Text sims have always been, and likely always will be, a niche market. I will be shocked if you ever see an Out of the Park Baseball TV commercial during the World Series or a Front Office Football ad run during the Super Bowl. But even though their market share in the big picture of sports gaming will always be small, text-sim fans are loyal -- sometimes even obsessive. When we like something, we support it.

There are a number of long-running text sims on the market right now that have enjoyed a fair amount of critical acclaim. However, there are others that had a lot going for them yet never broke through for whatever reason and were discontinued. I have put together a list of three text sims that I would like to see resurrected. In addition, I am interested in hearing from all the loyal readers out there about discontinued text sims you folks would like to see make a comeback.

Eastside Hockey Manager

The final version of Eastside Hockey Manager was a nearly perfect text sim. You took control of a hockey franchise from one of 20 leagues throughout the world. You also set priorities in the parts of the world you wanted to scout to try and find that next top prospect. For those of us who enjoy actually playing out games, Eastside had a 2-D graphics model that played out what was happening in the text. The game also featured fantasy drafts, realistic salary cap rules, in-depth line and roster management and challenging AI.

Eastside's main strength (besides its realism) was the way it accurately re-created an entire hockey universe. Just like GMs and scouts in real life, you had to literally scour the Earth to make sure you did not miss out on signing that diamond in the rough prospect that could take your team to the next level. The game also looked pretty. Sometimes the game’s screen and menu design did not make complete sense, but the colors, text and pictures all made for an eye-pleasing game -- as eye-pleasing as a text-sim can be, anyway.

Jump Shot Basketball

Jump Shot Basketball was very similar in style to Front Office Football. The game was a very accurate representation of the NBA, but it hurt your eyes to look at. The menus all looked like Excel spreadsheets and were difficult to navigate. It made the game look like a giant gray blob of text. However, like Front Office Football, Jump Shot's depth, immersion, accuracy and overall fun factor overcame what it lacked in eye-catching visuals. The game was also very customizable, which is essential for any text sim.

The latest update (5.61) came out in September 2009, which is not too long ago. However, I am including Jump Shot on this list because it has been forever since a new version of the game came out. An update appears every now and then, but if the developers would ever sit down and create a new version (Jump Shot Basketball 2) that focused on the game’s menus and visuals, we could have something special. The game’s website has not been updated since version 5.61 came out, which is another sign that this game could be dead in the water and thus needs to be on this list.

Front Office Football: The College Years

I am not a big fan of college sports text sims, and I never really got into Front Office Football: The College Years (FOF: TCY). However, it still needs to be included on this list. Much like its NFL counterpart, FOF: TCY draws you in with its attention to detail, data, statistics and gameplay. The sheer amount of information and numbers that are involved with this game can be overwhelming, but all that information is what made the game so great.

Of the three titles on this list, I would predict that this one has the best chance of one day returning to our gaming lives.

Front Page Sports Football Pro '96 and Baseball Pro '98

I am not sure if these two titles should even be included on this list (after all, I did say three titles at the beginning of the article), but since this is my column, I am going to create a special honorable mention category specifically for Front Page Sports Football Pro ’96 (FPS: FBP 96) and Baseball Pro ’98 (FPS: BP 98). Both of these titles have traditional graphics-style gameplay like Madden or The Show. However, they also were some of the first sports titles to have career play, in-depth statistics and an accurate sim engine.

These two titles are what originally got me into text sims. I remember getting Madden for my PC and having to return it because it did not work. I exchanged it for FPS: FBP 96 and was immediately hooked. Soon, despite the ridicule from my brother, I was simulating games instead of mashing buttons and playing them. The same was true for FPS: BP 98. The level of depth and realism was something I had never seen before, and it immediately sucked me into the game world.

If not for FPS: FBP 96 and BP 98, I might still be mashing buttons on a control pad instead of enjoying the depth and realism of text sims. Bottom line, many of the great text sims out there today owe a debt of gratitude to these two games.