A class teams may alter their playbooks, S class teams may not. All teams may sub. players. (No swapping recievers with running backs or vice versa) No autofire or cheats (Obviously) No nose tackle dives (diving with nose tackle at the start of the play, resulting in unavoidable sack) No skipping coin flip after result, either skip coin flip before result, or let it proceed. No choosing the '4th man down' for fieldgoal/extrapoint blocks.
At least one player needs to submit a screenshot of the final score statistics screen, or both players have to agree on the final score. If there is no screenshot of the statistics screen, you'll miss out on stat tracking for that game. Tie games which remain tied after standard OT will be settled with a rematch. The original game's statistics and score are not counted in any way.
If you cannot find time to play during the match period, you forfeit the game to your opponent. (Match periods will be VERY reasonable, and extensions/earlyplay will be available upon request, as long as each player agrees to the terms.)
PM EscPlan9 for the ROM. (Don't assume your rom is correct.)
Here's a step-by-step guide to getting Nestopia and using Netplay, be sure to delete your save files beforehand, and follow all of it, or it -will- desync and fail. http://www.tecmoworld.com/ntl/nestopiaguide
If this doesn't work, do the following: Download the file from here: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mx3qozoqkmd Rename the old kailleraclient.dll in your NEStopia folder to something else, for safe keeping. Place the new downloaded kaillerclient.dll into your NEStopia folder. Run netplay. Find a server that BOTH players have low ping counts on. Less than 50 is ideal, less than 100 is ACCEPTABLE. Both players join the server, one makes a game, and you play! Keep in mind there may will be a slight lag, depending on the server ping, keep this in mind while kicking, especially. If you have controller input issues, player 2 needs to go to 'machine' then 'input' and switch player 2 to 'Pad 1'
The Idea I would like to start a well-organized, 'just-for-fun' Tecmo Super Bowl league which includes all 28 teams and a system for balancing them. I'd like to invite anyone who can fit in about 1-2 games per week (A game is around 20 minutes) over the league's 2-3 month schedule. Even if you haven't played before, or don't think you're very good, feel free to sign up! It's just for fun, and it's very easy to pick up. It's not your typical football game. Obviously, if we cannot get 28 players, we'll have to revamp the format a bit... But that'd be a shame, so sign up! The first 28 to do so are eligible.
How to Play I'll update this later, but we will be using the NES version of 'Tecmo Super Bowl', and I believe we'll be playing through Nestopia's Netplay feature.
Prizes It's just for fun! There are no prizes, except for bragging rights and a good time, although if we get a full league going, maybe I'll come up with some sort of fun valueless prize!
The League Each player will follow a set schedule of 14 games based upon the team they have. The details of these schedules will be revealed at a later date. This will run for 9 weeks, meaning you can expect to play about 1.5 games per week. Each game will be open for playing within the given match period, which will likely be about 5 days. Each game only takes about 20 minutes to play, so you're looking at about 30 minutes of commitment per week.
The Playoffs The playoffs are to follow a standard single-elimination tournament style. There are to be 14 playoff slots, allowing for two teams to obtain a 'bye' by way of best records in the league. Tiebreakers for these spots will be based on total points scored minus total points allowed. The 4 playoff rounds will be played over a period of 3 weeks.
Class S 1. San Francisco 49ers 2. New York Giants 3. Buffalo Bills 4. Philadelphia Eagles 5. Houston Oilers 6. Los Angeles Raiders 7. Chicago Bears
Class A 1. Washington Redskins 2. Minnesota Vikings 3. Los Angeles Rams 4. Kansas City Chiefs 5. Miami Dolphins 6. Cincinnati Bengals 7. Pittsburgh Steelers
Class B 1. San Diego Chargers 2. Denver Broncos 3. Dallas Cowboys 4. New Orleans Saints 5. Detroit Lions 6. New York Jets 7. Atlanta Falcons
Class C 1. Seattle Seahawks 2. Cleveland Browns 3. Green Bay Packers 4. Phoenix Cardinals 5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 6. Indianapolis Colts 7. New England Patriots
Playoff Slots S Class - 2 A Class - 3 B Class - 4 C Class - 5
Schedules Better teams will feature tougher schedules, but keep in mind you are only competing with your own class for playoff slots, and your schedules will not vary drastically in difficulty.
Playbook S and A Class teams may not customize their playbook. B and C Class teams may customize their playbook.
Side Choice The lower-ranked team is always granted side choice. (Generally 1st player.)
Obviously no autofire, trainers, cheats, etc, any simple 2-button + 4-way movement control input is allowed.
As brought to my attention by EscPlan9, the 'nose tackle dive', in which you select the nose tackle on defense and dive as soon as the ball is hiked resulting in an unavoidable QB sack, is outlawed. Any similar exploitation is obviously not allowed as well.
At least one player needs to submit a screenshot of the final score statistics screen, or both players have to agree on the final score. If there is no screenshot of the statistics screen, you'll miss out on stat tracking for that game. Tie games which remain tied after standard OT will be settled with a rematch. The original game's statistics and score are not counted in any way.
If you cannot find time to play during the match period, you forfeit the game to your opponent. (Match periods will be VERY reasonable, and extensions/earlyplay will be available upon request, as long as each player agrees to the terms.)
You may freely substitute players at any time during the game. See the 'Team Balancing' section for information on playbook customization. Illegal playbook customization will result in an automatic loss.
Please make sure you read EVERYTHING before signing up.
Team Selection I've tried to come up with a system which best allows for people to pick the team they want. Keep in mind that your team choices will effect your rules of play, as well as difficulty. See the 'Team Balancing' section for more information. I'm going to do my best to make everyone happy, and will give priority to those who sign up first.
Signup Checklist 1. I understand the time commitment of 1-2 games per week. (~20 minutes per game) 2. I understand the rules and will abide by them. 3. I will follow through with the whole league, regardless of my performance. (It's for fun!) 4. I understand the possibility of not being able to use my favorite team. (I'll do my best!) 5. I understand how team balancing works, and how it affects my rules of play. 6. I understand that we will be using the NES version of Tecmo Super Bowl.
Signup! PM me (Mikilatov) with your wishes to participate, as well as a list of your top 3 team choices.
This will later hold all league information, schedules, stat tracking, etc. It'll be sweet, and I may recruit an assistant to help come up with some cool statistics and such, so PM me if you're interested.
Current Signups
*** Available for any team if needed
The league will begin after we get enough signups. If there's not enough signups after a week or so, we'll have to revamp the format and rules a bit and work with what we've got.
Sign up today, regardless of experience or skill level! This game is INSANELY easy to pick up and play, so if you've never played it, go check it out!
I would definitely be in for this if I can change my playbook.
The playbook is a huge part of your success. The default playbook is too easily exploitable. Different playbooks require different styles of play or take advantage of the star players on certain teams, so it's not like there's only one good playbook. Everyone can choose the playbook they think will be best.
NES version and SNES version are quite different, Computer AI sucks really bad in NES version, so run plays are a huge part of the game. In SNES, the AI is better and actually defends against runs and passes somewhat.
I'm down for either version. I've played in an online league for both of them previously and it was a lot of fun!
On March 12 2009 11:24 Hawk wrote: I'm interested, but what's this score subtractions and all the nonsense in 2? I have no idea how to balance the game
*dibs on niners*
Well, I'm not going to kill myself pondering over it right now, until we see if there's enough people interested... But we'll need a mechanic which balances teams. It's possible, will just take some working out.
Random Undeveleoped Examples: (some shittier than others) Better/Worse teams get X points subtracted/added from their score each game. Each team gains/loses more/less points based on opponent's team quality. Better/Worse teams get less/more 'win points' for winning a game. Better/Worse teams lose more/less 'lose points' for losing a game. Each team has a cooresponding team of inverse quality, which affects that player's score. etc. etc.
As far as actually ranking the teams for preparation of these adjustments, I can easily do this based on accurate statistics.
On March 12 2009 11:35 GTR wrote: NES Version? I'd rather play TBS 3 with ZSNES/Kali EDIT: If we play the original NES, dibs either Oakland or Giants.
NES version ftw.
As far as 'dibs' goes, I'll come up with a reasonable way to choose teams based on a lottery or something, and possibly try to let people make their own choices as much as possible.
On March 12 2009 12:26 ShloobeR wrote: i love this idea but the NES version sucked IMO : (
I'd only play on the Snes one
Understandable.
I'll always prefer the NES one simply because of the team dynamics. Star players have much less impact in the SNES version than they do in the NES version, and the teams are much less interesting overall because they no longer have dominant themes. The SNES version adds minor slight complexities that I don't see as a positive. The NES version is a TWO BUTTON game that -ANYONE- can learn to play quite well at within their very first game, and I love it that way. Not to mention the game runs at a faster pace, which is great.
Anyway, I don't want to turn this isn't a debate. I'm hoping people continue to show some interest, so I can start work on the details of it all.
HELL FUCKING YA IM INTERESTED!!! I used to love this game. Hell i rather play it then madden now lol. I rather play the SNES version too but if we are doing the NES then the G-men are mine!!! Hell I call the G-men no matter really. Me and dave brown will kick some ass.
On March 12 2009 14:16 GTR wrote: have a poll asking for SNES/NES and if you want TSB1/2/3.
If it's going to happen, it's going to be the NES version, I've already decided that. It's by far the best suited for this type of event, and produces the most interesting gameplay.
On March 12 2009 14:19 Pyrrhuloxia wrote: There are all sorts of edited roms out there for updated rosters / balanced teams so you should probably pick one of those / make your own.
