Your Personal Text Sim History

[Carman Bulldog]

Thought it might be interesting to go over everyone's text sim history here. Obviously there will be titles that are forgotten and probably more than can be named. I don't necessarily recall the exact order of these but it's probably something close to this...

Wrestling

Adam Ryland's Extreme Warfare 9000 was probably the first text sim that I played, and that led into Promotion Wars, which followed not long after. Ryland's solid games kept coming with Extreme Warfare Deluxe and Extreme Warfare Revenge. He lost me as a customer when he moved over to the commercial product, in part due to the cost as well as the lack of commercial licence. That changed when I took a chance (thanks to his MMA games) on Total Extreme Wrestling 2010 and I really enjoyed the fictional universe. I'll probably be picking up the new one when it comes out. I can't recall the last time I watched wrestling, but I'm a nostalgic fan and the 1980's and late 90's have special places in my heart.

Pro Football

While I had read about the first two Front Office Football games in some online reviews, the first version I picked up was the EA Sports Front Office Football 2001. Despite some bugs, I felt the game was still great and was one of my most played games of all time. Despite this, I did not pick up a second version of the game until the most recent iteration of Front Office Football 2007. I've tried Pro Football Simulator a bit, and while it's decent, it just does not feel that immersive. I'm holding out hope that Jim (or Gary Gorski, or Arlie Rahn) come out with a new football game at some point in the future. After years of nothing, a pro game appears to be in the works from Arlie (and possibly Jim?).

College Basketball
My first introduction to college basketball text sims was Arlie Rahn's Coaching a Dynasty, without a doubt one of my favorite and most played text sims of all time. Despite this, I skipped over Tournament Dreams, and somewhat regret it. I'm sad that Arlie Rahn stopped making games for a significant period and I'm excited that he appears to be moving along on a project (albeit slowly). I did however make the transition over to Total College Basketball, another great game, and my first introduction to Gary Gorski, which eventually led me to pick up Draft Day Sports College Basketball upon it's release. I'll probably take the plunge on version 2 at some point in the future.

As an aside, while I've heard many great things about Fast Break College Basketball, I've never taken the chance on it but one day may.

Hockey

The only real hockey option that I know of, and it's a great one, is Eastside Hockey Manager. I loved the original freeware version of the game. When they first made the jump to SI, I didn't pick up the first commercial version, but did pick up EHM 2005 and enjoyed it quite a bit. Alas, that was my last version of the game, never having picked up 2007. If it drops to 9.95 or something one day, I just may.

College Football

I missed out on FOF: The College Years but did end up picking up Bowl Bound College Football a decent time after it's release. While I enjoy it, the game definitely feels dated.

Golf

Thanks to the reputation that Gary Gorski had built in my books, and I believe very affordable pricing, I picked up both Total Pro Golf and Total Pro Golf 2 upon release. Both are good games and got some play but I wasn't convinced to take the upgrade to the fairly recently released third version.

Mixed Martial Arts

Being an MMA fan, and as mentioned, a fan of Adam Ryland's work, I picked up the first World of Mixed Martial Arts (WMMA). I really enjoyed the game, despite being somewhat hesitant at first of a fictional universe (as mentioned this also led to me eventually picking up the TEW series). While WMMA was good, WMMA 2 was excellent and addressed a lot of things lacking in the first version. While I don't think WMMA 3 made as big of a leap as the second version, because of the quality of the first two, I picked it up as well.

Soccer

Despite being the grand daddy of them all, I didn't take play a single version of CM/FM until Football Manager 2010. While I liked it, and the game world is amazing, I just don't love the sport of soccer enough to pick it up year after year and commit the time to playing it. I did pick up Football Manager Handheld 2012 and arguably like this more than the original FM, thanks to having less to actually do at times, allowing me to focus on team management and building the roster. Unfortunately I only have an iPod and the experience would likely be vastly improved with an iPad.

Pro Basketball

While I thoroughly enjoyed Coaching a Dynasty, Total College Basketball and Draft Day Sports College Basketball, I'm not as much of a fan of the pro game. I did end up picking up the second version, Draft Day Sports Pro Basketball 2, when it came out, but the salary bugs (since fixed?) really hurt the overall enjoyment for me, and I've yet to come back to the newest third version, probably because my overall interest in the sport isn't that high.

Baseball

Baseball is funny, because as a youth I really enjoyed the Strat-o-Matic board game and feel that baseball probably best presents itself to that medium in comparison to any other sport. One thing that always scares me away though is the lengthy seasons. I finally picked up iOOTP 12 and have enjoyed. It's probably 50-50 whether I would take a shot on a computer version and has more to do with finding the time to play it as opposed to the quality of the game itself.




