NFL's Greatest: San Francisco vs. Dallas 1978-1993

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NFL's Greatest: San Francisco vs. Dallas 1978-1993
System(s): Sega Mega-CD
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Park Place Productions
Brand: Sega Sports
Distributor: Tec Toy (BR)
Licensor: National Football League, National Football League Players Association, Team NFL, NFL Films
Genre: Miscellaneous
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code US 1993-10 4202 BR 199x 063200

NFL's Greatest: San Francisco vs. Dallas 1978-1993 is a Sega Mega-CD American football game. It uses full-motion video extensively.

Gameplay

Playbook

Video clip

The game is an NFL football game. Only two teams are available, the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys. Rather than controlling the action directly, the player assumes the role of "coach" and chooses the next play, then watches a clip of the play taken from an actual game. Clips are taken from archive footage going back to the late 1970s of games between the two teams. The footage covers fifteen years of games, with teams including names such as Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott, and Jerry Rice for the 49ers, and Emmitt Smith, Tony Dorsett, and Roger Staubach for the Cowboys. There is spoken commentary on each play.

The game can be played by one or two players, or players can watch two computer-controlled teams play each other. Players can choose the length of each quarter (between 1 and 15 minutes) and full-screen or inset video (though the source video is the same size either way, only scaled larger for full-screen playback).

At the beginning of the game, there is a coin toss, and the winner can choose whether to kick or receive. After the kick-off, both teams select a play from the playbook. This is done by first choosing a formation (the positions of the players on the field) using to select the leftmost, to select the middle, or to select the rightmost. There are six formations, shown three at a time, with or switching between the two pages. The top row shows the offensive formations, and the bottom row shows the defensive formations, with the 49ers in red and the Cowboys in blue. After choosing a formation, the playbook shows all of the plays for that formation. There are six plays per formation (for a total of 36 plays in the game), which are selected in the same way as the formations. Players have 40 seconds to make a choice (or else be penalized five yards for delay of the game).

After choosing a play, the game shows a video clip of the play in action. The game contains multiple clips showing every play, with one of them chosen randomly each time. Because of this, the outcome of the play (including yards gained or lost, points scored, or which team has possession of the ball) is also randomly determined depending on the clip chosen. A scoreboard appears beneath the video inset showing the score for each team across all four quarters and the current quarter and time remaining. At the bottom is a representation of the field with a line indicating the line of scrimmage (which scrolls as necessary to show the result of each play).

Coaching menu

Hall of Fame

When selecting a play, players can pause the game with  START  to bring up a menu:

• Time Out: Calls a time-out. Each team can call three time-outs per half.
• Sub QB: Substitutes the quarterback (which affects the clips shown). The quarterback choices available are Joe Montana and Steve Young for the 49ers and Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach for the Cowboys.
• Coaching Decision: Shows a submenu with additional choices.
• Instant Replay: Replays the last clip.

The Coaching Decision option contains the following choices:

• Game Options: Brings up options menu from the start of the game again.
• Stats: Shows statistics for the game in progress, such as total yards gained, number of rushing attempts, number of passing attempts, number of interceptions, and so forth. This screen is also shown at the end of each half.
• Scenarios: Loads one of ten "scenarios," which are games in progress. For example, the first scenario has the 49ers down three points to the Cowboys with three minutes left in the last quarter, with the 49ers having possession of the ball on their own 1st yard line.
• Save / Restore: Saves the game to the Mega-CD's internal memory or loads an existing game. Up to two games can be saved at a time.
• Hall of Fame: Shows profiles for each of the players represented in the game.

Magazine articles

Main article: NFL's Greatest: San Francisco vs. Dallas 1978-1993/Magazine articles.

Production credits

• Game Designers: Russell Patterson, Christopher Whaley, Fritz M. L. Cassell
• Programming: Russell Patterson
• Artists: Milo Cooper, Conrad Rudy, Steve Quinn, Fritz M. L. Cassell
• Music: Tristan des Pres, Jeffrey Tveraas, Jeff Snider, Carolyn des Pres
• Audio Post Production: Rex Baca
• Audio Engineer: Scott Higsby
• Play by Play: Ron Reina
• Producer: Christopher Whaley
• Sega Producers: Steven Apour, Ken Balthaser Jr.
• Production Assistants: Erich Lingenfelter, Daniel Meade
• Marketing Managers: Doug Rebert, Kelly Ryan
• Lead Tester: Todd Morgan
• Assistant Lead Testers: Tracy Johnson, Richard Gangwish
• Testers: Ray Alfarez, Mike Baldwin, Dusty Bedford, Mike Bench, Dan Caraballo, Jason Epps, Ivan Foong, Keith Higashihara, Antonio Hursh, Ty Johnson, Simon Lu, Tony Lynch, Stan Weaver, Mike Williams, Chris Pepper, David Perkinson
• Manual Writer: Jim Carr
• Special Thanks: Joe Miller, Steve Patterson, Steve Payne, Wayne Townsend

Source:

In-game credits

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Computer & Video Games (UK) NTSC-U 3 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 67 Mean Machines Sega (UK) NTSC-U 5 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-U 33 Video Games (DE) NTSC-U 45

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NFL's Greatest: San Francisco vs. Dallas 1978-1993

Mega-CD, US
Cover
Disc Manual

Mega-CD, BR
Cover

Technical information

Main article: NFL's Greatest: San Francisco vs. Dallas 1978-1993/Technical information.