All of the Saturn talk in the other thread got me to dig out probably my favorite game for the system, one of the games I've probably logged more hours into than any other single game on any system, one that grew on me majorly and became an all time favorite:



I played through a full 162 game season on this over the span of like 5 or 6 years(maybe longer, like 7 or 8 years). At one point the connection on my memory cart got messed up and I thought the season had been wiped so it laid dormant for a year or so before I tried it again and was able to get it working again. Through the course of the 162 game season I learned how to play the game of baseball really for the first time fully and properly, learned how the designated hitter rule worked, learned the ins and outs of pitcher rotation, how the minor league system worked, how stealing bases works, how the stats of baseball work and what all that shit stands for, it all traces to this game.

I started out like 0-20 in my season but ended up winning the pennant and making the playoffs. I lost to the Rockies in the playoffs in 6 games of the series(not the World Series but like the conference finals? Was there wild card back then?). I was down 3 games to 1 in game 5 and it will be one of the greatest video games of any sports game I will always remember, it ended up tied up and going into extra innings, just white knuckle intensity for like 16 innings, amazing. I was able to make a epic comeback and win game 5 but torched all of my pitchers in the process, got killed in game 6 and was so crushed that it was all over after all of those games. Only other single sports video game I can remember like that is quadruple overtime game of NBA Jam on Sega against my little brother back in the day haha. Such a fun season to play through though.

But to me the game shits all over any other baseball video game ever made. I've tried all of the ones that people say are better and they aren't. This is sublime baseball perfection. The game is like in a 3D environment with this beautiful vibe about it, the players are 2D sprites instead of the polygons and it's just more fun to control them. The gameplay and controls is so fluid and silky smooth, complex and deep, yet so easy to play(always hard for me to just play one game). The game plays really well with all of the different Saturn controllers(pitching is pretty sweet with the analog stick on the 3d pad). Pulling off double plays is a breeze, and I've come close to pulling off a few no-hitters with the Astros pitching squad. The pitching and batting is perfect, the music, commentary, little noises in the menus when you click on something, the fonts in the texts, everything about this game hits the fucking spot major big time. It's just all class and has aged extremely well. It's ruined all other baseball games for me when I try to play one all it does is make me want to break the Saturn back out and come back to this.

So I played my season with the Astros and just now realized that there is an entire different other league with teams and stadiums I never played in those 162 games, like a whole new world. I think I'm going to fire up another season, this time with the Seattle Mariners, always thought Griffey Jr. was cool. 

Anyone ever play Little Sampson (NES)? Pretty infamous for being super expensive on ebay.

@ness I have not but as a collector it's one that I've always been aware of. Could you imagine stumbling upon that at a garage sale or one of those retro game shops that didn't know what they had? I remember finding John Madden Football 93 Championship Edition at a GameXchange it's a rare Blockbuster exclusive that is worth a lot more but they had it for sale for the usual 1.95 that all the Madden games go for. Jackpot.

I have finally conquered my white wale yesterday and won the Super Bowl in Tecmo Super Bowl with the Houston Oilers. Baker get in here and lets spray champagne all over the place it's fucking celebration time.

I started up a season last week with the Oilers. This is my 4th run at the Super Bowl in this game and I can still remember how the other 3 finished:

2009- Washington Redskins; 9-7, won NFC Championship but lost Super Bowl to Buffalo
2015- Houston Oilers; 11-5, lost AFC Championship to Buffalo
2019- New Orleans Saints; 7-9 missed the playoffs
2023- Houston Oilers 2.0; 13-3, Won Super Bowl XXVI

This is really a remarkable game that I really amazes me what all it does for a 8 bit NES game on what, 4MB of ram? Or less? The most remarkable thing about the game is the cult like fan following it has developed since it came out. I'm surprised if Baker isn't in some of the TSB Facebook groups but some of them are a really good time. People love this game so much they really don't fuck around. I got perma banned from one just for remotely suggesting that some of the early Genesis Madden games did certain things better than TSB... BANNED and that was a dope group too.

It's like a cult. This game came out in 1991 for the NES at a time after the Genesis and SNES were already out. The first Madden had come out a full year before this in the end of 1990. They have modded this game every year with updated rosters. There is an ebay page where you can buy versions of the game with classic rosters going all the way back to 1966, and you can buy ACTUAL NES cartridges of the updated modded games complete with printed covers and all.

tecmobowl.org/

I know a year or so ago there was an Ebay page selling actual cartridges for each season from 1966 to modern day, I think it's been taken down idk. I've played the 2019 version back when it came out and I actually didn't like all the added features they hacked into the gameplay, to me it kind of screwed the game up a little bit. But there are true masters of this game that have figured everything about inside and out that needed new tweaks and challenges to keep it fresh so I understand.