Yeah, those are cool, but the original 1991 rosters will be used, in coordination with some sort of system which balances team scoring. That'll be discussed later, if I feel that we have enough people to go through with this.
-----
Seems like we may be able to get enough people, but not really sure yet... I'll probably decide by the end of tomorrow whether or not to pursue this, so holler out if you're interested in playing! (Even if you don't know Tecmo Bowl well, trust me, you can learn it EXTREMELY quickly, and it's just for fun anyway.)
On March 12 2009 19:39 Pyrrhuloxia wrote: Eh I don't think a fixed point handicap will work that well...
Yeah it'll take some pondering. I'm a game designer by trade, so I'm sure I can figure something out that isn't lame, and makes good sense.
I have a feeling it's going to involve the creation of team classes (S Class through D Class, or so), and then allowing lower classes bonuses such as additional playoff slots or something.
On March 13 2009 16:37 EscPlan9 wrote: How many players would you accept for a minimum? This is only for bragging rights anyways...
I'm not really sure... I don't really think it'll be worth the time/effort if we can't get a decent amount of people. I'd like to have at least 12 or so at the bare minimum, because then we can base our team choices around the mediocre teams, and dis-include the top and bottom tier teams.
28 teams would be freaking awesome though, and I -know- I could create a not-lame system to balance it out.
If Fantasy PL can get 900+ people, and Mafia can get all those people, we can get 28! hahaha. I would have expected there to be more Tecmo Bowl fans on here.
On March 13 2009 20:10 Pyrrhuloxia wrote: If only this badass wasn't so busy kicking ass
Haha, yeah, I saw that pic. Maybe I'll PM him about it, although I'm sure he'll see the thread anyway.
I may have a friend or two who would be interested, one of which lurks TL, but not 100% sure they'd both want to. I may just start organizing it anyway, lol. Maybe if I update this OP with some more details, official rules, official signup, and epic coolness we can draw in some more interested players?
I suppose I'd be okay with that if it's an overwhelming decision, however I disapprove. =P
I like to keep things as simple as possible, and in doing so I think we may be able to recruit some tecmo bowl newbies to come play as well, because the game is extremely easy to pick up without any knowledge of football or the game itself. Picking playbook gives a HUGE advantage to those who know what they are doing.
edit: also, random thought, maybe I can incorportate this into the design of the game, allowing lesser teams to customize playbook and/or players, while better teams not, to help balance the teams. This would also force more veteran players who want to customize to pick worse teams, making the league more fun and fair overall. =)
On March 13 2009 21:01 Mikilatov wrote: I suppose I'd be okay with that if it's an overwhelming decision, however I disapprove. =P
I like to keep things as simple as possible, and in doing so I think we may be able to recruit some tecmo bowl newbies to come play as well, because the game is extremely easy to pick up without any knowledge of football or the game itself. Picking playbook gives a HUGE advantage to those who know what they are doing.
edit: also, random thought, maybe I can incorportate this into the design of the game, allowing lesser teams to customize playbook and/or players, while better teams not, to help balance the teams. This would also force more veteran players who want to customize to pick worse teams, making the league more fun and fair overall. =)
You're right that with two players, if one knows the best playbooks (only a couple are really good) they do have a major advantage. Those are the 8 plays you will be using throughout the entire game and you ideally shouldn't have more than 1 "give away" play where your formation lets them know before the ball is snapped what you are going for.
If we had to stick with the default team's playbook, that definitely would change who I would choose. I'm actually gonna quickly go back through to find the best "default" playbook.
On March 14 2009 03:32 InToTheWannaB wrote: so whats up with this?
I'll update the OP later today (within 12 hours) and start to get the ball rolling. Pun wholeheartedly intended. I'll also throw out some alternatives in case we can't get a decent number of signups.
edit: Actually make that 'within the next 36 hours'. I've been staying up until 11am the past few nights, for I'm swamped with a major game design project, and my computer decided to require reformatting today. I'll hopefully have this up by 6am on the 15th (EST)
Alright, I've updated the OP with lots of information, and signups have opened. Sign up! Would be awesome if we could get 28 people. Remember that there's no experience or skill required, and the game can be picked up in no time. Spread the word!
On March 16 2009 05:02 boesthius wrote: signing up yo, 49ers for me B)
I didn't get a PM from you -- Check the updated OP!
On March 16 2009 05:00 GTR wrote: i'm probably going to pass now, considering it's the NES version and it will most likely be in an unfavourable time for me
Understandable! (But that's not to say I didn't cry a little.)
Also, response is lackluster so far, we're at 4, but there's 3 who showed interest and haven't popped in yet, and I may be able to recruit a friend or three if needed. Those who have signed up seemed extremely excited, so I'm happy at that, haha. I'm hoping we can get 28 teams, but 14 would be plenty with some rule/format changes, and could also create a shorter-lengthed season.
No "nose tackle dives". This is where you select the nose tackle on defense and spam the tackle button right after the ball is hiked, usually resulting in an unavoidable sack. Every other tecmo league has a rule against this for good reason.
The only people I know who would stay committed to this (outside of members here) are people I used to play in other leagues I've been in. Most of them are amongst the best TSB players out there. I was lucky to win even 1/3 of the time against the top players. If we still don't have enough players after a few more days... I'll try to bring in a few of them.
Finally... I'm pretty rusty at the game. If anyone wants a "pre-season" game, send me a PM or IM (EscapePlan9 on AIM) so we can get warmed up for this
Great point, I'll add a general rule about that sort of exploitation. That'd be great if you could get more people, however, remember that this is a 'for fun' league, and having obscenely good players who blow everyone out would kind of ruin that.
I'm a pretty good player who has played maybe 6 or 10 seasons, but anyone who has played for a game or two can usually at least put up a reasonable fight. I've been beaten by people who are playing their first game, before, haha.
On March 16 2009 11:15 Mikilatov wrote: Great point, I'll add a general rule about that sort of exploitation. That'd be great if you could get more people, however, remember that this is a 'for fun' league, and having obscenely good players who blow everyone out would kind of ruin that.
I'm a pretty good player who has played maybe 6 or 10 seasons, but anyone who has played for a game or two can usually at least put up a reasonable fight. I've been beaten by people who are playing their first game, before, haha.
One of my first games in a league was against one of the top 10 players there and I won, barely. It was mostly because there is a decent amount of luck in every TSB game. Sometimes the "TSB Gods" are on your side, sometimes they aren't. The luck usually comes into play with the conditions of players, "clinch grabs" (receiver hops up to clinch the ball as it goes over his head), diving catches (even with like 4 defenders on him, the diver often catches it), fumbles, and probably a few other factors.
You played 6-10 seasons online? Damn... I played 1 NES and 1 SNES season. I learned a tremendous amount from it nonetheless.
You're very right about the tecmo gods, although my group of friends generally refers to the same thing as "the computer WANTS me to lose this game." That's what I love about Tecmo Bowl. Anyone can play it at a high level almost instantly, and anything can happen. It's got the perfect amount of randomness and skill factor.
I've played about 6-10 seasons total, not online, with anywhere from 3-7 human players, with the remaining roster set as NPC.
On March 18 2009 04:53 InToTheWannaB wrote: so i guess we did not get enough people eh?
Yeahhh, We may have to abandon it... I expected there to be more Tecmofans on here, but it appears not! I suppose I'll give it another day and then call it a no-go if nobody else seems interested. Sorry guys!
Well... so all of this isn't for nothing... and since some of us definitely want to play some Tecmo, I think we should just make this a tournament format instead of a full season. At least now with so few people, we are pretty much guaranteed our first or 2nd choice in teams! I'll edit this post in a minute with an idea of how the tournament could work out (feel free to change it up)
On March 18 2009 06:18 EscPlan9 wrote: Well... so all of this isn't for nothing... and since some of us definitely want to play some Tecmo, I think we should just make this a tournament format instead of a full season. At least now with so few people, we are pretty much guaranteed our first or 2nd choice in teams! I'll edit this post in a minute with an idea of how the tournament could work out (feel free to change it up)
Now I'm considering the different ways the tournament could play out considering we are playing with a mix of "classes" and OP rules suggested S and A would have tougher games. My ideas so far for balancing:
a) Everyone chooses 1 team for each class, then play S vs S, A vs A, etc b) Everyone plays in the same class (it seems most people picked A or B teams) c) S/A classes continue to have their handicaps, and we play as usual
As for the tournament format... I still have to think about that. There's a LOT of possibilities - a few I've thought of at the moment:
a) Use a losers/winners bracket b) Everyone plays each other once, then the two with the best records play in a superbowl (BO3?) c) Hmm.. was going to try standard tournament structure, but that doesn't work right with 6 people. It's be #1 vs #2, #3 vs #4, #5 vs #6, but then there would be 3 winners in the end. There's a few ways to work it out...
Just brainstorming... suggestions welcome.
I think it'd be best if we use Tournament Style B (all play each other once, the two with the best records go to "superbowl" in a BO3). For balancing, all 3 of those sound good to me, so I'll leave that up to everyone to discuss.
If everyone has their first choice in teams, we use the handicapping system for S/A class teams, and everyone plays each other once, this could work:
----------------------- Every week you play one person and winner posts the screenshot here. If you miss a week, you can make up for it by playing two games the following week.
As for who plays who when, that will be easy to do and doesn't really matter. As long as everyone plays each other once (5 games), the regular season is all set.
