterback and he's taking the fumble into the end zone. Bank on it. BANK ON IT!"

(And knowing Howie Long, those of us watching figure there's at least a 50% chance of this happening.)

And the bad player, who's the sort of guy who isn't very good at trash-talking, is just sitting there with a little smirk.

So they pick their plays and line up, and that's when we realize that bad player is in punt formation. He's going to punt it away on first down to make sure Howie Long can't get a defensive TD. And the good player just loses it. He hits pause and just rips into the guy. It was a classic rant, with liberal use of words like "gutless", "coward" and some others that you can probably imagine. And not in the good-nature way -- it looked like there was at least a possibility the guy was actually going to start wailing on him. By the way, the good player outweighs the other guy by like 150 lbs.

So after a few minutes of this, the good players suddenly gets very calm. And then he just stares the other guy in the eye, and announces "I'm taking this kick back for a touchdown". And with that he sits down, looking more focused then I've ever seen. He unpauses, leans in, and gets ready to field the kick.

(At this point the spectators are literally elbowing each other out of the way to get a better view.)

So bad player punts, good player fields it and starts up field. And after about five yards he gets hit, fumbles, and the bad player picks it up and runs it into the end zone as time expires.

Two things happen immediately that I'll never forget. First, the bad player drops the controller and sprints out of the room. I don't even know where he went, but he was gone. Cloud of dust.

And second, the good player begins destroying the room. He smashing potted plants, punching walls, etc. The guy is just enraged. Next door neighbours are peering in windows to see what's going on. And the rest of us are just howling.

It was awesome. If I could go back in time and relive a moment, forget my wedding day. I want to go back there.

Thank you for that story, a fantastic way to start the day at work. I had a buddy that sounds eerily like the *good* player from this story. Two broken hands and four holes in the wall in his room are the legacy of his temper after losing tightly contested games. Ah, if only a video of your story existed, you could be sharing that for generations.

[MikeVic]

I feel like playing this now.

[SuperGrover]

Great story kcchief19. I remember beating my buddies without a goalie. The games would be like 14-7. NHL hockey was an amazing game.

[condors]

qb eagles = greatest player ever

[bulletsponge]

Tecmo Superbowl sucked more hours out of my life as a teenager than anything else. me and my bro would have epic "play every game" seasons, ahh good times

[Maple Leafs]

That is beautiful. That's up there with the night that a buddy of mine started ripping me saying that in NHL '95 on the Sega Genesis that I couldn't play defense, all I did was outscore people. So I bet him that I could beat him by taking only one shot the entire game. If the game stats at the end of the game showed I had taken more than one shot, I lost.

So we start playing and I go into a mode similar to the Tecmo Bo clip above -- lots of passing, skating around in circles like a European player of that era, etc. When I turn the puck over, I check and check frequently, playing tight defense. With about a minute left, I get the puck and the score is 0-0. I set up my patented wraparound goal, shoot and score with 1 second left. My friend politely goes over to the game, turns it off, walks out and we don't hear from him for two days.
Without any exaggeration of hyperbole, I was the greatest NHL 95 player of all time. Just dominant. I was the Tecmo Bo of NHL 95. (And by the way, I did it without using that incredibly cheap wraparound goal. That was just awful. If you tried that move around my friends they'd stomp you into the ground without thinking twice. The preceding sentence was ghost-written by Hell Atlantic.)

In first year college, we had an NHL 95 league. We held an initial draft, then set up the teams. If you remember, there was no easy way to do this -- there wasn't a draft feature. You had to actually trade each guy one for one until you had the teams set up. We did it. And we even made sure not to screw up anybody's number. We were all fine arts students, in case you were wondering.

Anyways, I won the championship in the first four seasons without much difficulty. My Gilmour/Lindros combo on line one, supported by Federov/Hull (and later Federov/Bure) on line two, was pretty much unstoppable. I could score on one-timers at will. Really. You know how they changed the entire game system after '95? That was because of me.

But one guy in the league, Dave, was also very good (probably top ten in the world, the Vijay to my Tiger Woods). And he got better each year, until season five when we met in the finals. And that's when I realize he's finally done the impossible: he's mastered the art of taking over control of the goalie at the exact right instant to stop the one-timer. Everyone had thought of this, we'd all tried, but it was only a theoretical possibility, like human cloning. Dave could actually do it.

