Tecmo Original Season with all teams?

[ThatNoiseaFumbleMakes]

Hi All had to register just to post this question.

 

First let me start by thanking you guys for all your hard work these ROMS are awesome.  I have logged tons of tecmo hours and these games I love with updates and new rosters are amazing.  I owned every singe cart version (well US anyway)

 

Tecmo Bowl - went to a party as a jr in HS and saw some kids playing it (this memory of awesomeness is burned into my brain for life)

Tecmo Super Bowl NES and SNES: - countless all nighters playing seasons with friends and regular dorm tournaments

Tecmo Super Bowl II: Special Edition:I had to rent this from Blockbuster and "accidentally" lose it to secure a copy.

Tecmo Super Bowl III: Final Edition: the last of a dying breed

Tecmo Super Bowl: for the PlayStation, - Oh what could have been, I tried to like it I really did.

 

I did find 4P 2007 NES 32 team ROM and I cannot wait to play it tonight.  Being a Patriots fan I was always bitter the original game didn't include them so I was wondering if a copy existed with rosters from that year. 

 

In that same line of questioning since this was released in 1989 was it really 1988 rosters(big steve grogan fan back then and that was his last year)?

 

Thanks again guys love the website.

[TheFes75]

I have a ROM I Created from the Original Tecmo Bowl called Tecmo Bowl 84 (V1.2). It has New England in it, but Tony Eason is the QB. It is located on this site under Downloads/NES - Tecmo Bowl/ Tecmo Bowl 84 (V1.2). It was my first attempt at a ROM Edit/Hack. I know it is not Tecmo Super Bowl, but it is a fun alternative in my opinion. It has a downloadable spreadsheet with all player attributes as we'll.

http://tecmobowl.org/files/file/318-tecmobowl1984v12nes/

Edited January 30, 2014 by TheFes75

[ThatNoiseaFumbleMakes]

Cool will have to check that out I have done some player editing in the past so I can make some changes from Eason to Grogan.

[Dusto]

If I remember right it's sort of a mixed bag. Walter Payton for example retired after the 1987 season and only had 500ish yards, which wouldn't corelate with the stats he has in game either.  The theory is that game development started with him as an active player and afterwards they just kind of left him as drawing point I think. Someone will probably chime in with a better answer than that, but that's the gist of what i recall.

Edited January 30, 2014 by Dusto

[Tecmo-Mad-Brad]

For the most part the original Tecmo Bowl rosters are based off 1987, and the starters those teams had.  With that said, Tecmo was released in February of 1989, so there is clearly a good amount of time lapsed in there, and that led to some changes in the rosters that are notable.    

 

What Tecmo did was for the most part is use the 1987 rosters as the template, but also reflected the big "named" players that moved around in between the 1987 and 1988 seasons.  Wilber Marshall for instance from the Bears to the Redskins as a free agent was correctly portrayed in the game.  Jay Schroeder and Tony Dorsett were traded to LA/DEN heading into 1988, and are represented that way in Tecmo.  Tim Brown's rookie year was 1988, and he was coming off a Heisman trophy campaign in college, so he had some name recognition that they probably felt needed to be added to the game.  Obviously Walter Payton also falls under that same umbrella as Brown, since Payton did retire after 1987 as mentioned by Dusto...but Tecmo must have wanted to showcase his talents.

 

There's 2 teams that really made it easy for me to see that 1987 rosters were the starting blocks.

The Tecmo Cowboys roster had a handful of players who either retired after 1987, or were out of the league for whatever reason by 1988.  The Tecmo Colts defense, player for player mirrors their personnel from the 1987 season.  Their 88 defense was quite different than their Tecmo roster.  Both teams had a decent amount of of turnover with their actual starters in 1988 and that tipped me off that Tecmo had used 1987 starters.

