Today's topic is communication. I'm pleased with the discussions
and comments exchanged within this group to date, and I would
like to loosen the reins on the email list. This project is not
solely for my benefit, although I appreciate the assistance I
have received on the Solitaire Statis Pro Football rules, the
Decathlon expansion ideas, and the SI Football variants.
Several of you have specifically okayed the distribution of your
email address. No one has expressed any reservation about
posting their emails/names along with their comments when I send
a digest message. Afterall, this is what happens when you post
comments to the newsgroups and listservs. Therefore, I have
taken the liberty of compiling a list of names/emails with some
cryptic notes about your sports game experience and interests
culled from the messages you have sent me to date.
I have some plans for further developing this whole activity.
For now I will continue collecting all messages received each
week into a single digest and send that to the entire list once
each, probably on Monday. I will edit the messages for brevity,
removing things like email headers and duplicative or unnecessary
forwarded material.
Also, I am going to post more recruitment messages on the
newsgroups. You'll be seeing those soon. And if any of you
attention conventions, pass the word along to anyone you see
playing sports games. Give them my name and email.
Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?
Jim Gordon
jgordon@library.berkeley.edu
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From: Marc Guenette
Hello Jim, and all the others!
How about everybody tells us about their interest in sports
games.
I really love the Statis Pro games, how do they compare to the
Stra-o-matic?
Marc
***************************************************
From: "Richard Guenther (128983)"
Some questions/thoughts for you:
--Great job so far on this project. Many people start things on
the net that never even amount to much in the beginning, much
less after a few months. This is different. I hope it becomes a
newsgroup or list someday, as I think the audience so far is
pretty educated and helpful, (and also have their own particular
likes, which would make a list work).
--What about Hockey? I've never played a hockey sim, but seeing
as the Avalanche are done for the year (sigh), I'd be interested
in trying out some of the hockey games. I'd like comments from
anyone.
--I know you're not a fan of boxing, but Title Bout remains a
good game--especially for solitaire replay. I'd like to hear
comments from anyone on how they use the strategies while playing
solitaire.
--This is more of an abstract idea, but one area that would be
great to discuss would be how people solitaire seasons (ie. how
they make up schedules and handle injuries and things like that).
I have a simple way I do it for Paydirt, but I'd like to hear
what others do. This would also apply to Title Bout: how can one
manage the "career" of a boxer?
Thanks again,
Richard
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From: Skip Franklin
Avalon Hill's Bowl Bound is in its 3rd Edition (right?). This
3rd edition comes with solitaire rules. Unfortunately buying a
third copy hasn't come to the top of the purchase heap. I came
up with a solitaire die roll chart for the opponent team and a
set of bowl games.
Has anyone else come up with the same?
Bowl Bound is my favorite football game. College ball is wilder
and less predictable, the game is easy to teach and play while
still giving each gamer the basic options of a coach. Specific
plays are not available but the types are. On offense you can
call a Line Plunge, Counter, End Reverse, Draw, Option, Screen
pass, Sprint-out pass, Bootleg pass or Drop Back pass. On
defense you can call a Standard, Short Yardage (gaps), Short
Yardage (wide), Pass Prevent (short), Pass Prevent (long) or
Blitz play.
Special team chart has Kickoff, Kickoff Return, Punt, Punt Return
Interception Return and Field Goal. Also included is a short
history of the team. I was looking at the 1969 Missouri Tigers
(home team) and the history talks of Coach Dan Devine, QB Terry
McMillan, Flanker Mel Gray and Tailback Joe Moore.
Skip Franklin
wargamer@swbell.net
******************************************************
From: MitchStern@aol.com
For Matt Regarding Boxing Games
1st : Be aware that Title Bout is full of errors, even in the
most recent edition.
(My favorite is "International Butt" instead of "intentional".
The Trunco brothers repeatedly pointed out there should have been
1 more KD check card than was published - just add it to any
"plain" card.
2nd: Do you have the Gorilla card for Title Bout? How many rounds
in a ring can YOU last against one? Great fun as published in
All-Star Replay.
3rd: BEST SOLITARE BOXING GAME : Heavyweight Champ by Lambourne.