For the "Superbowl" Bo3, the games can be recorded using NesTopia's movie recording feature, and later convert it to AVI/whatever. Since there will be two games played, and each game takes about 20 minutes, this would be about a 40 minute video. Someone not in the Superbowl could receive the video and add some commentary to it for all of us to enjoy (dunno how well it would work out, but I'd be happy to give it a shot). The video could then be split and uploaded on Youtube as necessary, and could also be uploaded to MediaFire or whatever file-uploading site.
Assuming all of us are still in it... here's a "random" schedule after assigning everyone a number (no significance, just made it easier to create the schedule)
WEEK ONE 1 v 2 (Esc/Miki) 3 v 4 (Into/Khay) 5 v 6 (Boes/Enriq)
WEEK TWO 1 v 5 2 v 3 4 v 6
WEEK THREE 1 v 6 2 v 4 3 v 5
WEEK FOUR 1 v 3 2 v 6 4 v 5
WEEK FIVE 1 v 4 2 v 5 3 v 6
I haven't decided the date it starts, but it could start as early as next week. I'll be PM'n the five of you to confirm you are aware of the changes, know your schedule, as well as allow each of you to provide feedback/suggestions before the rules and format are finalized.
Now that I've PM'd all five of you... and assuming no changes need to be made...
Rules The rules of the game, including the handicaps for the S class and A class teams still remain the same as the OP. However, there are two additions:
1) No nose-tackle dives (NTDs) An NTD is when you choose a linemen on defense, and shortly after the ball is snapped, you attempt to tackle the ball carrier with your linemen resulting in a nearly unavoidable sack. This is abuse and will disqualify you from the game if you do it. Never choose a linemen and you will never run into this problem.
2) The beginning coin flip If you allow the coin flip to take place and your opponent wins the toss, you cannot hit B to skip it. If you do, the match must be reset. However, before anyone wins the toss, skipping the coin flip is acceptable. Always skip the toss and you won't run into this problem.
Format As shown in the schedule, everyone plays each other once. At the end of the 5th week, the two players with the best record advance into the finals.
Finals The finals will be a best of 3.
Teams EscPlan9: DEN (B class) Mikilatov: CIN (A class) IntoTheWannaB: NYG (S class) Khaymus: NYJ (B class) Boesthius: SF (S class) Enrique: SD (B class)
Misc To ensure we don't run into compatibility issues, download the latest version of NesTopia (1.40) here: http://nestopia.sourceforge.net/
Inside NesTopia, make sure you have the input setup for BOTH Pad 1 and Pad 2. You obviously will not always be first player in these matches. You can have both of them set to the exact same buttons without a problem.
We all need to be using the same version of TSB. To make this simple, I have uploaded the version I've been using and will PM all of you the link after you respond to the last PM I sent (I am not permitted to link to ROMs directly on this forum). Extract the file into your usual rom directory.
Netplay For those unfamiliar with NesTopia's Netplay, I will give a brief tutorial on how to use it:
1) In the menubar, select Netplay -> Connect 2) On the right-hand side, browse to the TL_TSB.NES file you have in your rom directory. 3) Click on Launch. A list of servers will come up with various statistics.
4) Near the bottom of the window, there is a prompt that says Username. Enter your TL name, or something similar if that is taken.
5) Choose a server where there's minimal lag, and ample open slots. You and your opponent must use the same server. Confirm it with him through PM/IM/MSN/IRC/etc.
6) After you are both on the same server (and you both see each other in the room) one of you needs to create the game and the other joins it.
i have never played but i like old school games...id prolly just get smashed lol. Although ive played madden since it came out til about 2005...so im sure i could pick it up.
On March 18 2009 21:41 brad3104 wrote: i have never played but i like old school games...id prolly just get smashed lol. Although ive played madden since it came out til about 2005...so im sure i could pick it up.
ya it a two button game lol. Spam a spam b thats it.
I'm in. However the 'balancing' kind of fails a bit with this new format. The only balancing rules which still apply are side choice and playbook customization. The guys with the 49'ers and Giants are probably going to dominate.
I think we'd be best off eliminating either S/C classes, or B/C Classes, and then only using the two middle classes, or the two upper classes. This way, the higher of the two classes could have no playbook customization, and the lower of the two could have playbook customization available. There would be a much smaller gap inbetween top and lower teams as well, and make it a lot more fair overall.
This would mean that the following players would have to change teams:
Using Only A/B Classes IntoTheWannaB: NYG (S class) Boesthius: SF (S class)
OR
Using Only S/A Classes EscPlan9: DEN (B class) Khaymus: NYJ (B class) Enrique: SD (B class)
Good point. It's been a while since I played this competitively so I don't remember how large the gap is between S and B class. I neglected to consider that not everyone here is experienced enough to know how to shut down certain playbooks as well as use the better playbooks to choose from yourself, so you're right, the balancing wouldn't be enough as is.
I like the idea of only using S/A classes - it'll make the games faster paced and allow the less experienced players to not have to concern themselves with only having a couple star players.
I have to take care of some errands now, but I'll try to update this later with the proposed updates.
The gap between S and B class is MASSIVE. I'll wait for your proposed update, and if it's all good, I'll post it up in the OP.
Who knows, maybe if we get this short season rolling, people will become more interested as they see this thread around for so long, and we can shoot for 14 participants next season. =)
I mean, I understand that the gap between S and B is significant, but I made the (poor) assumption that the S teams playbooks are pretty weak, which will make their offense significantly weaker, and also when you choose one of the better playbooks, your offense will then be about on par with them. I honestly believe having a good playbook is the single most important factor to having a good offense in TSB (there are other factors of course, just not as significant). The problem is that lesser experienced players likely aren't familiar with the best playbooks nor how to stop some of the weaker playbooks.
I haven't received a response from Khaymus or Enrique yet since sending the PMs earlier today, but I will notify them about the changes and have them choose a new S or A class team.
edit: nvm, Khaymus and Enrique already have teams they selected within the A class. I will change my team to CHI (S class)
edit2:
Who knows, maybe if we get this short season rolling, people will become more interested as they see this thread around for so long, and we can shoot for 14 participants next season. =)
Rules update S class teams may not change their playbook. A class teams are allowed to. All other rules remain the same.
Teams update EscPlan9: CHI (S class) Mikilatov: CIN (A class) IntoTheWannaB: NYG (S class) Khaymus: MIN (A class) Boesthius: SF (S class) Enrique: KC (A class)
Alright, I just got all caught up. Now that we all have A/S class teams, we can still change playbooks and/or swap players, yes? Admittedly, if I knew everyone would have S/A class team, I probably would've put the Bengals as my choice. If that's still cool, I'd like to do it.
I'm looking forward to this. David Fulcher is about to dominate some jabronies (I hope).
Edit: I'm also down for multiple seasons, as I loves me some Tecmo action.
On March 19 2009 09:23 Enrique wrote: Alright, I just got all caught up. Now that we all have A/S class teams, we can still change playbooks and/or swap players, yes? Admittedly, if I knew everyone would have S/A class team, I probably would've put the Bengals as my choice. If that's still cool, I'd like to do it.
I'm looking forward to this. David Fulcher is about to dominate some jabronies (I hope).
Edit: I'm also down for multiple seasons, as I loves me some Tecmo action.
I'm currently set up as the Bengals, but I don't mind switching to the Oilers.
edit: The OP has been updated with the new format and ruleset.
Brad: have you used emulators before? If not I'll give a brief walkthrough on how to get it setup and working right. Or you can visit the site or google the FAQ for it.
PM me for the ROM we will be using (we all need to be using the same ROM for compatibility reasons).
On March 19 2009 13:54 EscPlan9 wrote: Brad: have you used emulators before? If not I'll give a brief walkthrough on how to get it setup and working right. Or you can visit the site or google the FAQ for it.
PM me for the ROM we will be using (we all need to be using the same ROM for compatibility reasons).
No i have not used them before...i have heard about it though...when i was playing SSB64...people mentioned them alot on forums. emulators that is.
I'll be free for the next few hours (3:30pm EST now) if anyone wants to play some "pre-season" games to get used to playing over NetPlay and against human competition. PM me or hit me up on AIM if you're interested (EscapePlan9 on AIM - I pretty much always have an away message up, but usually am around still) and I'll check my PMs periodically throughout the day.
Good man, you'll be getting a PM with my playing demands later. Be aware: they will be forceful, and they will demean you and possibly your family. Did I mention that I'm a big believer in smack talk?
That's what I like to hear. Just wait until I throw a 78 yard TD bomb to Christian Okoye diving into double coverage. Believe it, you'll hear unprecedented smack after that. He's got hands of friggin' stone. I've seen him drop passes that didn't go more than a yard between QB and RB while uncovered and not moving.
On March 20 2009 05:58 Enrique wrote: That's what I like to hear. Just wait until I throw a 78 yard TD bomb to Christian Okoye diving into double coverage. Believe it, you'll hear unprecedented smack after that. He's got hands of friggin' stone. I've seen him drop passes that didn't go more than a yard between QB and RB while uncovered and not moving.
lol, you should try using Steve 'Please intercept my horrible passes' Grogan sometime. He makes passes that are so bad, you didn't even know that they were possible in the game. The Patriots are SO FREAKING BAD. Grogan is the worst QB in the game, worse than any backup QB in the game, even his own.
Although one time, I passed to a guy about 10 yards down the field, and he threw it 50 yards down the field into triple coverage, and the guy caught it. That made me laugh pretty hard.
If I'm QB Eagles, I know you're gonna be screaming, "Hey man this is boring, give me the ball!". I can seriously run laps with that guy!
