NES box art for John Elway's Quarterback, the cover of NEStalgia episode 167

167 · John Elway's Quarterback

▶ Game info

VerdictSkip it

GenreSports

ReleasedMarch 1989

SeasonSeason 5

DeveloperRare

PublisherTradewest

April 23, 2021 · 40 min · transcript available

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Select your team's home city (there is no NFL or NFLPA license, so there are no real teams or players) and then battle the opposing team for four 15-minute (accelerated real-time) quarters.

SHOW NOTES

John Elway's Quarterback NES Longplay

Quarterback Arcade Gameplay

Elway's Steakhouse

Our verdict: Skip it

Rare made this for Tradewest in 1989, a football game with Elway's name on it and no NFL license. Sam joined Mike, Sean and Joe for this one. We liked the passing and the play calling, and not much else.

What works

Aiming the pass. Hold the button and a cursor appears at your quarterback, and you steer it to where the ball should go. Tecmo Bowl just has you pick an open receiver. Here you can lead a receiver away from coverage or throw it away, so there are incompletions. Sean liked the "more analog nature of passing."
The playbook. Nine plays on offense, six on defense. The defensive calls are situational: goal line, prevent, coverage and blitz, not rock paper scissors like Tecmo Bowl.
The arcade original. It was called just Quarterback and used a spring-loaded joystick for throw distance and kicking. That sounded like the perfect fix for the D-pad problem.

What doesn't

Running. The players move like a march, high knees running in place, and only the quarterback ever touches the ball. No handoffs, just passes and QB sneaks. Running plays mostly lost yards.
Team select. Pass your team and you cycle through the whole list again. The pick only changes the city name on the scoreboard: same uniforms, same field. "Just make it red versus blue."
Kicking. No meter. A cursor starts slightly left or right and you slide it to center. It is very hard to miss, and kickers have a crazy leg.
No flair. Touchdowns get no music, just a little jig. Halftime is a black screen with white text and a song.

The AI

Diving is the cheat code. You gain four or five yards, and the ball spots where you land even if someone tackled you.

On defense, the computer goes for it on fourth down every time, always going long. A blitz with the linebacker lined up at one spot is a free pass to the quarterback, good for a safety a quarter.

Joe stopped playing defense halfway through the game and won 42 to 6. The computer scored one touchdown and missed the kick.

Worth knowing

The title screen. The ball flies sideways across the field goal post. Our theories: a lateral, a bad kick, or two football fields at right angles.

The bottom line

Skip it. Nobody voted it onto the Essential Games List. Sean called it a tech demo with "zero presentation." Joe said it feels like it belongs among our 1985 games. Mike pointed out it came out so close to Tecmo Bowl that it is the "we have X at home" version of football.

Written from our conversation in this episode.

Click a timestamp to play from there. Landing a little off?

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

John Elway's quarterback. Now strap on your helmet and go for it!

And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. I'm Joe. And I'm Sam. Guys, who is John Elway's quarterback? It's not John Elway. Who is his quarterback?

Currently, his quarterback... I failed at the joke. I don't even know who the quarterback is. Well, you can't even remember if he's the owner or not, so... He's the real quarterback for the friends we made along the way. That's not true. That's not how quarterbacks work.

I just think it's interesting. The game is called John Elway's quarterback. It should be like quarterback John Elway is the name of the game, right? Yeah. I guess they're going for, you know, like the game is called quarterback and it's John Elway's game. Like, this is John Elway's quarterback. I think that would just be like John Elway colon quarterback. No, that implies that he owns the quarterback. Yeah. Yeah. Or that he is the quarterback. Well, I mean, he was a quarterback. Right. But I think that that's not what they're trying to say on this title. So that'll do it for today's episode.

And you know what? Since some weird things are already happening on the title screen in regards to the name, it's also worth pointing out that on the title screen, they're performing a lateral play on the title screen because the ball is going like across the field goal. So we can assume that it's just being thrown from like, you know, the side of the field to to a further back part of the field. Right, Sean? That's how a lateral works.

