How did you first start baseball simming?

[lencombs]

I'm 40 year's old US Navy retiree.

My first baseball sim was when I was about 12 years old and got a
Strat-o-Matic board game. I played it for hours on end, with it's player cards and dice and custom stadium dimensions on a fold out chart. I set up a full MLB league and played an entire 16 game NFL type schedule for each team. Took all summer but was a blast and I was hooked on baseball simming ever since.

Around 1990, out to sea for months at a time in the Persian Gulf we got ahold of Earl Weaver Baseball and loaded it on our desktop Zenith 286 PC. We played the whole cruise with all-time historical rosters, and a player draft, and played out a full 162 game schedule. I still remember I had centerfielder Ty Cobb leading off, swiping bases, and Bob Gibson was my Ace SP.

Mid to late 90's I played a couple versions of the Tony LaRussa baseball game. The graphics upgrade was a blast, and had old time stadiums like Forbes Field, and Polo Grounds come to life. The statistics in that game always got out of whack though after a season or 2.

Late 90's early 2000's I played High Heat baseball, and got into on-line leagues. The graphics were fun, but the stastistics tended to break down after awhile, and leagues kept coming and going. Also tried a couple years of online fantasy baseball in the early 2000's but just didn't provide the control I need over my simming World.

2002-Present OOTP solo all the way. Moved around too much to commit to an online league, and I never quite trusted whether or not the commish would just keep re-running sims until he got the results he wanted after my High Heat commish won 3 out of 5 years. I have played fictional rosters with real life teams exclusivley, but plan to play an all-time best players season with an initial draft one of these years like we did back in 1990 on the USS Blue Ridge.

Oh well, old dude is rambling on now, or as my 13 year old smart butt son says, "what was it like being ruled by a king dad, did you support the revolution"?

[Bonedwarf]

I've always been interested in baseball. I grew was born in the UK and lived there for my first 25 years on this silly little rock. I remember the first baseball game I ever played was on the Commodore Plus 4. It had two teams. The blue team and the red team. Played that game so much...

I mucked about with Earl Weaver on the Amiga a bit. Hardball 5 and 6 were the first baseball games I played on the PC. I got into actually simming with SBS, the free baseball simulator program some of you may have heard of. This got me interested in finding a proper sim I could easily create my own teams in. I came across Season Ticket Baseball, AKA OOTP 3. Since then I've bought OOTP's 4, 6, 2006 and now 8. I also just picked up Puresim.

I really would like one of the tabletop games like Strat, but sadly can't really afford to get onto the Strat treadmill. I've played Extra Innings, but have yet to find a cheap (or better still free) dice based baseball game, which is fun, because as a role player, I love hurling large handfuls of dice around.

[Giants44]

I had a very similar experience.

I am 41

Started playing Strat and APBA when I was around 7

Played dozens of DOS baseball games in the late 80's including Major League Manager, Pursue the Pennant, APBA for windows, Lance Hafner and many others

moved on to the VGA graphic games like Micro League

then Earl Weaver 1 & 2, Tony LaRussa 1 & 2, Front Page Sports Baseball,
High Heat (game that had the most potential, but never lived up to it in my opinion)

toyed around with Baseball Mogul, Pure Sim

I don't think there has ever been a major, or even mid-major baseball release for the PC that I have not bought.

Finally discovered OOTP around 1999 and have never looked back

I do own and occasionally play the MVP or 2kx games on the 360, but they never hold my interest long term


If I took all of the time that I have simulated baseball games over the years, I probably could have earned 2-3 doctorate degrees in different fields.

[lencombs]

Originally Posted by Bonedwarf

I remember the first baseball game I ever played was on the Commodore Plus 4. It had two teams. The blue team and the red team. Played that game so much...

hah, that reminds me of one I forgot, on the old Magnavox Odyssey gaming system from 1979. They had a baseball game that was little more than x's in the outfield. like space invader graphics with simplistic hit or out ai. checked wikipedia and this is about all they have on that old system, was like a poor man's atari. Used to play my cousin in baseball on this all the time one summer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnavox_Odyssey²

[lencombs]

Originally Posted by Giants44

I had a very similar experience.

I am 41

Started playing Strat and APBA when I was around 7

Played dozens of DOS baseball games in the late 80's including Major League Manager, Pursue the Pennant, APBA for windows, Lance Hafner and many others

moved on to the VGA graphic games like Micro League

then Earl Weaver 1 & 2, Tony LaRussa 1 & 2, Front Page Sports Baseball,
High Heat (game that had the most potential, but never lived up to it in my opinion)

toyed around with Baseball Mogul, Pure Sim

I don't think there has ever been a major, or even mid-major baseball release for the PC that I have not bought.

Finally discovered OOTP around 1999 and have never looked back

I do own and occasionally play the MVP or 2kx games on the 360, but they never hold my interest long term


If I took all of the time that I have simulated baseball games over the years, I probably could have earned 2-3 doctorate degrees in different fields.

smiled reading that giants44, I am not alone in my lifelong pursuit of baseball simulation enjoyment. If only they gave Doctorate's for baseball simming we could have multiple Masters degrees.

