When and how did you start playing Out Of The Park Baseball? - Page 6

Izz · 11-23-2014, 08:48 PM

Initially with OOTP12. In a fit of nostalgia, i'd been looking around the net to see if i could find Hardball 6, but discovered it wouldn't work with XP. So i decided to see if anything else was out there. The aspect of Hardball 6 i particularly liked was the dynasty mode which, while quite flawed (the names db was very limited, for example; play for more than 5 years and retired players began reappearing as rookies) kept me coming back. I'd tried a few other baseball games over the years, but none of them had decent career/dynasty modes.

Google searches led me to a few online leagues, but i wanted solo play (later i discovered that OOTP was the game engine for a couple of those online leagues i'd found). After more search refining, i came across OOTP. It sounded amazing! I bought OOTP12, but found it all a little overwhelming. And, seeing as this was all a fit of nostalgia, i quickly tired of trying to figure things out and shelved the game.

Then, a year or so later i spotted OOTP13 on sale and thought, why not? That was a good decision

I found the new interface much easier to figure out, and was quickly hooked.

For someone like me, who's more interested in fictional play, in creating a world and watching/maneuvering how it unfolds (and being a part of it on the ground level, too) there is no other baseball game that compares to OOTP. To be honest, i barely play any other games, baseball or not, now anyway.

r0nster · 11-23-2014, 09:15 PM

I was checking out PC games at Best buy and saw Season ticket (2001). Saw it was a game right up my alley and been playing it since. Those were the days where you buy the CD and then load it to your PC. I didn't learn of this site for bulletin board or its main site till years later. I would each year buy the CD from Best Buy until I had wondered where the game went and thought for one year that they went out of business. Shortly afterwards found the site here and been playing since only to download from net.

I completely love the game and the adaptability of it and every set is an improvement always which is a testament to the OOTP team of being able to make game grow and expand in various ways they desire.

jayhawk1106 · 11-24-2014, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by r0nster

I was checking out PC games at Best buy and saw Season ticket (2001). Saw it was a game right up my alley and been playing it since. Those were the days where you buy the CD and then load it to your PC. I didn't learn of this site for bulletin board or its main site till years later. I would each year buy the CD from Best Buy until I had wondered where the game went and thought for one year that they went out of business. Shortly afterwards found the site here and been playing since only to download from net.

I completely love the game and the adaptability of it and every set is an improvement always which is a testament to the OOTP team of being able to make game grow and expand in various ways they desire.

This is how I got into OOTP myself. Saw Season Ticket Baseball at Gamestop and played it and loved it. Only thing with that game was there were no real players in it. A quick Google search later, I came across OOTP and the rest, as they say, is history.

toxicavenger74 · 11-26-2014, 04:05 PM

I started playing in 2005 I believe with version 6.5. I remember how novel and foreign it was to play with fictional players and teams. I almost couldn't do it, whereas now 9 years later I couldn't imagine playing with real teams or players. I still remember my favorite fictional player from my first ever franchise on V6.5: Fabian Montoya.

I heard of the game from the MLB 2K04 message board. Once I looked up OOTP and downloaded it, I never played another console baseball ever again. I was amazed that such a game existed.

sdw1000 · 11-26-2014, 04:19 PM

I started back in August. But I've been playing Stratomatic since 1989. So it's not the first time I've played a baseball sim. Both have their advantages and disadvantages but both are fun.

CoachC · 11-26-2014, 05:33 PM

I started with OOTP3 under it's brick and mortar guise Season Ticket Baseball when I came across it in the software store. I don't think I've missed a season since.

CoachC · 11-26-2014, 05:38 PM

sdw, did you ever play Pursue the Pennant? I have a large collection of table top baseball sims, and started with Stratomatic with the 81 edition, and expanded my collection back to games from the 60's. Pursue the Pennant though, however was king prior to OOTPB it was the closest you could get to being in the ballpark. Amazing game! The 3d Dioramas were awesome, and with 1000 possible results for every play, including a better unusual play system than has ever been incorporated into a computer sim, you could almost smell the outfield grass (or hear the torn ACLs on turf!)

Hotwheelz · 11-27-2014, 07:45 AM

It was the second version of OOTP that I started playing. There was an online baseball forum I used to frequent. Once I heard something like OOTP existed I was hooked!

PhillieFever · 11-27-2014, 06:03 PM

Searching for an online version of APBA, I can across OOTP 8 which was just about to be released, I preordered and played the game religiously through OOTP 12. Then burnout set in sometime during 13. Since then I've yet to get back on track although Ive always kept up with beta testing every year. Just recently I redownoladed 15, and am just about set to give the MLB QuickStart a go.