Well, the ball is being thrown sideways. So it would have to be a lateral play. You don't throw the ball, you know, in a passing play. It could also be a trick of perspective because there are a lot of throws that go to the sidelines and depending on where you're viewing it from, it could look like a lateral. Also, laterals can look like forward passes like what happened in 1999 in Tennessee. Well, Sean, one thing I'm just I'm just going to throw this out here. OK, the field goal post, we're looking at it straight on and we're seeing the football. Remember, it's a 2D game. We are seeing the football completely flat going horizontally from the left to the right. So there is not really much up.

What about this? It could be a really bad kick. Yeah, that's also true. You know how like before a while ago they had the I forget what they're called, like the lines that you can kick from were wider. Hash marks. The hash marks. Yeah. And I don't know if it was like that when this game came out, but maybe they were like all the way on the left. You know, and then while all the way on the left, the kicker accidentally like puts a ton of spin on it. So it gets that perfect spiral as it's being kicked through the air completely sideways.

See, I think that you guys are overcomplicating. I think what's really happening is that there are just two football fields. One is perpendicular to the other. And we're watching it go, you know, go regularly across one of the fields. And we just happen in the background. We see the field goal of the perpendicular field. Totally different field. Not related to the game.

I love that. Yeah, I appreciate that you're thinking outside the box right there. Right. Well, since I'm already picking on the game, let's just let's just walk through this game as if you're, you know, you're playing it for the very first time. You're at the team selection category. Right. And they can't they cannot license any teams or anything like that, even though they could get John Elway to sign his name. They couldn't get the NFL involved.

There is no rhyme or reason to the team selection. If you pass your team, you can't just go back. Right. Like you say you want New York. Right. You see San Francisco, New York, Chicago. It's like, oh, no, no, wait. I want to New York. You have to go all the way through again, no matter which button you press. I thought Sesame Street. Yes. They do the Sesame Street one, two, three thing. It popularized it. That's funny. I thought that I was just making a mistake every time.

What got me was that you can't hit start to select it. You have to hit A. And when you hit start, it's like the same thing as hitting the next like the right button. So I was like, did I did I do it? Am I picking my opponent now?

Well, the funny thing, and I'm sure like it's pretty obvious, but it doesn't it doesn't matter like what team you pick. There's no difference in color of the uniforms. There's no difference in like what the field looks like. It's just literally a different city name at the top of the screen where the scoreboard is, which is insane to me that they would even put cities in here. Just make it red versus blue. But having grown up in New York your entire life, don't you feel obligated to pick New York? Are you really going to go ahead and be like, ah, even though the stats don't matter, I'm going to be Chicago. Because I don't want to go through the whole title screen. I actually picked San Diego.

That's very interesting. You want to explain a little bit behind your pick? I don't know. I like, you know, I don't like the Jets. And so I don't want to play as New York. So I wanted to play as a team that no longer exists, which was the San Diego Chargers. I mean, you could have been the Giants. I don't really care about the Giants either, though. Where's the other New York team? No, that's the Buffalo team. Oh, okay. You could be them with the Konami code. You get Buffalo. I would be honored.

All right. So let's get to kickoff, okay? You know, the game starts.

I'm sure it determines whether you're the receiving or the kicking in, but I didn't remember watching that. I think you just automatically receive. I think so. There's no coin toss, right? I think player one always receives. Okay, sure. So that's how it worked for me. And immediately from the kickoff, I could just tell something, okay? So, like, we talked about Tecmo Bowl, and that's a game that treats football in a, like, 45-degree angle, horizontal playing field. This one goes back to a vertical, like, 10-yard fight style where everything is just flat, and it all happens in the same kind of relative position to each other.

I really don't like the way these guys are running at the very start of the kickoff, and then I knew that I was just going to have a hard time running in general in this game.

I'm not sure if I'm feeling the same way you are, but the weird thing that I felt about this game is that during kickoff, because the screen is sort of panning with you or panning with the ball, whoever you or your opponent is playing as will get, like, a huge speed boost. You become the Flash. Yeah, because they can't, like, render you off the screen. It's funny, because I didn't notice that until the fourth quarter. And then I was like, what the heck is going on? I thought I noticed that the first time. So I'm hitting people back at, like, the 15-yard line because of this weird quantum mechanics.

