______ _____ /_ __/__ _________ ___ ____ / ___/__ ______ ___ _____ / / / _ \/ ___/ __ `__ \/ __ \ \__ \/ / / / __ \/ _ \/ ___/ / / / __/ /__/ / / / / / /_/ / ___/ / /_/ / /_/ / __/ / /_/ \___/\___/_/ /_/ /_/\____/ /____/\__,_/ .___/\___/_/ /_/ ____ __ / __ )____ _ __/ / / __ / __ \ | /| / / / / /_/ / /_/ / |/ |/ / / /_____/\____/|__/|__/_/ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ /_\| |_| |_ _ _(_) |__ _ _| |_ ___ / __|_ _(_)__| |___ / _ \ _| _| '_| | '_ \ || | _/ -_) | (_ | || | / _` / -_) /_/ \_\__|\__|_| |_|_.__/\_,_|\__\___| \___|\_,_|_\__,_\___| by EdibleAntiPerspirant CONTENTS Tip: Use Ctrl+F to quickly find your destination. It's like a Segway on the internet! 1. Introduction 2. Tecmo Attributes in General 3. Speed Attributes a. Running Speed (RS) b. Rushing Power (RP) c. Maximum Speed (MS) d. How they work together 4. Hitting Power (HP) a. Blocking b. Tackling/Breaking Tackles 5. Passing Attributes a. Pass Control (PC) b. Receptions (REC) c. Pass Interceptions (INT) d. Catch/Interception/Incompletion Probability e. Passing Speed (PS) f. Avoid Pass Block (APB) 6. Ball Control (BC) a. Quarterback and Punt Returner Ball Control b. Fumble Probability 7. Special Teams Attributes a. Kicking Ability (KA) (for kickers) b. Kicking Ability (KA) (for punters) c. Avoid Kick Block (AKB) d. Kick Returner Maximum Speed e. Punt Returner Maximum Speed 8. Useless Attributes a. Accuracy of Passing (PA) b. Quickness (QK) 9. Legal/Credits/Goodbye _______________ 1. Introduction ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ I decided to write up this guide on Tecmo Super Bowl attributes because I felt it was a long-needed guide both on GameFAQs and on the internet in general. Unlike games like Madden or NFL 2K, the meaning behind the attributes of players in Tecmo aren't spelled out and obvious. For example, there isn't simply a rating called "Speed" or "Acceleration" in TSB. "Speed" is replaced by "Maximum Speed" and "Acceleration" is basically replaced by "Rushing Power". The average person just popping in the game for the first time wouldn't know this right away. Many of the attributes have been debated about for 15 years and some are still debated about today. However, nowadays we have great ways of testing these attributes and seeing exactly what they do. That's the main reason behind why I wrote this guide: to make it clear about what the ratings do in TSB. There are also some cases where it's obvious what a specific attribute does, but the way that it specifically affects the probability of what happens in the game is much more complicated. There are several tables contained in this guide that show probabilities for various things like fumbles, dropped passes and interceptions. I realize that some people will be skeptical about some things they might read in this guide (there are still people who will INSIST that Accuracy of Passing does something). I assure you that everything contained in this guide has been tested and experimented with by several people who are all considered very credible by the Tecmo community (notably bruddog, Konforce and jstout). In fact, without them, much of the knowledge given in this guide would still be unknown. ______________________________ 2. Tecmo Attributes in General ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ The first basic thing to note about the ratings in TSB is the scale that they use. Instead of using every number from 1-100, Tecmo uses 16 numbers(0-F in hex), going up in increments of 6 or 7, for each rating. The numbers used are as follows: 6, 13, 19, 25, 31, 38, 44, 50, 56, 63, 69, 75, 81, 88, 94, 100. A term commonly used (and one that I will use often in this guide) to describe each increment of 6 or 7 is a "notch". A running back with 