Tecmo Bowl player colors

[Tecmo-Mad-Brad]

The original Tecmo Bowl featured quite a few players who were given the wrong skin tone.  In an effort to finally get everyone represented correctly, I've been going through all the players and making a list of who was incorrectly represented in Tecmo Bowl. 

 

On a side note, I have a list of offensive lineman and their position posted at my site, but I'm not 100% sure its correct.  I haven't looked into the rom to verify which lineman are where.  My roster chart can be found here....http://www.tecmobowl-vs-rbi.com/tecmo-rosters.html

That chart which I got when this place was still called knobbe.org many moons ago, lists positions RT, Center, LG, LT.  Based on the alignment of the line, it should mean LT is at the top of the line, and RT is at the bottom just above the TE.

 

Here's what I have for the 1989 USA version so far, with player and what color he should be.  Once I'm done with the USA version I'll roll through the Japan version.

I have listed all the O-linemen that should be black, because I'm not positive of where they are on the line.  

I'm listing guys such as Fredd Young, Joey Browner, and Dwaine Board as black, as i'm unsure if a brown skin tone can be used.  

 

1989 USA Tecmo Bowl

49ers: 

Top DE Dwaine Board  (Black)

Bottom OLB Keena Turner (Black)

Kick returner Derrick Crawford(Black)

 

Bears:

None

 

Browns:  

None

 

Broncos:

O-line Stephan Humpries (Black)

 

Colts:

Wide Receiver  Bill Brooks (Black)

Kick returner Albert Bentley  (Black)

O-line Chris Hinton(LT? Black)  Ray Donaldson (C? Black)

 

DT Jerome Sally (Black)

 

Cowboys

Kick returner  Robert Lavette (Black)

TE  Doug Cosbie (White OMG!)

O-lineman  Nate Newton  (Black)

 

MLB  Eugene Lockhart (Black)

Bottom LB  Mike Hegman  (Black)

Top DB Ron Francis  (Black)

 

Browns:  

None

 

Broncos:

O-line Stephan Humpries (Black)

 

Dolphins: 

O-line  Ronnie Lee (Black)

O-line Dwight Stephenson/Roy Foster(black)

Punter  Reggie Roby  (Black)

 

Bottom DE TJ Turner (Black)

Top MLB Jackie Shipp (Black)

Kick returner James Pruitt (Black)

 

Giants: 

O-linemen  William Roberts/Damien Johnson (Black)

 

Seahawks:  

Bottom WR Daryl Turner (Black)

O-line  Edwin Bailey (Black)

Top MLB  Fred Young (Black)

 

Raiders:

Top DB Mike Haynes  (Black)

 

Redskins

Bottom OLB  Mel Kaufman (Black)

 

Vikings:

Punter Greg Coleman

Top DB Joey Browner

Edited June 9, 2013 by Tecmo-Mad-Brad

[TheFes75]

Chris Hinton and Ray Donaldson are both black players. I believe you have the positions right in accordance to where they line up.

[Tecmo-Mad-Brad]

Chris Hinton and Ray Donaldson are both black players. I believe you have the positions right in accordance to where they line up.

It appears so.  Donaldson and Solt have the high hitting power.  I watched the Center(Donaldson) repeatedly popcorn a DB in no time flat. Solt seems to always popcorn his guy next. 

 

That chart just might be right after all.  

Ugh.  If so then I probably need to figure out which guys they put at center who may have actually been a guard or tackle.  That's minor shit, so it can wait, but i can about guarantee they F'd some of that up as well.  

Edited June 9, 2013 by Tecmo-Mad-Brad

[Tecmo-Mad-Brad]

Random thoughts and observations.

 

-Ironic that Japanese programmers/developers botched "America's team" more than any other club.

-Apparently those Japanese folks watched too much of the Cosby show back in the 80's, as Dough Cosby is the only white guy who was black on Tecmo.

-Tecmo having 2 black punters makes for good trivia, since everyone pretty much only knows of Roby.

 

It was a chore tracking down pics of a few of these guys.  I eventually had to turn hunting through ebay media photos to find a few.  One guy took a lot of hunting, to the point where I located a faculty picture from the high school he teaches at, crossed referenced that with some other info/articles to piece it together.  Yeah, I stalked in the name of Tecmo Bowl.

 

I probably screwed up like one guy here somewhere, but whatever.  My initial thought was that back in 1988 they didn't have the internet to find all these guys, and it would have been especially hard to find the no-name guys.  However with that said, go buy a few team yearbooks for 1987 and 1988 and you could nail them all down...so they get a big fat F for laziness.     