Overall, I didn't really feel too bad about, like, the direct one-to-one control of players. But I guess we can get into that. Well, yeah, because it's just like, for me, with the running, the way that they move, first off, does not simulate someone running to me. It's like a march, you know?

But even just the way that your characters move and stuff like that, a running play for me, nine times out of ten, resulted in a loss of yards. And I don't think I ever gained more than three yards on a running play. So we're talking about offense now. I'm just talking about the way these characters move. It just never was efficient to be moving as characters. Like, whether you're defense or you're offense, the way these guys move is like this weird high knees running in place.

I'm glad you mentioned it, too, because I couldn't put my finger on it. I don't even know if I was having the same exact problem with the motion as you were. But right away, I was like, this feels not great. Like, something about it. I got used to it, actually, after a while. And then it was better. But right off the bat, I was a little bit... Maybe it's because we just played, what, two other football games pretty recently? That this one just felt so much more like a trudge to me.

Yeah, the running for me was not good. I did not make any progress at all during any of the running plays that I tried to use. Well, here's the thing. Here's the thing. True to the name of John Elway's quarterback, the only person that can do anything with the ball is the... Did I say John Elway's running back? No, you said quarterback. Okay. The only person that can do anything with the ball is the quarterback. You don't get to hand it off to your running back like any modern NFL team would.

It's just the quarterback. So, like, if there was some distance that you could put between you and defenders by that handoff, you might have been able to get some movement. But I guess just because the name of the game is quarterback, they just decided not to program in a standard running game. They're all pass plays or QB sneaks. It's crazy. Yeah. And even the pass plays, I feel like I was most successful. I just picked shotgun every single time because I feel like it was the only one that gave me enough space to get my pass ready and to have enough time to aim it and throw it.

Well, you probably just found a way to, like, exploit against a computer there, right? Like, in the sense of, like, you found a play that worked for you and the computer couldn't figure you out. So you were like, I'm just going to keep playing shotgun, right? I guess so. But I also feel like I tried the other plays and I feel like I just got, like, I got blitzed every single time. Yeah, I mean, while it does sound like the game wasn't really doing its job against the shotgun in particular, because I usually went shotgun or bomb or I forgot deep throw, whatever it's called.

But, like, that is a part of the reason that that formation is designed that way is to give the quarterback more time. So it's both, like, a failure on the game's part and also the design of football in general. I guess, but I feel like because of the mechanics of the game that require you to, like, move your quarterback out of harm's way and then stop moving so that you can take the time to aim, which, you know, takes a bit of time to move the cursor over the, you know, the guy you're trying to pass to,

I feel like you need as much time as possible to have it be successful. Yeah, I agree. There was something that was translated wrong, you know, into, like, what it would be like to actually, you know, to actually, like, look for your target. And, like, I mean, just to explain real quick what it's like to pass, so what Sam's getting at here is, like, when you hold A or B or whichever button it is to pass, and then a little cursor comes right out right at where your quarterback is, and you have to literally move the cursor along the field to the spot that you want to throw it in. So, like, that takes real time where you're just standing still moving your cursor to the distance you want to throw it.

When you compare it to, like, Tecmo Bowl, where you're not aiming it, you're just selecting which receiver you can see is open. I mean, that, I think, is a lot quicker of a thing to do, but I feel like the game works that way. Like, it uses that, like, quickness and, like, you're anticipating only having a split-second decision where this one feels like you should have more time because it takes more time to do the action of making a good throw.

This is sort of, I guess, where I know that there are huge problems with this system, but I am kind of impressed with this passing system because, yeah, with, like, Tecmo, it's a scrolling, like, cursor that, like, you select your receiver, and then when you throw the ball, the trajectory is just calculated for you.

I really like the way that they did passing in this game where you can't, like, you have to aim at your guy. And that also isn't just a downside of, like, this takes longer because you have to physically get the cursor to your intended receiver, but it also allows you to, like, lead your guy away from coverage or just throw away a ball that would otherwise get intercepted. There are actually incompletions in this game, which Tecmo didn't really have. I think it's a really unique method, which, like, I don't think I've seen before or since. There might be other versions of this.