75 hitting power has 2 notches more of hitting power than another running back with 63. Another thing to note is the abbreviations commonly used: Running Speed- RS Rushing Power- RP Maximum Speed- MS Hitting Power- HP Passing Speed- PS Pass Control- PC Accuracy of Passing- PA Avoid Pass Block - AB or APB Ball Control- BC Receptions- RE or REC Kicking Ability- KA Avoid Kick Block- AB or AKB Pass Interceptions- IN or INT Quickness- QK ___________________ 3. Speed Attributes ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ (the concept of the speed ratings was mostly discovered by bruddog and kingsoby1) There are three attributes that affect a player's speed: Running Speed, Rushing Power and Maximum Speed. a. Running Speed (RS) --------------------- Running Speed affects the speed that a player runs at right at the time the ball is snapped. It is sometimes referred to as starting speed or initial speed. Whenever a player stops or makes a turn of 90 degrees or more, his speed resets to his RS and he begins accelerating again. b. Rushing Power (RP) --------------------- Rushing Power, despite its name, has nothing to do with a player's power, but it is actually a player's "acceleration rating". It affects how quickly a player goes from his RS to his MS. All offensive players except two (Christian Okoye and Doug Widell) have 69 RP, effectively making RS not very useful on offense (since everyone accelerates to their top speed quickly, making the initial speed somewhat irrelevant). Interestingly enough, Okoye's 75 RP actually makes no difference at all; 69 and 75 RP point to the exact same value, meaning two players with 69 and 75 RP will accelerate at the same exact speed. Widell has 31 RP due to a screw-up, they intended to give him 31 RS and 69 RP but they switched them around. Whoops. On defense however, RP has a much bigger significance than it does on offense. This is mostly due to the different MS scales used by offensive players and defensive players, as explained below. c. Maximum Speed (MS) --------------------- The function of Maximum Speed should be self-explanatory. It's the speed that a player tops out at. Offensive players and defensive players use a much different scale for their MS. This is actually pretty obvious, since everyone knows that whenever an offensive player breaks into the open field, the defense is much faster than him and he usually still has to elude defenders once they catch up to him. The most significant thing here is that every defensive player has a higher top speed than every offensive player. A defensive player with 6 MS is slightly faster than an offensive player with 100 MS and the same RS/RP. Because of all this, MS is far more important on offense than on defense. On offense, it's really the only significant speed rating. On defense, it's still important but probably not as important as RP or RS. d. How they work together ------------------------- In the most basic sense, a player's speed is determined in the following way: he starts at his RS and accelerates to his MS at the rate of his RP. The complicated part is the different scales used by each attribute. Looking at RS in comparison to MS, basically, ON OFFENSE, RS and MS are the same speed when RS is 7 notches (43 or 44 points) higher than the MS. In other words, 56 RS is exactly equal to 13 MS, 63 RS=19 MS, 69 RS=25 MS and so on. So when a player has an RS that is 7 or more notches greater than his MS, he will start at his RS and run at that speed for the entire play. He will never slow down and never speed up. In the original TSB, however, there are no players with such a high RS and low MS. What this also means is that a player with 44 RS or less will actually begin the play at a speed of lower than 6 MS. The actual speed of RS and MS seems to go up at a rate of about .1 yds/sec for every notch, so a player with 63 MS will have a top speed that is about .2 yds/sec greater than another with 50 MS. The rate of acceleration increases by a rate of about .025 yds/sec/sec for every notch of RP until you get to 69. 