 

At the end of the day I think Tecmo was just a little lazy and didn't bother to make any/many roster adjustments for the no-name guys.  Seems obvious to me they wanted to accurately portray the star player movement, and didn't bother with the rest.  Washington redskins TE Clint Didier had gone to Green Bay in 1988, but still was a Tecmo Redskin. More clues that 1987 was predominant.

 

One guy that does puzzle me a bit and I just chalk up to even more laziness is Derrick Crawford, the 49ers kick returner.  His last year in the league was 1986.  He was not on the 49ers roster in 87.  That could even point to 86 as the earliest point for development.  

 

I've also read some arguments over the team selections, and why the original 12 were chosen.  I can only chalk that up to relevance in that "era".  Bears, Giants, Redskins, and 49ers were all dominant NFC teams from that era, and all having fairly recent super bowl wins around 1987/1988.  Dallas was "america's team" at the time, but just starting to really slide by 86/87.  Minnesota had been like a .500 team around 85/86/87.  The Rams had actually been quite better over that period, so I have no clue why Minnesota was included other than they throttled the Saints and 49ers in the 87 playoffs and almost reached the Super Bowl that year.  They may have fell into the "most recent relevance" category.  Anthony Carter was becoming a major star of the NFL, and Minnesota's defense had a lot of good players.  

 

In the AFC they obviously showcased the great QBs in Marino/Elway with Miami and Denver.  Cleveland had been a perennial playoff team during that time, as did the Seahawks.   You have to go back to 1985 for the last time the Raiders had been in the playoffs.  They had gone 8-8(1986) and 5-10(1987)...but they had won the SB in 1980 and 1983, so they weren't that far removed from SB championships, and had Allen, and Bo.

The Colts had been really bad in 85/86, but acquired Dickerson in 87 and won their division.  Possibly that is what got them in....and also may have kept the Rams out since they couldn't showcase Dickerson with the Rams. In reality New England had been like the Rams and a consistent winner in 85/86.  Colts beat them out for the division title and playoffs in 87.  Perhaps Eric Dickerson single-handedly played a role in how the last few teams were selected....Tailback king will be so proud!              

[Tecmo-Mad-Brad]

I did some research a while back to analyze the rosters  they used for the 1990 Japan version of the original.  The Japan version was released in like October of 1990.  Too tired to try and look anything up, but i'm pretty sure Japan Tecmo was based off the 1989 NFL rosters,  Daryl Moose Johnston was the Dallas RB, and his rookie year was 1989.  Herschel Walker was with MIN on the Japan version, and he was traded in like October of 89 to the Vikings.  San Fran had been super dominant in 89 en route to winning the super bowl, and were also dominant in Japan Tecmo with John Taylor playing  a key role.    

 

Bobby Humphrey was a rookie in 89 and also featured in Japan Tecmo. All signs i looked at quickly pointed to 1989....unsure if they did anything to address roster moves that occured between the 89 and 90 seasons though.  I'll have to do some looking.   

[ThatNoiseaFumbleMakes]

Thanks guys great feedback appreciate the responses.

[primeform]

So what were the biggest stars in 87-89 that were "snubbed" from the game?

[TheFes75]

So what were the biggest stars in 87-89 that were "snubbed" from the game?

First there are 3 different releases. The original, the original but with Clarence Verdin as the Indy kick returner, and Albert Bentley as the running back. Then there was the japan release, which featured the same teams but with updated rosters. Between those three versions they range from the 1986, 1987 season to the rosters to start the 1988 and 1989 seasons.

Because there were only 12 teams in the 3 releases, players like Warren Moon, Jim Everett, Flipper Anderson, Thurmond Thomas, Jim Kelly, Cornelius Bennett, Andre Reed, Andre Rison, Deion Sanders, Drew Hill, Christian Okoye, Sterling Sharpe, Derrick Thomas. Barry Sanders, Ricky Jackson, Pat Swilling, Eric Martin, Al Toon, Freeman McNeil, James Wilder etc.