John Elway's Quarterback Guide 1.00 By Andrew M. Evans aka AndrewM
([email protected])

Version 1.00 Released July 5, 2003

Looking for anything NES? Visit my hopefully-but-probably-not comprehensive NES
Site at www.neshq.com!


--== Table of Contents ==--
Section 1 ----- Revision History
Section 2 ----- Disclaimer
Section 3 ----- Introduction
Section 4 ----- The Teams of John Elway's Quarterback
Section 5 ----- General Game play and Defense
Section 6 ----- Plays in John Elway's Quarterback
Section 7 ----- The Secret Play
Section 8 ----- The Best (Non-Secret) Play
Section 9 ----- Closing Notes, Credits, and Thanks


--== Section 1 - Revision History ==--
07/05/2003  v1.00  Original FAQ


--== Section 2 - Disclaimer and Requisite Legal Junk ==--
This FAQ is intended for private use and may not be reproduced on any sites or
in any publications without my prior consent, which I may or may not (I don't
see why I wouldn't) grant by having you e-mail me at [email protected]. If you
should fail to do so and I see my FAQ posted somewhere I shall be forced to
sue you into litigation Hell with my army of high-powered lawyers. Actually,
this whole bit is a bunch of ballyhoo. If you want to post or reproduce this
FAQ go right ahead and do so, just leave me my credit and the shameless
self-promotions for my NES Site, www.neshq.com (in case you have yet to see!).
Oh yea, and if you somehow get hurt using this FAQ I am in no way responsible
(is this even possible). As a matter of fact, by even opening this file you
have officially absolved me of any responsibility in my entire life. Ok, well
it was worth a shot......


--== Section 3 - Introduction ==--
Crushing hits! Spin moves! Glorious touchdown celebrations! That's right - you
will not find a single one of these things in John Elway's Quarterback. So why
in the world would anyone in their right mind play this game? Excellent
question. I'm not sure why I play it, I think it's mostly to see what sort of
ridiculous strategy I can use to beat the computer (keep reading, see the
"The Best (Non-Secret) Play Section."


--== Section 4 - The Teams of John Elway's Quarterback ==--
John Elway's Quarterback allows the player to select from the following teams:
Chicago; Cleveland; Dallas; Denver; Miami; Los Angeles; Minnesota;
New England; New York; Pittsburgh; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle;
and Washington. You may be thinking to yourself "Wow, that sure is quite a
good team selection pool for such an old football game!" Perhaps, but your
forget that you are playing John Elway's Quarterback. The teams are nominal
only, as you (presumably first player) will always be blue and your team
selection has no bearing on how well your team actually plays.


--== Section 5 - General Game play and Controls==--
Game play is pretty awful in JEQ, and playing it for more than three minutes
(maybe one) will make the abundantly clear. For some reason there are only
nine players on the field at once. Also, players may only move in eight
directions, which is fair enough considering the game's age. The winning team
gets no real praise and there is no league play. Winning gets you... a win.
As for controls - the direction pad moves the player in the direction pushed
on the pad (diagonal directions may be used by pressing two directions, such as
left and down to go diagonally down-left). On offense down (directional pad)
hikes the ball, holding B lets you acquire a passing target, releasing B passes
the ball to specified location, just pressing A yields the player jumping up
and down, and A + Direction dives in the current player direction. On defense
pressing B switches players to the closest player to the ball, just pressing A
yields the player jumping up and down, and A + Direction dives in the current
player direction.