I'm late to the TSB party actually. I had a friend when I was 8 that had the game must have been around 92 so about a year after it came out. I had already been playing Madden 93 on SNES and was pretty crazy about football at the time. He was stoked as hell to show me Tecmo Super Bowl and seemed like a lot of kids at school had raved about it too. But when we played it I actually didn't like it. I didn't like the sideways view and for some reason it just felt overly complicated compared to Madden 93. I didn't like the controls. After that I always turned my nose up at all Tecmo football games through the rest of my childhood. I think by the mid-90's NES's were about gone and harder to find so I never came back to it until I got into collecting old video games in the 2000's. Even when I got into collecting around 2003 I always passed over Tecmo football games, I was a Sega/Montana and Madden guy for sure.

I didn't appreciate Tecmo Super Bowl until I got internet access around 2008. Finally picked up a copy in 2009 and fell head over heels in love with it. For an NES game it's really hard to explain what it is exactly about Tecmo Super Bowl as a whole that just really amazes me. The whole thing with the controller only having 2 buttons and the computer of the NES only being able to do so much, but yet they were still able to put together a package here that is like a game you would want to have with you if you were stranded on a desert island.

One of the elements to me that makes the game great(and this is what I love a lot about the older games I still have) is that they are like interactive time capsules for the era they came out in. Tecmo Super Bowl bleeds 1991 NFL, a season that really stands out in NFL history for the balance of all time great players still playing at a high level, while a lot of stars that would go on to dominate the 90's were either entering the league or coming of age. And somehow I feel like that season being the season in Tecmo Super Bowl puts that season over even more, like you could make a documentary about the 1991 NFL season and you would have to throw in that this was the year they put into Tecmo Super Bowl in the doc.

But lets trek back a bit and think about how this game developed the true CULT following that it has. Was this game really that big of a hit when it came out in 1991? The SNES was already out, the Genesis had been out for 2 years, it's odd in itself that such a great game would be released this late in the NES life. I remember it being a big deal in real time but I feel like within a year or two after it came out nobody had an NES anymore.

So this cult following had to have developed in the internet age right? Not only did they mod the game to update the rosters but modders figured out how to update team uniforms/colors/logos/helmets, even adding the extra expansion teams and changing the entire division alignment(there were six divisions and 28 teams when the game was made, 12 years later they re-aligned the 32 team league into 8 divisions).

But this game has cult status as an NES game it gets mentioned fairly regularly on ESPN or commentary for NFL/College football games, it's really just become a regular part of sports lexicon. There are actual tournaments held annually all over the country and people flock to them(there was an ESPN documentary about them a while back that is probably still on youtube).

It's really incredible what all is on this little cartridge for it's time on an NES. The fact that you can play through a full 16 game season was several years ahead of it's time. And it's not just that there is a season it's how the season works, it's not a season it's a fucking journey, like an RPG video game. The season starts out easy then gets harder and harder, guys get hurt and you can't use them for games until they come back from the hospital. There is a full 28 team roster of NFL players all on the game, each player has a hand drawn face pic on the data page, personalized ratings in different categories(very accurate ratings for the most part too). The genius thing about the game is that every player has a physical condition life meter that fluctuates throughout the 16 game season. If your guys are in bad physical condition they are going to struggle and make mistakes, if they are in excellent condition they will dominate the game. This is absolutely fucking beautiful that this game is able to manage that with a full 28 teams so accurately. On a fucking NES. What really blew my mind on this playthrough was after the season taking a look at the AFC/NFC Pro Bowl rosters and just now realizing that you can go through an personalize your own All Star teams with every player in the game. Thats nuts.

Then there are the little cut scenes. They got these just right, and I love how every once in a while you will get a small cut scene that you only rarely ever see like maybe 2-3 times through the course of the season. Then there are the other small things, the oscillating color effect of the text(always love that in all NES games), the little sound effects, the music. It's all the little things that keep the NES original version the best, all of the sequels and updates they did on the SNES/Genesis just lost that charm because they changed a lot of the cut scenes and all the little things, the whole vibe was just off.

The gameplay is addictive and fun. The thing that makes it great is how challenging it is in single player mode. The computer will straight up whoop your ass sometimes. None of the other old school football games can kick your ass like Tecmo Super Bowl will do. I lost a game to the Chiefs 37-3 and it was such a killer beat down I could only just stand in awe that a Nintendo could kick my ass like that. In order to win the Super Bowl I had to swap out my running back with one of my receivers to finally be able to run the football and swap out some of my plays in the playbook. It was a fun challenge but I was really determined this time and made it happen. 

This was such a fun season to play though. I went 13-3 with Houston and just killed everybody in the playoffs and Super Bowl. I got lucky and missed Buffalo instead beat Miami in the AFC Championship Game then beat Washington 21-5 in the Super Bowl. After 3 failures to finally get it felt pretty sweet. The screens you get for winning your division, conference, and the Super Bowl are a nice treat. I love how the final credits roll and the game ends with that rabbit leaning on the Tecmo logo and it just stays there until you push a button or something. Also the game saves all the data and everything from that season pretty much forever. If you put the game back in the NES 20 years from now my data from this season will still be there, when you hit "Game Start" it just replays the "Super Bowl Champion Oilers" screen and replays the final credits. Forever. So this cartridge of TSB will be retired from season play I just want that to stay on there. I don't know what the batteries from these NES cartridges were made out of but they need to be studied by science.