[Tecmo-Mad-Brad]

The 1990 Japan Cleveland team is a 3-4 team but if you look at their positions on www.pro-football-reference.com they should have been a 4-3 team but that would change some of the players on the game. 

 

Based on the line-up, the USA Browns look correct in 3-4.  I'll look into the Japan version.  That would be a cool little wrinkle to have them with a different alignment in each version.

 

If you look at the Vikings (Both Japan and USA) positions on the game they are listed position wise as a 4-3  but when they actually line up they are a 3-4. Keith Millard should be a Top defensive tackle but in the game he lines up as the top Inside Linebacker. Henry Thomas is also a defensive tackle but he lines up at Bottom inside linebacker because of the positions snafu.  If you go to www.pro-footballreference.com the teams Minnesota are based on were 4-3 teams.  Especially the 1990 Japan version which is based on the 1989 season.  In that season Millard won Defensive Player of the Year at Defensive Tackle. 

 

These Browns/Vikings changes should be made to reflect a little more accuracy, and they don't mess with the gameplay.  

[Bo Knows]

Killer detective work. Funny how there's only one white guy represented as black. As for oline positions I researched this a while back and have a list I can post up. Off the top of my head I'm reasonably sure they are listed in the order as they appear on the roster screen regardless of "listed" position. Like the first guy listed is the top tackle and the last is at the bottom.

[Bo Knows]

You can find where every olineman is on the line here. https://sites.google.com/site/tecmobowlsite/team-roster

 

The offensive line from top of the screen to the bottom is labeled "TT" top tackle, "G" Guard, "C" Center, and "TB" Tackle bottom. For example IND's oline from top to bottom is Hinton-Solt-Donaldson-Utt.

[Tecmo-Mad-Brad]

Working on the Japan Tecmo rosters now.  Colts have Kurt Larson listed as an O-lineman.  Problem being he was a linebacker, and weighed all of like 235.  Guys like Chris Hinton, and Ben Utt both started at least 14 games and were not on the Tecmo roster.    One was due to there only being 4 slots.  Unsure why this was so F'd up.  There was a guy named Kevin Call...perhaps the K's got mixed up.

Edited June 10, 2013 by Tecmo-Mad-Brad

[Tecmo-Mad-Brad]

Thanks to archived web pages, i was able to find the rosters for the 1989 USA version over the winter when I was creating a roster page on the site.

http://tecmosuperbowl.org/TBplayers89.htm

What is interesting here is that Matt had the Vikings listed a 4-3 teams, even though they are both 3-4 in Tecmo.

 

Did some digging, only to figure out I only needed to change "89" with "90" in the address to find the 1990 rosters

http://tecmosuperbowl.org/TBplayers90.htm

 

Yet to come up with the "roster comparison" url...I'll try a few more combos.

 

Thankfully I still had an original sheet printed off from many years back to get this going.  That aided in hunting down all the names.  On these rosters sheets, many players were just listed with a 1st initial for their first name.  

Edited June 11, 2013 by Tecmo-Mad-Brad

[Tecmo-Mad-Brad]

The 90 Japan Browns appear via stats to be a 4-3 team as suggested.  Michael Dean Perry was left out of Tecmo Bowl.  I think he was also missing from TSB as well.  Perhaps he was a Dickerson type that didn't want to be on the game.

 

The Browns 4 LBs were on the roster in 89, so it still holds water and the odd man out (Eddie Johnson) still saw action in all 16 games.  They did however butcher the D-line a bit having Carl Hairston and Robert Banks positions swapped, provided my Japan list here is correct.  I'll have to play the Japan version tomorrow to see for myself.

 

I think I'll pass on altering the Browns to a 4-3, as it would require adding a new player.  I will say that Michael Dean Perry had a pretty nice sophomore year in 1989 with 7 sacks and 92 tackles.  

 

I still agree on all fronts that the Vikings would be properly represented as a 4-3 though.

[TheFes75]

The 90 Japan Browns appear via stats to be a 4-3 team as suggested.  Michael Dean Perry was left out of Tecmo Bowl.  I think he was also missing from TSB as well.  Perhaps he was a Dickerson type that didn't want to be on the game.

