Did you know there are 2 versions of Tecmo Bowl? Technically 3, but lets start with these 2.
> The 1989 USA Nintendo version rosters are based on the 1987 season. The rosters did however reflect "some" of the high profile player offseason movement heading into 1988. *A THREAD*

The 1989 USA Tecmo Bowl version portrayed key moves heading into 1988 season. Dorsett traded to Denver & Wilbur Marshall signing w/ Washington. They also included Jay Schroeder w/ the Raiders, which was from a trade between WSH & LA following week 1 of the 1988 season.

Players that switched teams between 87 & 88 but weren't "big names" were still portrayed on their "87" team. Willie Gault was traded from Chicago to LA, but is still found on Chicago's roster. WSH tight end Clint Didier went to Green Bay but was still on Tecmo'sWashington roster.

1989 USA Tecmo Bowl had Tim Brown as a Raider, even though he was at Notre Dame winning the Heisman in 1987. Tecmo Bowl also had Walter Payton despite him retiring after the 1987 season. It's Payton, why not include him? The game had some roster anomalies, but I aint trippin'.

Seahawks LB Fredd Young is an elite TecmoBowl defender. Japanese programmers gave him great abilities. He was traded from Seattle to Indy in 1988 (about the same time Schroeder was traded) but is portrayed on the Seahawks roster. That big news apparently flew beneath their radar.

@pfref was my reference point for 1987 rosters. It was clear Tecmo Bowl was mostly based on 1987 season. I did find an interesting anomaly. A few special teams players had their last prominent NFL roles in 1986. Tecmo apparently started to work on the game prior to 1987 season.

By the time we got our hands on the USA Nintendo cartridge (released Feb of 1989), some of the rosters were fairly outdated. Many on the Tecmo Bowl Cowboys roster for example had played their last NFL game in the 1987 season.

A year & a half later, Tecmo Bowl was released in Japan for the Famicom system(Nov1990). This version featured roster updates & was based on the 1989 season. Some of the teams had similar rosters compared to 89 USA version & some were drastically different due to player movement.

Look at the changes. McMahon vs Tomczak at QB. Note that Dexter Manley is replaced by Stokes. Odd because Manley was w/ WSH in 89. Payton was replaced by Neal Anderson on 1990 Japan Tecmo. Marcus Allen w/ LA was replaced by Steve Smith. Smith is really slow BTW.

This illustrates LA's roster changes between the 2 versions. Most teams did not have this many changes. Even if the rosters were similar, a player being drastically better or worse on Japan Tecmo Bowl could play a major factor in that teams success compared to USA Tecmo Bowl.

Some players are faster on Japan Tecmo, some are slower. Carl Banks is an elite defender (USA Tecmo) but very slow on Japan Tecmo. This hurts NY's defensive ability, despite still having LT. Bo & Jerry Rice are both a little faster on Japan Tecmo!

Due to the roster changes & altering some player abilities it affected the performance of some teams for the better or worse. San Fran & Minnesota are noticeably better on Japan Tecmo. Chicago & New York are a little worse. Dallas & Washington are drastically worse.

This is relevant as Nintendo started putting Tecmo Bowl on their newer platforms(Wii/DS/NES Mini/Switch), instead of using the good ol 1989 USA Tecmo Bowl version they used the 1990 Japan version. W/ player names removed many ppl didn't notice, but the changes were noteworthy.

So if you ever wondered why Herschel Walker is now a slow white guy on your Nintendo Switch or why Walter Payton is still very fast but wears #35, its because that's Moose Johnston & Neal Anderson. Payton & Anderson have the same ability ratings BTW.

I learned about 1990 Japan version in 2004. I saw the roster changes & salivated at the thought of playing a long overdue "updated" version of TecmoBowl! We'd played Tecmo for 15 years by then. Famicom cartridges are small & do not fit in a NES. Fortunately they make an adapter!

Even though I knew TecmoBowl very well & had the Japan player rating/abilities printed off it was still disorienting adjusting to new/different player personnel. We were used to the standard USA team abilities & match-ups. Standout players in new positions took getting used to.

For years we talked about how 1989 USA Tecmo Bowl version teams would match up w/ 1990 Japan Tecmo Bowl teams. We had long deep discussions on the technical approaches and that was a lot of fun. In the meantime we alternated between USA Tecmo & Japan Tecmo for quite a few years.

Many years later we managed to get both versions together on the same ROM. It was epic! It was the holy grail of our playing experience. So many more match-up possibilities now with 24 teams. Most fun we had in years playing this.

Some crafty programmers made it so the teams on this ROM would have different colors based on whether they were Player 1 or 2. See Bears uniforms for P1 & P2 below. USA Bears could play Japan Bears and we'd have no issues w/ same uniform colors & who was on offense or defense.

Understanding the game so well, I knew there were some major run blocking issues with Washington, Minnesota, and LA so we had the playbooks fixed. Got rid of the WR run plays that were rarely successful.

LA also has a faulty run blocking scheme since they have 2 RBs. By not having a top side WR that normally blocks the Topside outside LB, meant that we could take advantage of LA's run blocking issue w/ TOLB& often shut down Bo. We got the run blocking fixed for LA on the ROM!

The programing associated w/ run blocking assignments & invoking pass coverage help from the CPU makes defensive game plan change drastically based on the different personnel. When your primary defender is the top MLB vs the bottom outside LB, it changes how I play D.

Most people don't notice or understand the weight of differences between the 2 version. However as a student of Tecmo, these games are vastly different in terms of team performances. Getting a "new" 12 teams to use on our custom ROM is one of my greatest gaming experiences!

Remember how I said there were 3 versions of Tecmo Bowl? That had to do with the great Eric Dickerson. Apparently he did not want his likeness being used on the 1989 USA version of Tecmo Bowl & brought a suit vs Tecmo. Ultimately he won & Tecmo had to remove him from the game.

Dickerson was replaced on subsequent copies of 1989 USA Tecmo Bowl by the much slower Albert Bentley. Dickerson copies typically have the black & gold seal. Bentley is associated w/ the white & gold seal. Our tourney only uses the Dickerson version because he's awesome!