Neo Zeed my brother and I were among the first to get Tecmo Super Bowl. The way I remember it we got it the day of a Jets/Dolphins Wild Card game. Well a bit of research reveals that "Wild Card game" was actually a do or die Week 17 matchup with the winner going to the playoffs and the loser going home (Jets won btw). Date was 12/22/91. TSB came out "in December 1991." So my story checks out. Also proves I was an early adaptor for once. Guessing our parents or some lazy relative just gave us $50 and told us to pick up a video game for Christmas and we hit the jackpot with a game neither of us even knew existed before that day. We bought it on a whim because Tecmo! Football! While the sequel obviously blew it out of the water, the original Tecmo Bowl was the best football game ever played up to that point.

We would soon become obsessed with TSB. A pattern which repeated itself over the next football season or two. After trying out all the teams, and probably all the matchups (for we played it a lot during the early 90s), our big thing became letting the season play out in skip mode and only playing the Super Bowl. He always represented the AFC while I went to bat for the NFC.

49ers vs. Bills was the most common SB outcome as they were the two best teams in that order, but it was by no means a lock. You'd get the Giants, Oilers, and whole bunch of other teams in there. We'd always mark out when a jobber team snuck into the playoffs, or a star QB would get hurt and a good team missed the playoffs. We kept records of playoff appearances, Super Bowl outcomes, MVPs, etc. because of course we did. I'd give much and more to have all my old notebooks magically reappear. Oh, one of our quirks was we'd only go up to Super Bowl XXV, I think it was. Then we'd start over again at I rather than go to XXVI. My beloved Saints would sneak into the SB about once a cycle.

The most memorable of these Super Bowls, and I'm kicking myself for not mentioning it in the "most frustrating video game moment" thread, is the time I marched down the field late in the 4th Quarter looking to tie or win with a field goal only to accidentally click punt by mistake while inside the 10 yard line. UGH! The name Mike Saxon rings a bell, but he was a Cowboy, and I don't think they were very good in TSB? I do remember my brother was the Oilers in that tragic affair.
 
The Patriots sucked. Browns were rubbish as well. Couldn't do anything with those jabronis, though my brother was a Ray Agnew fan. Didn't NE have The Wrinkle as well? That was one of my favorite plays. I called it The Wrinkle. Know the Seahawks (another jobber team) had it as well. It wasn't good, mind you. I just thought it looked cool in the diagram. It was a running play. My other favorite play was the 15 yard pass to the tight end up the middle. Rams & Bears had it. I scored so many touchdowns with Pete Holohan and the immortal Cap Boso it's not funny. I didn't like throwing the ball from end zone to end zone. Too unrealistic. I would be realistic even if the game would not. My brother had no such qualms. 

Weirdly remember playing more at my grandmother's than my own abode. OK, I have to explain this. My grandmother turned 83 in late 1991 and (obviously) did not play video games. But she lived in an apartment above a bar owned by my older cousin who basically lived there as well. How my grandmother ended up there is a long story that eventually caused a huge falling out between that side of the family and my mom which lasted nearly 30 years, but the point is my brother and I loved going there as much as grandmother hated living there. The Nintendo belonged to the older cousin/bar owner and I'm sure he got it for us and the other kids as much as for himself. His own games included Mario 3, Marble Madness, Bowling, Baseball Stars (the TSB of baseball games- we soon got a cartridge of our own), and the immortal Casino Kid which is where my brother and I learned how to play poker. Not gonna lie. We played more Casino Kid than Mario 3. Anyway, we played a lot of TSB there as well. For some reason NES never worked too well at our house. We had multiple consoles over the years and they were all forever glitching. This rarely if ever happened at my grandmother's.

We played a few season modes in those days. Remember doing one with the Redskins and another with the Rams. We'd take turns, getting off to a hot start before inevitably going into a slump. The computer got better as the season progressed. Also played a bit with my cool older friend Vogel- the Hogan-loving, Slaughter & Flair-hating, Heaven Above guy who fancied himself King of the Neighborhood. Remember once letting him borrow TSB for “a long time”…which was probably more like two weeks. Time moved a lot slower back then! Vaguely remember him being a Chiefs guy in TSB which is weird because he was Oilers fan(!) in real life, and the Oilers were a top 5 team in TSB.

Most dominant players were Bo Jackson (duh), LT, and....Chiefs NT Dan Saleaumua (more on him in a minute).

OK, you're gonna want to sit down for this next shocking revelation. Over time I GREW TO HATE TECMO SUPER BOWL~! Yeah, that's right. I went there. It stopped being fun for me after a while. My brother learned this trick with the Nose Tackle that could get a sack/tackle for loss on nearly every play. He discovered it with the aforementioned Saleaumua, but it extended to most (all?) Nose Tackles. And even if there was ONE play per team you could foil his cheat with, all he had to do was pick that play and you'd still be screwed. So, yeah, it stopped being fun for me. Who wants to play a stupid football game when you can get a sack (or get sacked) every play and heave chuck unrealistic 100 yard end zone to end zone passes? Not this guy! For the record TSB's baseball equivalent, the famed Baseball Stars, also went from loved to loathed as I/we became too good and the game got too easy. 