I also love when I have an easy touchdown, and intentionally run laps around the 12th yard line or so. That way I get another 4 downs to waste time and gain 10 yards again. Then ANOTHER 4 downs to gain 1-2 yards. It's risky, but with QB Eagles (or a good playbook with decent runners) it's far less of a risk and it eats up MINUTES!
Lol, I love using Grogan so much. He throws the ball in such a ridiculous arc. There's a good twice as much height as there is distance. The bright side is that it makes for great leaping and diving catches!
So that's how it's gonna be is, it EscPlan? Gonna be a little punk and waste time? I'll see your QB Eagles laps around the 12 yard line and raise you the intentional Okoye popcorn blaster. DBs don't stand a chance, and it doesn't require dancing--merely brute force. The way God intended.
What would be the toughest challenge for Groganmeister I thought... then I decided why not play against one of the best defenses and secondardies in the game, the Steelers, starring "God" Woodson!
Throughout the game I only threw the ball. Sometimes screens to Cook, othertimes long bombs to Fryar where I was just praying for the 2 minutes it took for the ball to get there. Grogan ended up getting in excellent condition and he became the best "loft passer" in the game! I totally abused that the rest of the game and just threw long bombs to Fryar. There could be 3 defenders on him, but with the ball going overhead and Fryar in perfect position, he just jumps and snags the ball.
I also was laughing my ass off when I checked his attributes while in excellent. In excellent, his maximum speed is a beastly 19!!! lol
edit: How about this for a match... I pick NE, keep Groganmeister in and change my playbook. You pick 49ers but have to keep your playbook. This is gonna be epic!!
You know, I'm not a huge fan of the 49ers default playbook, but I'll be honest: I'd still take that bet and I gotta think I'd come out ahead way more often than not. Just you wait until I'm off work!
Wow, you guys are doing a TSB league? Niiiice. My favorite game of all time. Been playing it since it's release. I've been in a couple leagues, too. Not since around '03, but it was fun
Also, anyone who says any other version of TSB is better than this one are absolutely insane. The original Tecmo Superbowl on NES is the equivalent of Super Mario Bros for football games.
On March 20 2009 07:42 Enrique wrote: You know, I'm not a huge fan of the 49ers default playbook, but I'll be honest: I'd still take that bet and I gotta think I'd come out ahead way more often than not. Just you wait until I'm off work!
I have a secret weapon. I'll just say that a certain player won't be playing in his usual position for now... This will just show how much stronger a team becomes with a better playbook! NE's defense isn't that bad, it has Lippett and Tippett (cool names right) and I can snuff SF's plays pretty easily. Then again, it's against CPU... we'll see what fight you can bring!
edit: With any semi-decent playbook, you would certainly beat me more often than not with SF. Their playbook is pretty bad - definitely not the worst though. Vikings probably have the worst with their retarded pitch/reverse/flea flicker plays.
Miki: I think we should switch to a different emulator for Netplay. I used to use Nesticle in my past league. Enriq and I are testing it out now. He says it may not work for Vista, but we're giving it a shot.
Rho and I tried to play a game earlier with Nestopia but we ran into all sorts of issues.
Basically you download the Kalliera.dll client there, and then copy that into the nestopia directory to overwrite the existing one. The next time you use Nestopia and go to Netplay -> Connect you see the new client.
Thanks for figuring all this out EscPlan9, as well as whoever else is helping, I intended to do all of this myself before the league started, but now I won't have to! =)
haha this is ridiculously frustrating With Nestopia we had ONE game work through the server, but it was pretty laggy. We both can only connect to one of the servers there.
Then we tried the IP based one and the game still desyncs often...
We're still trying other things. We need to find a way to get Nesticle to work on Vista. I found a couple possible solutions..
I successfully played a half dozen matches with members of the old league I was in after following that guide to a tee (no desyncs!). Again: http://www.tecmoworld.com/ntl/nestopiaguide/
Make sure to delete your TSB save files in your nestopia/save directory first, then go ahead and follow the instructions. It's fairly easy.
Also, although I think the modified Nestopia is better now that the kinks are worked out... if you still want to use Nesticle and have Vista, here's a guide to getting Nesticle to work on Vista: http://www.knobbe.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11138
That or use "Emucenter"... I read that somewhere else.
I'll give it all a look tonight. Good work man. And don't think that just because you came out ahead at SSF2, you can beat me at Tecmo. I think we both know that even with the 49ers default playbook, your Pats were no match for the ungodly catching skills of Jerry Rice or the uber-running skills of Roger Craig. Bring those "ippit"s all night long!
edit: just read the tutorial on using Nesticle in Vista and I really don't want to have to disable my video card every time I want to use the stupid program. That just doesn't seem worth it.
Yea, it didn't look like the best bet to me either. I think we should concentrate on making sure we all get Nestopia running correctly.
About NE v 49ers, I want a rematch! I only lost by a touchdown! And I know some of the mistakes I made there. Let me know when you're free for some more scrimmage games. I'll be around for the next few hours again (until Battlestar Galactica final is on pretty much), and probably up into the early morning cuz my sleeping schedule is chaotic.
A few things. First, you lost by 17, get it right. I kicked a field goal at the end of the first half, and took a one TD lead shortly after the second half began. I then took the 17 point lead on an easy pitch and catch to Jerry Rice. Second, I think we will make this work eventually. I mean, if I can play BW with people the world over, you'd think we could do this without too much hassle.
Unfortunately, we'll probably not meet tonight. I'm going to be bowling during the Battlestar finale (stupid friends and stupid bowling league). That means I'm going to be watching Battlestar after bowling, which means I probably wont be around until something like 1:30amish (PST). I suppose I might be around for an hour or two after work though.
Oh, and if anyone else wants a few games, I'll be available late tonight and pretty much tomorrow. Feel free to send a PM.
edit: correction, I'll be available for an hour or two tonight (5:30-7:30ish PST) and then tomorrow. MSL finals start at 1am. There's so much to do!
17? Damn... I knew I was still a little baked from when my friend came over, but didn't think I'd forget that much!
edit: You're not going to put off the bowling league to watch the Battlestar Galactica final live? What the hell is wrong with you man? I should boot you from the league for such blasphemy! The Gods are not pleased with your decision.
Meh, it's not so bad. Plus then I can watch it without commercials. I like my BSG to be uninterrupted. I just realized that my super awesome Friday night during spring break consists of working, potentially playing old nes games online, bowling (with like 2 people I might consider peers), watching Battlestar Galactica, and topping it off with a Korean Starcraft match. How super cool am I!
Confirmed Roster: *EscPlan9: CHI (S class) *IntoTheWannaB: NYG (S class) *Rho_: PHI (S class) *Mikilatov: CIN (A class) *Khaymus: MIN (A class) *Enrique: KC (A class)
Unconfirmed, Questionable, Haven't heard from, Ugly: Boesthius: SF (S class) PhoenixShredds brad3104
As long as we've got the netplay thing sorted out, I'm assuming it works 100% with that guide that EscPlan9 told me about (Which I added to the OP), I'm willing to begin shortly. I'll come up with a finalized schedule mid-day tomorrow. (Saturday, EST) You'll be able to start playing immediately, and if we all finish our weekly games early, we'll start up the next week's games ahead of schedule.
SO IF YOUR NAME ISN'T Mikilatov, EscPlan9, InToTheWannaB, Rho_, Khaymus, or Enrique, AND YOU WANT TO PLAY, SIGN UP BY 2pm SATURDAY (EST)
Well, you can never count on any Netplay working 100% of the time, you may have to restart the emulator and re-host the game sometimes for instance. But when you follow the directions right, the majority of the time it will work out well.
edit:
Download the latest version of NesTopia (1.40) here: http://nestopia.sourceforge.net/ PM EscPlan9 for the ROM. (Don't assume your rom is correct.)
Here's a step-by-step guide to using Netplay, be sure to delete your save files beforehand, and follow all of it, or it -will- desync and fail. http://www.tecmoworld.com/ntl/nestopiaguide
Part of the instructions is to download the Nestopia 1.40 with the modified client from the link provided in the guide - so you can remove the sourceforge link from the OP.
I know it's a little late... but I forgot to mention a couple other rules since I've gone under the assumption that everyone obviously knows not to do them:
1) Do wait for the defender to select their player before snapping the ball. For obv reasons.
2) Do not use "4th man down" (LB1) on FGs and PATs (point after touchdowns). If you have someone like Derrick Thomas, or Lawrence Taylor in LB1, you will be able to block the kick the majority of the time even if the player kicking just mashes A - that's how imba it is with a fast LB1 in this situation.
3) Do not unnecessarily delay the game. It's perfectly acceptable to kill the clock if you wish, but don't delay beyond that. I've played some people who would take 10 seconds before calling any play on offense or defense. THERE'S ONLY EIGHT DAMN PLAYS, IT'S NOT HARD!! Again, if you're allowing the clock to wind down the 7 seconds during the play selection screen, that's fine as it is specifically for strategical purposes and you are not delaying beyond that.
edit: 4) You cannot place a WR into the RB position. For most teams this won't matter, but some WR have exceptionally high maximum speed such as Jerry Rice, Andre Rison, Drew Hill, Ellard (Rams), and a couple Raiders receivers, and probably a few more I can't think of.
On March 22 2009 00:37 EscPlan9 wrote: I know it's a little late... but I forgot to mention a couple other rules since I've gone under the assumption that everyone obviously knows not to do them:
1) Do wait for the defender to select their player before snapping the ball. For obv reasons.
2) Do not use "4th man down" (LB1) on FGs and PATs (point after touchdowns). If you have someone like Derrick Thomas, or Lawrence Taylor in LB1, you will be able to block the kick the majority of the time even if the player kicking just mashes A - that's how imba it is with a fast LB1 in this situation.
