Bo Knows Retro-Gamers

There are three kinds of people in the world.

The first group doesn't play video games. They either don't have access, don't have the spare time, or generally aren't interested. I belong to this group -- I'm not interested.

The second group are hardcore gamers. They are constantly upgrading their system, beating games, and waiting for the latest versions of their favorite games to hit retail.

The final group, I think, is the most fascinating. These are your retro-gamers. Oh, they love them some video games, but don't bother asking them about the latest and greatest. Nope. The retro-gamer rocks Atari, Sega, and/or the original Nintendo. Maybe even Nintendo 64, but that's pushing it.

Hell, the Chatterbox Pub in south Minneapolis (and, to a lesser extent, their Highland Park location) has essentially made a business model of offering retro video games (and board games) to their customers. I've always wondered how they sold that business model to the bank: "Ok, we'll have second-hand couches, see, and we'll position them around an old Atari, and we'll let them have at it on 'Pole Position', see..."

There are several games that are the gold standard to retro-gamers. But, to me, the pinnacle of nearly two decade-old technology is the original "Tecmo Bowl" for the original Nintendo.

Now, I don't play "Tecmo Bowl", mind you, but I admire it from afar.

I think the last time I played "Tecmo Bowl" was in "Tecmo" tournament my freshman year in college. Each of twenty-or-so guys threw in five bucks. $100 pot to the winner. We drew straws for team selection.

I remember that I had a couple of sleeper teams. I especially liked Denver because John Elway could sling it and the "Three Amigos" could catch it. Plus, Karl Mecklenberg was pretty good on D.

Somehow, however, the N.Y. Giants fell into my lap. That meant that I got the amazing Lawrence Taylor anchoring my defense. Add to that Phil Simms at QB, and the "thunder and lightning" team of Otis Anderson and Dave Meggett in the backfield.

I got beat in the first round. That's the last time I ever played "Tecmo Bowl".

The team everyone wanted, though, was the Los Angeles Raiders. Sure, they had Howie Long on defensive line and Marcus Allen in the backfield with a capable Jay Schroeder at the helm throwing to Tim Brown. However, the Raiders also had the best video game athlete of all-time: Bo Jackson.

The Bo Jackson character was so ridiculous that he could do things like this (oh, and pay attention to the game clock as this play goes on):

Here's the best part about Bo Jackson, though: people don't remember that Bo Jackson really was that talented in real life.

Check out this clip if you don't remember:

See?!?!?