Back around 2014 my brother whipped out the old Tecmos and would win every game against the computer like 70-0 en route to Super Bowl championship after championship. What's the point? Although this MAY have been OG Tecmo rather than TSB. Can't remember for sure.

Bill Walsh College Football on the Sega Genesis supplanted TSB as MY football game. I was untouchable in that one. We'd play it at my friend Jensen's across the street. He was also a big NHL, Dragon Warrior, Shining Force, and Uncharted Waters guy. I didn't even care for him all that much. He was really more my brother's friend than mine. But his stellar taste in video games cannot be denied. Anyway, swear I don't remember losing a single game in Bill Walsh with my beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers. This is when I learned to love the triple option after thinking it was SO BORING as a kid. It's one thing to win 70-0 with 20 sacks by your NT and goofy end zone to end zone TD passes. That's boring. There's no drama. And it leaves your opponent wanting to do literally anything else. What I did in Bill Walsh was much more sinister. I demoralized people. I crushed spirits by giving them hope before inevitably pulling out victory in the end with 20 play drives lasting an entire quarter predicated on 4 yards and a cloud of dust. That's FOOTBALL, BABY! I'd always get the ball at halftime so I didn't even care if I got down 14 points in the first half. Never once do I remember feeling as if I was in trouble in BW. I'd inevitably get a stop or create a turnover before running my way to sweet victory.

Similar deal with one of the early Madden's on Genesis where Bettis was on the Rams, though I did not play that one nearly as much as Bill Walsh or early 90s TSB. Also did my whole "4 yards and a cloud of dust" thing with Eddie George and the Tennessee Oilers (sorry!) on another early Madden, this one on the Super Nintendo(?) at Matt The IRS Fan's house. But I wasn't as effective in this one as I had been on Walsh and the Bettis Madden so sometimes I was forced to pass. UGH! YUCK! GROSS! Of course on those tricky situations when I was forced into passing my go to play was hitting TE Frank Wycheck for 10 yards over the middle in a throwback to the Holohan/Boso TSB days lol.

The Madden series were the last video games I regularly played. Got 'em up to....05 or 06 maybe? They're admittedly interchangeable, but then again I thought the same thing about the Smackdown games. 

As someone who doesn't watch football, that was an amazing write-up, Baker. It reminds me of growing up with my younger brother and we would do something similar with NHL Stanley Cup and NHL '94.

So been playing Mario 3 a bit. A world here and there. Totally cheating on the card game using the rewind feature LMAO. In fact I do that for my deaths too. Dude I'm not redoing that section fuck off. This is useful and I'm totally abusing it.

That is fucking brilliant and makes me want to try it that way. Mario 3 is my favorite Mario game and one of my favorite games ever. I've never played through the full game through every level, always have skipped worlds with the whistle.

Baker delivering the goods with TSB, thats the good stuff there. Love it.

I never realized or knew that the difficulty in single player mode gets tougher as the season progresses until you posted something about it on the old PW last time it came up. That is definitely a thing and to me one of the best things about the game. That is what makes it so replayable all these years later. I scored 49 points in both of my first two games then it started to get more challenging from there. It puzzles me how the game is able to determine when to crank up the juice? It's that smart? AI football kicking my ass? On a Nintendo from 1985? This can't be. What about if you were to go through and change the skip/man deal to another team does the super juiced AI follow you around the league? This is fascinating stuff.

Houston is pretty stacked in the game for sure. The problem I ran into with them was the running back being so slow and fumbles a lot. This was the problem last time I played a season and lost to Buffalo in the AFC Championship. This time after killing everybody early on in the season my offense really slowed down big time, all of a sudden the computer smothered my receivers and my guys started making a lot of mistakes. I was able to take over games playing as Childress on defense. I swapped out Lorenzo White for one of my receivers either Duncan or Hill one of them are a lot faster than White so I swapped them into RB when I started having trouble moving the ball and it was a major difference maker. I still think I would have lost to Buffalo in the AFCCG I got lucky that Miami beat them.

The nose tackle sack glitch is one that I haven't been able to master on the NES. Most of the time my guys get bounced off the offensive linemen when I try to go up the middle. Sometimes I can time it right. I got it down with Childress in this season by the end of the year I was killing QB's but he was lined up at OLB instead of DT for some reason and I couldn't change it?

I did encounter that glitch on the Sega Genesis version of Tecmo Super Bowl, I had like close to 40 sacks with Childress and went 19-0 and beat Dallas in the Super Bowl.

But I got a kick out of the Tecmo Super Bowl facebook groups they really are like a cult. I got banned for suggesting that Madden 92 that came out the same year had better football gameplay. Its true I mean just the way the ball physics worked in that game made for some pretty great plays. They were pretty offended by that though. The awesome thing about that group was how thoroughly people had mastered the game. They often presented new challenges, one challenge I seen was to throw like 63 touchdown passes with both your starting and backup QB in a season. I believe the game maxes out at 63 and stops keeping track. Some of the scores people were posting in there were pretty unreal too. It's beautiful that the old ass game still is alive the way it is. There were no Madden groups like that for the old games.

