APBA Baseball Broadcast Blast (fixed) Hack Working
Gifford Brickley
I think this is a great thread. Thanks for initiating it. By this time you may be getting an idea that the subject is too big to take in one mouthful. g
You've picked the right forum for such questions...there are a lot of guys here who own and play a huge variety of sports (and other) games. There are also an amazing number of sub-set groups...people who essentially specialize in one particular game or in one aspect of that game. For instance, I play APBA, and only APBA. APBA Baseball can be divided easily into a few obvious sub-groups.
Board games
- APBA Basic - hugely popular since 1951, originally designed in 1926. Has probably lost a massive slice of the gaming market to other games, of which there are now hundreds, each with their own attributes.
- APBA Master Game - not any more accurate than Basic, but with more options leading to similar results
Computer games
- APBA DOS - mostly forgotten, but still championed by some players
- APBA for Windows (BBW) - not significantly updated in 20+ years, but weathering quite nicely. A direct port of the Master Game.
- APBA GO - an online gaming version of APBA Basic
Of these, I own the Basic and Master board games, and I really only play the Master Game, using many innovations and board/card changes. I dislike keeping stats with paper and pencil, but I detest and distrust computers. I don't play computer games of any sort, and I don't use a stat program. Like everyone else, I tailor my gaming to my likes and dislikes. My projects are nearly necessarily short ones because keeping stats by hand is for me a tedious affair, but that doesn't lessen my desire to play a reasonably accurate game.
Some game players enjoy playing complete seasons. Some will play only their favorite teams, ignoring the rest of the schedule or letting a computer manager play it out. Some play cross-era baseball...teams of different era thrown into leagues, or drafting players from all eras into teams and leagues. Some play elaborate tournaments. Many players enjoy continuous-ownership draft leagues, and many guys have teams in several leagues. The ballplayers may be from the current (last year's) set or they may be retro seasons or even cross-era drafts. Some players enjoy a hi-lo format. Some gamers like career player projects, such as running Babe Ruth's career games. Some guys follow as-played lineups and actual transactions. Some guys make up all of it or part of it as they go. Some guys play a lot of games before they settle on an era or a season or a style of play. Some guys play solitaire. Some play nearly exclusively face to face. Some play with computers while other roll dice. Roy Langhans has a nearly 9000-post thread in the APBA forum devoted entirely to one-off games (and the editorial comments of Roy's many friends). He's been working that thread since 2000, fitting it around his other APBA play.
I'm just talking about what I know of APBA. I don't have any opinions on Action, or S-O-M, or Replay, or OOTP, or History Maker, or DiamondMind, or any of the other fine games out there. I'm relatively heavily invested in APBA card seasons and have no real reason to do otherwise. But...I have no doubt that each of those games has many sub-sets.
Two takeaways from all this: (1) the bottom line is fun. How you get there is up to you. (2) There are probably as many styles of playing these games as there are game players. If there is a third easy takeaway, it might be that there is no real consensus concerning which game(s) is more accurate, or the best, or even the most fun. Everyone owns their own opinion. Man...I don't even know if there is even a list of all the available games. Some are great but won't fit your fancy. Some might be thought of as inferior, but might scratch a particular itch. I was playing Mickey Mantle Baseball when I was 10 years old; I still recall some of the dice-and-spinner results. Be nice to see that game once more.
I'll offer the opinion that most gamers don't analyze the accuracy of a specific game before they buy it. The proof oftentimes is in the stats...so you play to find out (1) if it's fun to play, and (2) if it seems reasonably accurate. Some friends introduced me to APBA in the mid-70s. Most games available today didn't exist then and no one had PC's, much less played games on them. My choice for a stat-based game would have been mostly between APBA and S-O-M...and I didn't know about S-O-M. APBA has fulfilled my expectations, so maybe I lucked out. g
I've played C&D baseball games since the early 70s and to be honest my favorites
are fixed beyond any chance of change at this point so I have to say that even
though I read the entire thread there is nothing in here that is going to change my
mind on a single point. But the information in this thread is beyond excellent!