So he's kicking my ass. He's up 3-0 in the series, and I'm just completely flustered. People are in shock. Remember how you felt when you saw Buster Douglas knock out Mike Tyson? That's what this was like. I've gone from winning games 9-0 to losing 3-2 and 2-1, and the fans who are all sick of me are ready to break out the champagne.

(Really. Somebody had champagne. I kind of wish I was making that part up. Let's move on.)

Anyways, I win a tight one in game four, then win back-to-back OT games to tie the series heading into game seven. The tension around game seven was off the charts -- people are skipping final exams to watch the game.

He scores first, but I tie it up on a one-timer (he's good, but he can't stop them all). I get a second one-timer and lead 2-1 after the first. In the second he comes out flying and just dominates me, but can't score. But he's running me out the rink, and when I do get a chance to set up the one-timer he's reading my mind. But he's still down a goal.

In the final minute of the second, he sets up a one-timer. The center is wide open, but I pick the pass off (I never could work the goalie) with Ray Bourque and take off up the ice. I'm curling in the corner looking for the one timer, but I've got a plan. I wait until the play sets up, but instead of passing to the center I use the old "pass-shot" move the faceoff circle. At the exact moment he switches to the goalie and slides across the crease to stop the one-timer, I fire the shot. His goalie moves out of the way and I'm up 3-1. Bedlam.

Intermission comes, and the guy puts down his controller, and says "I need to go somewhere." We're like, "um, where?" He says "I don't know. I just need to be somewhere else." And he walks out of the room.

Dead silence.

Finally someone in the back of the room says "I think that goal broke his spirit."

And it was true. We sat around for half an hour waiting for him. Finally he comes back in, picks up the controller without saying a word, and plays out the third period. I win 3-1, he puts down the controller and leaves again. And I swear to god, he never player a video game with us again. Ever. He basically stopped hanging out with us. He was one of those long-haired, alternative type guys at the time of this story. Today he writes business stories for the Globe and Mail.

I really think I did break his spirit. And I'm kind of proud of it.

[Poli]

I remember taking the Patriots and being victorious, which was no easy task. Strong toss to Stephens, strong dive with Stephens, PA dive and over the top to Dykes (I affectionally called this the "Please catch it" play) and the pop pass to Dykes. Pop Pass? That was the other strong formation pass where the bottom receiver ran a streak. Only I would throw the ball immediately after getting the snap, hoping Dykes would have to dive and catch the ball.Of course, I did like to run the Grogan QB sneak out of the Run and shoot 15 times in a row before finally sending everyone deep the one time my opponent chooses to stop the Grogan sneak.

[cthomer5000]

qb eagles = greatest player ever

yes yes yes. he was a force of nature.

[JeeberD]

Which team had Ricky Proehl and some RB named... Johnson? I remember using them in my first ever season.

Who was it that tried to tell me that Ricky Proehl sucked in Tecmo Super Bowl and gave me grief because I admitted that I got burned by "The Proehl Play" (Proehl on the reverse) time and time again.

Oh, and Ray Childress was the bomb-diggity for the Oilers. The other team was lucky to get a pass off against me when I was manning the nose tackle with Ray.

[Poli]

yes yes yes. he was a force of nature.

I couldn't play with QB Eagles. It would break my heart to run the same plays with McMahon.

[cthomer5000]

Without any exaggeration of hyperbole, I was the greatest NHL 95 player of all time. Just dominant. I was the Tecmo Bo of NHL 95.
I'm fairly certain I am the best Tecmo Super Bowl player of all time. Two friends of the same age made this claim last year... guys I didn't know growing up with. So I bring a nintendo into work, and we play after hours a couple times. I sent both of them into "retirement" (their words, not mine) within 10 games. My friend Shawn was classic, he beat me in the very first game we played, then i beat him 6 consecutive times by staggering margins, including a 46-0 shutout of his beloved Houston Oilers. I still have a picture of the end game screen that i use as my desktop wallpaper at work from time to time. After a couple more beatings (including like 10 straight quarters where he couldn't score on me) he simply gave up.

[Poli]

I liked it when people would accuse me of having a "fumble" code.