CHOWDERHEAD · 11-27-2014, 06:42 PM

Stumbled into OOTP in a roundabout way. Went into a B&M store (Babbages) asking what they had for computer baseball games. If I recall correctly, they had three (3) games on hand. I asked the clerk which one he would choose and he said High Heat baseball was the best.

I played HH for a few years and got involved with highheatcentral website, downloading mods and reading through franchise threads. One poster (bulldog55) caught my attention with his franchise thread using a game called OOTP. Started playing using the demo for OOTP 4 while in my last year of undergrad. Subsequent versions got me through law school. Even though my wife and sons don't understand why I enjoy this game so much, they are good enough to let me have my baseball time.

Metsvir2 · 11-27-2014, 11:31 PM

I discovered the franchise when I was looking to see if there was a baseball version of NFL Head Coach back in 06-07. I had that game and loved it. Too bad they didn't make another PC version and they stopped doing this.

I found this series at 2007-8, and I've bought the game ever since. Took until 10 to get my franchise going, and it's stuck ever since.

sdw1000 · 12-03-2014, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoachC

sdw, did you ever play Pursue the Pennant? I have a large collection of table top baseball sims, and started with Stratomatic with the 81 edition, and expanded my collection back to games from the 60's. Pursue the Pennant though, however was king prior to OOTPB it was the closest you could get to being in the ballpark. Amazing game! The 3d Dioramas were awesome, and with 1000 possible results for every play, including a better unusual play system than has ever been incorporated into a computer sim, you could almost smell the outfield grass (or hear the torn ACLs on turf!)

Nope..never have. Sounds interesting. I'll have to look it up.

metsguy234 · 12-04-2014, 12:32 AM

Played Baseball Mogul obsessively for a few years, and refused to switch to OOTP due to a bad experience I had one year when I bought the game (maybe OOTP 2008?) which was mostly due to my computer being complete crap and unable to run the game well at all. If you go through my earliest posts on this forum, some of them are bashing OOTP for being convoluted and ridiculous compared to Baseball Mogul.

Eventually, I started to find Baseball Mogul to be not all that fulfilling as a game. I'm a big fan of keeping track of the history of my leagues - and OOTP allowed me to do that to a much greater extent than Mogul. Additionally, it was so much more like being a real GM than Mogul was. I decided to give it another chance. I got OOTP 13 as a high school graduation present, and never looked back. I've been playing ever since and I've never again bought Baseball Mogul.

smiller · 12-04-2014, 09:22 AM

I also used to play Baseball Mogul but didn't buy the last two versions because forum writers said the games were too full of mistakes.

I had always wanted to try OOTP, but feared it would be too complex, however when I realized I could no longer play Mogul, I decided to give OOTP14 a try. Too my surprise, I found that if you took things slowly at first the game was much easier to get into than I anticipated. Gradually, through playing and reading this forum, I learned much more about what you can get out of the game (like playing stats only) and how much fun it is to play.

To sum up, I'm extremely happy I gave OOTP a chance and can't imagine not playing it now.

eriqjaffe · 12-04-2014, 09:43 AM

I also came to OOTP via Season Ticket Baseball, except I found a copy at the local public library instead of a store.

thehatfield · 12-04-2014, 11:41 AM

I'm pretty sure I started with Earl Weaver baseball in 1987, and had been playing the dice strat-o-matic up until then. Earl Weaver II and Tony LaRussa then came out around the same time (early 90s?), then I think I played Front Page Sports Baseball.

Started getting into Football Manager (Championship Manager at the time) and I think someone on one of those forums clued me in to OOTP. I'm not sure if OOTP3 was my first, or the version right before it because I know I was on the boards during 9/11.

Tyler87898 · 12-04-2014, 02:02 PM

One day in 2011 I think, I was looking for baseball games so I just googled "baseball games" or something like that and found OOTP. Downloaded the free OOTP 8, got hooked and decided I wanted the new and improved OOTP 12. Best decision ever.

OakDragon · 12-04-2014, 02:33 PM

It was 2006 and I was missing other baseball games I used to play on my Mac that no longer worked on my then-present one (MicroLeague II and Strat-o-Matic). I did a search for one and found out that there weren't any, but that Markus was working on a Mac version of his, so I dropped in, stuck around, waited, and was rewarded handsomely.

Simmo13 · 12-04-2014, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoachC

sdw, did you ever play Pursue the Pennant? I have a large collection of table top baseball sims, and started with Stratomatic with the 81 edition, and expanded my collection back to games from the 60's. Pursue the Pennant though, however was king prior to OOTPB it was the closest you could get to being in the ballpark. Amazing game! The 3d Dioramas were awesome, and with 1000 possible results for every play, including a better unusual play system than has ever been incorporated into a computer sim, you could almost smell the outfield grass (or hear the torn ACLs on turf!)