That's it for me, a lot of time well wasted and I suppose I owe a particularly thanks to Jim, Gary, Arlie and Adam (as well as Risto, Marcus and SI) for the number of hours of enjoyment I've gotten out of their products. It appears the glory days of text sims (.400 Software Studios?) may have passed by but things it appears things may be in the works for both Arlie and Jim while I'm hoping that Gary steps out of his basketball/golf comfort zone to put his great spin on something else.

Originally, this was going to be a short post, but that was difficult in covering off over a decade of text sim games. What are your fondest memories?

[Vince, Pt. II]

I started back in the '80s with my dad, playing Paydirt! and Superstar Baseball tabletop style. We never did any career or season replay type things, and it's probably a good thing because I'd have been hooked early. That parlayed into replaying season after season of NFL action on Tecmo Super Bowl for the NES, trying to get my guys the best numbers possible. Then trying to take the worst teams possible as far as I could. Good times.

I truly got started on text sims with The College Years. I don't even have any idea how I found TCY - but I'm pretty sure I was up until 5 AM the first night I played it. From TCY I then found OOTP, and the CFBL was my first taste of online multiplayer management leagues. I actually never played FOF until I was invited to join the IHOF. I've played a little bit of PureSim and Baseball Mogul, fiddled around a bit with Coaching a Dynasty and I'm pretty sure I picked up Eastside Hockey Manager at one point, but never really logged too many minutes. I've actually bought three different versions of Championship Manager / Football Manager, but have not been able to immerse myself even though I enjoy soccer.

[EagleFan]

Is there any way to fudge your text sim history?

[EagleFan]

Pro Football
FOF2 forward. That has been my primary football text sim. I would say the FPS series as well, though it wasn't a text sim it still pulled me in like a text sim. Even all the way back to the original game, before Pro was added to the title. Back when it took a couple hours to sim each week's games. That was a random find at the store that became an obsession.

Baseball
Pretty much dominated by OOTP, though I did go a few years before getting back into it recently. I would also add the FPS Basbell game into that list as well for the same reasons as the football game. I don't think any baseball game will measure up to BBPro 96 in my heart. Hell, I still remember trading for Jim Thome at one point and seeing him go on to hit over 300 homeruns.

Pro Basketball
Never really got into any but DDSPB 2 would probably be the closet that I have to one that I have, or would, play.

College Basketball
Have tried DDSCB and it is fun but it seems that I liked FBCB much better but I don't know why.

MMA
WMMA, WMMA 2 and WMMA3. They are my drug of choice where MMA is concerned (for text sims).

College Football
TCY, the one and only. Can't wait for TCY 2's release on 12/22/12.... oh, crap...

Soccer
Many of the recent FM games. Great game but I don't always feel like I have the time time to play and that usually keeps my games from getting too deep.

Hockey
Tried ECM but never got really into it for some reason. Have also tried the Faceoff series but that has always sucked. Enoyed playing HLS2 back in the day in a game between myself and a friend but that game was always extremely tilted if you advanced from season to season as the human owned teams would become elite while the non himan controlled teams would turn into peewee teams and soon you would win every game by 10 goals and it would always end with me versus him for the Stanley Cup with each of us having about 5 or 6 players with 100+ points in the season.



I'll add as I remember more. I know I am missing a lot.

[IlliniCub]

It all started with championship manager 97/98 and the first baseball mogul......from then it was history

[HeavyReign]

My first text sim was this game:

Download The Soccer Game - My Abandonware



I found it while downloading games on a free trial of some online service in early 1993. From there I moved onto Soccer Wizard in my first year of college in 1996. While in college I mainly downloaded demos off of Download.com which allowed me to find Baseball Mogul and FOF. I also played CM 97/98 a ton.

[PilotMan]

I think this qualifies as my first text sim.

[Izulde]

What was that one game for the Apple where you played as the Detroit Lions against the Chicago Bears? That was the only matchup you could play.

[IlliniCub]

Also fast break basketball wormed its way in there.....back in the day when the copy protection was a name......sadly that was a long tme ago I dont have the name or copy protections and have to wait til the new Fast break which will be phenomenal I'm sure!

[Suicane75]

Very first computer game I ever bought was IBM Football and while I'd play some seasons as one team, my main joy with that game was just simming past seasons and building alternate NFL histories. I'd spend weeks just simming and writing records and scores in notepad.

From then it was Front Page Sports Baseball, even though every 2 or 3 seasons the draft classes regenerated, that killed that game for me.

I think Baseball Mogul was next and I had a ton of fun with that.