[saldana]

i was a pretty good hand at NHL 94 myself, although not one of the top 10 in the world, and none of the guys in my college house even watched hockey much less played Sega, so me sitting in the living room playing sega hockey while they were studying was always a source of annoyance to them.

after a few months of the semester have gone by, a couple guys decide they have had enough of me and my friends that didnt live with us but were always over playing hockey and yelling at each other all the time, so all 5 of them decided they would bet me that if they could beat me one time, i couldnt play for a month...the catch was, i had to be the Ottawa Senators, and they could be either of the All Star teams.

i of course took the bet

these guys spent the next 3 weeks practicing against each other because the terms of the bet only gave each of them two chances to beat me...once i beat them 10 times, i could go back to doing whatever i wanted. the first time through the 5 of them, one of them was able to actually give me a bit of a game, but he had played alot prior to the bet and was ok, but i still didnt even have to try in the 3rd period, and spent the 10 minutes skating around in circles or giving up the puck on purpose so i could check his guy into next week (94 was the year they added the huge checking animations). no one else even came close to hanging with me.

2nd time through i beat the first 4 guys, including the one that actually challenged me without problem, 2 or 3 goal wins everytime, so they are down to the 10th chance, and i sat down thinking i would just walk over this guy like i did the first time....little did i know he had stayed up late pretty much every night playing by himself and all the time while i was at work....pretty soon i am down 3 goals in the middle of the second period..the other 4 guys are screaming from behind me as i make my snail paced rush up ice and get a cheap little deke move goal to make it 3 to 1....anyone that ever played as the sens in '94 know that the deke move wasnt actually an automatic goal for them, since the were all so freaking slow.

at 2nd intermission, i have to get up and walk around a little bit...i was visibly nervous at this point, and very tense. we sit down for the 3rd, and the guy i am playing isnt saying a word to me..i am trying to talk a little smack and he is just stone the whole time ( he was a marathon runner, used to zoning out from the world) i make it 3-2 with about 4 minutes left, and the ball busting from the peanut gallery increases. with 12 seconds left in regulation, i get the crappy wraparound goal to tie it on an end to end rush....my opponent cracks at this point...stands up and drills his controller down, yelling about how he cant believe it....now i am all kind of smug...into overtime we go...it was pretty hard fought, but about 4 minutes in, another wraparound, my opponent stands up without a word, walks out of the living room, and never plays again....it may have had something to do with the victory dance i was doing in all their sullen faces as they sat in disbelief, but i was never sure.

[mrsimperless]

My friends and I used to have single evening playoff events. We would sim the entire regular season and then draw numbers out of a hat and take turns drafting teams to control against each other in the playoffs. For a few of these sessions we even had 12 people together at once and were able to have all teams human controlled. Usually, however we had more like 5 or 6 teams, so it caused some extra strategery in the team selection.

It was on one of these magic nights with all teams full that I had my greatest video game moment ever. I was somehow lucky enough in the draft portion of the evening to get a high number and I was able to select my beloved Eagles for whom I had countless offensive tactics and was virtually unstoppable. I rolled through the playoffs and met a friend who was my equal in tmb prowess for the super bowl. Due to alcohol and other sins most of that night was a blur, including what team my opponent even controlled in the final game. But I do remember the last play of the game like it just happened last week:

We were down more than a field goal but less than a TD in the waning moments of the 4th quarter. My friend is about midfield when we make a stop on third down and he decides to punt the ball and not take any chances. The ball goes a little long for a touchback and there are literally 1 or 2 seconds left in the game at this point from my own 20. Everyone knows a bomb from qb eagles to Fred Barnett is on its way on the next play. So I pick a pass play and instead decide to scramble. I cross the line of scrimmage just as time expires on the clock. Dandy Randy reaches midfield and my friend starts to get nervous. He was a great scrambler, but known more for eeking out those needed first downs than for superhuman long td runs. He reaches the opposing 20 and now everyone is on their feet and cheering. A couple more miraculous escapes and I'm finally caught by the human controlled defender inside the 5 yard line. The button mashing ensues. A blocker flies in from nowhere just as the cpu defenders dive into the spot formerly containing Mr. Eagles. Touchdown Jesus!! I don't think anything else will ever top it.

[Poli]

One buddy and I would play out the season and pick teams in the same division. We'd play out the entire season over the weekend, complete with Pro Bowl voting. Every team was represented in our Pro Bowl as well.