You manage one of 10 possible up and coming british local
fighters, taking them through training, and each month deciding
whether or not to fight, working your way up through the rankings
trying to get a title within 36 months ( before your skills
start to atrophy.) GET IT. The game can is stand alone, but it
can also interface with Lambourne's Championship Boxing Game
(their version of Title Bout).
-- Mitch
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Sports Game Company List
(I am still working on compiling a list of active sports game
companies, meaning those companies which are currently producing
and marketing sports games. I am most interested in tabletop
games which use a statistical-replay system although that is
somewhat flexible and I may expand to computer games eventually.
Below is the current list. Any suggestions for additions are
welcome. The main criteria is that the company must be currently
in business and their games must be available commercially, not
just on the out of print market.--JCG)
APBA Game Company Inc.
1001 Millersville Road
PO Box 4547
Lancaster, PA 17604-4547
phone: 1-(800) 334-2722
or (717) 872-6567
fax: 1-(800) 272-2669
URL: http://www.mmi.com
Fast-Action Games
Patrick M. Premo
1240 Chipmonk Road
Alleghany, NY 14706-9707
(716) 372-3515
Lambourne Games
From: Harman and Eady
The Sports Game Shop
32 Hampden Crescent
Brentwood
Essex CM14 5BD
England
Phone from within UK: 01277 221473
Phone from outside UK: 44 1277 221473
email: games@eady.demon.co.uk
URL: http://www.uran.net/sgs/
Strat-O-Matic Game Co.,Inc.
46 Railroad Plaza
Glen Head, NY 11545
http://www.strat-o-matic.com
http://www.enter.net/~adamw/strat.html
phone: 1-(800) 645-3455 or (516) 671-6566
The Avalon Hill Gamne Company
4517 Harford Road
Baltimore MD 21214
phone: (410) 254-9200
phone toll-free: 1-(800) 999-3222
fax: (410) 254-0991
URL: http://www.avalonhill.com
ahgames@aol.com
ahgeneral@aol.com
*************************************************************
(You can't tell the players without a program. I have tried to
include everyone who has expressed specific interests or
experiences. Sorry if I missed anyone. I realize that some of
these comments have gone out in previous messages but I didn't
think to create digests like this initially.--JCG)
ABTreon@aol.com
Decathleon
Al Iott RPITBULL@aol.com
Statis Pro Baseball, Football
Alessandro Cingolani
Statis Pro Basketball and Football
Bobby DiIenno BobbyDNO@aol.com
Statis-Pro Baseball. Pursue The Pennant, APBA, etc. I still
like the simplicity of Statis-Pro. I was wondering what variant
rules you have developed over the years. Me and my friends have
added quite a few (over 20 and still counting!) in order to make
the game a little more realistic, but keeping the basic play the
same.
Charles W. Sutherland
Status-Pro Baseball and Pursue the Pennant, Pay Dirt.
My main interest is baseball.
I might even pick up a copy of stratomatic, though I like Status
pro more because of the pitcher control rating.
Chris Bauch cbauch@ix.netcom.com
March Madness.
Craig Cecil
Decathlon expansion. I am in the beginning stages of converting
Decathlon to a computer game (Windows 95/Windows NT).
Dave Cann
I used to be highly active in sports gaming, including SOM
Hockey, SOM Basketball, Title Bout, Speed Circuit, Statis-Pro
Football, Pro Football Fantasm. Now I'm pretty much _only_
involved with computer SOM Baseball
Dennis D. Nicholson
Statis-Pro Basketball.
Hennie van der Salm
I like sports games a lot, including AHs Decathlon. I understand
you're doing some research-work to add new athletes to Decathlon.
Luke Chanacz
I am interested in Soccer board games. Bascially two kinds: one
would be a manager type level game and the other would be a game
with the field shown and the players represented by counters.
Marc Guenette
Statis Pro Football.
Mark Jackson
Decathalon expansion!? Cool.
matt little
Strat-O-Matic makes the best baseball, football and
hockey games out there. Title Bout is a fun boxing game.
MICHAEL J GARTON
motorsports games.
