Tecmo Super Bowl video game has plenty of legs
It only took one trip to the Madison Tecmo Tournament for Nathan Smithson to decide to start the Tecmo Tundara Bowl in Green Bay.
"(I) went down to Madison in 2013, saw how they ran things and thought it would be good time to bring it up here," said Smithson.
He even brought up one of the Madson tournament organizers, Josh Holzbauer, to compete in the first Tecmo Tundra Bowl last year at The Watering Hole in Howard. Holzbauer promptly went on to win the inaugural Green Bay event.
Tecmo Tundra Bowl II kicks off 11 a.m. Saturday at The Watering Hole.
Tecmo Super Bowl is a game frozen in time. Simulating the Packers-Seahawks game in Tecmo Super Bowl brings back to life, in a virtual sense, Don Majikowski slinging passes to Sterling Sharpe and Ed West or handing off to Keith Woodside and a linebacking core led by Brian Noble. The kicker? Chris Jacke. For the Seahawks, that's Derrick Fenner in beast mode zigzagging up and down the field and the legion of boom is led by Eugene Robinson. The Wisconsin connection at quarterback is Dave Krieg.
But therein lies a big part of its appeal more than two decades after it's release: nostalgia.
"You get more nostalgic gamers playing it," said Brian Swagel, who helps run Tecmo Tundra Bowl. "It strikes a chord even with people who weren't video game fans."
Once a cutting edge game — thanks in large part to it being the first football game to have the rights to use NFL player names (except for Jim Kelly, Randall Cunningham and Bernie Kosar), team colors and logos — Tecmo Super Bowl still holds a large cult following.
A dedicated website to the game, tecmobowl.org, has message boards, online leagues and a calendar with Tecom tournament dates around the United States. Chief among those tournaments is the Madison Tecmo Tournament that will host its 11th annual tournament in March with hundreds of gamers traveling from all across the United States to play a game rendered in 8-bit graphics rather than HD 1080 dpi.
"It was the only good football game at the time, before there were other competitors," said Swagel.
Considering that "Madden NFL" — the reigning champion of NFL football video games — includes up-to-date rosters, has a soundtrack of songs from popular musicians and playbooks that rival the real thing while Tecmo features music straight out of an '80s video game arcade and playbooks with just eight plays, there's a little more than just nostalgia at play when it comes to the game's popularity.
The limited playbook and a controller with just two buttons appears simplistic by today's gaming standards, it actually adds a layer of complexity to the game.
"It's almost like a chess match because it's so intricate," said Smithson.
In addition to this tournament open to anyone who wants to try their thumbs at the game, Smithson gets together with a group of friends every few months for their own mini-tournaments.
They post their league records and stats on retro4ever.com, a website started in 2012 by Smithson and Swagel as a place to keep classic video games alive through reviews, podcasts and videos.
"We vary on skill level, there probably are a good five us that are right around the same skill level and then we got guys you can hang 60 (points) on pretty easily. They just come to play because they like the game," said Smithson. "I don't think it's hard to find the guys (who play Tecmo), it's hard to find the guys that are really good at it."
In addition to the mini-tournaments, Smithson says he plays Tecmo about once a month.
"My buddy and I, we actually study up. We'll time stuff out to shoot the gap on certain plays."
Smithson sees the Tecmo Tundra Bowl as a good warm up for anyone planning to travel to the Madison tournament because they use the same rules. One player picks the teams, the opponent gets first pick of which team they want to be and picking the same match-up more than once isn't allowed.
While Tecmo Super Bowl is revered as the godfather of football games by former NFL players during an NFL Films (yes it's a full-blown, half-hour NFL Films production complete with the deep voiced narration) special about the Madison Tecmo Tournament , it isn't a perfect game.
When a player is about to be tackled, "it's a favorite of a lot of people to run out of bounds when you know you're in a match-up (that) is pretty tight and you don't want to make any mistakes, because Tecmo has some of the weirdest fumbles and everything," said Smithson. "That way they don't fumble and turn the ball over."
There's also a move on the defensive line that allows a player to sack the opposing quarterback every time. A specific rule is in place to ban that move during the tournament. Because the equipment and the game cartridges are older, there are also rules about what happens if there is a technical malfunction.
The full list of rules can be found at retro4ever.com.
Last year only 16 players signed up ahead of time — something that worried Smithson at the time — but with walk up registration, the tournament field began with 26 players. This year they've already surpassed last year's online registration numbers and Smithson expects the number of competitors to be somewhere in the mid-30s.
With the growth of the tournament comes the need to buy more game consoles and game cartridges. Smithson says the prices have gone up over the last year from about $8 per cartridge to $12 and even as high as $25 each. As the interest in the game increases while the supply of working consoles and cartridges dwindles, that trend is likely to continue.
It's a trend that could be passed on to the next generation, at least in the Smithson household.
"I actually have a video of my son (who was 4 years old at the time) throwing his first touchdown," said Smithson.
Daniel Higgins, dphiggin@pressgazettemeida.com, facebook.com/pgdanhiggins
Tecmo Tundra Bowl II
What: Head-to-head Tecmo Super Bowl tournament
When: 11 a.m. Saturday
Where: The Watering Hole, 2107 Velp Ave., Howard
Cost: $25, includes t-shirt, prize money paid depends on number of entrants, sign up at retro4ever.com/tecmo-tundra-bowl-registration/
Online/Social: retro4ever.com, facebook.com/Retro4Ever, Twitter @Retro4ever1