Favorite Baseball Game Pre OOTP!

[manooly]

How about All Star Baseball?!! It was a board game. I used to put the player disks in and spin my A** off for hours. I'd keep track of stats with a paper and pencil giving each player about 600 at bats to come up with season totals. I was a mess. Then again, I still am a mess because of OOTP.

[Steve Kuffrey]

Before OOTP I'd play BBPro everyday whether baseball season or not, hated to see that game go.

[rasnell]

Microleague Baseball on an Atari 800XL, hooked up to a 9-inch B&W TV. Amazing to look back on that and remember how addictive and leading edge the technology seemed to be.

Tony LaRussa was next.

High Heat 2003

MVP 2004 sets a whole new standard.

[Rubilario]

1. Front Page Sport Baseball 94 & 98.
2. Earl Weaver Baseball.

[Rubilario]

Now, wanna go with board games?

I played Statis Pro Baseball. I liked that because I could make my own cards using their forumula. I even created a program in Basic that would create the cards for me by just entering the stats. Of matter of fact, I still have the game and every once in a while I get it down and play it. Can play it solo too if you want, which I've done many times.

Always wanted to try APBA, but never bought it.

[Buckeye]

Bfore the dawn of computers as we know them I used to play Strat-O-Matic with the cards and dice. Man, was that addicting. We used to play baseball outside until sunset during the warm months and then during the cold months and rainy days it was 8-10 hrs straight of Strato. Those were good days.

I still remember the HR streak that Ben Oglivie went on. The dice were good to me during that streak. Always I hated when Goose Gossage came in to shut my team down too.

The good thing to the little kid crazed baseball fan inside me is that I discovered OOTP. I see no other game that even comes close to matching it. I am actually glad I did not have this back in THE DAY or I would have never done anything with my life. hehe.

[cibl commish]

Front Page Sports series .. I still have an old machine running win98 just for that game.. Hardball and Larussa tie up for 2nd for me.

[Gastric ReFlux]

Originally posted by dougaiton
Could you imagine how good OOTP would be with IGIball graphics? I'd actually weep.

IGIbaseball is by Eddie Dombrower, the guy who programmed Earl Weaver.

[dougaiton]

I always think about playing through a whole IGIball season, but then the guilt gets me - I would want to pay the regi fees, but the Homicide Season 3 boxset is next in line for my cash.

[Gastric ReFlux]

You are right though, it would be sweet to have the graphics like IGI's got. I would probably rarely use it except for playoff games and watching my league's All-Star game, but that would be great to have.

[dougaiton]

I entirely concur - I'd use it infrequently. I think the real stumbling block (apart from the engine, of course) of 'basic' graphics would be that OOTPDevelopments would be risking the sleek, sexy look of OOTP, and might look atouch 'unprofessional'. I think IGIball's graphics are fantastic, but I could understand why a company like OOTPD might not be too keen to graphically regress, as it were.

[Gastric ReFlux]

True, but you know, if IGI had the stats engine of OOTP, I would be playing that. But judging from the dates on the site and the message board, it looks like Eddie Dombrower has abandoned the project. Real shame. I believe there's a niche to be filled with a statistically accurate sim with graphics at least on par with IGI ball.

See, I abandoned High Heat because of my dissatisfaction with the stats. I think in the last one I bought of HH, I loved the graphics, but got disillusioned when I noticed that for some godawful unexplainable reason my team was turning and hitting into double plays almost as frequently as a runner reaching first base. Well the reason was that I was playing the games out as the manager and they were using the graphics to drive the stats.

That's got it ass-backwards. The stats should drive the graphical representation.

[dougaiton]

Quite right - stuff like TriplePlay drove me mental with its complete unwillingness to simulate proper 'baseball'. My big fear is we will never see a proper graphics engine in OOTP, not necessarily becuase of the difficulty of getting it done, but the difficulty of getting it done so it fits in with the look of OOTP-whatever. Hence the discussion of 2D - you get the 'slickness' of OOTP design. I do wonder whether it would be a bridge too far from introduction - the level of research involved would move small team developers like Markus and the guys at FOF away from there 'true goal' - statistical accuracy, great 'sport' engine, and a fun sports experience.

EDIT: Could be worse, I suppose. I was over at the Mogul website, and hey, no L/R splits for this season. Maybe next year, eh

[Gastric ReFlux]

I tend to think the big problem is not the look, but the getting it done. Considering that Markus redid the stat engine to make it more realistic, and the work he must have put into the aging algorithims for 5 and 6, it would be asking a lot to have him code something graphical to display the stats engine results. Also, he just may not be all that familiar with coding moving graphical displays.

[Henry]

Although I wouldn't be against a simplified graphic display (ala Puresim or early PC games) I think the future of OOTP is in the "radio" interface of PbP. There is a HUGE amount of room to improve in that area, and a true "radio" experience could be much better than watching pixels on the screen move around.

Henry

[Gastric ReFlux]

Originally posted by Henry
Although I wouldn't be against a simplified graphic display (ala Puresim or early PC games) I think the future of OOTP is in the "radio" interface of PbP. There is a HUGE amount of room to improve in that area, and a true "radio" experience could be much better than watching pixels on the screen move around.

Henry

Hey, I can dream of the best of both worlds. Further and better detailed PbP, working in conjuction with some flying pixels.

Maybe it's because I grew into my love for baseball while watching the Phillies on Channel 17 in the late 1970's. I enjoy radio broadcasts as well, but some of my fondest memories are watching those games come in on the UHF. Let's face it, as human beings we are primarily visual creatures, it is our most frequently used and evaluated sensory input.

"I'll believe it when I see it"

"I saw it with my own eyes"

Usually when we praise radio announcers, there is some mention of how their words let us "see" the game. And now that I finally found a baseball game that generates good stats, now I wish to see one that generates good visuals from those.

[thomamon]

Front Page Sports Baseball was really awesome for it's time. They even had the physics down with the way the ball traveled in the graphics. They were working on a new version after 98 when they decided to scrap the project. Front Page Sports Football was awesome as well. OOTP is the first game I Have found to replace what was taken from me in FPS Baseball.

[Gastric ReFlux]

Didn't FPS Baseball have two different engines, one engine for games that were displayed visually and another for strictly simmed games? I remember hearing something about that.

[thomamon]

I don't remember two engines, but it did have pitch by pitch and one pitch mode. I used one pitch mode.

[ZouDave]

Originally posted by thomamon
... OOTP is the first game I Have found to replace what was taken from me in FPS Baseball.

I still haven't found a replacement for what wsa taken from me when Front Page Sports Football died. Front Office Football has its merits and occupied my time for a little while, but it's not the same.

COME BACK, DYNAMIX! And bring Aces of the Pacific and Red Baron with you!