FOF was next and was and is pretty much still the holy grail of sims for me. Especially the 2004 version where I had a couple of nearly 100 year dynasties.

Strangely enough, in the almost decade since then, I've not been moved by any other text sim even though I've tried a bunch (the basketball games, Rylands games, OOTP).

[Flasch186]

MicroLeague Baseball when they added they added the stat compiler.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

I think this qualifies as my first text sim.

My buddy and I played this shit all the time.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by IlliniCub

It all started with championship manager 97/98 and the first baseball mogul......from then it was history

Baseball Mogul made me wonder, "So wait....is there a football sim like this?"

[PilotMan]

Actually, my very first text sim was this:

So my Mom and I were going to Yellowstone to go on a camping trip and she had gotten me the pencils that had the names of all of the football teams on them. I had a notebook and created a league.

I'd play entire seasons, keep track of playoffs and and records, and champions. Games were decided based on the flip of a coin. That kept me entertained for hours of that trip.

That is some old school shit right there!

[Bisbo]

I was a huge fan of XOR Basketball and XOR Football. Both were great games, with the players represented by X' and Os, but the basketball game, in particular, really conveyed what it felt like to be on the sideline.

[rowech]

XOR football, One-Nil, Baseball Mogul, to Front Office Football

One-Nil is the one that did it though. I can't imagine how many hours I poured into that game.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Actually, my very first text sim was this:

So my Mom and I were going to Yellowstone to go on a camping trip and she had gotten me the pencils that had the names of all of the football teams on them. I had a notebook and created a league.

I'd play entire seasons, keep track of playoffs and and records, and champions. Games were decided based on the flip of a coin. That kept me entertained for hours of that trip.

That is some old school shit right there!

haha....I did that too.

[Izulde]

I used dice as part of a game with my NBAHoops cards back in the day. Even had a mechanism for determining trades.

[Sweed]

First text game was Zork on the C64.

Text sims...

Lance Haffner Full Count(?) Baseball

Loved this game and was a huge upgrade over playing Strat O Matic. Also bought the add-on Standings and League Leaders disk and was in baseball heaven.

Still remember the first game I ever played with my '91 Cubs. Maddox threw a 1-0 complete game. 9th inning he had the bases loaded with nobody out and got a triple play groundball to third! Played every season disk from '91-'98 and don't think I ever saw another triple play in a game I played out.

Lance Haffner 3 in 1 Football

Played out a tournament of all Super Bowl winners and sent the results into to Lance to put into the Lance Haffner news letter (can't remember what it was called).

LH College Basketball

Pretty fun game. Played it in the era of Shaq at LSU and my Iowa Hawks were sporting PF Chris Street who was destined to be a high NBA draft pick IRL before tragically being killed in a car wreck pulling out in front of a snowplow after a team get together.

OOTP 4

Found out about OOTP on baseballsimcentral's High Heat forum. I've bought every version since and it is still my favorite and most played game.

FOF first bought in 2005 and then picked up the latest version when it was released.

Tournament Dreams College Basketball

Total Pro Football.. never got into it

FBCB.. Great game

FM since 2006

[korme]

There was a football game I was playing when I was 10 or 11 in 96-97 that I cannot remember for the life of me what it was called, that pretty much got me started.

[Big Fo]

I started with Baseball Mogul when I was in high school, I'd found a demo somewhere online and loved it, then bought the game. Anyone else remember the Dead Ball Era bug where after 20-30 years all the batting averages would plummet? I played a few more versions of this before switching to OOTP around a decade ago, and I still get OOTP every year.

Next was Championship Manager 96/97 which I kind of stumbled upon. My best friend in high school had an exchange student from Thailand live with him for one year, he had all these CD-Rs with lots of pirated PC games on them that he said he'd bought for $1 each on some street market back home. I borrowed one of them and it had this game on it, I quickly became addicted and it also got me more interested in club soccer, where before I had mostly just watched the World Cup or when the USA played. When CM3 came out I imported it and I've probably put in well over a hundred hours a year with that and every version since.

Like with Baseball Mogul, I can't remember how I found out about Front Office Football. After enjoying the demo I bought the full game, and I liked it enough that I got one of the sequels but not all the games in the time Solecismic Software partnered with EA Sports. Later on I got FOF 2004 and FOF 2007, good games but I don't play them anymore. The gameplanning is just way too many numbers to input so I let the AI do everything but draft and sign/cut players. Even with the free roster updates it just feels a bit played out these days. I'd love a new one with simplified gameplanning and a better system for hiring coaches, scouts, coordinators, etc.