Michele Montagni
I've been playing sports games since 1970 and have a fair
collection of them. I am almost exclusively interested in
simulation games, that use real players with stats, etc. (e.g.,
APBA, Strat-O-Matic, etc.) and VERY largely prefer board games
over computer games. I'm always willing to buy or trade for that
kind of game, almost any sport.
Mike Powaser
I just started getting into sports games about 6 months ago with
Playoff's One on One Hockey Challenge Collectable(sp?) Card Game.
Since then, I have bought APBA Baseball, but have had limited
time playing it, and an OLD (early 70's) golf game from 3M called
Challenge Golf.
Mike Siggins MSiggins@aol.com
Basically I will play anything except boxing, and my favourites
are baseball, cycling and race games - athletcis, F1, etc. I am
designing some games of my own for publication this year and will
keep you all posted. I remember All Star Replay with fondness,
and was reading my copies only last night to refresh my memory on
Pennant Race.
MitchStern
Would be very interested in sports board game discussions.
favorites: Lambourne Games - Metric Mile and Heavyweight Champ,
PTP and Dynasty, Ultimate College Basketball, and APBA Horse
Racing.
Neil Galarneau
I like football (and sometimes baseball) and I like games, but
I've never played a sports game.
Pat Premo
(Win, Place & Show. Decathlon. Designer of Fast Action Games.)
Paul A. Van Etten
Statis Pro Football
Perry Andrus
i used to play som, then ptp and now dynasty league baseball. i
have also played som football. design depot publishes dynasty
league baseball and some kind of fantasy league basketball game.
http://www.designdepot.com/index.html i prefer baseball although
i was in an som football & basketball league a long time ago.
Philip Jones
Strat-o-Matic since 1980
several PBM(and e-mail) basketball leagues and one baseball
leagues. My favorite is their football game
Randy Cox
I enjoy baseball tabletop games the most (the best being Sports
Illustrated Baseball of 1970-72, followed closely by
Strat-o-matic). I also collect, but rarely get to play, golf
games. I own a few football games but, as far as I can remember,
no basketball simulations. I also like to collect horse racing
games. And, finally, I even own a few tennis, decathlon, and
bowling simulations.
Richard Guenther
DECATHALON
Got this when I was quite young. Got tired of playing the 8 or
so athletes in the game, so I began a lifetime of game
alterations by creating nearly a hundred different composite
players using a mix and match system of the original 8 athletes'
abilities.
STATIS PRO BASEBALL
This one really turned me on. To be able to play through
Milwaukee Brewers games whenever I wanted to (even if Gorman
Thomas still struck out 95% of the time) was heaven on earth. I
wore out my copy.
PENNANT RACE
I used this with SPB for a while, but didn't like the extra work
it required. I developed my own system to figure out who won the
other games, and who would be injured when I played them.
STATIS PRO FOOTBALL
Because I liked football even more than baseball, I figured this
game would REALLY turn me on. It didn't. I played it once or
twice and couldn't stand to look at it thereafter. Took
forever...too much stat keeping...etc.
PAYDIRT
This came next, and will always remain my favorite sports game.
Although you don't get individual players, the playability is so
high that I don't even miss them. This system works increadibly
well, and over the past 13 years I have developed a solitaire
system that allows me to play the coach of one team--the AI
system calls both the offensive AND defensive plays for the
opposing team. It works fairly well, and I have now solitaired
over 200 games this way. After about 1990 or so, the Paydirt
charts went downhill drastically, making the game more like
Football Strategy, and less solitaire-compatible.
I agree with you that this is a classic. I had 1970, 1972, 1976
(charts were terrible), 1980, 1989 and maybe some others. Lost
the time to game much in the 90's so I never picked up the newer
charts. From your comments I'm kind of glad I passed them by.
Nevertheless, I've had many many fun hours with this game over
the years. I'd like to hear more about your solitaire system. I
always enjoyed Bowl Bound as much, if not more than Paydirt.
TITLE BOUT
A fun game. Even if all you do is watch, the chance to put Mike
Tyson up against Ali (and Sam Langford, the best card in the
game) is too thrilling to pass up. I have hosted several "best
Heavyweight of all time" tournaments. [for anyone curious, Sam
Langford and Ali are the biggest winners.]