But I do agree that it's a little weird that you're sort of giving up the quarterback's control because you can still move as the quarterback while you're selecting. It's just, it either, like, locks in, like, what direction you were running when you started holding the button down or it's, like, a one-to-one, like, your guy will move in the same direction as where you're aiming. But it is something that, like, I did get the hang of.

But, yeah, I think it's both kind of a weird design but also a really interesting one. Yeah, Sean, I think you brought up a lot of good points there. I didn't hate the passing system. However, it needs to be mentioned, you know, usually I save this kind of stuff for sequels and spinoffs, but it needs to be mentioned that this is a way of trying to figure out how to translate an arcade game that is a very specific controller. Yeah, I did read about that. Right, it just can't be, like, they're not going to sell that accessory for this one game. So in the arcade version, which was originally just called Quarterback, it had no John Elway attachment to it,

they had a spring-loaded joystick that controlled how far you throw and how you kick, which I guess we'll talk about kicking later. But, you know, that spring mechanism makes for really fast, impulsive decisions about how far you pull back and then, like, you know, you still see the arrow on screen, but it's not like you're controlling it with a D-pad where you're trying to be accurate. You're actually just trying to make sure you don't give too much pressure or too little pressure that you throw a weaker, too far ball, which sounds great.

It just doesn't translate here on the NES because they're asking you to use the D-pad and make it more about locating the precision of your player. To Sean's point, if you don't worry about the precision, it still will actually work pretty well, right? Like, you can throw it kind of, you can throw a lob or you can kind of throw, like, a little further out, and they will try to, like, make an effort to catch that play. Yeah, the receivers will come back to it. Yeah. Right. So it's cool.

Yeah. What you're describing as the arcade sounds like, you know, like, the perfect solution. Well, I guess it wouldn't be a solution because it came before, but the perfect, you know, solution to the problem we're having. That sounds like the happy medium to me of, like, of making it doable, but also, like, matching a little bit or simulating, rather, the, like, the difficulty of actually aiming. So it's not just like, okay, select, okay, you'll automatically throw it directly to that receiver,

where it's like you have to, there's actually some skill involved, but it's not, like, taking up all your time where you have to suddenly stand still to, in order to do it. Yeah. And I think that the aforementioned, like, running and general movement problems may have been, like, their fix for that, because the game, I'm sure that the arcade version, I guess I'm not sure that it did this, but I would assume that the arcade version moves a bit faster because you will have this quick release as the quarterback,

and they kind of had to slow everybody down just to make it, like, usable at all. That's at least my, that's my theory on it. But I do appreciate that they didn't throw the concept away, like, the concept of, like, a more organic throwing system than just select receiver and throw. Because I think what little personality this game has really just stems from that.

Yeah, I'd love to see if Madden ever did come to PCs. It's not, right, Sean? Like, you can't play Madden. I think Madden is on EA Origin or something right now. Oh, okay. I thought that was, like, for Xbox consoles only or something like that. But if it is on PC, then they should add this, where, like, you know,

if you're doing mouse and keyboard, finally, like, you could use the mouse, a super precise thing to decide where to throw to, you know, very quick and responsive. I will admit that, like, the D-pad's not exactly the most elegant way to locate another player that you want to pass to. A mouse would be a lot better. But they didn't start adding mouses to Nintendo consoles until the Super Nintendo. That's true. All right, so we talked a lot about the passing here, and the rushing was just kind of like, you know, we don't want to do it because you're the quarterback all the time.

But we haven't talked about that there is a good amount of plays here to choose from, and that was something we complained about in Tecmo Bowl. And I think that, like, you know, the more options were there, and it wasn't that weird. And I'm sure Tecmo Bowl could add more options in the future because it worked just fine here, having multiple different plays to choose from. Yeah, I appreciated that there were actual, like, real football concepts in the play structure here,

and especially on the defense. I mean, defense, well, we can get into the AI here, but defense is kind of a crapshoot. But at least the play selection that you had wasn't just, like, rock, paper, scissors like Tecmo was. Like, they were actually situational, like goal line defense, prevent defense, coverage, and blitzing. I like that they added some of that sort of authenticity in there.