One issue I always had with Link's Awakening is solving the Tanuki curse. I remember renting the game and not being able to progress past that point and anytime I come back to the game, I always forget how to do it. My intuition was that could actually solve it in the forest, but then I also remembered it was something silly and you had to buy an item from the store. After making no progress in 30 minutes, I decided to go back and do the Crane Game which solved the issue.

Something about that felt false. Why would you make players grind ruppees and have them play a skill-based mini-game where the timing is kind of wonky? So I had to look it up and had another 'you can just walk across' moments where I realised the game actually leads you to it, but for whatever reason I had tunnel vision, saw the unobtainable heart piece but didn't see the exit you take to get the toadstool..

OoT I can basically play blindfolded at this point, but even after multiple playthroughs I find myself getting lost in LA.

Putting some time into DKC3. Only played it once despite owning it back in the day. I know it gets hated, although I'm sure like WM12 it's probably found new life as a CULT CLASSIC these days. Going for a 103%er here. We'll see.

DKC2 was always going to be a tough act to follow. There's things I enjoy about 3, but the aesthetic decisions made for a weaker product.

It reminds me of this:

Otherwise the level design is as creative as ever and it's still a top tier SNES platformer.

Does any other game outside of the Mario, Mega Man, Castlevania, Donkey Kong series make it into that upper bracket? We need a best of the rest - Demon Crest? What else?

Nothing like screwing up a barrel blast but then it takes you straight to a bonus level and you're like... saves me a trip with a guide later I will TAKE it.

DKC3 isn’t a bad game, just a disappointment after the first two installments, which are absolutely fantastic.

Of course Kirby belongs in that top tier as well. I knew I was forgetting something there.

The DKC trilogy for me goes

DKC2
DKC & DKC3

DKC is easier to pick up and play and has the better OST. DKC3 has more creativity and expands on the gameplay in a satisfying way.

I've never actually completed any of the DKCs, it's something I've been meaning to fix up.

Jul 31, 2023 23:55:10 GMT Neo Zeed said:

1. The nose tackle sack glitch is one that I haven't been able to master on the NES. 

2. But lets trek back a bit and think about how this game developed the true CULT following that it has. Was this game really that big of a hit when it came out in 1991? The SNES was already out, the Genesis had been out for 2 years, it's odd in itself that such a great game would be released this late in the NES life. I remember it being a big deal in real time but I feel like within a year or two after it came out nobody had an NES anymore.

So this cult following had to have developed in the internet age right?

1. Don't feel bad. I could never master the nose tackle trick either. That's what made it doubly annoying! I looked into it a little and it seems to have existed only with certain NT's. Apparently Nelson on the Packers and the Lions Jerry Ball were beasts. Didn't see anyone else mention the bane of my existence, Dan Saleaumua, as a TSB game changer. Did see one Reddit post mention my brother's trick to 'prove' it was a real thing- "Center Dive was the cheesiest move in TSB! We had to ban it from our dorm tournaments. Jerry Ball was the league MVP otherwise!"

2. I looked into this the other day operating under the same mindset as you. Genesis & Super were already cutting into the NES market share by the time TSB came out so I assumed it started out as a cult favorite among NES holdouts before slowly gaining popularity with those who had already moved on. Wrong! For starters it began life as the most expensive NES game ever, clocking in a a whopping $54.99. It was also the best selling NES game from October 92-December 92. And I saw a post from 2004 on an ancient message board the other day (that I can no longer find) claiming the game was hard to find in this person's area due to stores selling out quickly. They couldn't keep it on the shelves. So TSB was indeed a hit in its own day.
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Two games I think did get the shaft due to a late release date are Dragon Warrior IV & Tecmo Basketball. DW4 came out in October 92 and Tecmo Basketball in November 92. My brother and I were Dragon Warrior marks (Original & III are on my Mt. Rushmore of NES games) and even we didn't get IV. We watched a playthrough years ago where I thought it was very meh. Then again, most games look meh in playthrough mode. I'm sure it would have been fun to play. 

Matt The IRS Fan had Tecmo Basketball and he let us borrow it/gave it to us/maybe I got it in a trade after he got a Super Nintendo. That game ruled. It was basically the basketball version of TSB with all the teams, full seasons, stats, individual player attributes, etc. It was an even greater leap forward from the likes of Double Dribble and Hoops than TSB had been to Tecmo Bowl. My brother and I played the hell out of that one. Blazers were beasts. We both thought they were the best team to play as, but my brother liked them more in real life, so I let them be "his team" while I usually went for the Cavs. Really think this game would have been much, much bigger if it came out earlier. 
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Bo Jackson is the offensive TSB legend (LT for defense). What made Bo so great is he had 10/10 shock power (as we called it) AND Barry Sanders speed. But Bo was far from the only shocker. I want to talk about two others.

