Retro Review: Tecmo Bowl
November 2007 Issue
Features
- From the Editors
- Craft Check: Gamer Soap
- Gaming in the Media: Fallen Guitar Heroes
- Market to Me: Using sex to sell
- Gamer vs Gamer: The Virtue of Reality?
Interviews
- Industry Interview: Shelly Mazzanoble [Author, Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress]
Articles
- Gender & Live-Action Role Play: Into the Tavern, Part II
Author: Samara Hayley Steele
- Sims vs. Playboy: Sex and Relationships in the Dark Ages of Video Games
Author: Cherie Thomason
- Another Rape In Cyberspace
Author: Pat Miller
- Immaculate Reception
Author: Latoya Peterson
In this ongoing series, Samara shares her experiences as a female LARPer in a male-dominated LARP Organization.
Cherie discusses the portrayal of sex in console video games.
The trauma of a sexual assault is not limited to physical hurt. Pat discusses the violation of virtual bodies as analogous to that of real bodies, and wonders how it can be stopped.
Latoya discusses the lack of sex in mainstream video games and critiques the interplay between hyper-sexualized characters and their chaste actions.
Gamer Stories
Reviews
Odds 'n Ends
Tecmo Bowl, Tecmo Ltd, Nintendo Entertainment System, 1989
I grew up in a household with an NES at the end of the 80’s, along with several other middle-class urban households. Now, this sounds all well and good – I grew up a good little geek and am now enjoying the “geek chic” trend, however fleeting it may be. There was a disadvantage to this situation, however. The NES technically belonged to my older brother . Whenever I wanted to play it, I had to ask him (this usually wasn’t a problem) and we always had to fight over what games to rent. Having a twin sister who also liked playing NES wasn’t easy, either – we could only have two games, and my sister was GOING to rent Mega Man, so help her God!
Because it was the late 80s, my brother wanted “boy” games. Most of those I never really got into, mainly because my parents voiced disapproval at our playing of violent video games. As I looked through my pile of old NES games, though, one struck my fancy. In “celebration” of the middle America November that a lot of us grew up in, I am replaying Tecmo Bowl.
Tecmo Bowl, for those of you not in the know, is an American football game. In talking to men my age, I’ve learned that it is a “classic” American football game. A team of eleven large men decked out in shoulder pads and helmets attempt to move an almond-shaped ball down a 100-yard field, while people in the stadium scream at them for four hours. There are rules, but most of them involve how not to move across the field. Okay, you got me – I’m not the biggest fan of football. The only time I watch it on television is when the Super Bowl is on, and then only when a team from relatively near me (GO SEAHAWKS) is playing.
Gameplay
Gameplay is relatively simple. You and your team of pixel men are on one side of the 100-yard field, and the other computer controlled team of pixel men inhabit the opposite side. At the beginning of each play, you choose a configuration from the four that are given to you: two running plays and two passing plays. Pressing a direction and either A or B selects your play. It doesn’t matter, though – once you’ve hit A and moved the ball you can do whatever you want with it; just move the D-Pad and watch your quarterback run! You can also pass – when your quarterback is standing there watching men run at him, you can select one of your available receivers and I managed to score a safety once – that means I was tackled on my own goal line. (Psst: it means I’m terrible at football.) Being from the Northwest, I naturally chose the Seattle Seahawks as my home team every time. Someone once told me that you could never lose if you played the San Franciso 49ers, but I would like to tell them (sorry I forgot who you were) that that they are wrong. I tried playing as them once and lost really, really badly to Indianapolis. Go Seahawks.
Realism?
It’s nothing like real American football, but I think that’s my favorite part about it. It doesn’t even try, which really isn’t that much of a problem. I don’t care that it takes my little guy thirty seconds to run ten yards – he’s trying, and that’s all that counts. I played four full games and never saw a penalty, even in the hundreds of dramatic grappling matches in the Seattle-Chicago match. It’s a game that isn’t taking itself too seriously, but instead wants to be a fun sports game. I know I’m going to be playing this indoors when it’s cold and wet and I don’t want to be outside playing any real sports.