So I guess I didn't have anything else to say on that. And that's fine. We don't always need to comment on those things, but it's true. It's like, you know, as somebody who doesn't know every football play there is, this felt like the right amount of things. Like, there was variety in the plays, but it wasn't, like, six pages of playbook options. You know, it made appropriate decisions for you. And I think there's actually more decisions when you're playing defense, right?

Um, there's six plays on defense and nine on offense. Oh, okay. So I have it backwards. Never mind. All right. So you're talking about the AI, and I do want to hear how everybody's games went. But just to make my gameplay experience short, I learned very early on that they calculate things a little differently here in terms of where the play ends in this game of football. Because if you dive, which in this game is incredible, you dive several yards. Yeah. Um, you, you know, you're able to get, like, a whole nother, like, four or five yards out of a dive. If you dive, it's wherever you land with the ball.

That's, like, the, that's the part where we'll pick up the play. You know, it doesn't even matter if somebody tackled you or something. Like, as long as you dive for it, um, that's where the ball will resume. So always dive at the end of a play. If you ever feel like anyone's even getting remotely close to you, you'll probably just be better off diving to get a couple extra yards. And that was my entire gameplay experience. I somewhat agree with that, that you should always dive. Because that definitely gives you, uh, yeah, it gives you, like, several yards.

But I think that there's actually, there's actually merit to not diving. Because I feel like the, uh, the defense misses very easily. Like, it's really easy to, like, just kind of shift from just going, like, because of, what are they, what are they, like, eight points of direction? Or whatever, 16 points of direction? You can shift, like, one of those degrees, like, to diagonal. And they will, they'll miss tackling. And, like, honestly, that's how I, like, scored most of, like, my touchdowns. Is it just, like, ridiculous?

You just go from 45 degrees to the left to 45 degrees to the right. And you'll, you'll get a bunch of them to jump. Yeah. And you could just cover, like, you could, you could, like, get them all to, like, dive and miss, you know, after you. And then you're like, well, now there's nobody left. Like, they're all, I mean, you know, obviously get back up and keep chasing you. But, so, like, sometimes if I was, like, I was, like, absolutely doomed, I would, I would dive. But, like, a lot of times I would just take my chances and see if, like, oh, you know, it's a good chance that they'll just miss.

Yeah. All right. Let's talk about kicking because this was a weird one where there's no meter for the kicking. You would expect this to work similar to how, like, every NES golf game works where there's, like, a little power to it. And you got to try to adjust for, you know, the wind or centering of it. It's very hard to miss a kick in this game. Am I wrong? Yeah. It basically, yeah, just basically spawns the cursor of, like, where the kick is aimed slightly to the left or slightly to the right. And you just have to have non-brain damage reaction time to move it over to the center.

It's really hard to miss a kick here. Yeah. I actually laughed out loud when I first saw that. It was just, like, it was, like, the first kick, it was, like, just put the arrow where you want to kick it. Like, you just decide to, like, if you want to kick a field goal or not, basically. I mean, yeah, you could, like, miss if you, like, waited too long, but it gives you plenty of time. Kickers also got a crazy leg. Like, the ball just keeps going. Yeah, they just get a new ball after that. One thing I wanted to mention about the AI, if I may, of the game of, like, regular offense and defense.

It seems like they didn't really program any situational AI of, like, what play to select. Because I've, I got the computer to fourth down many times. And, obviously, the fourth down is the last one. Usually people punt there if they're 20 yards away from their own end zone. But every single time, they always went for it. They were always trying to go long. And I usually just sacked them. I found that it was very easy to just, like, select the blitz play, line the linebacker up at this one certain spot. And you have, like, a free pass to the quarterback. And I got, like, a safety per quarter that way. Basically, I'm just saying that the AI in this game is jank.