Those are the four franchises I played for years and bought multiple versions of. I think the only other sports management sim I bought was Draft Day Sports Pro Basketball 2. It's a good game and I enjoyed it but although I like the NBA and basketball, it's behind soccer, baseball, and football (in order) so I am more likely to play the games from sports I like more. I still might get DDSPB3 at some point.

[LloydLungs]

Originally Posted by Sweed

Lance Haffner Full Count(?) Baseball

Loved this game and was a huge upgrade over playing Strat O Matic. Also bought the add-on Standings and League Leaders disk and was in baseball heaven.

Yeah!!! Man, the things we take for granted today. I remember the Standings and League Leaders add-on and how awesome it seemed to me at the time.

Lance Haffner Games were DOMINANT in my text sim life for roughly a decade. I played baseball and college basketball the most, even creating a rudimentary recruiting system for CBB where I would add new players and "graduate" old ones via dice tosses, slips of paper, etc. All the other teams would stay static but I'd have a "career" type game with my team.

Then Baseball Mogul introduced the actual career sim to me and ol' Lance was gradually put aside. They sure kept me active using DOS a lot longer than I otherwise would have, though.

[molson]

I started with some baseball game on the Apple IIgs in the late 80s I guess. There was no career mode or accumulation of stats, of course, but you could play with a variety of great teams from the past - I played as the 1975 Red Sox against the 1975 Reds, and the 1927 Yankees quite a bit and got to know that '75 team even though it was before my time.

Baseball Mogul in the 90s was the big jump in. I still remember being a counselor at summer camp in the 90s on a hike, and thinking about how I would set my Baseball Mogul lineup when the new game came out. I also remember a guy on my Red Sox team named Dick Cleaver. He manned 1B and the number 3 spot in the lineup for 20 years and broke a ton of records.

I searched for "football games like Baseball Mogul" at some point and found the original FOF, I probably still have that around somewhere. I have bought every version, but never played more than a week or two of TCY2, that just didn't click.

TEW07 I've probably played the most of any text sim ever between 2007 and 2011 or so. I'll get the new one and hopefully I'll be into that long-term.

OOTP 12 I play a fair amount now, because I've made the effort not to overwhelm myself with the vastness of the game. I play manager only and started with the Red Sox rookie league team. I've gotten a couple of promotions and I'm higher up in the system now - it's kind of fun that a lot of the players have been rising through the ranks with me along the way. I pay almost no attention to anything going on in that game's MLB universe, I just play out a game once in a while, making all the lineup and pitching decisions, but zero of the roster decisions.

Otherwise, I've bought and tried a lot of the other text sim games but I never ended up getting very far, so my text sim purchases have dropped dramatically the last few years. I think I had one decent multi-year career with one of the FBCBs, but other than that - Touranment Dreams, the pro basketball sims, the hockey one, later FOF versions, early OOTP versions - probably never finished a full season in any of them, they just don't keep my interest.

Going forward, I think it'll be the manager-only OOTP dynasty every so often, the new TEW after a few patches, and maybe I'll try the newest MMA game just because I've gotten into MMA recently. I can't see myself trying to learn Championship Manager, or getting into any new sports sim anymore, that ship had sailed.

[General Mike]

I'm not even sure where it started for me.
Baseball
It started with OOTP3, bought every version up until the first SI version, then I think I lost interest because it became to complex for my addled brain. Bought another version a few years ago (OOTP11), and have tried my hand with Puresim, but couldn't really get into it either.

Football

Bought EAFOF2001 a few days after I bought OOTP3. Bought TCY a year later. Bought Jim's 2 most recent FOFs as well. I know I bought Bowl Bound CF at some point and Arlie's pro game too, but can't remember.

Hockey
The free version of EHM was probably my first true text sim game. Got many an hour after that. Bought both SI versions of EHM as well.

Basketball
Bought Coaching a dynasty around the time the .400 studios venture was announced. Bought Tournament Dreams that year with hopes and bought Season Ticket Basketball in 2003. Bought at least one version of Gary's pro and college games as well and I think a newer version of FBCB

[/u]Wrestling[/u]
Played most of Ryland's wrestling sims going back to Extreme Warfare 9000. Never played WreSpi or world of MMA games tho.

[xjayex]

My very first was text sim was one of the EA Front Office Footballs. Then I got into OOTP around that same time when it was Baseball season. Also, I got Baseball Mogul that same year. A few years passed and I got Baseball Mogul again. Afew years passed and I got FoF 2007. Then the last few years I've tried Football Moguls...eh. Have Baseball Mogul 2012.

I also picked up ESHM 2007 for hockey last year.

I am looking forward to Franchise Hockey Manager that's going to be released soon. Also, would love a basketball sim with historical ability.