3) Do not unnecessarily delay the game. It's perfectly acceptable to kill the clock if you wish, but don't delay beyond that. I've played some people who would take 10 seconds before calling any play on offense or defense. THERE'S ONLY EIGHT DAMN PLAYS, IT'S NOT HARD!! Again, if you're allowing the clock to wind down the 7 seconds during the play selection screen, that's fine as it is specifically for strategical purposes and you are not delaying beyond that.
edit: 4) You cannot place a WR into the RB position. For most teams this won't matter, but some WR have exceptionally high maximum speed such as Jerry Rice, Andre Rison, Drew Hill, Ellard (Rams), and a couple Raiders receivers, and probably a few more I can't think of.
1. The game won't let you snap if the defender hasn't chosen his player, I believe. 2. This is fine, because 90% of teams can do this, and extra points can just be spammed and successful 99% of the time anyway. (I've never missed one) 3. Running the clock is part of the game. 4. If your reciever is in the RB position, he's not recieving, which is what they're generally better at, so what's it hurt?
Unless you can convince me otherwise, I'm not going to add any of these rules!
I'm personally a fan of instituting a rule to keep WR out of RB spots. It just makes more game sense in general. It also can overpower some teams, and, it can keep some times from being too good. For instance, in Eagles RBs are better at receiving than their receivers are, and for the most part, you just don't need to run with the Eagles. It's a small complaint, and one that I'm not hugely passionate about, but I like the rule.
Also, extra points can be missed via spam, it's just really hard to do, and generally you need the Rams kicker, or someone equally shitty. And even with spam, an LT or Derrick Thomas at excellent can still get in and potentially block kicks. It's super unfair.
On March 22 2009 04:43 Enrique wrote: I'm personally a fan of instituting a rule to keep WR out of RB spots. It just makes more game sense in general. It also can overpower some teams, and, it can keep some times from being too good. For instance, in Eagles RBs are better at receiving than their receivers are, and for the most part, you just don't need to run with the Eagles. It's a small complaint, and one that I'm not hugely passionate about, but I like the rule.
Also, extra points can be missed via spam, it's just really hard to do, and generally you need the Rams kicker, or someone equally shitty. And even with spam, an LT or Derrick Thomas at excellent can still get in and potentially block kicks. It's super unfair.
Alright, I suppose I'll add the rules, since the season has just begun.
On March 22 2009 00:37 EscPlan9 wrote: I know it's a little late... but I forgot to mention a couple other rules since I've gone under the assumption that everyone obviously knows not to do them:
1) Do wait for the defender to select their player before snapping the ball. For obv reasons.
2) Do not use "4th man down" (LB1) on FGs and PATs (point after touchdowns). If you have someone like Derrick Thomas, or Lawrence Taylor in LB1, you will be able to block the kick the majority of the time even if the player kicking just mashes A - that's how imba it is with a fast LB1 in this situation.
3) Do not unnecessarily delay the game. It's perfectly acceptable to kill the clock if you wish, but don't delay beyond that. I've played some people who would take 10 seconds before calling any play on offense or defense. THERE'S ONLY EIGHT DAMN PLAYS, IT'S NOT HARD!! Again, if you're allowing the clock to wind down the 7 seconds during the play selection screen, that's fine as it is specifically for strategical purposes and you are not delaying beyond that.
edit: 4) You cannot place a WR into the RB position. For most teams this won't matter, but some WR have exceptionally high maximum speed such as Jerry Rice, Andre Rison, Drew Hill, Ellard (Rams), and a couple Raiders receivers, and probably a few more I can't think of.
1. The game won't let you snap if the defender hasn't chosen his player, I believe. 2. This is fine, because 90% of teams can do this, and extra points can just be spammed and successful 99% of the time anyway. (I've never missed one) 3. Running the clock is part of the game. 4. If your reciever is in the RB position, he's not recieving, which is what they're generally better at, so what's it hurt?
Unless you can convince me otherwise, I'm not going to add any of these rules!
Rules 2 and 4 are in every single tecmo league out there. That should say something.
1) You can hike the ball if they pause for a half-second anywhere. (I'm not BM enough to try hiking without letting them choose, so you may even be able to hike as they are cycling through their players). Let them settle on a player for a second.
2) It's outlawed in every league because of the imbalance. It only happens with a couple teams, but it so happens we have Giants, and KC playing, which all have insanely fast LB1 players.
3) I know running the clock is part of the game - which is why I said don't unnecessarily delay the game. I even said running the clock is fine! Re-read what I wrote. What I mean by unnecessarily is frequently taking much longer than necessary to choose a play, without any benefit of using up more time.
4) You totally missed the point. Read again. Also, outlawed in every league because of the imbalances it permits. Jerry Rice as a running back can still receive. Running backs go out on many passing plays. Putting him in as RB gives the 49ers a Barry Sanders running back essentially, who also has the best hands in the game!
Added two and four. I've never had a problem with the extrapoint/fieldgoal blocks, especially when human players are involved, but I suppose we'll add it. I have -never- missed an extra point, or saw anyone miss an extra point by spamming, though. I suppose it does come into effect with field goals, though, but it only actually blocks a small percentage of the time, anyway? Either way, I guess we'll add it.
As far as number 4, yeah, I totally see your point.
edit: oh and, as far as I can remember, as long as the defensive player is pressing the switch key, you cannot hike the ball. I've never had problems with this, either, and don't really expect anyone to be dickish enough to try to exploit it anyway. As far as the time wasting thing, I'm fine with it due to the fact that time-wasting generally doesn't happen for no reason, and if it does, it doesn't help/hinder either player, it just makes for an uninteresting game. I'd expect nobody to do that for no reason as well.
There are so many bugs with this crap... I recently had to delete my entire NES folder (except ROMs), then re-dl Nestopia 1.40 with the modded client from the guide again to be able to access NetPlay for some reason. GAHHHHHHHHHHH
We played our practice game... my Steelers vs his Chiefs. I won 14-3. I accidentally onside kicked the first time, and thats how he got the 3 points. Held Okoye to 20 yards rushing (8 attempts).
I start off the season 1-0 ! SUPERBOWL HERE I COME!!!
DA BEARS
Although not mentioned on the scoreboard, I also accumulated 6 sacks. You can find this out by using a save state extractor tool for TSB (commonly used in online leagues to record the stats and scores).
edit: Anderson got in Bad, so I swapped in Bailey as the main runner. Deberg's only two completions also was how he got his TD.
I ended the game by punting the ball at his 15 as time was about to expire. HUMILIATION!! MWAHAHAHA
dammit! Me and Mikilatov just played. VERY close game up until the 4th quarter. I was on the one yard line and fumbled the ball that would have tied it up 17 to 17. He then drove it down the field and that sealed the game. GG!
On March 25 2009 15:10 EscPlan9 wrote: Hurry up Enrique... let's get a game going
edit: Oh, of course, after you find your gamepad in your purse. It might be next to your tampons.
The funny thing about this... I wrote this post before he got back from work. When we tried to get the game going, the emulator didn't recognize his gamepad, so he had use his other one. (Also worth noting, a few days ago, my trusty Logitech Dual Action gamepad blew a circuit or something so I've been practicing on my other gamepad, a Saitek, since)
Week 1 has been extended by a few days, and I've modified the schedule slightly. Feel free to play your week 2 games if you wish, but we've extended week 1 due to technical problems hindering Rho_ and InToTheWannaB's game.
If you can't get it to work by IP address, you either need to forward the port properly, change the port, or use the older kailleraclient.dll to use server mode. The older dll file is included in the zip contained in the guide in OP, it's called kailleraclientbackup.dll (it should also be in your nestopia directory). Just rename that to kailleraclient.dll, join a server, and create a game.
I've updated the "HOW TO PLAY" section of the OP with information on how to play if Netplay direct connecting isn't working. It has some delay, but it's playable, and always works. (Enrique and EscPlan9 played their game on it, and Enrique and I just played ours on it, just fine.)
Enrique and I just played our week 2 game. It was epic and fun as hell.
It all started well. Bengals get the ball, make a steady charge up the field. TOUCHDOWN. 7-0. It's going to be a good day... NOT.
Accidental onside kick, TOUCHDOWN KC. Current Score: 7-7, Okay, whatever, it was a fluke. Bengals: DENIED KC play #1: TOUCHDOWN Bengals: DENIED KC play #2: TOUCHDOWN Current Score: 21-7, on TWO KC plays. So much for that fluke. Two KC touchdowns later, it's 35-7. I figure, I might as well field goal just to put some points on the board.... MISS. GAME END. ... Or is it? Last play of the game, KC throws a BOMBER of a pass from endzone to endzone, and the reciever SOMEHOW manages to escape the wrath of David Fulcher, who is literally ASSPOUNDING him as he catches the ball.
Boomer and Brooks had an off game, but I was still outplayed. =P We shall rematch sometime soon, and maybe I won't lose QUITE as badly. *Needs a new playbook and for KC to have a bad game*
Oh and also, Enrique's a great sport and a really nice guy, so be manner to him! =)
Word Mikilatov. It was a fun, if somewhat one sided game. The final should really say Christian Okoye 42-Bengals 7. It would've been more accurate. Starting with that onside kick, he was all about making as much popcorn as possible. And dude, I'll help you figure out a better playbook. Rolling with the Bengals default is just bad news all around.