I started with the Strat board game in the mid '80's, tried StatisPro then Pursue The Pennant (I agree, a great board game)....went back to Strat on the computer and stumbled across the OOTP forum when I was looking for some player photos for an OOTP replay I was starting.....and that was that!! This game and this community have been fantastic value ever since!

11-23-2014, 08:48 PM	#101
Izz Hall Of Famer Join Date: Sep 2012 Posts: 2,467	Initially with OOTP12. In a fit of nostalgia, i'd been looking around the net to see if i could find Hardball 6, but discovered it wouldn't work with XP. So i decided to see if anything else was out there. The aspect of Hardball 6 i particularly liked was the dynasty mode which, while quite flawed (the names db was very limited, for example; play for more than 5 years and retired players began reappearing as rookies) kept me coming back. I'd tried a few other baseball games over the years, but none of them had decent career/dynasty modes. Google searches led me to a few online leagues, but i wanted solo play (later i discovered that OOTP was the game engine for a couple of those online leagues i'd found). After more search refining, i came across OOTP. It sounded amazing! I bought OOTP12, but found it all a little overwhelming. And, seeing as this was all a fit of nostalgia, i quickly tired of trying to figure things out and shelved the game. Then, a year or so later i spotted OOTP13 on sale and thought, why not? That was a good decision I found the new interface much easier to figure out, and was quickly hooked. For someone like me, who's more interested in fictional play, in creating a world and watching/maneuvering how it unfolds (and being a part of it on the ground level, too) there is no other baseball game that compares to OOTP. To be honest, i barely play any other games, baseball or not, now anyway. __________________ Not only do I play OOTP but I also write science-fiction: My Website A brief history of the Australia-New Zealand Baseball League (AUNZBL 2019-2119)--A Dynasty Report The National Penterham Four-Bases Association--A Dynasty Report Last edited by Izz; 11-23-2014 at 08:49 PM.

11-26-2014, 05:38 PM	#107
CoachC Bat Boy Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 7	sdw, did you ever play Pursue the Pennant? I have a large collection of table top baseball sims, and started with Stratomatic with the 81 edition, and expanded my collection back to games from the 60's. Pursue the Pennant though, however was king prior to OOTPB it was the closest you could get to being in the ballpark. Amazing game! The 3d Dioramas were awesome, and with 1000 possible results for every play, including a better unusual play system than has ever been incorporated into a computer sim, you could almost smell the outfield grass (or hear the torn ACLs on turf!) Last edited by CoachC; 11-26-2014 at 05:44 PM.

11-27-2014, 06:03 PM	#109
PhillieFever Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Elk Twp. NJ Posts: 6,763	Searching for an online version of APBA, I can across OOTP 8 which was just about to be released, I preordered and played the game religiously through OOTP 12. Then burnout set in sometime during 13. Since then I've yet to get back on track although Ive always kept up with beta testing every year. Just recently I redownoladed 15, and am just about set to give the MLB QuickStart a go. __________________ We're All Wednesday Aren't We? WAWAW

11-27-2014, 06:42 PM	#110
CHOWDERHEAD Hall Of Famer Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Omaha - Home of the College World Series! Posts: 2,850	Stumbled into OOTP in a roundabout way. Went into a B&M store (Babbages) asking what they had for computer baseball games. If I recall correctly, they had three (3) games on hand. I asked the clerk which one he would choose and he said High Heat baseball was the best. I played HH for a few years and got involved with highheatcentral website, downloading mods and reading through franchise threads. One poster (bulldog55) caught my attention with his franchise thread using a game called OOTP. Started playing using the demo for OOTP 4 while in my last year of undergrad. Subsequent versions got me through law school. Even though my wife and sons don't understand why I enjoy this game so much, they are good enough to let me have my baseball time. __________________ Life is Good!

11-27-2014, 11:31 PM	#111
Metsvir2 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 105	I discovered the franchise when I was looking to see if there was a baseball version of NFL Head Coach back in 06-07. I had that game and loved it. Too bad they didn't make another PC version and they stopped doing this. I found this series at 2007-8, and I've bought the game ever since. Took until 10 to get my franchise going, and it's stuck ever since. __________________ Metsvir franchise OOTP 2007/8 Year 1 - 101-61 World Series Champions OOTP 9 Year 2 - 70-31 NL East lead by 19 games

11-23-2014, 09:15 PM	#102
r0nster Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2006 Location: Michigan Posts: 3,002	I was checking out PC games at Best buy and saw Season ticket (2001). Saw it was a game right up my alley and been playing it since. Those were the days where you buy the CD and then load it to your PC. I didn't learn of this site for bulletin board or its main site till years later. I would each year buy the CD from Best Buy until I had wondered where the game went and thought for one year that they went out of business. Shortly afterwards found the site here and been playing since only to download from net. I completely love the game and the adaptability of it and every set is an improvement always which is a testament to the OOTP team of being able to make game grow and expand in various ways they desire.