Im on the fence about getting Pro Football Sim. Looks decent. Something I can quick sim long term.

[BYU 14]

Pro Football
Lance Hafner's 3-1 Football was my first, he put out quality stuff in the 80's and I played his games for years starting on an old Apple II C. Have aslo played FPS 97 (I know graphics, but still a sim) then moved to FOF Football, playing every version.

Baseball
Started with Lance Haffner Full Count Baseball and Microleague. Haffner's game was awesome for its time with all the teams you got and pretty accurate. Have owned every version of OOTP and Puresim and play both, OOTP for the overall depth and PS for the in game immersion.

Pro Basketball
Lance Hafner's Fullcourt Basketball, moving to DDSPB 1 and 2

College Basketball
DDSCB is the first, have also played FBCB, both good games for different reasons.

MMA
WMMA, WMMA 2 and WMMA3, all of Rylands games are solid and give me my monies worth.

College Football
As indicated under pro, Lance Hafners 3 in 1 Football game, then TCY and finally BBCF. Loved matching teams from different eras in Haffner's game and for staying power TCY.....Please Jim make TCY 2!!!!

Soccer
Sick as a Parrot was the first, since then most of the Championship / Football manager games....FM is the crown jewell of sports sims.

Hockey
EHM 97 has been it, looking forward to OOTP's Hockey game.

Boxing
Every incarnation of Title Bout, again going back to the first verion on the Apple II C, which Lance Haffner also produced coincidentally.

[Julio Riddols]

Football - The original FOF hooked me immediately. I had spent the previous several years searching almost daily online for a game exactly like it, and suddenly found my white whale. Prior to that, I lived my football dreams via the following:

I had construction paper, scissors, a bengals blanket that was the precise dimensions of a tiny football field, and plenty of imagination. First there were Yellow, Blue and Red in the "primary" division, then Green Orange and Purple in the "secondary" division. Eventually, expansion hit the league, and we added Light Blue, Pink, Grey, White and Brown to the league, followed by short stints for Black and Sea Green teams. (Supply was limited for Sea Green, Black was weird because I had to draw their names and numbers and uniform on them with white pencil while all the other teams were done in black ink.)

I had a history going and everything, and the league lasted from about age 8 to when I discovered FOF. Trades would be done by redrawing and re-cutting the traded players in their new colors, then their symmetry and overall cut out quality would determine their talent being boosted or hindered by the trade. Drafts were handled much the same. At the end of each season, I would put each player into a box fan set on high until they flew out the other side. This would determine injuries and aging, as players would come out with anything from minor tears to full limb loss. Lost limbs would be taped back on, but the tape served as a reminder of the injury sustained and would thus impact performance and career length. We played 20 game seasons, and the offenses in the league were mostly built around the run (good backs would rush for 2500 yards and average around 7.5 yards a carry) until Pink brought out a revolutionary passing game to become a surprise playoff team in their first year as a franchise. Players played Ironman too, with only a few subs available to bring off the bench, usually one or two per position.

So yeah, I think I needed FOF in a way.

For baseball, it was Micro League and Tony LaRussa Ultimate Baseball. Drafting a team in LaRussa was something my friends and I did often. I don't really play any baseball sims right now though.

For basketball, I originally played Fast Break, but then Coaching a Dynasty got me. I now play FBCB. This March, it will likely be getting heavy work from me.

Horse Racing: I love me some Gallop Racer, even though it's not necessarily a text sim.

Boxing: I haven't found a replacement for the old World Championship Boxing Manager yet, and sadly I never owned it, just played through the demo a million times. Not the Amiga one, this one:

[PilotMan]

Damn Julio, I had the game, but I've lost my activation code for it. I had a really good dynasty about that one years ago. It had tons going on under the hood, you really had to think to see it, but it was fun once you caught on.

[MizzouRah]

Lance Haffner Basketball for the Commodore 64. I even wrote a playoff bracket system in basic for it.

After that, I've purchased just about every text sim out there.

[Senator]

[HeavyReign]

I forgot to add in that I also played Andy Dolphin's games a bunch starting in 1996. I played both the home versions and then a ton of online leagues. Andy was at UW the same time I was but I never got around to meeting him.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

Loved Andy Dolphin's sports games as well.

[StLee]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

Football - The original FOF hooked me immediately. I had spent the previous several years searching almost daily online for a game exactly like it, and suddenly found my white whale. Prior to that, I lived my football dreams via the following:

I had construction paper, scissors, a bengals blanket that was the precise dimensions of a tiny football field, and plenty of imagination. First there were Yellow, Blue and Red in the "primary" division, then Green Orange and Purple in the "secondary" division. Eventually, expansion hit the league, and we added Light Blue, Pink, Grey, White and Brown to the league, followed by short stints for Black and Sea Green teams. (Supply was limited for Sea Green, Black was weird because I had to draw their names and numbers and uniform on them with white pencil while all the other teams were done in black ink.)