Surely there is a room set aside in the heavens for baseball simmers to meet at, hold initial drafts and sim out season after season.

[DiMaggio5CF]

I've always loved baseball and baseball video games, but I never knew about baseball sims. I always wanted a game with trading and free agent signing, and the closest I got was Front Page Sports right around '94.

Not too long after that, I was shopping with my parents (I think it was the day after Christmas) and I saw Baseball Mogul in a store. I opened the cover of the case, and I saw exactly what I had been looking for. My parents bought it for me, and I played that thing to death.

I got newer versions of Mogul for a year or two after that when someone on a website mentioned Out of the Park, which I had never heard of. If I remember correctly, that was the first year Mogul had been released with fictional names (they always had real names with just one vowel changed) or points instead of dollars or something like that.

Anyway, I got OOTP (I think it was version 3), and I liked it, but it still didn't give me real names. Then I found out about user mods and roster sets and all those wonderful things. Then I bought version 4 and ran my longest-lasting dynasty. I took it over in whatever year it came out (2001 or 2003, I want to say), and I played every single game out into 2008 or 2009. During that time, I bought version 5, but I didn't want to change my dynasty over, so I kept playing 4.

Then I bought version six (I tried the demo and liked it, and at the same time, my OOTP4 dynasty corrupted -- it was due to an error putting it onto a disk when I wiped my hard drive clean, not a lack of a backup file). I tried version six, and I still have that dynasty going. That started in, I think, 2005, and now I'm starting the 2009 season, still playing out every game. I make some progress with it, but now that I have a life, I don't have as much time to play.

I skipped over the 2006 version with no regrets.

I passed up on 2007 initially, but with CubbyFan's new roster set, I picked it up. I was going to resist, but like I said, I don't have as much time to play anymore, and with the manager/coaching system now, I'm willing to sim games instead of playing them out everyday.

[phenom]

Statis-Pro Baseball with the 1982 card set.

[ctorg]

I'm 33. I'd always liked baseball, but I didn't start really getting into it and becoming familiar with the players until a friend of mine who was a fanatic started getting me into it in 1987, when I was 12. We were Mets fans, and they were good then, coming off their World Series victory. I started playing Strat-O-Matic that year a bit with him, which was introduced to me as being like a role-playing game for baseball (I was into Dungeons & Dragons at the time).

The big step, though, was when I got Earl Weaver Baseball for Christmas that year. I learned a lot about strategy how to manage from that game, while Strat-O-Matic taught me the players and more technical details. Then Strat came out with their computer version, and I was hooked.

A memorable turning point for me was in the summer of 1990, when two friends and I played out a full season of games in Strat-O-Matic. One friend won one division and another friend won the other. We put their stats into Earl Weaver and played the World Series in that program, which went 7 games and was won by a Tony Gwynn walk-off homerun. The main thing I realized from that was that it was more fun for me to act as commissioner than to control a single team. I think that was also the last time I actually played a baseball sim of any kind with other people involved.

I kind of got out of baseball simming (and baseball in general) during college, which was good because the Mets were terrible during that time. I got back into things around 1996. Strat-O-Matic had a greatly improved game by then, and you didn't even need the cards anymore. Eventually, though, I found myself getting tired of using real players. I started making my own Strat-O-Matic cards. I used some formulas to basically figure out how the cards were made, or at least get reasonably close to it, and made whole leagues of fictional players. I remember having this setup where I would have ten seasons worth of cards for all these players, and each year I would randomly select one of the ten seasons for each player, and that would be his card for that year. It was a very rudimentary version of the idea of player development. It was clear that I was ready for something new.

Something new came in the form of Baseball Mogul, which seemed like a breakthrough at the time. I got really into it, although I missed the statistical depth of Strat. OOTP came along then, but it was really buggy and Mogul ran much faster and better, so I didn't get fully into it. However, because OOTP had so much more depth, I found myself returning to it, visiting its forums (which were very different then), and following it.

That was OOTP2. OOTP3 was a lot better, while the next Mogul version was barely any different. OOTP was clearly making large improvements, while Mogul was adding minor tweaks. OOTP4 was what really got me hooked, IIRC. I switched over from Mogul and never looked back.

The funny thing is, there are things I still miss from Earl Weaver Baseball, things I hope make it into OOTP someday. I miss the ballpark generator and the very pixelated graphics that at least gave the impression of something happening. I miss the way managerial strategies were chosen by giving a red or green light to a list of plays, essentially allowing you to make any combination (want to put the bunt sign and the steal sign on at the same time? No problem!). But OOTP is clearly on a great path forward and I'm sure it will eventually have all the things I'm looking for in a sim.

[Giants44]

Originally Posted by phenom

Statis-Pro Baseball with the 1982 card set.

oh yeah I forgot about Statis - Pro. played a ton of that and when I was a teenager I preferred that game board to strat's - so I use to play by strat seasons on the statis pro game board.

plus statis-pro basketball was great as well.