The Pro Bowl voting took the longest. We would go through every player and look at their stats...and determine if they were worthy or not for the selection.

[Johnny93g]

Wraparounds in NHL 94/95 were illegeal in our games. It was a unspoken rule until someone gave us the need to make it a outspoken rule. It was soo cheap using wraparounds. I have lost respect for everyone in this thread who won a big game using the wraparound. :p

[cthomer5000]

I will go down on everyone in this thread who won a big game using the wraparound.


:eek:

[Maple Leafs]

Wraparounds in NHL 94/95 were illegeal in our games. It was a unspoken rule until someone gave us the need to make it a outspoken rule. It was soo cheap using wraparounds. I have lost respect for everyone in this thread who won a big game using the wraparound.
We also outlawed the deke move that saldana mentions. Of course, then somebody would score on a breakaway and they'd spend ten minutes arguing over whether it was technically "the deke move" or not. I hated those people.

We also frowned on the goales where you'd come straight at the goalie and use the pass-button to snap one through their five hole. C-masher goals (i.e. goal mouth scrambles where you just keep slamming the shoot button until it goes it) were allowed but they were something to be ashamed about, not celebrated.

I just assumed everybody played like this. I mean, if you allow the deke move and wraparounds the score would be 20-18 every game.

[cthomer5000]

With Tecmo we always played with 0 house rules against each other. You want to try the nose tackle crap? feel free. More often that not you will get BURNED against a human. The only think that really sucked was FG attempts against the Giants... even if your aim was right you had like a 25% chance of getting a attempt off without LT stuffing it in your face.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I have never, ever played any Tecmo Bowl game. :(

[saldana]

I just assumed everybody played like this. I mean, if you allow the deke move and wraparounds the score would be 20-18 every game.

did i mention i was playing as the 93 SENATORS vs the All Star Team! not exactly an even matchup, so all gentlemans rules about scoring were suspended.

[Hurst2112]

were allowed but they were something to be ashamed about, not celebrated.

just like scoring with the 5-man in foosball.

[Subby]

Maple Leafs - those are two of the best stories I have ever read. :)

[jbmagic]

Tecmo Bowl was way better than Maximum Football.

[Maple Leafs]

did i mention i was playing as the 93 SENATORS vs the All Star Team! not exactly an even matchup, so all gentlemans rules about scoring were suspended.
Was that the year that they had three of their six defencemen rated a 2?

(EA games were way better when players could have an overall rating of '2'. Now everyone is at least a 70.)

[saldana]

Was that the year that they had three of their six defencemen rated a 2?

(EA games were way better when players could have an overall rating of '2'. Now everyone is at least a 70.)
yup, that was the year

[stevew]

It's amazing how Bo is breathtakingly fast, yet still manages to run about 300-500 yards(including sideways) in 5 minutes. Im pretty sure i can even do that.

[Izulde]

I didn't realize until this thread that playoff CPU teams were coked up in TSB. I was wondering why I managed to win the division with the horribly sucky Atlanta Falcons, then got my ass handed to me in the second round. :D

[cthomer5000]

I didn't realize until this thread that playoff CPU teams were coked up in TSB. I was wondering why I managed to win the division with the horribly sucky Atlanta Falcons, then got my ass handed to me in the second round. :D

They weren't always.. sometimes they were still total crap, but the frequency of them being coked up was much, much higher in the playoffs. Usually the only time you saw that in the regular season was when you were nearing an undefeated season. If you're 10-0 or something, sometimes the computer just comes out ready to defeat you by any means necessary.

[MikeVic]

They weren't always.. sometimes they were still total crap, but the frequency of them being coked up was much, much higher in the playoffs. Usually the only time you saw that in the regular season was when you were nearing an undefeated season. If you're 10-0 or something, sometimes the computer just comes out ready to defeat you by any means necessary.

It's things like this that makes me want to see the source code and figure out how this was determined. :)

[Ryche]

My nickname in college was Tecmo. That's all anyone called me for four years. What a beautiful game :)

[MIJB#19]

Maple Leafs - those are two of the best stories I have ever read. :)Yeah, definately!

[Maple Leafs]

Last one...

The big guy who destroyed the room in story #1 is halfway through a game of Tecmo with somebody (maybe the same opponent from the other story, can't remember), when the phone rings. Somebody picks up, and after about 30 seconds they turn to the big guy and tell him that he needs to take the call.