I had a history going and everything, and the league lasted from about age 8 to when I discovered FOF. Trades would be done by redrawing and re-cutting the traded players in their new colors, then their symmetry and overall cut out quality would determine their talent being boosted or hindered by the trade. Drafts were handled much the same. At the end of each season, I would put each player into a box fan set on high until they flew out the other side. This would determine injuries and aging, as players would come out with anything from minor tears to full limb loss. Lost limbs would be taped back on, but the tape served as a reminder of the injury sustained and would thus impact performance and career length. We played 20 game seasons, and the offenses in the league were mostly built around the run (good backs would rush for 2500 yards and average around 7.5 yards a carry) until Pink brought out a revolutionary passing game to become a surprise playoff team in their first year as a franchise. Players played Ironman too, with only a few subs available to bring off the bench, usually one or two per position.

So yeah, I think I needed FOF in a way.

You had a lot more intricate system than I had, but I like your system a lot! I only had two methods for props when it came to my paper and pencil leagues: one was using a plastic football or nerf hoop to simulate the games and then write the final result. The other time was making a basketball league of approximately 100 teams where I mixed and matched my football, baseball, and basketball cards to form teams. I would set out the cards side by side for matchups and then write down top stats for each game. It was the most stats keeping I ever did for one of my paper and pencil leagues.

For my actual text sims history, I was a little late to the game, but I did find some of my original games through searching. I remember when I was in grad school casually looking through games at some point at a store and saw a box for Season Ticket Baseball (or something like that). Money was tight at the time, but I had to try that game, so I bought it. Then I spent hours upon hours procrastinating by playing Season Ticket Baseball instead of reading and writing papers I needed to get done. Around that time, I also ordered TCY, and I still play my CD copy of the game.

Later I bought other sims like FOF, OOTP (I think my first version was 7), DDS:CB and PB, whatever the .400 football game was called, and a couple others out there.

Of all, ootp is by far mt favorite because of all the customization possible. I am ready for a true sandbox football equivalent.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by Sweed

LH College Basketball

Pretty fun game. Played it in the era of Shaq at LSU and my Iowa Hawks were sporting PF Chris Street who was destined to be a high NBA draft pick IRL before tragically being killed in a car wreck pulling out in front of a snowplow after a team get together.

Lance Haffner's Courtside College Basketball was a thing of beauty. The most engrossing basketball game I've ever played.

There are a handful of text sim Hall of Famers in the pre-FOF/OOTP/CM era. The original Micro League Baseball is still responsible for all of my misspent time on text sims over the years. Without that game, I'm not playing FOF or OOTP today. APBA Baseball for Windows was incredibly deep, but it didn't hook me as much as Micro League did.

LH CCB was his best game. The football and baseball games were good too, but the college basketball game hooked you in a big time way.

Avalon Hill's Super Sunday was probably my favorite until the first FPS game arrived. Not a lot of depth, but engaging.

The first Tony LaRussa baseball was less than realistic but it's multiplayer and team-building aspects were fantastic. I still remember in college my buddies and I would stay up all night drafting teams and running seasons against each other over and over again.

I know there are some I'm forgetting. Actually, my first experience with text sims would be only Apple II/Basic games where you could buy the code books, type in the code and play the game. There was a boxing and a horseracing game I really enjoyed, I remember tweaking the code and the algorithms to create more realistic results.

[PilotMan]

So I was thinking about my own history, and back in college my buddy and I played the hell out of a college basketball game pimped on SI called HOOPS. I still have the 3.5 disks for it. So I went looking and apparently there is a newer version of it called Stellar College Basketball, and it's free.

So for those of you looking for a free, historical college basketball game with some one off game capability look here:

Stellar College Basketball Computer Game

[Groundhog]

My first one was technicall some NCAA Basketball title for PC where you could actually play out the games, but I more often than not just simualted the tournament bracket with made up players. After that, there was a basketball sim bulletin board game I used to play a lot too, but no one had the registered version so I could never progress beyond year 1.

[IlliniCub]

Wow completely forgot about the Dolphin games .....does he still make games today

[PilotMan]

Alright, so I figure I should try and pin this down somehow.

Football: I started with Armchair QB, then I played some of Strat's Computer Football game. From there I went to Lance Haffner 3 in 1, and some FPS, and eventually Football Mogul. I didn't find FOF until EA Sports 2002 version, but since I have purchased 2004, and 2007.

