Mike Tyson, My Father and Me

Mike Tyson slouched in the large sofa of his surprisingly lavish home face-to-face with ESPN sports writer Jeremy Schaap.  Upon studying Tyson’s demeanor, I almost find it hard to believe that this seemingly submissive and mild mannered man on my television screen was once the “baddest man on the planet," an ex-convict and as far as I’m

concerned, the most adored and despised psychopath in the last 50 years (now I said it was his demeanor that led me to this conclusion – the flamboyant tribal tattoo engulfing his left orbital may have blown his cover).

Schaap was interviewing Tyson for ESPN’s new show E:60, which is an investigatory series that tackles various interesting topics in sports.  The idea behind this segment was to give an in-depth look into the life of the “new” Mike Tyson, while at the same time highlighting the ups and downs of his infamous career. 

The piece was quite interesting and if you didn't get a chance to see it, you can do so on this little-known start-up website called YouTube (right here).  It was so interesting in fact, that it swayed me into putting a halt on the installment I was working on and instead, share a somewhat personal story that one could say directly links my father’s career and my childhood love for Nintendo to the tragic fall of the greatest knockout artist of all time, Iron Mike Tyson.

It was 1991. The wheels were in motion for the match-up between two of the great heavyweights of the time, Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield.  Although Holyfield was a great fighter, many thought that his reign as champ was about to come to an end and Tyson would walk through him as he had done to so many others.

My father, a commercial artist, came home from work one day and exclaimed that a rep had contacted him with an opportunity to illustrate the official poster for the upcoming super fight. Now, for my dad who who has produced nationally renowned artwork for rock n’ roll magazines, sports ads, and the U.S. government (among others things) to more recently working on some more monotonous pieces like off-beat toy box covers, jumped at the chance to take on this particular piece.  As an ex Golden Gloves fighter and avid boxing fan, he got a piece of artwork he could really get excited about.  It gave him the chance to once again involve himself in something he knew and loved.

Needless to say, he painted the hell of out of the piece (see below) and was contacted by Nintendo to complete another Tyson illustration, no doubt due to the quality of the first one. (Nintendo, like sweet polyphonic music to the ears of every 7 year-old boy lucky enough to grow up in the by-decade spanning from 1985 to 1995.) 

Throughout his career, my father has illustrated something for every major company you can name off the top of your head, including illustrating the United States Savings Bonds (article), but there was not another day that I can recall being so ecstatic about one of his projects.  Later, when I found out that it was the cover artwork for the sequel to arguably the single greatest game produced for the NES console, Mike Tyson's Punch Out!, I could’ve died a happy boy.

The mere thought of receiving a Nintendo game before it was released blew my little mind.  It was the equivalent of crack cocaine to a young kid like myself.  I could have everyone over from school to play it, I would be the coolest kid around, I’d have the coolest dad around, since we were doing the illustration maybe I would be able to test the game and tell them what I liked and didn’t like and get credit for helping out on it and that may lead to a career in video game consulting and if that worked then I could play video games all day for the rest of my life…. The possibilities were endless....

And then it happened.  In the same fiery blaze, both my Nintendo crazed ambitions and one of my father’s favorite pieces of artwork went spiraling into oblivion.

In July of 1991, Mike Tyson was arrested for the rape of Miss Black Rhode Island, Desiree Washington.  Shortly thereafter, he was convicted and sentenced to 6 years in prison (served 3).  It goes without saying that the mega- fight was cancelled along with the aforementioned original fight poster.  So, sadly, the poster was vaulted (only to be resurrected again for this monumental occasion). But there was still hope for the video game and I was not ready to give up on that yet (it was already developed and ready to go, there was no way they could scrap it).  

Following Tyson's conviction, Nintendo dropped the title only to be snatched up by an outside developer called American Software Corps (which I venture to guess paid next to nothing for it).  They were prepared to release the game as originally planned with a few minor changes. Thier first move was calling my dad to rework his original cover artwork (below).

Mike Tyson soon became Mark Tyler (brilliant), they removed the Tyson signature black trunks replacing them with pink shorts and gloves (in the game), dropped his gold tooth (and gap), shaved his part and gave him a DJ Jazzy Jeff flattop. And because Nintendo still had a strong hold on the Punch Out! brand name, the game's original title was out as well. The game’s new name became Power Punch 2 (despite the fact that there was never a Power Punch 1).

The game’s premise was a good one, let me tell you.  Mark Tyler was such a wizard of the sweet science that no humanly conceived boxer on earth could pose any threat to his heavyweight title.  In hopes of finding some real competition, he decided to put out a challenge to anyone in the universe who thought they could stand a chance with him in a boxing match – and of course the top aliens in the galactic empire accepted.  

The changes were made and the game was ready to go.  As I had wished, the perks that come along with being the artist's son paid off and the game was delivered to us before the release date.  Even with all the changes, the actual game itself had to be pretty good right? I mean it was still the sequel to Mike Tyson’s Punch Out! behind all of that dressing.  Definitely has to be good. 

Couldn’t have been more wrong.

Of the estimated 810 games released on the NES console, it could quite possibly be the worst game ever made available to the public (and that includes Shaq Fu, Hydelide, Smurf Rescue, Elevator Action, The Three Stooges, Where's Waldo, along with Marble Madness and Treasure Kid, two more games my dad did cover art for).  The graphics were bad, like I think I'd rather be playing ColecoVision bad (see right). 

Your character could barely move on the screen, some of your opponents were flying around in vehicles (in the ring) and the aliens were a little too realistic for my liking. I am not talking about visually realistic (not even close), I mean it was like really fighting an alien with extraterrestrial strength.  

After about fifty tries I still could not make it out of the first round of the first fight!  The alien was dancing around the ring dodging every punch I managed to get off and lighting me up with a consisting barrage of blows to the head.  Where as my character moved like he was stuck in mud, slowly inching back and forth in five second intervals (definitely not to be confused with the side step in the original Punch Out!).  

After hours of game play I finally figured out how to land a punch (thank you god).  However it didn't help,  I would land 100 punches to their one super punch (or Power Punch I guess) and watch my health meter plummet, only to be knocked unconscious never to see the light of day again.  And thus my video game pipe-dream came to an abrupt halt.

I have come to the conclusion that the company either stopped putting money into the project at some point (which is most likely the case) or Mike Tyson had a clause in his contract that let him partake in the programming, art direction and the design of the game.  Either way it made for a pretty upsetting experience.  

So I listened to Jeremey Schaap softly speak over the footage of Mike Tyson showing off his handcuffs as he was escorted from the court room and I couldn't help but becoming a little philosophical. I thought, if the epic demise of this lunatic known as Iron Mike Tyson can cause such a ripple effect that it directly (or maybe indirectly) affected my father's livelihood and my childhood ambitions in more than one way, then maybe just maybe everyone in the world is connected in one way or another. Mr. John Lennon would have been proud of my new revelation. That's it, we are all one.

I am Mike Tyson.