Now this in itself is kind of odd. As somebody else mentioned in this thread, personal phone calls ruin video games. The goofy guy from the first story was notorious for taking "quick" calls from his girlfriend in mid-game that ended up lasting an hour, so we drew the line. We had a rule: no phone calls when you're playing. This was non-negotiable unless it was an emergency, so we know something's up here.

He picks up the phone, and we hear this: "Hey. What? What? Slow down? He what? How? Fuck off. No. No. You're kidding me. Jesus. OK. OK, I'll be right over."

Then he turns to us and announces, and this is a direct quote: "Travis hurt himself playing Tecmo, and I need to drive him to hospital."

Background #1: The big guy drives a K-car from about 1943, which means he's the only guy we know who has a car.

Background #2: Travis is a guy we know who lives with another group of guys about ten minutes away. These guys are also hooked on Tecmo, although they have the original Nintendo version. We feel like the Genesis version Super Tecmo is superior because it has eight plays instead of four, more teams, and fumbles. They think this new-fangled technology is crazy talk and stick with their old school version. We argue about this all the time.

So anyways, we ask what happened and he relays the story. Apparently during the dying monents of a heated Tecmo game, Travis made a critical defensive stop, started jumping around the room, and being a tall guy managed to crack his head on a doorframe. He's bleeding all over the floor, will need stitches, and probably has a concussion.

Dead silence.

Finally somebody says, "So... you're going to finish this game first, right?"

Big guy looks at him like he's an idiot.

"Yes, of course I'm going to finish the game first."

So they get back to the game. Ten minutes later when they're just finishing up, the phone rings again. It's the other house calling to say that it turns out Travis was really bleeding a lot. So they found a neighbor to drive him to the hospital, but thanks anyways.

Here's the kicker: Once the guy explained that he was in the middle of his own Tecmo game and was planning to come over as soon as it was done, the other guys were absolutely fine with that decision. No hard feelings whatsoever. They fully understood that, yes, this was a medical emergency, but he was doing something important.

Travis lived, by the way.

[MikeVic]

WHAT THE HELL! LOL! That seems like something so bizarre that you'd have to make it up! What a great story. :D

[stevew]

Tecmo 3 for the Genesis was great. Tecmo 2 was nearly impossible to find, i never knew it existed even.

[stevew]

Dola.

I think Tecmo 3 even had defensive packages. Kind of a change up on the whole game scheme essentially. May have been the PSX version though.

And if I manage to come into some money, perhaps by winning powerball or something, it's time to develop Tecmo Bowl DS. Wireless handheld with the ability to play over the internet would be sweet. They waste their time making some shitty pisspoor version of Madden, instead of making a fun side scroller type game that people would die for.

[cthomer5000]

Background #2: Travis is a guy we know who lives with another group of guys about ten minutes away. These guys are also hooked on Tecmo, although they have the original Nintendo version. We feel like the Genesis version Super Tecmo is superior because it has eight plays instead of four, more teams, and fumbles. They think this new-fangled technology is crazy talk and stick with their old school version. We argue about this all the time.



You're on the losing side of the argument. The perfect game is Tecmo Super Bowl for the NES. Not just among football games, but among all games, it has the best balance of realism and fun. I mean, almost nothing about the game play itself was realistic, but it tracked stats and had a full season mode, injuries, backup players, guys playing well or poorly, etc.

The others were good, but lacked the true feel of STB for the NES.

3 outstanding stories by the way man.

[Maple Leafs]

OK, I don't know how I missed it, but this must have been posted here, right?

hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCW20aJbmCY
hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIdfrTSdLgM

[cthomer5000]

OK, I don't know how I missed it, but this must have been posted here, right?

hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCW20aJbmCY
hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIdfrTSdLgM

Wow, simply amazing stuff... im laughing my ass off here.

[stevew]

Any tecmo fans with an xbox, this tecmo greatest hits package has the arcade version of Tecmo on it for only 4.99
http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?cookie%5Ftest=1&product_id=210846&affid=99999&sourceid=qIZcRROshg94Amk9yR6@&siteid=0040451529

[Vince]

Those videos are amazing. Not sure how I missed them the first time through.

[JeffW]

Okay... with all this trash talking, someone needs to do a Tecmo Super Bowl Dynasty on FOFC!