69 RP is the same as 75 RP, 81 RP is the same as 88, and 94 is the same as 100. It's not really necessary to know the exact values of everything, more or less if you know how the three speed ratings basically work. I'll use Christian Okoye as an example: 63 RS, 75 RP, 50 MS. He will start the play at 63 RS, which is equal to 19 MS. He accelerates using his 75 RP until he reaches his top speed of 50 MS. If at any point he comes to a stop or turns 90 degrees, he will revert to 19 MS and begin the acceleration process again. _____________________ 4. Hitting Power (HP) ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ The concept of Hitting Power seems simple, but is actually misunderstood by a lot of Tecmo players. HP is used mainly for blocking, breaking through blocks, tackling and breaking tackles. a. Blocking ----------- Pass blocking is pretty simple. On most passing plays, unless they are being controlled by a human player, the defensive linemen and the outside linebackers will attempt to rush and they will engage the opposing offensive lineman in a grapple. I haven't done any extensive testing with this, but the general rule seems to be that in order for a defensive player to bust through an o-lineman right away, his HP must be 25 points (or 4 notches) higher. Even in this case, it won't happen on every play, but still often enough to make things tougher on the offense. I haven't determined yet if it makes a difference if the defender has an HP greater than the other player by more than 4 notches. If it does, it's not very noticeable. Run blocking is totally different. It seems to depend more on the specific play that was called. There are some plays where an o-lineman will automatically pull out and plaster a certain defender, regardless of the HP of either player. I'm going to do some testing with this, hopefully it will appear in this guide in a later version. b. Tackling/Breaking Tackles ---------------------------- Makin' popcorn! This is one of the simplest functions of any attribute in the game. Basically, when a ballcarrier runs into a lone defender, if one of the players has an HP rating that is greater than the other player's by a margin of 50 or more (or 8 notches), the guy with less HP will get bowled to the ground (or "popcorned") automatically. So as an example, if Christian Okoye (94 HP) runs into Scott Studwell (31 HP) he will popcorn him and completely embarass and humiliate him in front of thousands of angry drunken fans. Likewise, if Lawrence Taylor (75 HP) runs into Jeff George (13 HP), he will flatten him instantly for the sack. Plus George would probably fumble and get injured for the rest of the season, and LT would attempt to urinate on him. Simple. In cases where the difference in HP is less than 8 notches, Hitting Power doesn't seem to have much of an effect, if any at all, on grappling, at least not in MAN vs. MAN games. _____________________ 5. Passing Attributes ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ a. Pass Control (PC) -------------------- The most important attribute for a quarterback, Pass Control affects two things: the location of where the ball gets thrown (basically accuracy), and the chance that the intended receiver will be able to make the play. In terms of accuracy, anything less than 44 PC is going to result in a pretty inaccurate quarterback. 