PRO TENNIS
Dice rolling, dice rolling, dice rolling. I used to play this
game a lot--I'd use the #5 ranked men's player and enter myself
in tournament after tournament. Now it hurts my wrist too much
to play :-(
PURSUE THE PENNANT (non-AH)
I can't imagine what would have happened to me if I had
discovered this game as a kid. I probably never would have left
the house! This game is so much better than STATIS PRO BASEBALL,
and its list of random events is superb. I've never had a player
get food poisoning, but it can happen! Surprisingly though, I
don't play this anymore. Paydirt takes up all my sports gaming
time.
MARCH MADNESS
The 64 team tournament replay in this game is boring and too
simple. The individual game replays, however, I found to be
quite ingenious. I don't play this one anymore, but at one time
I set up a solitaire campaign where I went through 5 or so
college seasons. Nice, playable system.
FOOTBALL STRATEGY
Incredibly simple, and yet effective. My friends and I played
this one quite a bit. I ran up an 11-0 record before one of my
friends figured out how to beat me. Now I'm 4-3 against him,
with our next game scheduled for June
FOOTBALL PHANTASM (non-AH)
Another football game with individual player cards. Too much
work to be fun. But...the solitaire system included, although
very crude, was the catalyst for my own Paydirt AI system.
PRO GOLF
Dull game. Didn't like it at all.
BASKETBALL STRATEGY
I had been looking for this out-of-print game for more than 10
years, hoping it would be a luck-free, simple, playable
basketball game like FOOTBALL STRATEGY. I finally got a copy
last weekend and I'm not all that impressed. I guess basketball
is just too hard to simulate without sacrificing a lot of
playability. I still need to look this one over, though, and
mess around with it a bit.
STATIS PRO BASKETBALL
Too much stat-keeping, and the fatigue rules suck. Computers are
meant to do this, not humans.
Ross Hagglund
you looking for a good sports boardgame? I would recommend the
APBA football system.
Skip Franklin
My favorite sports game has been Avalon Hill's Bowl Bound. I
just need the latest edition and the inventory would be complete.
Stef
Your idea is very good, I think. Despite I'm french, I am a big
football fan. I never found a site dedicated to football games,
somewhere you could find people ideas about which game is better.
We should find on such a place some FAQs, reviews about major
sports. Because the subject is sport, I think this site should
talk about computer and video games, board games and cards
(ex.Red Zone). Nothing more to say now.
SweatedPts@aol.com
I am trying to hunt down old sets of an Avalon Hill game called
"Statis-Pro Baseball".
Ted Avery
I have played the Avalon Hill/Sports Illustrated Bowl Bound game
extensively as well as Strat-o-Matic baseball. I have recently
picked up an APBA football game and an APBA baseball game
although I've yet to play any games.
Terry Rooker
new to Statis Pro Football
Thomas Marshall thomm1@ix.netcom.com
I'm basically addicted to Dynasty League Baseball and Face-off
Hockey board games- although I have both in pc, as well. Play
mail leagues in both. Have spent years in search of the perfect
Formula One Grand Prix board game...and have yet to find it.
What was it Disraeli said, "When I want to read a good book, I
write one...". Designing one may be the only choice left!
Tony Betros AFJB@aol.com
I have been playing Strat-o-matic sports games for years. I play
all four: baseball, football, basketball, hockey. Mainly
solitaire, some face-to-face. I also have APBA golf, horse
racing, and bowling. I came across a web site from a company
called Lambourne games. They have a lot of board games that are
not of the "norm". Games like soccer, track and field, rugby,
etc. I haven't gotten any yet, but I'm thinking about it. They
are based in England, so I would have to pay pretty big shipping
charges. I would love to buy games like that because I'm quite
happy with strat in terms of the big sports. Anyway, please
respond with any thoughts or ideas.
William Cairns
I missed your first post but am interested in Sports games -
especially e-mail games.
William Kay
[interested in lots of sports games]
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END DIGEST 6-9-97
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