Now then, I'm comin' for that ass, EscPlan! The Chiefs just needed a warm up. They've had it. Your precious Bears are gonna learn what happens when you mess with Nick Lowry. That's right, I plan on only scoring via field goals and still beating you. My prediction for our inevitable rematch: Chiefs 18, Bears 14.
Very few teams have any sort of playable default playbook against an experienced opponent.
About what Enr said... whatever man...I'll still own you. You're all talk. I'll bet $50 on our game.
Also, popcorning only works against drones, not against man. In fact, HP only makes a difference in two cases: a tie (you both tap at exactly the same speed), or if you have greater than 50 HP than the drone (then you usually popcorn them off).
So keep talking about how bad you can beat the drones. That's very impressive. Hey Mikilatov, create him a medal of recognition for his superb performance on outgrappling the AI using Okoye. Me, I'll just take the Superbowl trophy TYVM!!
Wow, I just realized that in my game vs. Enrique, I somehow had 250 yards to his 259, yet he destroyed me 42-7. lol. I suppose that makes sense with the onside and turnovers, though.
On March 29 2009 11:30 Mikilatov wrote: Wow, I just realized that in my game vs. Enrique, I somehow had 250 yards to his 259, yet he destroyed me 42-7. lol. I suppose that makes sense with the onside and turnovers, though.
Also noteworthy is you had 10 first downs while he had 2. So either that means the majority of the time when he had the ball, he made 1 big play for a score. Or turnovers played a big factor
On March 29 2009 11:42 InToTheWannaB wrote: i pm Rho_ but he has not shot me one back yet. Can i play my week 2 game and play the week one game when he gets back to me?
I think this should be allowed since week 2 has already begun. Wait for Mikilatov's final ruling though
I've also been PM'n him about getting my week 2 started after he finishes your week 1 game. He let me know we should try to get our game going anyways. I haven't received a response back from him today yet either.
So... I'm eager to play some more of these games and get to my 3rd win ASAP to guarantee me in the finals okay if I play Khaymus (Vikings), my 3rd week game?
edit: nvm IntoTheWannaB also plays Khaymus for his 2nd week. I'll wait until they have their game completed at least.
Rho sent me an IM and we finished our game! He mentioned he previously had problems connecting by IP - but once I told him to connect in this format: IP ADDRESS : PORT, like xx.xxx.xxx.xx:6112 (Battlenet port that most of us have open) we were able to connect easily. There was a slight lag at times for both of us, but it was very playable. Onto the game summary!!
I contained Randall, which is 95% of the Eagles offense, and also forced a fumble and a safety by sacking him. The rest... my Bears offense overwhelmed. The screenshot will explain better:
GG Rho!
2-0 now. Who will give me the final win to bring me into the finals?
QB Cunningham was stifled, and as he goes, so go the Eagles. Alas for the team in green, Okoye was once again en fuego, racking up a 19.5 yards per carry average. The first week loss looking more and more like the fluke it was, the Chiefs are eager for their shot at revenge.
That said, it was a super manner game and good times, if slightly one-sided. Chiefs Hwaiting!
Looks like I'll be seeing you again in the finals, Enrique! I assure you the first game was no fluke
Khaymus has my MSN and AIM. Just waiting for him to send the message when he's ready to get our third week game on.
edit: Unfortunately due to lack of response for weeks from IntoTheWannaB we will have to drop him from this league. So any games you have scheduled against his New York Giants will now be skipped. Only two more games to go til the finals!
I'm making a fairly brief guide that sums up how to play competitive TSB. I'll post it after the finals. I guarantee following it will improve your play TREMENDOUSLY. I'll leave out some of the more complicated advanced stuff - you'll figure it out on your own after enough games with decent players.
What I'll include: * General tips * How to make the best usage of your team's star players * What attributes to look for in players for most positions * The least exploitable playbooks in the game * How to shutdown the tougher runs in the game using players from different positions
Looking forward to finishing up these games and heading to the finals!
BTW, if anyone wants to play any random NES/SNES game, I have a bunch of them. Whether it's Contra, Super SF2, Mario Kart, etc. PM me if you're bored and down for it.
For me it's not really not knowing what's good, or what to do. It's just choosing to play the way I do, because for me it's far less fun to make a game based on simplicity more complex. If I wanted to play a complex football game I'd play Madden.
I've -never- once made a custom playbook, or substituted a player without him being injured, even when I -KNOW- it's the smart thing to do. I just like picking a team and going at it straight up, figuring out how I personally like to play each pre-packaged team.
Competitive TSB is far from complex. It is amongst one of the simplest games to play at a competitive level. I assure you the guide I am producing can be easily followed by anyone and takes very little practice (less than an hour) to fully implement. Hell, even with no practice, but just reading the guide, you will improve substantially.
It's your prerogative to play it however you like. Against friends of mine who I know only play it casually, I fool around a lot more.
The guide will be useful for those who are interested in improving their gameplay (against Man or CPU), or at least are interested in knowing how the game is played amongst competitive players. It won't cover some of the more advanced tactics that require more practice, study, and execution for brevity's sake and to keep things simple.
Once you said "I've -never- customized a playbook" I knew exactly what to practice on. And it so happens Bengals have a pretty awful default playbook. By calling Run 3 most of the game, there really isn't much you can do. The only play-action you can get off without being sacked only has three receivers. And your only other pass play is the shotgun bomb which is really easy to cover since every receiver except 1 goes deep.
lol but hey at least I REALLLLLLY messed up bad on that one run. I called the play-action draw up, and then tried to aggro stop the actual draw. I missed the slide tackle and got caught up with blockers. FML gave you like 90 yards there and eventually a TD when you were within the 5. But hey, it must have felt great for you to get that off!
About the grapples... in MAN vs MAN its simply whoever taps fastest. /flex
The practice games against the CPU were really funny. I got like 10 sacks a game and 3 safeties. lol scores were like 59-0, 56-0, 52-3
Oh yeah, and the highlight play of the game, without a doubt, was when I was running with Anderson and got into a grapple with you and two drones were on me as well. Somehow I broke free of that and I was just like HOLLLLLYYYY SHITTTT and sped to the endzone like the beast Anderson is
Yeah, Anderson is a tank. Oh and, I suppose my tapping suckage has a lot to do with the fact that I'm playing on a keyboard, when normally I play on my MAME machine's arcade stick.
I have my full guide completed, but won't upload it in entirety until after the Chiefs get mauled
Here's the beginning!
Beginners Guide to Competitive TSB (NES) Play by EscPlan9 (aka EP9 or EscapePlan9)
This guide assumes you know the basics of the gameplay. It is tailored towards players not familiar with the competitive TSB scene, or simply those who are struggling and want to substantially improve their play in TSB.
GENERAL TIPS * Due to the limited amount of possessions you have, knowing both how to execute a strong offensive gameplan as well as how to shutdown or contain the strongest plays in the game is paramount.
* Make the best use of your team's strengths - do not play each team the same way. And on the other side, take advantage of the opposing team's weaknesses.
* The most important attribute for most positions is MS (Maximum Speed). HP (Hitting Power) has no impact on gameplay outside of popcorning drones when you have 50 HP greater than the drone (in MAN vs MAN play, whoever taps fastest wins).
* Since he who taps fastest wins, make sure to warm up your A button spamming! When you're about to receive the ball (kickoff, pass, handoff, whatever), start gradually tapping faster and faster until you get near the opponent then spam as fast as possible. I don't use any special method for tapping - I just get a firm grip on the controller and using a short efficient motion, "vibrate" over the A button as fast as I can.
* The KR's and PR's maximum speed is fixed and based off your team's right guard or strong safety (respectively) so therefore you should not select KR or PR based off their MS. The best KR and PR attributes to look for then is HP and BC (Ball Control).
* On defense, calling a run play will force your defense to play more aggressively towards the line, therefore leaving more receivers open. And calling pass plays will make runs slightly more difficult to stop, but will give you better coverage of the receivers.
Still waiting for a response from the Vikings. Khaymus, you still alive?
That's a useful start, Esc--important information to have out there. Also important to note is that Andre Ware is a bitch who has such a perfect arc on his throws that his receivers always make ridiculous jump catches regardless of your defense. (My roommate killed me that way--thankfully, the Lions have zero defense, so I still won)
Visiting relatives for the weekend. Khaymus - you gotta change your playbook if you want a chance to win against Enrique's Chiefs, trust me
Also... a couple more terminologies prevalent in competitive TSB leagues:
JJ: Jumping Jackass. This is where the QB lobs the ball over the receivers head and he jumps and grabs it. When you study the passing plays in a lot of detail you can pull these off very consistently and it's very abusive and tough to defend. The best teams for JJs are TB, MIN, and ATL. All of them have QBs that throw that arc, and an all-star receiver like Carrier or Rison.
CC: Covered Catch. This is when a receiver is covered by one or more defenders, yet still makes the grab. Think Montana -> Rice. This is annoying and there is nothing you can do about it. Thankfully it doesn't occur that often and only in very specific circumstances.
I've updated the OP. I'm cheering for Enrique 'cause he's a manner guy and I want the underdog to take it. =P Don't worry I still love you, Esc.
Best of 3, feel free to change playbooks between games. You better practice up, Enrique!
Hopefully there will someday be a next season, with way more people and a better ruleset. Possibly one which includes a crash course on how to play well from our reigning asskickers.
Was fun, I even had fun getting demolished, haha. I feel the results may have been the same if I didn't roll default playbook, but I would have at least stood a better chance, haha. I think anyone who creates a custom playbook and plays smart will at least have half a chance against people who are good at the game.