44 and 50 would be decent, 56 and 63 are pretty good, and anything 69 or higher is tremendous accuracy. b. Receptions (REC) ------------------- I think this one is self-explanatory. It affects the player's ability to make a catch. Any receiver with 63 REC or higher is generally going to be impressive. c. Pass Interceptions (INT) --------------------------- Basically a receptions rating for defensive players. It counteracts the PC and REC of the offensive players. An important thing to note about INT is that it really affects two things; the ability to make an interception as well as the ability to prevent a catch by the receiver, so even if a DB isn't getting picks, he might still be causing incompletions because of his INT rating. An INT rating of 63 or higher is very good. d. Catch/Interception/Incompletion Probability ---------------------------------------------- (the probability bytes were found by konforce, jstout later figured out how catches, deflections and interceptions were determined) The general formula for this, as you might be able to guess, is PC + REC - INT. The thing that complicates this is that PC and REC use a different group of values than INT. The probabilities can change depending on the number of defenders as well as how accurate the pass is. In this section I've listed a couple of tables that will show the probabilities of a catch, incompletion or interception in various situations. These tables assume that both the receiver and the defender are attempting to make the catch while in a standing position (not diving or jumping). An important thing to note is that PC and REC have a completely equal influence on this, so instead of listing them separately, I added them together in each row. Because of the way the ratings go up in different increments, when you add together the PC and REC, they might be off by 1 from the number listed in the table. It doesn't make a difference. Table 1 - Drop Probability: This table shows the chance that a receiver who is wide open (no defenders near him) will drop a pass when in an upright positon on the X. PC+REC Drop% 12 31% 19 29% 25 27% 31 25% 38 23% 44 21% 50 19% 56 18% 63 16% 69 14% 75 13% 81 11% 88 10% 94 8% 100 7% 106 5% 113 4% 119 3% 125 1% >126 0% Table 2 - Catch/Interception/Incompletion Probability: This one is a little more complicated, this is for the same situation as Table 1 except with a single defender right on the receiver. The three numbers go in the order of Catch-INT-Incomplete. Note that when there are two defenders, the game checks for an interception by both of the defenders, one right after the other, in the order that they are listed in the game. A third defender will have no effect on the play. PC+REC|INT: 6 | 13 | 19 | 25 | 31 | 38 | 44 | 50 12 | 0-44-56| 0-48-52| 0-52-48| 0-57-43| 0-62-38| 0-67-33| 0-73-27| 0-79-21 19 | 0-40-60| 0-44-56| 0-48-52| 0-52-48| 0-57-43| 0-62-38| 0-67-33| 0-73-27 25 | 0-36-64| 0-40-60| 0-44-56| 0-48-52| 0-52-48| 0-57-43| 0-62-38| 0-67-33 31 | 0-32-68| 0-36-64| 0-40-60| 0-44-56| 0-48-52| 0-52-48| 0-57-43| 0-62-38 38 | 0-29-71| 0-32-68| 0-36-64| 0-40-60| 0-44-56| 0-48-52| 0-52-48| 0-57-43 44 | 2-26-72| 0-29-71| 0-32-68| 0-36-64| 0-40-60| 0-44-56| 0-48-52| 0-52-48 50 | 7-23-70| 2-26-72| 0-29-71| 0-32-68| 0-36-64| 0-40-60| 0-44-56| 0-48-52 56 | 12-20-68| 7-23-70| 2-26-72| 0-29-71| 0-32-68| 0-36-64| 0-40-60| 0-44-56 63 | 16-17-67|12-20-68| 7-23-70| 2-26-72| 0-29-71| 0-32-68| 0-36-64| 0-40-60 69 | 20-15-65|16-17-67|12-20-68| 7-23-70| 2-26-72| 0-29-71| 0-32-68| 0-36-64 75 | 24-12-64|20-15-65|16-17-67|12-20-68| 7-23-70| 2-26-72| 0-29-71| 0-32-68 81 | 28-10-62|24-12-64|20-15-65|16-17-67|12-20-68| 7-23-70| 2-26-72| 0-29-71 88 | 32- 7-61|28-10-62|24-12-64|20-15-65|16-17-67|12-20-68| 7-23-70| 2-26-72 94 | 35- 5-60|32- 7-61|28-10-62|24-12-64|20-15-65|16-17-67|12-20-68| 7-23-70 100 | 38- 3-59|35- 5-60|32- 