And I believe that because it was not even close. In any games I played, the AI did not, uh, did not really stand a chance against me. And, uh, my diving, say what you will, Joe. Uh, it, it just basically always sailed me to touchdowns. Which weirdly have no music whatsoever when you get a touchdown. Just a little jig. Yeah, yeah, sure. But, like, I don't know.

There's not enough flair in this game already. And then, like, the touchdown's not really, like, a big to-do. But there's no halftime show. Well, you don't like, da-da-da-da-da-da. Yeah, I was gonna say, we do get that every single play. Yeah. I don't know if I need that. Sometimes, like, I feel like you just get it in the middle of the play. Yeah, it's random. Like, it's not, nothing's happening.

But there's a halftime show. Oh, there is? It says halftime. Well, it says halftime. And there's a little song that plays. No, that's not a halftime show. There's black screen, halftime, and white text. And white goes, like, da-da-da-da-da-da-da or whatever. Yeah. Halftime show. They should do that for the Super Bowl.

You could try to say, like, oh, well, you know, Mike's been found out. He didn't even play, like, half this game. That's just not true. I saw that as well. And I made a note to say that there is no halftime show based on seeing that. Like, based on what I saw, I deemed no halftime show. For the record, I don't seriously consider that the halftime show. You were being facetious. Yes. I don't know. You know, ever since the SpongeBob halftime show at the Super Bowl, it seems like, you know, halftime shows are up for debate if they're even real. It's a touchy subject. Right. Yep. All right.

I don't really have much else to say. I was going to do a whole thing about John Elway. Do you guys want anything else you want to talk about for this game? I've got some defense thoughts. Please. We don't really talk about defense. But, no, I came up with a strategy for this game. And, Sean, I know you're like our resident football expert, but move over because I've solved football. Yeah. I solved football with a strategy on defense, at least.

Don't play. Because I'm not kidding. Just one time I was just like, oh, like, I'm kind of tired of this game. Like, after, like, it was like second quarter. And I was like, I just, like, put the controller down for, you know, for like, for one dry. Or, you know, they were just, they had the ball. I just put the controller down for a little bit. And I did this for five of their possessions I just didn't play. Three of them, I got an interception.

The end of the game, from halfway through the game on, I stopped playing on defense. I won the game 42 to 6. Without me playing at all, they only scored one touchdown. And they missed the kick.

The AI is terrible in this game. Yeah. Unless it's your AI. Did you ever get a situation where your team will basically chase the quarterback off the screen? And, like, since I guess it, like, doesn't register tackles off screen, it just, like, gets stuck there? No. What happens? You just got to restart? I basically had to, because I was, my character that I was controlling was drop back in coverage. So I had to run across the map to, like, the top of the screen where the quarterback was just somewhere. And just sort of wait for his sprite to, like, peek his toe out. And I was finally able to tackle him. It took, like, 30 seconds.

It was crazy. That's really fun. I'd really love to see that happen, like, in a football game, like, on TV. Like, he goes, like, out of frame. And, like, nobody can see him or something.

That's it. Joe, it's funny that you mentioned, like, not doing anything, because that is, like, a popular YouTube series of video game videos where, like, you know, you try to win Mario Party by doing absolutely nothing. Like, just letting everybody else make terrible decisions at the computers and winning. And I think, you know, I don't doubt that John Elway's quarterback would do that. Again, I trampled the AI here. But I'm sure, like, there's a lot of NES games that, you know, we could probably go back to and just the jankiness of them would let you win if you didn't really try.

Yeah, I'm sure that. Shmups are like that, right? Shmups are like you just, you know, like you're kind of just dodging everything. If you don't play, like, if you don't shoot along, you can make it through.

But there's still a level of, you know, engagement in that. Like, I feel like if you weren't dodging or shooting, you're probably going to die in a shmup. I mean, I literally put the controller down and just watched. Yeah, well, that's true. I just watched and, like, it's not like I did the thing where, like, okay, in some games you can, like, have the computer play the computer. Like, I was playing the computer, but, like, the other players that I wasn't controlling were, like, their AI was good enough to beat the computer's terrible AI. That's some silly stuff right there.