--== Section 6 - Plays in John Elway's Quarterback ==--
Defense:
 Block Kick: Defense lines up in a field goal block formation. Awful play, I
   highly recommend against this play unless you want a challenge.
 Block Punt: Defense lines up in a punt block formation. Much like the Block
   kick formation except that two players go deep to return the punt.
 Goalline: Defense lines up in a goal line formation, opposing team's
   receivers are covered. Not a solid play.
 Std. Run: A lot like the goalline but apparently you gain two linebackers and
   lose two linemen.
 Stunt: Defense lines up in the same formation as the std. run. The play shows
   (gasp!) some stunting, but this never really seems to happen, so this is
   the std. run with a cooler icon on the play selection screen.
 Zone: The best defensive play on the game, in my humble opinion. The zone is
   great because your players never really cover the opposing team's players -
   instead, they sort of wait for them to catch the ball then tackle them.
   The zone sort of corrects this by not having anyone rush the quarterback -
   the front five go in their 'zone' while the defensive backs drop deep. This
   leaves everyone in a huge clump when the ball is thrown which both limits
   the other team's chances for a breakaway and increases your chances for an
   interception.
 Prevent: A watered down version of the zone where three players rush the
   quarterback. Decent play, not as good as the zone.
Offense:
 Field Goal: Field goals should be out of the question for any serious (is
   there such thing) JEQ player. It should be noted that the kicker kicks the
   same distance every time, which results in an almost exact 57-yard kicking
   distance, meaning you can kick from the opponent's 40 every time.
 Punt: Don't even think about it, nancy-boy.
 Normal/Reverse Play: See the next section, The Secret Play.
 Sneak: In my opinion the best play on the game. See Section 8 for details.
 Draw: Your standard draw play. really a bad idea to run this play, especially
   against a human competitor.
 Bootleg: Standard bootleg play. This is also an awful play, since nine times
   out of ten you will get tackled behind the line of scrimmage.
 Screen: Real solid play. Be patient and let the screen develop on the left
   (or right if you are running a reverse play) and toss it to one of the
   three or so open receivers.
 Action: A pretty uninspiring although decent play. Look for an open receiver
   crossing over the middle.
 Lookie: I found this to be a mostly useless play. The receiver on the left
   is open most of the time though, making it a functional play.
 Post: This is a pretty boring play although, like all the plays in JEQ, if
   you wait long enough someone will get open.
 Shotgun: The shotgun is a good play because you're in a shotgun (shocker!)
   formation which grants you those extra precious seconds to wait for a
   receiver to get open.
 Bomb: Read the description of the Shotgun.


--== Section 7 - The Secret Play ==--
The fabled secret play. Pretty simple really, all you do is choose
normal/reverse and pass it to one of your receivers, who becomes super-fast.
The play is really pretty dumb since it's so easy (wait, isn't that the whole
game?). Since it spoils the otherwise pristine game play of JEQ I wouldn't
recommend using the secret play unless you find yourself losing a game by
seven or fewer points and your soul is on the line. Yes, definitely ban this
mega-weak play from human vs. human competition.


--== Section 8 - The Best (Non-Secret) Play ==--
As referenced earlier, the best non-secret play there is is the sneak. Why?
Not really because the play is that great so much as because you can light the
opposing team up with such an awful play. I must shamefully admit that I went
an entire game only using the QB sneak and won a pretty decisive 51-0 (seven
TD's and a safety). During the course of this game I was sacked twice, averaged
22 yards a play, and had a TD percentage of 39%. Sadly enough I kept track of
these statistics, although only for the sake of this FAQ.


--== Section 9 - Closing Notes, Credits, and Thanks==--
This really is a horrible game, but for some reason I feel compelled to play
it. I recommend you salvage what little of your intelligence JEQ hasn't
stripped from you and walk away from this game right now. My mom really likes
John Elway and the Broncos, but I think even she would lose faith in Mr. Elway
if she saw his NES game in all its 8-bit glory. Now I find myself rambling, so
I will go ahead and say thanks for reading MY FAQ. Many thanks to my roommate,
Phil "Foe Witchakatonski" Garritano, for helping me determine the exact
distance of a field goal. Also, many thanks to Tradewest for making this oh-so
fantastic game. Wait, no, I take that back. I will use this space to once again
shamelessly plug my website, www.neshq.com. If you see any mistakes or have
anything to add to this FAQ, e-mail me at [email protected].

You are viewing proxied material from gopher.endangeredsoft.org. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.