Title Bout Championship Boxing 2.5
Lalo Scalf
"There really wasn't a decent representation of our favourite sport, pro boxing," Jim Trunzo recalls of the decision he and his brother made in the late 1970s to create a game in which players flipped cards to simulate a fight, rather than use the dice or spinners that were prevalent in sports simulations of that era.[1]
The Trunzos self-published the game, with help from Jim Barnes, who had founded the Statis-Pro line of sports simulation games. Barnes had developed what he called a "Fast Action Deck" to simulate the action and had given the Trunzo brothers his blessing to use the same concept in their game.
After the self-published version of Title Bout Championship Boxing barely made its money back, the Trunzos secured a deal with Avalon Hil, which had purchased Statis-Pro and wanted to compete with APBA and Strat-o-matic in the sports simulation space. Avalon Hill had also arranged a marketing partnership with Sports Illustrated to boost its credibility.
Title Bout: The Game of Professional Boxing sold well but was eventually discontinued as gamers moved away from tabletop sports games to computer ones. The Trunzo brothers did not retain the name of their game, but they had the rights to the rest of it and released TKO Boxing for DOS through Lance Haffner Games in 1990. They later published another tabletop game, APBA Boxing, that used dice, and in 2001 Comp-U-Sport brought the game back to the digital realm with Title Fight 2001.
The Trunzos eventually sold the game to OOTP Developments, publishers of Out of the Park Baseball and Franchise Hockey Manager. OOTP released Title Bout Championship Boxing 2 in 2005 and version 2.5 in 2008. In 2013, OOTP sold the game to P.I.S.D. Ltd, which released Title Bout Championship Boxing 2013 in June of that year.[2] Based on comments in the Title Bout community, the initial PISD version was a failed product and fans of the game are still waiting for an update some eight years later.
Title Bout Championship Boxing displays a boxing ring with fighters who trade blows, an immersive blow-by-blow text, a crowd that cheers, and ring card girls who flash up between rounds. The game features over 6,660 boxers past and present and in every weight class, allowing players to not only recreate historical fights but also stage bouts that could never have happened, such as Muhammad Ali taking on Mike Tyson in the prime of their careers, Floyd Mayweather battling the legendary Joe Gans, or Sam Langford trading punches with Marvin Hagler. The game's database is updated on a regular basis, allowing players to also forecast upcoming fights. Acting as promoter you stage fights between all the leading contenders, no exceptions.
Title Bout Championship Boxing is the ultimate in computer boxing games simulations with complete statistics, multiple ranking systems, full editing capabilities, over 6600 rated fighters, and trainers, corner men, referees, venues, rule sets, titles are all part of the simulation. Computer Gaming World calls it the "The undisputed heavyweight champion of boxing sims"!
Want to restage a classic bout, like Jack Dempsey vs. Gene Tunney? Or perhaps do a "what if" matching Sugar Ray Robinson against Marvin Hagler? Or maybe even predict the future by fighting Wladimir Klitschko against Lennox Lewis? All of these are possible with Title Bout. And you can fight each fight one time or one thousand times!
A new, more graphical, more intuitive interface makes all aspects of Title Bout Championship Boxing the simulation that fans have dreamed about.
Personally I would say that of all of the games Legends of Boxing produced the closest decision, TKO and KO percentages to Holmes actual career fights and consistently provided what I would call the most "plausible" results. LOB also is probably the best at capturing the strategic and stylistic match-ups, is pretty easy to play, isn't overly complicated and plays fairly quickly. About the only downside that I can think of offhand is that since it's dice driven there may be more dice rolls than some would care for.
Glory Days Boxing would be a strong #2 for me. GDB has a very interesting inside/outside control system which also does a good job of capturing the fighters individual styles. The results were pretty solid and GDB may well have the nicest cards of any boxing game that I've played. GDB is also dice driven the same as LOB so that may be a negative for some. GDB also does sometimes produce the occasional out of nowhere fluke TKO stoppage.
i've played TB I, TB II, LOB, and Dice Boxing. i like and play all of them. the one that is on my table the most is TB II. i love everything about it. that being said, i play it straight out of the box without using all the added bells and whistles. it's nice that they're there for folks who want to incorporate them, but they're not necessary to the enjoyment of the game. in regards to the rules being a bit lengthy, that's only if you decide to incorporate EVERYTHING into the game, where i don't. the rules became lengthy when people started adding "what if's" and "can we's" into the mix. Jim, always trying to make his customers happy, obliged.