All right. Well, John Elway never made John Elway's Quarterback 2. It doesn't exist. There's no way to play it. Don't read it in a magazine and be like, oh, I can't wait to get a hold of John Elway's Quarterback 2. It never happened. Was there, like, were there ads for this? No, but I'm just saying if you read about that, you know, if you pick up, like, if you go to a garage sale, pick up old issues of, you know, EGM. Don't be surprised if you're reading about it and you're like, oh, my God. Like, no, it didn't happen. I know how many – I know how badly people wanted it.

John Elway would go on to be a Hall of Fame quarterback. And in 2004, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. And, Sean, even though you might think he would go on to be the owner of the Denver Broncos – He's the president of football operations. But wait, wait. He is the owner of four steakhouse restaurants, which I think is what you really meant. That is true. I forgot about Elway's Elbow Grease House. Wow. Well, you are right. It's Elway's and then the name of the city. Oh, wow. I'll say that I think on the fly, Elway's Elbow Grease is not a terrible name.

So, yeah, four successful steakhouse restaurants. And on January 5, 2011, John Elway was named the general manager and executive vice president of football operations of the Denver Broncos.

Apparently, according to Wikipedia, he has the final say in all football matters. I don't know how true that is if he's not the owner. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, a lot of owners try and, like, take the reins and do all the things.

But some hire John Elway and let him just run it into the ground. So that's sort of what happened over there. I think he actually this year is actually, like, letting go of some control because he's been so bad at it outside of the Super Bowl that Peyton Manning won for him. But I know I'm just talking to myself right now. No, you've got it. You've got the very next bullet point. As recently as January 4, 2021, John Elway stepped down as the general manager and is now just the president of the Broncos. Yes. So it's been a quite a 10 year for him.

Yeah. I guess he likes his steaks well done. Ha! I don't have anything else to say about John Elway and there are no other sequels and spinoffs. I think, you know, it's worth repeating that the arcade game sounds really cool for that spring loaded joystick. Yeah, I really want to play that.

I would also like a game where it's like, you know that when you go to the arcades and there's those basketball things where you shoot real basketballs and the hoop moves? Kind of like it comes forward, it comes back, you know, like it's very long. I would like a video game where you could actually pick up real footballs and throw them into the screen and then that would determine where you pass it. Like a golf dome. Yes, exactly. That'd be cool. I think it could be done. I think there's a huge market in this day and age for giant arcades that take blocks of cities.

I'm all for it. All right. We don't have much else to talk about here. So we are going to now decide if John Elway's quarterback is an essential game on a little thing we like to call the Essential Games List. Please remember when you're voting, you're voting about John Elway's quarterback, the video game, not John Elway's quarterback, whoever that might be. Sean, with that in mind, please vote.

I obviously I'll probably have more to more to gush about in sports games, whether they're good or bad. But I like this as a tech demo. I like that they added a bit more nuance to play calling. And I really like the more analog nature of passing. But everything else is unfinished. This game has zero presentation. It's just a jank game. So I cannot in good conscience even put this in the same breath as tech mode. So it's not essential. All right. Sam?

Kind of the same stuff as what Sean was saying. One thing we didn't touch on is that this is a rare game, which usually I feel like they're known for their presentation, at least from what we've seen. Rare developed this? Yeah. Isn't it a rare game? I had no idea. I actually didn't think that. Did I get that wrong? I'm looking it up now. No, rare did make it. You're right. Rare developed it and Trade West published it. Yeah. So I was I saw that it was rare developed. And, you know, I get excited. There's this big opening screen with this horizontal football. That's really cool. Maybe they'll explain that later. And, um, but then I feel like the presentation stops on the next screen when you select your team.

And, uh, it I do think that there's some parts of the game that are cool and complicated, like choosing, um, you know, choosing your next play is done really well. And while the, the, uh, the throwing mechanic is, like, cool, and I think it's, it, you know, it's effective in what it's doing. I don't think that it works really well in this context.