I was only BM with Enrique when he encouraged the trash talking
Yes, if you use any decent playbook, and have some practice against the better playbooks, you will be competitive enough to have a chance. That's the key reason for all these blowouts.
It's hardly even fair he gets to change the playbook at all considering KC is overall a slightly better team than CHI. But whatevah, my experience will pay off. And next season when I pick the Steelers, I get the freedom to customize the playbook to my liking, which will make their terribad offense into a playable offense!
So I come back home at the end of the weekend and try to throw in a practice game. I don't even get to the Team Data screen before my Gamepad's D-Pad starts feeling awkward. After about 5 seconds of testing all the directionals, the D-pad snaps right off. WTF?!? I've now broken two controllers in the past month
I tried playing with keyboard, and my tapping skills are MUCH worse on it. I'm too used to gamepad for grappling. Tomorrow I'll be buying another Logitech pad and hoping for the best -_- my previous one lasted me about two years. My Saitek lasted about a year. Why are PC gamepads so easy to break compared to consoles? Bleh.
lol, I had a Saitek just like that! I popped that D-pad right off. Sucked balls. Let me know when you're down, because it's about to get real. And really, KC is better than Chi? As I understand it, bout the only thing they do better is have a better QB and a better kicker.
And thanks Mikilatov for your support. I'll do my best to ensure it doesn't go unfounded. Here's to the upcoming KC rising:
Sucks about your gamepad, EscPlan, and yeah, I can attest to the tapping suckage on a keyboard, that's what I've been using, and you saw how I never won a tie-up. =P
I've always thought the bears were quite a bit better than the KC overall, but I suppose they're close enough to where playbook customization is an overcompensation for the advantage, but oh well... EscPlan should have the skills to make up for it.
On April 14 2009 03:52 Enrique wrote: lol, I had a Saitek just like that! I popped that D-pad right off. Sucked balls. Let me know when you're down, because it's about to get real. And really, KC is better than Chi? As I understand it, bout the only thing they do better is have a better QB and a better kicker.
KC has a better offensive line and passing game (Deberg and Paige) and Okoye is almost as good as Anderson (he only has one extra notch of MS and more REC). Also KC has some fierce LBs who not only have high MS (Thomas), but also decent INT for LBs (Snow, Thomas). Their secondary isn't as good as DA BEARS of course, but still above average. Overall KC is a better balanced team whereas with the Bears you rely on a few star players to pull you through.
The 1st game was crazy - a lot of fumbles, interceptions, diving catches, and JJs. The 2nd game was much closer and had a decent chance of going to overtime if one of his bombs to Paige would be completed.
Game 1. Very defensive game with a lot of Tecmo God vengeance sworn upon the Chiefs. Including an accidental onside kick that I recovered early on Because of stuff like this, I had good field position throughout the majority of the game. He scored in the remaining few seconds with a bomb to Paige who made a CC -_-
Game 2. He went a lot more pass heavy than I expected and I made more blunders than I usually do against the runs - I usually don't run into blockers haphazardly -_- giving up a few big gains.
Now that the season has been completed... my guide in entirety:
Beginners Guide to Competitive TSB (NES) Play by EscPlan9 (aka EP9 or EscapePlan9)
This guide assumes you know the basics of the gameplay. It is tailored towards players not familiar with the competitive TSB scene, or simply those who are struggling and want to substantially improve their play in TSB.
GENERAL TIPS * Due to the limited amount of possessions you have, knowing both how to execute a strong offensive gameplan as well as how to shutdown or contain the strongest plays in the game is paramount.
* Make the best use of your team's strengths - do not play each team the same way. And on the other side, take advantage of the opposing team's weaknesses.
* The most important attribute for most positions is MS (Maximum Speed). HP (Hitting Power) has no impact on gameplay outside of popcorning drones when you have 50 HP greater than the drone (in man v man play, whoever taps fastest wins).
* Since he who taps fastest wins, make sure to warm up your A button spamming! When you're about to receive the ball (kickoff, pass, handoff, whatever), start gradually tapping faster and faster until you get near the opponent then spam as fast as possible. I don't use any special method for tapping - I just get a firm grip on the controller and using a short efficient motion, "vibrate" over the A button as fast as I can.
* The KR's and PR's maximum speed is fixed and based off your team's right guard or strong safety (respectively) so therefore you should not select KR or PR based off their MS. The best KR and PR attributes to look for then is HP and BC (Ball Control).
* On defense, calling a run play will force your defense to play more aggressively towards the line, therefore leaving many receivers open. And calling pass plays will make runs slightly more difficult to stop, but will give you better coverage of the receivers.
PLAYBOOK SELECTION Your playbook selection is the single most important factor to developing a strong offensive gameplan. Many of the plays in this game are extremely easy to shutdown or contain. Remember that throughout the game you must stick to those same eight plays, so make them count! Choose one of the following playbooks depending on your team's strengths and your playing style.
Before I get into them, this is a basic glossary to understanding the abbreviations I'm using:
1) THE STANDARD R&S PLAYBOOK
This is the most utilized playbook in competitive TSB because it is the least exploitable. It contains some of the strongest run plays in the game, and the pass plays almost always will leave some receivers open.
The safest ways to defend against the plays (more aggressive ways are not covered here):
R1: Use CB1 and hold down before the ball is hiked. Once you notice it's the pitch up, take out the top blocker, then you have an open shot at the RB. Do not over pursue him - contain him if you don't have backup nearby, or if you aren't confident you can outtap him.
R2: Use LB2 or LB3 and move straight forward or slightly diagonal (depends on which player you chose) and you will find a gap in the offensive line, allowing you to chase the runner from behind.
R3: Use CB1 and hold down before the ball is hiked. Once you notice it's the pitch down, continue moving straight down, avoiding any blockers in your path. Again, don't over pursue. This play can easily be explosive if he runs by you. If you're still being chased by roaming blockers, don't fall into the trap - run circles around until you have backup on the way or an easier shot at him to slow him down.
R4: Use LB2 or LB3 and move straight forward or slightly diagonal (depends on which player you chose). You will have an easy shot at the RB.
Against a strong running team with a weak passing game, pick R3 very often. Some examples of teams like this are the Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears. Otherwise, to be on the safe side, call mostly pass, and contain the runs as best you can.
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2) THE TWO BACKS PLAYBOOK
You typically use this playbook when both your RBs are fairly weak (low MS), and sometimes when you have two fast RBs (usually the standard R&S playbook would be better in this case). Some of the plays are exploitable which makes this an easier playbook to shutdown or contain.
The safest ways to defend against the plays:
R1: Pick LB4 and move diagonally in towards the center. Once you notice it's the sweep, outgrapple the drone and then move diagonally back to chase down the runner.
R2: Pick SS1 and move diagonally up towards the top receiver. Once you notice it's the draw, you will have an open shot at the RB. If you're having trouble, at least don't let him get to the top sidelines - do this by hovering slightly above him, forcing him to run into you or move towards the center into likely traffic.
R3: Pick SS1 and move diagonally up towards the top receiver. Outgrapple him and try to contain the RB using the same methods as earlier. This may be the most difficult run play to stop in the game!
R4: Pick LB4 and move diagonally in towards the center. Once you notice it's the handoff, spam the tackle button for an almost unavoidable loss of yards. If his RB is fast enough, he may be able to evade, in which case, just chase him into traffic.
Because of the types of teams that typically use this playbook, and how easy it is to contain R1 and R4, you should call R3 often. By picking R3, you will also make shutting down R2 extremely easy (LB2 moving straight in gets a free shot at the RB in the backfield). However, if they are a strong passing team, only call it when it's likely to be a run play.
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3) MINOR VARIATIONS For the most part you should stick to the two playbooks mentioned above, however there are some minor variations you can do that are still effective. One example:
R2 and R4 both have fairly weak selections. With R2 you can sub in one of the T formation draws or the motion draw towards the bottom. With R4, you can use the T formation power dive up the middle, or the R&S QB sneak up the middle.
For passes, P2 can be subbed with the T formation play with a billion receivers - you're GUARANTEED an open receiver on that play. The best shotgun play in P4 by far is the weird formation motion one. The bomb play is terrible since it's so easy to cover, and the other shotgun play takes too long to develop (most of the receivers will be zig zagging and curling, and your QB tends to lead them horribly).
HOW TO BEST PRACTICE * Setup the controls for Input 2.
* Go into Team Data and select a team that gives you trouble.
* Give them the playbook that gives you the most difficulty (or any playbook you want to practice against).
* Then go to Preseason and select MAN vs COA.
* At the play selection screen, hold shift then press 1 to save state (in Nestopia). This allows you to instantly return back to the play selection screen just by tapping 1 to load the state, which makes your practice time more efficient. Use this after each down.
* On offense, try to make the most yards out of called plays. With runs, you usually can at least get back to the line of scrimmage with most plays. With passes, you will almost ALWAYS have an open receiver still. I won't go into the details of which players are open for each pass play - experiment and you will figure it out. If no one is open, throw to someone who is just starting to zig-zag or curl - this increases your chance of having a leaping or diving catch which is a very low risk, high reward play.
* On defense, call a pass play and practice defending against the runs. Experiment with different defenders than I mentioned to find other ways to stop the play. Also, practice calling a run play and defending against a good pass play.
* Join a league like Tecmo Players Circuit (TPC) to play against other competitive players. You likely will lose the majority of your first few games. That's okay, don't get frustrated - keep playing and keep practicing. I started off something like 2-21 when I got there.
FINAL NOTES Everything in this guide has come from me practicing extensively in MAN vs COA, reading guides and forums, and playing against TPC members. Thank you everyone in TPC for helping me become a competitive TSB player! I'd especially like to thank Malferds and MrTecmoSuperBowl from TPC for their assistance during my beginnings there.