Remember in my previous post I said Bills/49ers was the most common Super Bowl matchup, so they were the teams we played as the most. Each team had a fullback with Bo-level shock power... 

For the Bills it was Jamie Mueller. This dude was a cult favorite in a cult video game. He had 10/10 shock power but 1/10 speed. Like Max McGee it took him an hour and twenty minutes to run the 40 yard dash. I dubbed him "The Mule Horse." The name stuck. Because it's awesome. Dude would shock 4 guys and still only wind up with a 3 yard run. It was like trying to steal a base in Dusty Diamond's with Claude or Big Al where you'd tackle two guys and still end up getting tagged out at second lol.

The 49ers were stacked on offense with Jerry Rice, John Taylor, Roger Craig, Brent Jones, fullback Tom Rathman, and Joe Montana under center. All these players were Pro Bowl caliber. But Rathman is the one I want to focus on. His speed was somewhere between Bo & Mule Horse with their 10/10 shock power. I called him The Rath Horse because even back then I was forever beating my one good idea into the ground. I am, after all, a guy who is still running Lawlermania in 2023.

Oh, there was one more shockmaster. The Cobb Horse. He was a little worse than Rathman and I can't remember if Bucs or Packers because both those teams sucked and we did not play as them very much, but it was one or the other. Gun to my head I'm going with the Bucs.

Jul 31, 2023 12:58:00 GMT Lony said:

As someone who doesn't watch football, that was an amazing write-up, Baker . It reminds me of growing up with my younger brother and we would do something similar with NHL Stanley Cup and NHL '94.

The Genesis NHL games ruled, too.

We went way further with the record keeping in Dusty Diamond's All Star Softball. If only I had access to my old notebooks!

But the best was something like early Legend of Zelda or the Dragon Warriors where we'd have open maps strewn about all over the floor (or bed if we were playing at Jensen's), multiple Nintendo guide books/Nintendo Powers nearby ready to be consulted, and the phone close by with Jay or some other noted Nintendo expert from afar on redial just in case we got ourselves into a pickle. Nintendo was serious business.

This led to one of my favorite, and everybody else's least favorite, running gags. One time I was Map Guy and I said "go over." Keep in mind my furious colleague was being harassed by something like a dragon from the north, mummies from the south, zombies from the east, and vampires from the west, so they shouted out "WHICH OVER? RIGHT OR LEFT?" I was highly amused even if nobody else was. So "go over" rather than "right" or "left" became my catchphrase when I was Map Guy. This used to drive my associates up a wall. Party poopers.

One time in the mid 90s we busted out the old NES (neither that nor Intellivision ever really died for us) to play a little Castlevania III where we got ourselves into a pickle. I want to say it was the level with a two headed sea serpent at the end? Or maybe it was two serpents? idk. Anyway, one of us geniuses had the brilliant idea to call the Nintendo Power hotline for tips. Alas, the number was no longer in service as this was long after the heyday of NES:( 

Neo Zeed Whatchu know about Rocket Knight?

NBA Live games were pretty sweet on the Genesis too. Still a breeze to pick up and play. The Bulls vs Blazers, Bulls vs Lakers, etc games were really sweet for their time(though they haven't aged very well, the gameplay is so slow and frustrating when the computer just stands in front of you and you can't move haha). But man I always really liked how deep those games were with the full rosters, and players had their own signature dunks. Truth be told I liked those games better than NBA Jam(at the time, just because there was so much more to do/tinker around with). I remember getting my hands on NBA Live 97 a few years after it came out and just being blown away with all of the features and mini games on it for a Genesis game, so much to do.

Baker turned me onto Dusty Diamond, I have been wanting that game for a while now but it is pretty fucking pricey. It's one of those games I look for whenever I go to a retro shop hoping they have a cheap copy buried and don't know what it's worth. What an interesting NES baseballer that looks very cool.

@ness I love Rocket Knight and Sparkster, I want to say both cracked my Genesis top 100 a few years back on old PW. Sparkster I think was a UK exclusive sequel it didn't come out in the US but was really good and worth a download for the emulator. 

Love the deep dive into Tecmo Super Bowl Baker , I'm still feeling the high of capturing that 8-bit Lombardi for the first time. I mentioned my 19-0 season on the Genesis version but man that game felt way too easy, the difficulty didn't crank up in phases the way the NES does in single player/season mode, it just stayed really easy all the way. I never went back to it because of that and it is just missing a lot of the magic from the NES version. I've heard the SNES version is better but haven't tried it yet.

I have Tecmo Super Bowl II for the Genesis and there is a lot I like about it, I'd like to focus on playing through a season on it one day but never get around to it. The play selection screen got way too convoluted and the games take fucking forever to play, like almost an hour to finish a game of Tecmo Super Bowl is ridiculous. The NES games flew by so quick, you could probably play 3 games in the time it takes to play 1 on TSB II. But the cut scenes and graphics all look pretty sweet and it felt much more challenging. Plus it has the 94 rosters with Moon on the Vikings with Chris Carter and John Randle in the DT spot, that sounds like a fun season to play. 

