The progression, more or less in order:
1. Coleco ALL-Star Baseball ( I may have the name wrong; its the game with a spinner and circular player disks. I made my own disks for fantasy players--had to customize even waaay back then ).
2. APBA (board version); yeah, made my own player cards for this one too, and tried to GM a league with some buddies who werent as fanatical as I was at 13.
3. Another board game ( the name is lost to me ) that featured a game board stadium with hexes that attempted to show the path of a ball in play. It had a cool feature that altered the configurations of the "walls" to model various real or fictional ballparks, but was tedious in its play.
4. - 6. Various permutations of dice-based games that didnt really improve on APBA.
7. Statis-Pro ( again, the board version ).
8. Earl Weaver ( the first foray into computer ball )
9. BBPro 96-98 - loved the complexity, hated the slowness.
10. APBA ( computer version )- along with the $200 of extras needed to fully flesh it out-- still my favorite up 'til now.
11. Statis-Pro ( computer version ) never grabbed my heart
12. Lance Haefner- REALLY bare bones, but dead-on stat reproduction, and a cinch to customize.
13. Diamond Mind- loved the developers' obvious passion/dedication, didnt have the customization qualities I wanted.
14. Baseball Mogul-AHA! Not perfect by any means, but a huge step closer to what I was seeking.
15. HHeat- A brief side trip into the mirage of graphics-driven baseball, but not able to deliver on the promise.
16. OOTP- And here we are, still chasing the dream.
It would have been a helluva lot cheaper if I had actually possessed sufficient skills to PLAY the game beyond high school, and thus gotten the bug out of my system. Oh well, too late now.