Baseball: I was a longtime Strat player and got the Apple version to play on my friends computer. That was the first. I played Strat for years until until I got a hold of Season Ticket Baseball, which immediately became the best game of all time. I think that was OOTP 4, and since I have been a big OOTP fan boy. I've tried PureSim and Baseball Mogul, but nothing has really stuck with it. It's all OOTP for me.

Hockey: If anyone has EHM 2007 and wants to part with it, I'd be willing to make a deal. It's really the only game I have an interest in. Played a lot of Strat on this as well.

Basketball: Season Ticket Basketball (FBBB) has gotten the most play, but I also have Gary's DDSPBB. Again, I want to play more just haven't given it a lot of attention.

College Basketball: See HOOPS above. That got loads of playing time back in the day. Now the game that sees the most is Gary's DDSCBB.

College Football: Started with Lance Haffner's version. I remember when they would send you a bonus disk as a Merry Christmas disk with all the bowl teams. After that it was The College Years and nothing else.

Boxing: Alright, I started back in the day with Avalon Hill's Title Bout, which was a marvel of its time. I moved into ABC's Wide World of Boxing which had some graphics and fighter building capabilities. From there, when I was in my Lance Haffner days, I found TKO, which I would figure out quite quickly was Title Bout for PC. That was pure joy. I've purchased every version of TBCB since, and still await the day they have a manager platform. In between I found World Championship Boxing Manager, where I had a pretty lengthy dynasty on here before the game folded, and went away.

Pro Wrestling: I've played the old EWR and TEW 2007. I anxiously await the new 2013 version.

MMA: Also continuing with my support of Adam, and my love of MMA, I've played way more hours of WMMA 1, 2 and 3 than any other game of the last 5 years.

Soccer: About the time I found FOF, I found Mac Howard's SAAP. I played SAAP and was a lifetime supporter of SAAP although once I really got a hold of CM 3 that was that. I've been a huge supporter of SI, and love FM and typically get it in alternating years.

[Easy Mac]

Mine was a Hollywood simulation that was for DOS. It was in an old 5.25" floppy. I used to play that game for hours in my day's office. I have no idea what game it was. It was definitely before Hollywood Mogul. You could choose the star and supporting roles, genre and budget.

I then somehow found Major League Soccer Manager on the Internet. I still can at that game for an hour just to kill time. Continued that into its sequel WoSoMan.

From there I found the championship manager games. I really got hooked on those with 97/98.

Then it was pretty much any soccer manager I could find (footy fanatic was a great DOS) game. Could never get into Sick As A Parrot.

From the CM boards I found out about TCY.

From there I played I think FOF 2001, which I think was complete shit.

I've had dalliances with the various baseball sims.

Played the heck out of Fastbreak and its college iteration. I remember playing and not liking Jump Shot Basketball.

Ives tried non traditional sports sims like cricket and Aussie Rules, but I just can't get into the game if I don't know the sport (see also the eastside hockey sims)

Now that I think about it, I remember playing some wrestling sim in high school where you set the bookings.

And like everyone else, I played numerous seasons in Tecmo Super Bowl and Baseball Simulator 1.000 on the NES. I think that's where my love affair with the simulation of sports began.

Also, there was some play calling game on the Apple IIc (I think) when I was 10. I think it was related to the XOR football.

[cadmus2166]

My first text sim was Lance Hafner's Courtside College Basketball. I played it for years, a very good game. For basketball now, I play Fast Break College Basketball 2010. A great game that never seems to get old.

For baseball, I play both Baseball Mogul and OOTP. OOTP is definitely a much more complete game for single player enjoyment, but for leagues, I prefer Baseball Mogul.

Finally, the only football text sim I have ever played, is Football Mogul, which I can't really recommend. It seems very incomplete compared to Baseball Mogul, and after tinkering around with it for a little while, I haven't really been compelled to play it since.

[Mota]

It's funny how the PC gaming business is making a huge comeback these days, and a lot of the text guys are saying that PC gaming is dying. If you look back at a lot of these companies that we used to support, I'm sure they said the same thing as well on the way out. If you make a game that people want and find a way to reach these people, you can still be successful.

I think the first text sim game i played was on the Commodore 64, called Pure Stat Baseball. I entered all my grade school friends (which I was also at the time) into the game and kept track of all their stats and edited the revised versions after each game. The only stat tracking back then was done manually.