7-61|28-10-62|24-12-64|20-15-65|16-17-67|12-20-68 106 | 42- 0-58|38- 3-59|35- 5-60|32- 7-61|28-10-62|24-12-64|20-15-65|16-17-67 113 | 45- 0-55|42- 0-58|38- 3-59|35- 5-60|32- 7-61|28-10-62|24-12-64|20-15-65 119 | 48- 0-52|45- 0-55|42- 0-58|38- 3-59|35- 5-60|32- 7-61|28-10-62|24-12-64 125 | 50- 0-50|48- 0-52|45- 0-55|42- 0-58|38- 3-59|35- 5-60|32- 7-61|28-10-62 131 | 53- 0-47|50- 0-50|48- 0-52|45- 0-55|42- 0-58|38- 3-59|35- 5-60|32- 7-61 138 | 56- 0-44|53- 0-47|50- 0-50|48- 0-52|45- 0-55|42- 0-58|38- 3-59|35- 5-60 144 | 58- 0-42|56- 0-44|53- 0-47|50- 0-50|48- 0-52|45- 0-55|42- 0-58|38- 3-59 150 | 61- 0-39|58- 0-42|56- 0-44|53- 0-47|50- 0-50|48- 0-52|45- 0-55|42- 0-58 156 | 63- 0-37|61- 0-39|58- 0-42|56- 0-44|53- 0-47|50- 0-50|48- 0-52|45- 0-55 163 | 66- 0-34|63- 0-37|61- 0-39|58- 0-42|56- 0-44|53- 0-47|50- 0-50|48- 0-52 169 | 68- 0-32|66- 0-34|63- 0-37|61- 0-39|58- 0-42|56- 0-44|53- 0-47|50- 0-50 175 | 70- 0-30|68- 0-32|66- 0-34|63- 0-37|61- 0-39|58- 0-42|56- 0-44|53- 0-47 181 | 72- 0-28|70- 0-30|68- 0-32|66- 0-34|63- 0-37|61- 0-39|58- 0-42|56- 0-44 188 | 74- 0-26|72- 0-28|70- 0-30|68- 0-32|66- 0-34|63- 0-37|61- 0-39|58- 0-42 194 | 76- 0-24|74- 0-26|72- 0-28|70- 0-30|68- 0-32|66- 0-34|63- 0-37|61- 0-39 200 | 78- 0-22|76- 0-24|74- 0-26|72- 0-28|70- 0-30|68- 0-32|66- 0-34|63- 0-37 PC+REC|INT:56 | 63 | 69 | 75 | 81 | 88 | 94 | 100 12 | 0-85-15| 0-92- 8| 0-100-0| 0-100-0| 0-100-0| 0-100-0| 0-100-0| 0-100-0 19 | 0-79-21| 0-85-15| 0-92- 8| 0-100-0| 0-100-0| 0-100-0| 0-100-0| 0-100-0 25 | 0-73-27| 0-79-21| 0-85-15| 0-92- 8| 0-100-0| 0-100-0| 0-100-0| 0-100-0 31 | 0-67-33| 0-73-27| 0-79-21| 0-85-15| 0-92- 8| 0-100-0| 0-100-0| 0-100-0 38 | 0-62-38| 0-67-33| 0-73-27| 0-79-21| 0-85-15| 0-92- 8| 0-100-0| 0-100-0 44 | 0-57-43| 0-62-38| 0-67-33| 0-73-27| 0-79-21| 0-85-15| 0-92- 8| 0-100-0 50 | 0-52-48| 0-57-43| 0-62-38| 0-67-33| 0-73-27| 0-79-21| 0-85-15| 0-92- 8 56 | 0-48-52| 0-52-48| 0-57-43| 0-62-38| 0-67-33| 0-73-27| 0-79-21| 0-85-15 63 | 0-44-56| 0-48-52| 0-52-48| 0-57-43| 0-62-38| 0-67-33| 0-73-27| 0-79-21 69 | 0-40-60| 0-44-56| 0-48-52| 0-52-48| 0-57-43| 0-62-38| 0-67-33| 0-73-27 75 | 0-36-64| 0-40-60| 0-44-56| 0-48-52| 0-52-48| 0-57-43| 0-62-38| 0-67-33 81 | 0-32-68| 0-36-64| 0-40-60| 0-44-56| 0-48-52| 0-52-48| 0-57-43| 0-62-38 88 | 0-29-71| 0-32-68| 0-36-64| 0-40-60| 0-44-56| 0-48-52| 0-52-48| 0-57-43 94 | 2-26-72| 0-29-71| 0-32-68| 0-36-64| 0-40-60| 0-44-56| 0-48-52| 0-52-48 100 | 7-23-70| 2-26-72| 0-29-71| 0-32-68| 0-36-64| 0-40-60| 0-44-56| 0-48-52 106 | 12-20-68| 7-23-70| 2-26-72| 0-29-71| 0-32-68| 0-36-64| 0-40-60| 0-44-56 113 | 16-17-67|12-20-68| 7-23-70| 2-26-72| 0-29-71| 0-32-68| 0-36-64| 0-40-60 119 | 20-15-65|16-17-67|12-20-68| 7-23-70| 2-26-72| 0-29-71| 0-32-68| 0-36-64 125 | 24-12-64|20-15-65|16-17-67|12-20-68| 7-23-70| 2-26-72| 0-29-71| 0-32-68 131 | 28-10-62|24-12-64|20-15-65|16-17-67|12-20-68| 7-23-70| 2-26-72| 0-29-71 138 | 32- 7-61|28-10-62|24-12-64|20-15-65|16-17-67|12-20-68| 7-23-70| 2-26-72 144 | 35- 5-60|32- 7-61|28-10-62|24-12-64|20-15-65|16-17-67|12-20-68| 7-23-70 150 | 38- 3-59|35- 5-60|32- 7-61|28-10-62|24-12-64|20-15-65|16-17-67|12-20-68 156 | 42- 0-58|38- 3-59|35- 5-60|32- 7-61|28-10-62|24-12-64|20-15-65|16-17-67 163 | 45- 0-55|42- 0-58|38- 3-59|35- 5-60|32- 7-61|28-10-62|24-12-64|20-15-65 169 | 48- 0-52|45- 0-55|42- 0-58|38- 3-59|35- 5-60|32- 7-61|28-10-62|24-12-64 175 | 50- 0-50|48- 0-52|45- 0-55|42- 0-58|38- 3-59|35- 5-60|32- 7-61|28-10-62 181 | 53- 0-47|50- 0-50|48- 0-52|45- 0-55|42- 0-58|38- 3-59|35- 5-60|32- 7-61 188 | 56- 0-44|53- 0-47|50- 0-50|48- 0-52|45- 0-55|42- 0-58|38- 3-59|35- 5-60 194 | 58- 0-42|56- 0-44|53- 0-47|50- 0-50|48- 0-52|45- 0-55|42- 0-58|38- 3-59 200 | 61- 0-39|58- 0-42|56- 0-44|53- 0-47|50- 0-50|48- 0-52|45- 0-55|42- 0-58 I plan on adding some more stuff