Saturday, August 19, 2017

NHLPA Hockey '93 - Was Bob Beers the Worst Overall Player (?)

Such a fun game.

Video accompaniment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL0nw1a28DE

During high school, a few friends and I spent Friday nights staying up late playing pick-up basketball and playing rented video games.

For several consecutive weeks, we rented the Electronic Arts game NHLPA Hockey '93 (1992) for the Sega Genesis, the second installment of the franchise:


The included photocopied manual documented each player's overall rating, which determined their in-game overall ability. On a whim, I looked through the photocopied manual to identify the player with the lowest rating.

It tickled me to no end to discover (incorrectly, it seems) Bob Beers, a Boston defenseman, represented said worst player. At the time, I suspected the developers used Mr. Beers’ surname as an excuse to rate him the lowest—in subsequent games he rated much higher.

NHLPA Hockey 93 MD US Manual.pdf (last accessed 08/21/2017)
https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File:NHLPA_Hockey_93_MD_US_Manual.pdf&page=32

I had a lot of fun playing as the Boston Bruins and putting Bob Beers into the game. The excitement led into curiosity about the real-life Boston Bruins and I started watching the Bruins on satellite television (we lived in the country and could pick up broadcasts from all over the country). When I left for college, my studies preempted hockey and I lost the momentum of following hockey.

Circling back, it seems the version of the manual above, page 61, pretty clearly shows Mr. Beers was below average, at 28, but not the lowest. For example, even Lyndon Byers, on the same Boston team, scored lower.

I got that wrong, which bothers me. I'm still not sure how--it seems too obvious to miss, and I have a strong memory of looking through all the teams. But there it is. It consoles me some to think that I was likely up late and saw what I wanted to see.

Good times!

Note: Bob Beers seems like a great guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06XmQCrf3Tc

Note: Electronic Arts released NHL Hockey in 1991, but it seems that game only named the teams, not the players, so I'm nearly 100% we played NHLPA '93 Hockey, which, in addition to naming the players, also had the music I remember.

No comments:

Blog Archive