Feel free to PM/IM/MSN me for any questions, feedback, advanced/aggressive tactics, or practice games.
AIM: EscapePlan9 MSN: dmontur1 (at) gmail (dot) com
Thanks! I also want to give a huge props to Enrique for making significant improvements since our first game. He ended up picking "the two backs playbook" and got a LOT better at containing the run plays. I was hoping by not posting the guide in its entirety he wouldn't figure out one of the best playbooks in the game
GGs again! I look forward to (hopeful) next season! GO STEELERS!! Now with the guide posted, I think we're going to need to modify the rules for further balancing. That's gonna take a lot of pondering...
On April 14 2009 10:38 Mikilatov wrote: I'm not sure if it's worth starting a new thread... I get the feeling we won't get very many signups.
Unfortunately I think you're right. I sent you a PM about me bringing in a bunch from TPC - they are definitely dedicated to playing the games. They constantly play pickup games for fun - although all the games are very competitive. With some practice using the guide I wrote, we can all compete with them on a decent level and there won't be so many blowouts. I have about a 50% record over 200 games against them.
The only problem with Mario Kart I could see is that it arguably requires an even better connection to play properly than does Tecmo. That said, I would really doubt that many people around these parts still play the original.
I've played SMK (SNES) plenty times over ZSNES without any lag problems. They used to have a solid netplay system like a mini-version of battle.net when I did it. Connecting by IP makes it even less likely for lag to be a problem.
I don't play the original that often, but it's still my favorite. It would be a close 2nd to the N64 version if it weren't for the nostalgia value though! DK/Bowser FTW!
If I wasn't so damn busy I'd be interested in organizing another game, or maybe some sort of Ironman gaming thing, with a different game each week, but I just don't have the time. =(
What are some other popular NES/SNES multi-player games?
Games I can think of off the top of my head, even if not very popular:
NES Arch Rivals Tetris (Tengen version) Crash N Boys Street Challenge Blades of Steel Tecmo Bowl (original lol) Super Dodge Ball Bases Loaded
SNES F-Zero (I think 1 at a time ? ) Killer Instinct Street Fighter 2 / SF2T / SSF2 Mega Man Soccer Mortal Kombats (UMK3 is the best) NBA Jams Rock N Roll Racing (was my fav game as a kid) Super Mario Kart Tecmo Super Bowls (meh to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd I haven't played enough to say) TMNT Tournament Fighters Tetris Attack Uniracers (I think?)
I'll post a poll in S&G of some of the most popular ones to see what would have the most interest and take care of the organizing. I don't have classes until June 1st and hell if I can land a job within IT at these times!
In general, I'm not a big fan of games that are competitive without being played simultaneously. F-Zero falls in that category. Also, is the Tengen version of NES Tetris two player at a time? If so, I was quite unaware of that. The Tengen version has the funny shaped cart, right? It looks kinda like the RBI baseball cart I have.
Anyway, as I love hockey, and I played the hell out of Blades of Steel, I'd obviously be down for that, provided anyone else was (somehow I'm skeptical). Super Dodge Ball would be pretty badass, even though I've never played against anyone really. I do own the game though, so I could get some sweet practice time in if needed. Again though, those are kind of niche games.
My vote would probably be for Street Fighter 2 (insert subtitle here). I like turbo the best, but I'd roll with whatever. Mario Kart and NBA Jam would both be pretty fun as well. I tend to agree the UMK3 was the best of the Mortal Kombat games, but even at that, it doesn't hold a candle to any SF game. Good luck. Hopefully this helped whittle down that list at least a little.
P.S. Original Tecmo Bowl is pretty garbage. It's best left forgotten.
The Tengen version allows simultaneous play (left and right hand of screen respectively).
Yea, I can't stand the original Tecmo Bowl. Only 4 plays, and every time you throw the ball to a covered receiver it's an interception. I read the rules for Tecmo Bowl leagues and they are so ridiculous - they outlaw like everything.
Rule #3 --- No Quaterback running. Running with the Quaterback a lot is gay and un-manly. If the Quaterback took off running everytime the offense could not be stopped, so it is outlawed. A sub-section of this rule is Rule #3.5---No Running for more then 1-2 yards with the QB when your play as been called. Some QBs can scramble for an easy 5, 6 or even 8-9 yards when the play has been picked. We don't allow this. The sportsman thing to do is to try to get back to the line of scrimmage, within 1 or 2 yards at most.
Rule #4 --- Relating to Rule #3, the Quaterback, or Running Back is not to run for a 1st down (or for a Touchdown) when the play has been called. If a 1st down is only 1 or 2 yards away the sportsman thing to do is to stop an inch before the line, or step out of bounds right before. As with Rule #3 this is not iron-clad resulting in an automatic forfeit or anything but it is strongly recommoned you comply otherwise you won't be playing much.
Rule #5 --- If you thrown a clear INT but the game doesn't register it, announce what pass play your picking and throw an interception. Clear INT means the defender is "locked-on" and in obvious position to make the pick. This should be obvious when this occurs. Boarderline picks (when the defender is not "locked-on" but is right there) are a judegment call.
And on that same page... why the original is better than TSB. LOL :
Maybe the fact no one else seems to use these Common Sense rules is the reason that Tecmo Super Bowl is the more popular game than far superior Tecmo Bowl.
...seriously how can anyone play a game with fumbles? what happens when there is 45 seconds left and you are just running the ball to kill some clock like you should and then your pefectly good RB inexplicably fumbles. OK so you just say its part of the game and move on because the breaks will even out over time. But really, how many times can you say that before your head explodes or you want to kill someone. I have played Tecmo Super before, and that exact situation has happened to me. It is just infuriating. And what about you are say SD and you are taking on powerhouse SF on the road. And what if you are determined all game and you play tough and very late in teh 3rd you have a minimal leaf but then your QB spots someone wide open in the back of the endzone so he lofts it up and it goes right in his hands and he drops it? Well ok, its SD, shit QB and shit WR, but what if it happens 3 times in the second half. Then what do you do?!?!?!?!?! you go insane and kill everyone in a 5 mile radius. I could not play that game seriously without having a heart attack within a month. OK i should stop now before my head does explode, just the memories are awful.
It's basically... if everyone is covered, you have to take a sack (No QB sneaking). If your play is called, you cannot attempt to gain yards. If you threw a ball to a covered receiver and it wasn't intercepted, you must tell your opponent the next play, both call it, and throw an interception. I can't believe anyone would find this enjoyable!
Oh, and yes, Tengen is especially noteworthy for their unusual shaped NES carts. I forget the controversy, but they were releasing games on NES at the time when Nintendo wanted to put the "Nintendo Stamp of Approval" or whatever on each game. Tengen refused to obey this and still marketed their products.
A few years ago I played Dodgeball occasionally against a neighbor of mine while living off campus. He's better at getting the power shots done more consistently. I still haven't found out exactly what needs to be done, but damn hard to get down consistently. Otherwise, there are few other plays to make in the game, like passing then alley-oop firing at someone, or other somewhat tricky plays. Overall, it seemed a pretty luck based game. I don't think it'd be that great competitively.
What about World Cup Soccer for the NES which was made by the same people as Dodgeball (I believe--mostly because the sprites all look the same)? That was a pretty sweet game, and, if by some miracle netplay would support it, you could actually play with 4 people. It was one of the few games that allowed the NES 4 player multitap thing.
I recall reading that only up to 2 players is supported for netplay so far. At least on the SNES side. Pretty sure it's a max of 2 players on NES as well.
Are you sure it was called World Cup Soccer? I found a game called Soccer for NES. When I look up World Cup Soccer, all I find is the mention of a pinball game called it.
Cool! The matches feel a little lengthy and repetitive, but I love knocking out the other team. Sometimes I do power shots in this one too, just like Dodgeball. Don't know how to do them consistently yet either... any ideas? Gonna look it up
Power shots are easy in this game actually. If you have your own player pass the ball to you and you do a bicycle kick right as it gets to you, you'll do a super power shot. Alternatively, you could have them pass the ball to you (note that the ball always goes to the spot you are at when they pass it), and then back up, and do a little diving headbutt. If you hit the ball right as it lands that way, you'll do a power shot, but it'll be on the ground level, and will more than likely destroy the goalie (and anyone else in the ball's path) as well as be super awesome. That said, the games against the computer are definitely boring and lengthy after you get the hang of it.
Oh, and occasionally, you'll do super shots just by doing normal shots--I honestly don't know why this happens, and I think there's just a random chance of it happening.
Edit: bicycle kick is performed by standing still and pressing A+B simultaneously. Diving headbutt is the same thing but you hold forward or backward before you press A+B.
I figured out the bicycle kick and headbutt on my own. Without even using them effectively like you mentioned, I was winning like 7-1. I'm sure that'll change when I actually do those specials after the ball is passed to me.
I wish there were a stamina meter or something in the game so I can tell when one of my players is wearing out and know when to keep him away from the ball (and hence not getting slide tackled).
Through GameFAQs I learned that to do those super shots where the ball changes appearance and knocks people out is based on the amount of steps you take before making the shot. On the USA Team it varies per member (either 7 or 3 steps), but for the rest of the teams, each member requires the same amount of steps (differs per team, but usually 3, 5, or 7). So you catch the ball, take the required steps, stop, then shoot. Pretty simple. You get 5 of those shots per half if I read correctly. I don't know if that includes the pass -> bicycle kick/headbutt.
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