for jumping and diving catches, as well as knockdowns by defenders pretty soon. e. Passing Speed (PS) --------------------- Passing Speed is like a rating of the quarterback's arm strength. It controls two things: the speed the ball travels at when thrown (duh), and the trajectory that the ball reaches. As you should be able to guess, higher PS ratings mean faster and lower passes. There are a few remote cases where a lower PS actually helps because it results in a higher pass. 99% of the time you'll want a QB with a high PS though. PS is the third most valuable attribute for a QB, behind PC and MS. f. Avoid Pass Block (AB) ------------------------ This is probably going to come as a shock for a lot of you, but the Avoid Pass Block rating controls the chance that a pass will be blocked. Specifically, the chance that a pass will be blocked right at the line. Since there aren't all that many opportunities for this to happen, AB really isn't too important. It's a distant fourth as far as importance for a QB. AB has absolutely no influence on any of the probabilities that are listed in section 5d, or on anything else. ____________________ 6. Ball Control (BC) ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Probably the simplest attribute in the game, the only thing Ball Control does is affect the possibility of a fumble. There are no other factors when determining a fumble. a. Quarterback and Punt Returner Ball Control --------------------------------------------- (this was discovered by jstout) The Ball Control of quarterbacks and punt returners is hard-coded; that is, it's the same for every QB and PR in the entire game and it never changes. They both use the same value, 0C, which is equal to 44 BC for any other player. So despite what seems to be the popular belief, QBs only fumble slightly more often than the average RB. Kickoff returners use their actual BC rating instead of a hard-coded value. b. Fumble Probability --------------------- (the probability bytes were found by Konforce) This is a simple table, it shows the chance that a ballcarrier with the given BC will fumble when he is tackled. BC Fmbl% 6 7.1% 13 6.7% 19 6.3% 25 5.9% 31 5.5% 38 5.1% 44 4.7% (QBs and PRs) 50 4.3% 56 3.9% 63 3.5% 69 3.1% 75 2.7% 81 2.4% 88 2.0% 94 1.6% 100 1.2% ___________________________ 7. Special Teams Attributes ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ a. Kicking Ability (KA) (for kickers) ------------------------------------- (the exact effects of Kicking Ability on field goal and punt length were found by Partyman) Kicking Ability affects the maximum length that a kicker can kick a field goal from, the speed that the "kicking arrow" moves at, and also the distance that the arrow moves up and down. A kicker with a 100 in KA can make a FG from a maximum of about 77 yards. For every notch of KA, this distance changes by 1. Meaning Nick Lowery, with 81 KP, would be able to kick FGs from a maximum distance of about 74 yards. A kicker with 6 KP would only be able to kick from 61 yards, plus his arrow would move faster and further. b. Kicking Ability (KA) (for punters) ------------------------------------- Punting length is determined basically the same way as FG length. The "1 yard per notch" rule applies for punters as it does for kickers.A punter with 100 KP can boot it about 83 yards with a full bar and about 37 yards if he completely shanks it. A punter with 6 KP can punt about 67 yards with a full bar and 21 yards on a shank. Add 1 to both numbers for every notch from 6 to find the ability of any punter (as if anyone honestly cares). c. Avoid Kick Block (AKB) ------------------------- Another tough one, I know. This affects the possibility of a blocked kick. I don't know exactly how it works in terms