Player names stripped from Tecmo Bowl on the VC
by David Hinkle 
{ Mar 14th 2007 at 4:25PM }
Admittedly, we should've noticed such when we played the game yesterday during our VC Monday Madness feature. Maybe its our old age, but we didn't really notice the player names being changed at all. Regardless, it happened and while the original Tecmo Bowl on the NES didn't have official NFL team names, they did have player names. This was the result of being endorsed by the NFL Player's Association.Even though the names are changed, we still feel that the Tecmo Bowl available for download on the Virtual Console is well worth your precious monies. With this latest development, has your mind been changed if you haven't downloaded Tecmo Bowl yet? Will you not download it due to this latest development?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
KirbyMeister @ Mar 14th 2007 8:50PM
Blame EA & the NFL for this - they're the ones hoarding the licences.
In perspective, this isn't very important, so I don't think Nintendo should be flamed over this.
Geo @ Mar 14th 2007 4:40PM
It won't totally bother me. What did they change the names to?
ConstyXIV @ Mar 14th 2007 5:27PM
Considering EA's mono- err, "legal agreement" with the NFL, I bet it was a matter of change the names or don't release. You can't really blame Nintendo or Tecmo on this one
Mr Khan @ Mar 14th 2007 5:29PM
This is the problem
Since EA has a monopoly on official NFL games, then people won't go to other games, because the majority wants only the "real deal"
Thus, EA shall hold thier monopoly until the universe's end
Derka @ Mar 14th 2007 5:52PM
Again, I still cannot get on the shop channel, it takes forever and I can rarely get to the main screen.
Jay @ Mar 15th 2007 1:10AM
@ Derka
You know, I find that really weird, the fact that you have trouble getting on Wii shop. I wonder if it is a regional thing? Ive had a Wii since it came out, and check the shop and download from it at least twice a week and I think out of around maybe 40 visits, I've had trouble twice.
I wonder what the problem is?
timcat @ Mar 14th 2007 7:00PM
@ #4
I was having this same problem for about a week. I ended up going into the wii options and ran a "test connection" I went back to the shop channel and "bang" worked right off the bat. Not sure if it will help you or not but it worked for me. Anyway I can barley remember who was in the nfl back then so I really dont care whos name is what. Its Tecmo bowl. Its not like its very realistc anyway.
Frank @ Mar 14th 2007 7:11PM
There are tools to update rosters for Super Tecmo Bowl http://www.famssu.com/tecmo/ using simple hex editing techniques. I wouldn't think it would be a problem to take your TecmoBowl.bin, move it to your pc, add back the names and then play the game again. All we need is someone to create a tool.
Abscissa @ Mar 15th 2007 12:39AM
The real issue isn't whether or not it adversely affects playing the game. This is a matter of honesty and proper disclosure:
The problem is, whenever they go and change the ROM image for a VC release they need to make it CLEAR to prospective buyers that it is NOT the same as the original cart. Otherwise, they're deceiving customers, regardless of how important or trivial the change is.
Abscissa @ Mar 15th 2007 12:43AM
@#6: The VC games are encrypted (RSA, I think??), so that won't work on VC games unless someone comes up with some backdoor.
ROASTED @ Mar 15th 2007 7:53AM
well there goes nintendo's stand on releasing these retro-games unmodified..
ConstyXIV @ Mar 15th 2007 8:51AM
@9 Abscissa:
Yes, the Wii VC games are indeed encrypted. However, they would be complete morons to use RSA, as RSA has several known holes in it. (The DS uses RSA for it's wireless encryption)
The only thing anyone knows about the VC encryption is that it locks the games to your console
James @ Mar 15th 2007 1:13PM
Uh, wouldn't this be like saying an author who wrote a book and used a public figure's name (with their permission) in 1980 has to change the name of the character to re-release the same book in 2000? I'm not seeing how this works -- I mean, how can you "pull" permission to use a likeness in a product after the product is released?