Jim Trunzo (TBII) and Gary Brown (LOB) are very quick to respond to questions and provide well thought out answers. both provide very good customer service.
lastly, Dice Boxing. a good game, i'm not fond of how many dice rolls there are to complete the game, but the components are good. the biggest drawback is that George Nebesnick has gone AWOL for the past couple of years. he's got some young kids and seems to have pulled away from the gaming side for family. but that is just conjecture and a post from him indicating what's going on or when he'll return would be nice.
Played TB I, and II as well as LOB. IMO, Legends of Boxing is the BEST boxing sim I have played. It is intuitive and plays smooth. Most of all it's fun. I have not touched my Title Bout game since purchasing LOB.
To be honest I just never cared for Data Boxing. I know that there are people that still maintain that it was the best Boxing game made but personally I just didn't care for the game play. I tried giving it one last shot when I ran my Larry Holmes vs. the ATG campaign and couldn't get through one fight and ended up just recently selling it on ebay.
Matching greats from different eras has long been one of the biggest fantasies of boxing fans. They still argue about how Joe Louis would have stacked up against modern competition and whether or not Mike Tyson, in his prime, could have gone toe-to-toe with that guy who "floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee." And now some of these questions can be answered, at least theoretically, courtesy of Title Bout Championship Boxing. This text-based sports management simulation from boxing experts Jim and Tom Trunzo and Out of the Park Developments is an ode to the sweet science, and it's one of the most intricate and accurate sims of the sport ever released.
Essentially, Title Bout is centered around asking, "What if?" Gameplay modes see you setting up single bouts, fight cards, single- or double-elimination tournaments that feature as many as 16 boxers, and lengthy bout schedules. There are no career or role-playing options as seen in most sports management sims, although you can input your name, and you can track wagering on bouts. This can make fight cards a little more interesting, because you begin with a mere $10,000 stake and dreams of Jimmy the Greek grandeur. However, there are no in-game incentives to earning cash at the betting table.
Instead, your incentive for playing is provided by an incredibly comprehensive boxing encyclopedia. You choose opponents from a list that encompasses a century of boxing history and includes nearly 3,700 fighters. All eras and all weight classes are represented (and there are even some top women, like Laila Ali and Christy Martin), so you can stage bouts pitting today's stars against the greats of yesteryear. Anyone who's anyone is in the game, including all-time legends like Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Jake LaMotta, in addition to contemporary fighters like Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, and Roy Jones Jr. You can also throw fighters into the ring at different stages of their careers, from beginning to postprime. So if you've ever wondered how a young Cassius Clay would have fared against the older and wiser Muhammad Ali, this is your chance to find out.
Each boxer is rated in more than 30 categories (all of which can be edited) that run the gamut from hitting power and chin versus knockdown to killer instinct and conditioning. Training before fights can enhance categories like power, hand speed, and tactical skills. The game even tracks the percentage of punch types thrown, letting you know if your guy favors jabs, hooks, crosses, uppercuts, or combinations. These stats make a huge difference during bouts. Get in tough with Rocky Marciano or Roberto Duran and their high killer instinct ratings might kick in. You need to cover up quickly or risk hitting the canvas in short order. Take a postprime Mike Tyson into the late rounds and you've got a good chance of putting him down because of his low endurance score. All in all, fighters perform just like you expect them to.
And Title Bout doesn't stop at just the combatants. It also includes 94 cornermen, 298 judges, 78 referees, and 13 announcers that are all drawn from boxing's past and present. Want top trainer Lou Duva and legendary cutman Johnny Tocco in your corner? Up for the controversial calls of referee Luis Guzman? Interested in having Michael Buffer call the action? You can have it all here. Each is rated according to real-life performance as well, which means that Duva is one of the best motivators in the business, while Guzman tends to be very strict and will seemingly stop a fight as soon as someone gets cut. Judges even have adjustable bias settings that determine if they favor the higher-rated fighter, the hometown favorite, the champion, or a particular style of boxing.
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