of probability. My guess is that it works exactly the same way as fumbles; every time that the cutscene is shown of the defender attempting to make the block, it generates a random number between 00 and FF and compares it against the AKB value. Maybe I'll eventually confirm this. d. Kick Returner Maximum Speed ------------------------------ (KR and PR MS was discovered by bruddog, the reasoning behind it was discovered by Konforce) As most Tecmo players know, kick and punt returners don't run at their actual maximum speed. This is due to a programming error. The returner is given a boost in his MS to make sure that he is fast enough to get to the ball without it ever touching the ground. The problem comes when the game tries to revert the returner back to his original speed. Since the kick returner replaces the right tackle for kickoffs, instead of reverting to the kick returner's true MS, it reverts to the right tackle's MS. When you think about it, this makes sense: for years, the best kick returners had always been considered to be Gil Fenerty of the Saints and Dwight Stone of the Steelers. This is because the Saints and Steelers have the two fastest RTs in Tecmo: Stan Brock and Tunch Ilkin, respectively, who both have 44 MS. In actuality, the best kick returner in the game is Craig "Ironhead" Heyward, because of his high RS and HP combined with Brock's 44 MS. In my opinion, it's actually a good thing that the game is like this. A 44 MS KR can be hard enough to contain, can you imagine trying to stop Bo or Barry if they were at kick returner? I don't think I want to. e. Punt Returner Maximum Speed ------------------------------ The same thing that happens with kick returners happens with punt returners, except in this case the punt returner will run at the speed of his team's strong safety (AKA the bottom safety or DB4). Thus the Bengals have the strongest punt return game in TSB, with SS David Fulcher's 69 MS. The best overall punt returner in Tecmo is the dancing machine Ickey Woods. _____________________ 8. Useless Attributes ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Yes, believe it or not, there are two attributes in TSB that do absolutely NOTHING. a. Accuracy of Passing (PA) --------------------------- If you previously thought John Elway was an elite quarterback in TSB, think again. Yeah, his 69 PA is completely useless. My best guess is that Tecmo's intention was to make PA affect the location of the pass and PC only affect the chance of a catch, but they had a useless intern working on this part of the programming and they wound up with pass control performing both functions. b. Quickness (QK) ----------------- This is the one that really throws me for a loop because I have no idea what Quickness was ever supposed to do in the first place; all the factors of a player's speed are covered with RS, RP and MS. My guess is that Tecmo just felt like sticking a pointless attribute in the game just to piss people off. ________________________ 9. Legal/Credits/Goodbye ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ The only site with permission to host this guide as of July 31, 2006 is GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com). This guide may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Sources of information: from various topics at the Tecmo Bowl Repository Forum by kingsoby1, bruddog, konForce, jstout and partyman6666, and from a few of my own experiments. Major things that I plan to add in the future: 1. Extensive info about run blocking 2. Info about jumping catches, diving catches and defensive back knockdowns Anyone with questions or comments, you can find me on AIM (EdibleHandsoap) or on the Tecmo Super Bowl board on GameFAQs (EdibleAntiPerspirant). ~fin~