Aww yeah. You gotta get Dusty's Neo Zeed. Saw just the other day that it's real rare which makes it very pricey. I'd ship you a copy myself if I still had access to our old NES stuff (my brother left nearly everything behind when his house got repossessed in 2014- he just didn't care anymore). Hopefully you strike gold at a retro shop. I picked up a few gems at those thrift stores back in the 90s- old video games, wrestling figures, etc. Same deal with flea markets in the 2000s.

I forgot there was a Tecmo Super Bowl II....assuming I ever knew it existed in the first place. Definitely didn't get over the way the first one did.

Only basketball game I really messed with after Tecmo was some College Basketball game around 1998. No idea what it was called, or even what system it was on, but we played the hell out of it at the Three Brothers house when the eldest had a broken arm. TCU Horned Frogs, baby!

Dusty's is something else though. It's right up there with Dragon Warrior III and The Legend of Zelda when it comes to my favorite Nintendo games. It's a unique animal, being softball rather than baseball. But that's only the beginning of the weirdness. There are no set teams. Instead you have 60 players to pick from, all with their own unique attributes. Figuring out who's good at what is half the fun. Some players can fly! One can only fly at night (late in the game). Two players hop around the bases. Some can tackle. One guy can even go through you once a game while running the bases. There are six different fields, all with their own unique quirks. One is literally called The Sandlot. Some players excel on certain fields. Others suck during the day (early in games) but turn into all stars at night (late in the game). Weird though it undoubtedly is, the creators definitely put a lot of effort into this hidden gem. Guarantee your first pick will be this guy Diablo. I don't want to spoil him, but he's everybody's first pick. Trust me on this. Two players wear helmets. One even swings a pickaxe. Others swing wands, brooms, or boots. This game is wild. They were on all the drugs when they made Dusty Diamond's All Star Softball. Man, I could discuss this game for hours.

The Computer isn't too tough once you've mastered the game and put a winning team together....until you get to the championship. Again, I don't want to spoil it, but they throw you a swerve with the Championship team, and they're real tough to beat. First time I beat them was one of the greatest days of my life. My brother was out at some sporting event so I left the tv on for hours til he got home because I knew he'd never believe me. Pretty sure I still remember my winning team.

I'm a master so if you ever do get it and have any questions feel free to hit me up.

I tried to download it on an emulator years ago but it was a Japanese rom I couldn't figure out what was what for text. But I watched some videos and its definitely a game that hits like Tecmo Super Bowl, amazing what all they were able to do with so many limits with the NES and the tiny amount of storage on an NES cart to work with. They didn't even go all out for games like that for the SNES and Genesis, none of the football or baseball games had that level of depth to it. The way Tecmo Super Bowl will gage your performance in those first 2 games to determine how hard it cranks up the juice in game 3, then makes adjustments again like after week 8? That is some meticulous programming there from the developers that made that game. The Dusty Diamond Softball Game thats fucking next level, I need to search for another rom again. I recently remembered all of the roms and emulators I had on this laptop. I also remembered I have the SNES style USB controller packed away somewhere lets rock.

Neo Zeed honestly I didn't have much time with the GENESIS. It was more or less a Sonic playing machine between stints of NES and SNES. I didn't own it long and didn't have many games for it. Was obsessed with the IDEA of the Sega Channel around that time though. Seemed like the GREATEST thing ever. A friend had it, but ya know how that goes. The luck of having a divorced Dad trying to buy your love...

Anyways been watching a lot of retro videos lately (retrospectives, how to be a collector and all that) and a lot more Sega titles are up in my face piece. Probably why I've been playing more of the Switch stuff lately because it's much easier to pop in one of these games rather than pop out $60 for a new game I might not even like.

I think I broke my controller with the reverse though. My right bumper sometimes get stuck and I can hear crunchies inside if I shake it. Still works for the time being and honestly the only time that buttons come into play is when I JAM IT AS HARD AS I CAN in frustration. Cheap death? GTFOH!!! Course I also have like 60 lives but it's SOOOOOOO convenient to correct little mistakes.

Sure anyone can do the same with roms, or just use roms in general. But I dunno how viable an option that is today. I hear Ninty be cracking down like a greedy ho so I'm content paying the yearly fee just to have access to games without jumping through hoops.

DKC3 lacks... something. I dunno what it is. It's fun, but it feels like it's missing a charm that DKC and DKC2 had. The others placed an urgency on the "story" and I feel like the Kremlings were way more of "thing". They're here, but not as plentiful. Feels like they just sacked this area but didn't feel the need to replace the regular baddies because they're somewhat hostile on their own (what else do you call owls shooting cheeseballs at you?) so they're like... I'll allow it.

Instead I feel like there's more of an exploration emphasis. Like I don't feel like I'm going through the game to rescue DK and Diddy. We just out here going to ASSSSSSSSSSSPEN and enjoying the scenery. Feels less like a rescue and just the 'rents telling Dixie to watch Kiddy and the mischief that kids find themselves in before internet and parents lost their minds. This whole game just feels like Rare experimenting. That said despite my current "cheating" playstyle I'm still faithfully collecting nannas. It's strangely satisfying even if it means little in the grand scheme of things.