Earl Weaver Baseball was my next love and while not a text sim, it did pretty much the same function. I've played nearly all of the games that have already been listed, I'd say Earl Weaver Baseball got the most time from me, followed by Out of the Park Baseball. I created myself and my friends into Earl Weaver and played about 10 seasons of baseball with them. A few of those seasons I played every single MLB game with the help of a few friends (we'd keep games going through the night, I remember waking up and switching games). Then we'd pass the disc on to the next friend and take a bit of a break. I also played a TON of Wayne Gretzky Hockey (Hockey League Simulator add-on). I modelled my entire Midget hockey league in the game and played a full season. I may have inflated my own abilities.

I started with Championship Manager right from the start, maybe 1991 or 1992? Back when you had to order them from overseas and it cost a TON. Then there was Front Page Sports Football which was just amazing.

In the end it's not really the TEXT in text sim that we love, it's the stats and the connection we feel to teams that we build. It's enhanced by stuff like the player images in OOTP, or the way player personalities are modelled into Football Manager.

[Abe Sargent]

Mine's very simple. I played Madden every year and just loved the campaign an dynasty building. Then on EA Sports website I saw FOF2k1 and it said i was just about dynasty building - just playing a GM. I picked it up and was hooked.


From there I moved to TCY, CM/FM, BBCF, and many other sports sims.

Eventually I moved to a few other text sims like the Greatest Cape, Kodos, and such.


Finally, I am not a text sim addict, with FM my favorite game/series of all time.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Mota

In the end it's not really the TEXT in text sim that we love, it's the stats and the connection we feel to teams that we build. It's enhanced by stuff like the player images in OOTP, or the way player personalities are modelled into Football Manager.

Have you read "The Universal Baseball League Inc., Henry J Waugh Prop." at all?

I read it this summer through an Inter-library loan, and was the first person to check it out like like 15 years, lol.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Have you read "The Universal Baseball League Inc., Henry J Waugh Prop." at all?

I read it this summer through an Inter-library loan, and was the first person to check it out like like 15 years, lol.

That book is a classic...

[Mota]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Have you read "The Universal Baseball League Inc., Henry J Waugh Prop." at all?

I read it this summer through an Inter-library loan, and was the first person to check it out like like 15 years, lol.

Nice, just googled it and it sounds quite fascinating. I'll definitely buy it and give it a read sometime.

[Izulde]

I started reading it a few years ago but didn't get a chance to finish it. In any case, it's an excellent read.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Speaking of great games, anyone know if SAAP is still being sold somewhere? I tried but its telling me "page not found"..

[Fonzie]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

MicroLeague Baseball when they added they added the stat compiler.

Same here, but I probably started a little before the compiler came out. Circa 1985 or so.

I fondly remember the bleary, bloodshot eyes that came from hours of exposure to my Apple IIc's possibly radioactive green screen. Mountain Dew and Skittles. And, as I recall, a fair number of pimples. Ah yes, those were the days.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

MicroLeague Baseball when they added they added the stat compiler.

My undoing was the GM disk where you could create, edit and save teams. I used the baseball encyclopedia to create hundreds of teams.

My all-time favorite moment was creating a tournament with most of my teams, a 256-team double elimination tourney. To be fair to all eras, I had each team use a 3-man pitching staff. The finals came down to the '62 Dodgers over the '27 Yankees. Koufax threw a no-hitter in the tournament, and their pitching was just unstoppable.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Actually, my very first text sim was this:

So my Mom and I were going to Yellowstone to go on a camping trip and she had gotten me the pencils that had the names of all of the football teams on them. I had a notebook and created a league.

I'd play entire seasons, keep track of playoffs and and records, and champions. Games were decided based on the flip of a coin. That kept me entertained for hours of that trip.

That is some old school shit right there!

I fondly remembered those pencils. And my start was kind of similar.

I would throw a baseball against our garage door. It was broken up into different segments, so depending on where it hit would determine if the ball as a strike, ball, base hit, home run, etc. I would go through and set up a little playoff brackets with all the different teams, and to get player names I would have to grab the names from boxscores in the paper (obviously, these were pre-Al Gore days). The amusing part was that you just got the first initial and a last name that was often shortened so I had to kind of just guess on the names. I'm pretty sure I never ever completed a tournament, but I was constantly doing this.

first PC game was Microleague baseball for the IIC. Outside of the game I set up schedules, tracked stats, created random injuries (I think I might have written a BASIC program to do this), had a minor league system and even had a free agent system (using dice rolls).

then I bought High Heat, took over the Dodgers and, believe it or not, almost finished one complete season. My magic number was 1 with something like 8 games to go and I ended up losing every game and missing the playoffs. Epic, epic collapse. Never played HH again.

from HH (and, more importantly, the HH Clubhouse *waves at Rizno*) I found OOTP, probably around version 3. FOF (the EA version, I believe) was a similar time. That's been about it for me