How To Choose A Tabletop Baseball Sim

[@stephenj8590]

Dan, I find myself gravitating back toward the simplest forms of the tried-and-true chestnuts. I play Strat, APBA, and Replay in their most basic forms, which works great for me. Thirty years ago in my mid-20s, I wanted every bell and whistle. Into my 40s, I was also trying and buying a lot of games, especially through hanging out on Delphi TTS. Now I just want to play what I'm comfortable with and is quick and enjoyable. Takes me back to my childhood when life was simpler and I didn't have the distractions of responsibility and technology. We should all just play whatever and however we enjoy them. And as to SI Baseball, it is now available under Dombrov Baseball. It's the SI game with improvements. The pc game is one of the best gaming bargains out there, plus you can print out the team charts and play it on the table. I still own my 1978 brown box copy of SI Superstar Baseball that I played for hours with my dad , and the SI/Dombrov charts work seamlessly with it.

[@Milcom34]

Thanks BRJ. The Great Thing About Tabletop Baseball Games and the TTBB Community is Everyone has a Favorite and that's what Make Playing these Games Special. Each Game Takes the Player Back to a Magical Time and that's how the Love for a Certain Game Grows and Keeps you Loyal thur the Years. Plus it Helps to Narrow the Field down to a Few Certain Games. My three are Stratomatic, APBA and Pine Tar Baseball. Thanks again. Take Care and Roll On*****

[@ElrohirGuitar]

I'm 75. I've played APBA since 1965. I've played the computer version since that first came out. I've Played Strat-O-Matic a bit and have plated a great variety of games prior to 1965. For me, the APBA computer game has been my game. I enjoyed the APBA Master game when it came out, but the computer game makes playing and keeping stats so much easier. It also provides AI managers and GMs that are adequate. SOM is a very good game and I can see why some people prefer it. Earlier versions had considerable problems for me, but the current game has fixed most of those problems. I am biased, but APBA has a better story telling element than SOM. In addition to access to all the players in the 20th century, APBA cards have a simple format that allows me to readily evaluate players and allows me to create leagues like my HOF league, which is a 20 year continuous league in which each team has 5 HOF members while other players are added through the years based on WAR cost. If you find a game that suits you, be happy. Don't let a feature that one game has make you enjoy your game less. I do not enjoy MLB in its current form, so old time baseball keeps me happy.

[@youngjameskenny7169]

I agree

[@randomhuman19]

you are spot on about accuracy/realism with tabletops. Im old enough I started on C&D games as PC games didnt exist. This is my biggest knock on the pure C&D game comm/developers today....where is the data? Whatever C&D game you pick, and even using the spreadsheet helpers that will track stats, if you play one entire season, all games, for all teams (and who is doing that) then you still just have one season of data. I wish the devs of the games would provide something that shows why the game is accurate and will produce realistic and representative stats and results. I can do this with APC, Diamond Mind, OOTP, etc...get tons of data and review not just players, but all team and league averages compared to real life numbers. And when it comes to SOM and APBA, PC vs C&D compare, Ive given up, but Ive concluded you cant base the C&D results off of the PC versions. And as Ive said, after all my testing APC is the one that does the best overall job and why I only play PC games now and primarily APC for season replays.

[@klubers3074]

PC replay does well to validate their game engine. Forgive me for sounding dumb, but what is APC. Is that an apba pc version?

[@randomhuman19]

@@klubers3074 Action PC Baseball from Dave Koch Sports

[@robertaxel]

I enjoy Action, and have played a few seasons with it. They have great customer support and are a good value. Opinion of this game depends on how you feel about open or closed game engines - i.e. do you care about seeing how the results are derived. Action tells you the final result, but you don't see anything like player cards or numbers... to each, their own...

[@klubers3074]

Good topic. Thanks for posting and providing your thoughts.

[@michaelfinn2164]

Thanks for posting. As a kid I played the Sports Illustrated Game with the 1971 and 1972 seasons. It was easy to play and I liked the pitcher/hitter interaction not being a 50/50 proposition but it lacked individual fielding impact opting for a team based approach. Still a very good game. With the pandemic I started playing SOM the last 4 years and enjoy it in spite of the 50/50 nature of it which can lead to odd isolated results but over a long term produces realistic results. I purchased Inside Pitch from Inside Sports Games earlier this year but have not played it beyond a few test games. I like that the pitcher/hitter interaction takes into account the unique qualities of the players such as propensity for a bater to strike out (e.g. Tony Gwynn strikes out far too often in SOM because of the 50/50 approach). Just my $0.02

[@bartewing8099]

Ball Park is an amazing game. Not sold anymore except on secondary market = expensive. I went to college at KU where the game was invented by a professor. They also had a restaurant called Ball Park which was beautiful & bizarre but it was the late 70s so all things were possible. Of the new games I enjoy Payoff Pitches engine and Season Ticket which captures Strats essence but in a more intuitive way

[@cristianhill7379]

Hi. Thanks for the video. I've just started with Stratomatic, basic version, solitaire play. I'm enjoying it and at this stage am in no hurry to move up to the advanced version. Because frankly the complexity of the advanced and super advanced terrifies me! What I may attempt is to incorporate some advanced rules into the basic game. Now tell me is this appropriate or am I wimping out? I'm in Australia, always had an interest in America's game, especially the historical aspect of it. I'm playing the 1976 season, lots of familiar names, (I read a lot of US magazines when I was a teenager in the 70s). Cheers

[@EricBerinson]

Hi Christian! You’re not wimping out. I’d recommend slowly introducing SOM advanced rules, 1 at a time, into your replay. Start with the Advanced Hit and Run and Sacrifice bunt at bled, which’ lol just come up a couple times a game (on average). Once comfortable, move to the advanced stolen base rules, similar to Basic. If you like those start cherry picking other advanced rules you might feel enhance your replay, 1 at a time! Feel free to contact me for further approach detail if this interests you.

[@richardcanfield3125]

rate the computer baseball games.

[@somguy3872]

My rankings: 1. inside Pitch (though not a quick nor easy game). 2. Season Ticket Baseball. 3. Statis Pro Advanced. 4. Payoff Pitch 5. Stratomatic (zero 'interaction" between hitter and batter).

[@baseballreplayjournal]

Interesting given your username (SOMguy) - not what I expected, lol.

[@somguy3872]

@@baseballreplayjournal I branched out! I enjoy following you a lot though I have none of the games/sims you use!

[@b-Dog9]

Inside Pitch ✅ give it 40 - 50 games you probably won’t play anything else after that. ⚾️

[@joeingersoll6733]

@@b-Dog9 This is truth

[@EricBerinson]

N-HR on pitcher card = pitcher/hitter interaction?