[Giants44]

Originally Posted by ctorg

The funny thing is, there are things I still miss from Earl Weaver Baseball, things I hope make it into OOTP someday. I miss the ballpark generator and the very pixelated graphics that at least gave the impression of something happening. I miss the way managerial strategies were chosen by giving a red or green light to a list of plays, essentially allowing you to make any combination (want to put the bunt sign and the steal sign on at the same time? No problem!). But OOTP is clearly on a great path forward and I'm sure it will eventually have all the things I'm looking for in a sim.

no doubt - the weaver stadium generator was PHENOMENAL!!!

we use to spend hours building "real" stadiums, or dream stadiums and we even built and played absurd stadiums - ones with 500 ft fences and 50 ft walls and one with 200 feet fences. made for some very fun and entertaining leagues.

[Russ]

That's funny because I played FPS Baseball on a cruise onboard the Harpers Ferry. Pretty much lasted the whole six months too.

[franco74]

Micro league baseball...

[The Wolf]

High Heat. Still miss the graphics.

[chaerulez]

High Heat was great. I think I found out about OOTP through a High Heat board I went to. I think my first OOTP was 4. Been a fan since.

[mochuck]

Cool topic.... I"m 52 yrs old myself... My first sim game was Strat o Matic with the 1970 player cards. Back than you only got 20 players per team 8 pitchers and 12 position players unless you bought the extra players 4 per team and the the generic 24 extra nameless cards lol.. I played the Expo's vs Reds against my brother and lost 60-0. Just kept poor John Strohmyer in there forever.. Anyways

After that I went to Statis Pro baseball...

First computer sime was Micro League Baseball for the commodore 64 and the 85 season...

Then my first IBM PC game was Earl Weaver Baseball.

Did that and got Front Page Sports Baseball 94 and 98

Went to A High Heat League.. Discovered OOTP 1..I still have the CD. and have been an OOTP fan since..

Bless you guys.. If theer isn't online leagues in heaven, I'm not goin.. lol

[Bonedwarf]

For actual action style gameplay, High Heat 2004 is the best. On the PC, EA screwed the pooch with their "You need a Logitech gamepad" on MVP, whereas High Heat plays nice with all controllers. (Ironically I have said Logitech gamepad now.)

So am I alone in playing SBS? I used to like setting it up to pit two teams against each other 1000 times. That was fun

[ctorg]

Originally Posted by Giants44

no doubt - the weaver stadium generator was PHENOMENAL!!!

we use to spend hours building "real" stadiums, or dream stadiums and we even built and played absurd stadiums - ones with 500 ft fences and 50 ft walls and one with 200 feet fences. made for some very fun and entertaining leagues.

Ever make one of those stadiums with crazy dimensions that caused the outfielder to run into the wall and not be able to get to the ball? It's one of those bugs in the game that only came up with extreme parks. If you had, say, a LF line depth of 350, then LF of 300, then Left Center at 400, it would create a sort of V shape in the fence, and if the outfielder was on one side of that and the ball on the other, he couldn't figure out how to run around the wall and it would be an inside-the-park homer.

I had many crazy stadiums. I even laid nicer graphics over a few of them and used them in OOTP.

[jazzrack]

I had some game on my comodore 64. I don't remember the name. I had the 84 & 85 season disk. I would redraft by doing trades via a system I had set up. I tracked stats in a notepad sinceIt would have taken far too much printer paper & ribbons. so i guess it would have been 86 or 87 when i started. Played that one for a long, long time. Then I had a couple of PC games, but don't remember the names. Played Microsoft baseball I think it was the 2000 season, but it was a bargin bin but so it probably a couple years old. Played a bit of high heat but only liked to pitch. I found & got ootp 5 while looking for some other sim game, bought 6, 6.5, 2006 & 2007. don't like 06 or 07 so i still play 6.5.

[CONN CHRIS]

Started with Avalon Hill's Title Bout board game in 1979.

Oh, this is a baseball discussion - sorry.

Played Statis Pro baseball and football as well as Strat-O-Matic Hockey and Avalon Hills Indy game.

[Giants44]

Originally Posted by ctorg

Ever make one of those stadiums with crazy dimensions that caused the outfielder to run into the wall and not be able to get to the ball? It's one of those bugs in the game that only came up with extreme parks. If you had, say, a LF line depth of 350, then LF of 300, then Left Center at 400, it would create a sort of V shape in the fence, and if the outfielder was on one side of that and the ball on the other, he couldn't figure out how to run around the wall and it would be an inside-the-park homer.

I had many crazy stadiums. I even laid nicer graphics over a few of them and used them in OOTP.

Oh yeah! one of the most enjyoabel parts.

late 80's and I was the manager of a movie theatre and had 4-5 good friends that worked with me. We had an earl weaver draft league and each built own own stadium, playing our games while the movies were in and there wasn't much work to be done.

One guy had the 500/50 foot walls and had exactly ONE home run at his park all year, one guy had all short fences and of course one guy had the crazy park. We played a full 162 game season and absolutely laughed our butts off watching the games in the crazy park. great memories.