 

The Browns 4 LBs were on the roster in 89, so it still holds water and the odd man out (Eddie Johnson) still saw action in all 16 games.  They did however butcher the D-line a bit having Carl Hairston and Robert Banks positions swapped, provided my Japan list here is correct.  I'll have to play the Japan version tomorrow to see for myself.

 

I think I'll pass on altering the Browns to a 4-3, as it would require adding a new player.  I will say that Michael Dean Perry had a pretty nice sophomore year in 1989 with 7 sacks and 92 tackles.  

 

I still agree on all fronts that the Vikings would be properly represented as a 4-3 though.

The allignment for the Browns if you were to change them should be:

 

4-3 allignment

 

TDE - Baker

MLB - Mike Johnson (Pro Bowl)

BDE - Banks

TOLB - Grayson

TDT - Hairston

BDT - M.D. Perry (All Pro)

BOLB - Clay Mathews (Pro Bowl)

TDB - Minnifield (Pro Bowl)

BDB - Felix Wright (Lead the NFL in Interceptions with 9)

[Tecmo-Mad-Brad]

Next batch of mistakes.....

1990 Japan Tecmo Bowl

49ers: 

O-lineman  Guy McIntyre (Black)

Kick returner Spencer Tillman(Black)

 

Bears:

Bottom WR Wendell Davis  (Black)

Bottom outside LB  John Roper  (Black)

 

Browns:  

Kick returner Mike Oliphant  (Black)

NT  Robert Banks  (Black)

LB  David Grayson  (Black)

O-lineman  Kevin Simons (I can't find a pic of this  guy, but the other 3 OL are all white, so that suggest he is Black).  Simons career was apparently only 1 season, so its been hard to find anything..

 

Broncos:

O-line Gerald Perry (Black)

DE  Andie Townsend  (Black)

 

Colts:

Wide Receiver  Clarence Verdin (Black)

Kick returner James Pruitt  (Black)

O-line Steve Knight,  Ray Donaldson, Randy Dixon (Black)

 

DE  Jon Hand  (Black)

LB  Jeff Herrod (Black)

top outside LB  Duane Bickett  (White)

 

Cowboys

O-lineman  Nate Newton  (Black)

DE  Tony Tolbert  (Black)

DT  DEan Hammel  (White)

Bottom outside LB  Ken Norton (Black)

DB  Manny Hendrix  (Black)

 

Dolphins: 

O-line Roy Foster(black)

Top DE  Jeff Cross (Black)

Bottom DE  TJ Turner  (Black)

DB  Rodney Thomas  (Black)

 

Giants: 

O-linemen  William Roberts/Eric Moore (Black)

Bottom WR Mark ingram  (Black)..his name is also spelled wrong.  On the game it "Make Ingram"

TE  Zeke Mowatt  (Black0

 

 

Seahawks:  

O-line  Edwin Bailey (Black)

Kick returner  James Jefferson (Black)

LB  Darren Comeaux  (Black)

 

Raiders:

O-lineman  Rory Graves (Black)

WR Mervyn Fernandez  (Black)

Kick returner  Stephon Adams (black)

 

DE  Scott davis (White)

LB  Linden King (White)

LB  Ron Burton  (Black)

LB  Tom Benson  (Black)

 

Redskins

O-lineman  Raleigh McKenzie  (Black)

Kick returner  Joe Howard  (Black)

DE  Fred Stokes (Black)

 

LB  Wilbur Marshall (Black)

DT  Tracy Rocker  (Black)

LB  Brian Bonner  (Black)

DB  AJ  Johnson  (Black)

--Side Note LB is mis-spelled  Should be Caldwell, not Caldwall.

 

Vikings:

O-lineman  Randall McDaniel  (Black)

LB  Mike Merriweather  (Black)

[TheFes75]

Brad, I think NT - Greg Kragen on the Japan Denver teams name is spelled Kargen instead of Kragen. That is just off the top of my head.

[Tecmo-Mad-Brad]

Yeah, I think you're right.  I seem to recall that now.  

 

I always wondered a bit why Tim Brown wasn't on Japan Tecmo, but never investigated.  He tore ligaments in his knee in 89 and had surgery.  Played in only 1 game.  I suppose back in those day that could have been a career ending injury.  

[Prof_Werwolf]

Color correction for the Walter Payton Todd Bell high-five?  I know they have different jersey numbers, but two white guys instead of two black guys?

[Tecmo-Mad-Brad]

I'm not the guy to ask if that can be changed, but I have my doubts that it could correctly represent who scored by jersey number, and what color they are.