Nothing better than getting that "!" on the first playthrough. Going back to find a missed bonus is always funny seeing the DK Coin guy standing their with a trash can lid. Talk about fighting the good fight with what you got...

I've mostly neglected gaming for the past few years instead focusing on the "backlog" that is tv/movies. Past few months been uninterested in that and focusing on bits of games.

And yeah they know their water levels.

Guess DKC3 wins. I beat it @ 91%, exactly 25 coins enough for the one level I couldn't unlock. No matter how many times I do this rocket (keep in mind I'm cheating) I am inches away from the finish and I can't do it.

Oh yeah those ~99 lives got wipes to 3 lulz.

Hear me out.

Do you think Kiddy Kong was a "HHH didn't wanna work Tuesdays" thing? Trilogy of HIS games and he's only in the 1st. After DKC2 they went back to big/little for as much as it mattered in the game. Did DK not wanna work with Dixie? Dixie floats. Dixie vs. Sindel dream match when?

Pretty sure Dixie pulled a Sable and thought she was bigger than Stone Cold.

That's why they straight up replaced her in DK64 and Dixie was blacklisted for years. The only way she could earn a pay-day was in lesser games like Donkey Konga 2 or as a last minute replacement in Diddy Kong Racing DS. Smash Bros? No, let Fire Emblem have another character.

Kiddy is about to appear on Dark Side of Nintendo...

Last night's Thunder Castle post inspired me to listen to some guy on Youtube review the Intellivision gem on the way to work this morning. On break it was a Tower of Doom review and on the way home a Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin review. I sure can pick them because out of the 59 Intellivision games this guy has reviewed on Youtube he had Tower of Doom at #1, Thunder Castle at #2, and Treasure of Tarmin at #5. Agree with his #1 but I'd move Tarmin up to #2 and Thunder Castle down to probably outside the Top 10. Don't get me wrong. It's not a bad game. Fun enough. But the music really is the best thing about it.

Been watching a lot of Intellivision videos on Youtube and all I have to say is...

You were my love and my friend,
I thought the game would never end.
You tore out my heart without anesthesia,
Behavior that's hard to defend.

How could you put me in this position?
I really miss my Intellivision.
And now I'm bleeding from this incision,
I really want my Intellivision!

I miss your control and demands,
Nothing to do with my hands,
I won't leave my house - I'm in hibernation,
A loneliness I understand...

And so I sit here without ambition,
I really need my Intellivision.
I cannot stand it, this indecision,
Somebody find my Intellivision!

I want...I want my...I want my Intellivision!

And so I swear by my own volition,
I'm going to find my Intellivision.
I'm on a quest now, I'm on a mission,
I have to have my Intellivision!

Love the avatar Baker.

Sly Cooper 2 update.

I finished the fun Canada episode only to be taken to a second snow/ice map. While there wasn't as much fun messing with bears, this episode introduces a new climbing mechanic which is used sparingly. The episode also introduced...glitches.

The first glitch came in a mission where you control Bentley, and Murray is supposed to launch you into some ships that wouldn't normally be reachable. Guess what? Murray didn't work. You walk up to him, he doesn't launch you. I tried standing next to him and pressing every button, nothing happened. Game broke. I thought that would be an abrupt end to the game, but one of Bentley's unlockable powerups is a jetpack. It's not the greatest jetpack in the world, but it gave me enough boost to access all three ships and complete the mission.

But the glitch fun wasn't over. Yesterday I continued my playthrough. I went to the next mission and was perplexed to find it seemed almost identical to a mission I had completed earlier. Confused, I checked my inventory, and it was in line with what I purchased on my last play. I had no choice but to play these missions again. They were in the wrong order. I completed them all and fortunately the game corrected itself. I completed the final mission of the game, where you have to Jean Bison at the Lumberjack games.

Jean Bison is a fantastic villain with a great voice actor. The Lumberjack games was a fun series of minigames where you have to complete the challenges yourself then sabotage Jean Bison's attempts at the challenges.

After beating that it's onto the final world: an enormous airship. The level design in Sly 2 is fantastic but this design takes it to a whole 'nother level. I am extremely impressed. Story-wise, what I predicted at the very start of the game has happened. The Cooper gang travel around the world to collect the parts of Clockwerk, a giant mechanical eagle. The purpose of collecting the parts is to keep them in safe hands and prevent them from being reassembled ever again. The Cooper gang are unwise to the blatant flaw of this plan, which is that if they collect all the Clockwerk parts and keep them in the same place, it becomes much easier for the villains to get all the parts at once. Lo and behold, this is exactly what happens.

The first mission of the airship chapter sees Clockwerk rebuilt. Neyla, the charmingly British fox lady who has been our friend and nemesis during the game, seizes control of Clockwerk. That is where I find myself. I reckon one more 2-3 hour session will be enough for me to finish the game.