11-26-2014, 04:05 PM	#104
toxicavenger74 All Star Reserve Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: St. Louis Posts: 553	I started playing in 2005 I believe with version 6.5. I remember how novel and foreign it was to play with fictional players and teams. I almost couldn't do it, whereas now 9 years later I couldn't imagine playing with real teams or players. I still remember my favorite fictional player from my first ever franchise on V6.5: Fabian Montoya. I heard of the game from the MLB 2K04 message board. Once I looked up OOTP and downloaded it, I never played another console baseball ever again. I was amazed that such a game existed.

11-26-2014, 04:19 PM	#105
sdw1000 All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: SC USA Posts: 862 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	I started back in August. But I've been playing Stratomatic since 1989. So it's not the first time I've played a baseball sim. Both have their advantages and disadvantages but both are fun.

11-26-2014, 05:33 PM	#106
CoachC Bat Boy Join Date: May 2014 Posts: 7	I started with OOTP3 under it's brick and mortar guise Season Ticket Baseball when I came across it in the software store. I don't think I've missed a season since.

11-27-2014, 07:45 AM	#108
Hotwheelz All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Pacific Northwest Posts: 1,617	It was the second version of OOTP that I started playing. There was an online baseball forum I used to frequent. Once I heard something like OOTP existed I was hooked!

12-04-2014, 12:32 AM	#113
metsguy234 Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Washington, D.C. Posts: 298	Played Baseball Mogul obsessively for a few years, and refused to switch to OOTP due to a bad experience I had one year when I bought the game (maybe OOTP 2008?) which was mostly due to my computer being complete crap and unable to run the game well at all. If you go through my earliest posts on this forum, some of them are bashing OOTP for being convoluted and ridiculous compared to Baseball Mogul. Eventually, I started to find Baseball Mogul to be not all that fulfilling as a game. I'm a big fan of keeping track of the history of my leagues - and OOTP allowed me to do that to a much greater extent than Mogul. Additionally, it was so much more like being a real GM than Mogul was. I decided to give it another chance. I got OOTP 13 as a high school graduation present, and never looked back. I've been playing ever since and I've never again bought Baseball Mogul.

12-04-2014, 09:22 AM	#114
smiller Major Leagues Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Pittsboro NC Posts: 424	I also used to play Baseball Mogul but didn't buy the last two versions because forum writers said the games were too full of mistakes. I had always wanted to try OOTP, but feared it would be too complex, however when I realized I could no longer play Mogul, I decided to give OOTP14 a try. Too my surprise, I found that if you took things slowly at first the game was much easier to get into than I anticipated. Gradually, through playing and reading this forum, I learned much more about what you can get out of the game (like playing stats only) and how much fun it is to play. To sum up, I'm extremely happy I gave OOTP a chance and can't imagine not playing it now.

12-04-2014, 09:43 AM	#115
eriqjaffe Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2003 Location: Under The Christmas Fish Posts: 7,485	I also came to OOTP via Season Ticket Baseball, except I found a copy at the local public library instead of a store. __________________

12-04-2014, 11:41 AM	#116
thehatfield All Star Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: dirty jerz Posts: 1,339	I'm pretty sure I started with Earl Weaver baseball in 1987, and had been playing the dice strat-o-matic up until then. Earl Weaver II and Tony LaRussa then came out around the same time (early 90s?), then I think I played Front Page Sports Baseball. Started getting into Football Manager (Championship Manager at the time) and I think someone on one of those forums clued me in to OOTP. I'm not sure if OOTP3 was my first, or the version right before it because I know I was on the boards during 9/11. __________________ AFBL - Maryland Bridegrooms SBC - Western Suburbs Magpies no pressure no problem

12-04-2014, 02:02 PM	#117
Tyler87898 All Star Reserve Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 791	One day in 2011 I think, I was looking for baseball games so I just googled "baseball games" or something like that and found OOTP. Downloaded the free OOTP 8, got hooked and decided I wanted the new and improved OOTP 12. Best decision ever.

12-04-2014, 02:33 PM	#118
OakDragon Hall Of Famer Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: San Jose, CA USA Posts: 3,495	It was 2006 and I was missing other baseball games I used to play on my Mac that no longer worked on my then-present one (MicroLeague II and Strat-o-Matic). I did a search for one and found out that there weren't any, but that Markus was working on a Mac version of his, so I dropped in, stuck around, waited, and was rewarded handsomely.