And I don't, I think it's not like it's a bad game. It feels like it has a lot of potential, but it's just not quite right. And so it's not central. So understood. Understood. I think that's, that's all sound logic between you and Sean. So Joe, do you have anything to add? Um, I guess just that for me, it is similar. I felt like, um, this seems, it feels like it belongs in, like, among our, like, 1985 games. You know, it feels like something that we had moved past. We had already improved, like, football games in general beyond this point. And just games in general, just something about it does feel kind of unfinished or like a tech down.

And, um, and for me, just the fact that I can put down the controller and not play and still win. I mean, I know that there's, in a, in a game like this where there's other players other than you, there's chances of things like that happening maybe once in a while. But this was just like, you just can't lose. You know, that, that's a big mark against it. So also not essential on my end.

Still better than 10 yard fight. Okay. Yes. It's worth, we're throwing that out there. Sure. Why not? I think though, uh, my essential games list vote, uh, would be the same, but it's worth mentioning that this game came out like, you know, release date so close to tech mobile. That I just like, imagine asking for a football game for your birthday or from your grandparents or for whatever reason, you know, uh, you, you get this game, right? And you're like, well, it's football. And this is the best I can expect of video games these days.

Like I could see kids reasonably thinking that, you know, like you're having a good time with it, but then they go over a friend's house who just also got the new football game. And they're like, oh yeah, I have that at home, but their version is tech mobile. And now you can never invite anyone over your house because you have John Elway's quarterback. That's why this kind of game can't go on the essential games list. Cause we've established that, uh, you know, in terms of sports games, in terms of football games, tech mobile is the essential game and John Elway's quarterback isn't even coming close. So no. It's like that, uh, we have X at home meme. Yeah, exactly. But X is John Elway.

I'm sure, you know, are there other celebrities who have steakhouses? I'm sure John Elway's steakhouse is also very similar. It's very, it's very common for football players to start steakhouses for some reason.

So there you go. Yeah. Oh, I think Michael Jordan has a steakhouse actually in, um, in Grand Central. So, uh, you know, it'd be like, oh, can we go to Michael Jordan's, uh, steakhouse? And then it's like, no, we'll go on the train ride home. And then you stop at Elway's. We are an Elway's family. Right, right. All right. Uh, you know, no football next week. We have, uh, a little game called Kung Fu Heroes. Uh, not much is known about this game because I've certainly never heard of it. Guys, familiar at it with Kung Fu Heroes? Not at all. Is it a sequel to Kung Fu?

Oh, okay. Uh, why not? If, uh, because now there's two of you, uh, trying to save, um, Sylvia? Her name was Sylvia. Probably Sylvia. Oh, yeah, yeah. Against the Big Macs. Oh, yeah, that's right.

Anyway, uh, you'll find all about Kung Fu Heroes, uh, next episode. If your name is John Elway and you had a problem with this episode, maybe you would tweet at us. Be like, you know, I think it's really offensive, the things you've said about my steakhouse. I like my steak medium rare, and this episode was shit. If you want to say something like that. What if he's a regular listener? Right, right. And I, I, I think if you're a regular listener, you can take the criticism.

He might, he might write to us under, like, an alias of one of the people that write to us. Might be him under an alias. He might write to us through his lawyer. Well, what is, what's John, what's John Elway's middle name? Does it start with a B? Oh, that's funny. Uh, no, I'm sure, I'm sure the, the John B, uh, who is our, you know, our, our King de Grasse, uh, if you will. Uh, you know, we're going to keep him. Uh, John Elway, on the other hand, if you were listening, don't, don't stop. You know, keep listening. There's other good stuff. I mean, Jimmy Fallon is still listening to the show and we trash talked him a few episodes ago.

That's only you did. I like, I like Jimmy Fallon. If you're listening, Jimmy Fallon. David Spade called him out on the very same things I called him out. So, uh, me and David Spade are in good company. It's John Albert Elway.

Thank you for finding out. But technically, Albert, like Bert B, still a possibility. Yeah. Um, anyway, I'm sure this is all just a giant misunderstanding. And let us know if it is because you can tweet at us at NostalgiaCast on Twitter. You can tweet at me at Esposito Film on Twitter. And I'll be talking to you very soon.

I'll be talking to you very soon.