Category Archives: APBA Golf

Renaissance?

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In addition to pulling the APBA games off the shelves, I also pulled the Strat-O-Matic games as well.

I was surprised to find that I have the 1994-95 NHL season set for Strat Hockey.

Arguably my favorite Sharks team, at least in the early years of the franchise.

I mean…

I may replay that Sharks season, in addition to the 1991-92 Sharks season (ordered earlier this week from APBA).

I ordered a new set of parts for Strat Hockey, in addition to the 1945-46 NHL season, in honor of

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I’m not sure why I’ve been going back to the roots of tabletop sports gaming, first with APBA Golf and Soccer, now with the hockey games.  I just seem to be wanting something more in my game play, as much as I enjoy playing similar, newer games of the same sports.

Oddly enough I have no desire to go back to APBA or Strat-O-Matic Baseball.

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I also don’t feel like going through the 1995-96 hockey teams and reversing trades to get accurate rosters, so if I end up playing that season, it will be with existing rosters.

I noticed the inaccurate opening rosters when I was about to play Blackhawks vs Sharks, and Sandis Ozoliņš was not on the Sharks roster, having ended the season with Colorado.

He scored the first goal for the Sharks that year.  I only remember that because he also scored the first goal for the San Francisco Spiders that season.

Anyways, I felt a little miffed that the rosters were wrong, so I went looking for a list of transactions for that season, and then decided that to heck with it, and will just play with the existing rosters.

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Another pair of games that I pulled off the shelf and put right back: APBA and Strat-O-Matic Football.

Never learned to play either.  Maybe when the football season rolls around I’ll pull one of them out, but Second Season and Inside Blitz are good enough for me for now, to scratch the football itch.  Which doesn’t come up too often, TBH.

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So is this a tabletop renaissance?  Maybe.

We’ll see how it goes.  I think I’ve played more tabletop sports games this year already than I had in the last 3 years.

Ready

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As I start to make time for playing sports games again, I feel that it’s time to go back to some games that I’ve ignored for some time, specifically APBA Golf and APBA Soccer.

I remember trying APBA Soccer out something like 8 years ago, and while I was able to get through a complete game, I found that I liked the quicker play of other soccer games like Soccer Blast and later Dice United.

Same thing happened with golf, to a lesser degree.  I was a bit intimidated by APBA Golf, especially after playing a similar game, ASG golf, which led me to History Maker Golf, another quicker game than the others.

Fast forward to now, with more than a few dozen soccer games and a couple of golf games rolled, and I finally feel ‘ready’ to tackle what I consider the ‘big boys’ of the respective games.

That’s not to take away from anything that I’ve played, the PLAAY games are still my favorites, for example, but I just feel ‘ready’ to take on something a bit more complex.

I also feel that I have a richer appreciation for soccer now than I did 8 years ago, having watched 4 more World Cup tournaments (men’s and women’s), Olympic soccer, and of course living and dying through Tottenham Hotspur in the EPL.

As for golf, I’m still as interested in it as I was before, which was not total indifference, but rather an appreciation for it as one of my Dad’s favorite pastimes long before he passed on.  I still don’t watch it on TV as much as I did when Mom and Dad were both more interested.

For golf, I’ll probably still play History Maker more than APBA or ASG, simply because of the larger number of players and courses I have for HMG compared to the others.  I don’t intend to start a full season of golf, either.

Soccer, on the other hand, has me thinking that I can start Yet Another Season Replay™, so with APBA Soccer I’m going to replay Tottenham’s 2015-16 campaign, a season I don’t own in any other soccer game that I play.  This was the year Harry Kane first scored with the top team, and saw Spurs finish third behind Leicester City and Arsenal in the final standings.

Tottenham 5 - Sunderland 1: Black Cats stay bottom as Kane bags in league debut for Spurs | Football | Sport | Express.co.uk

All the reaction to Leicester City's title win - Eurosport

We’ll see if I can change history in my replay.

Stay tuned!

Golf

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I’m either of or past the age when I should have taken up golf.  I suppose I still can, Dad had plenty of sets of clubs sitting around here.

In lieu of that I of course play on my tabletop, and lately the bug has bitten me, though I have yet to actually set up and play a game.

It started with PLAAY Games’ Binge Week Golf event in late April, where I picked up the new History Maker Golf play mat and Course Collection 20, along with Course Collection 19 and 2010s Golf Stars set.  CC20 contains 72 cards which allow you to create your own golf courses.  I finally did that last night, and have yet to play a round on my custom course, tentatively named TPC Delta Tioga Links.

The bug bit harder when I started looking up golf game videos and came across Dave Gardner’s unboxing video for APBA Golf, which I’ve had sitting on my unplayed shelf for about 8(!) years.  I dug it out and looked at it, and may give it a play through after reviewing a couple more of Dave’s videos.

The reason it sat around unplayed?  History Maker Golf and ASG Golf.  Both of which I’ve played a few times over those 8 years.  I played HMG more because it was a much simpler game to play, as much as I liked ASG.

One of the videos Dave posted was of these ball markers for ASG/APBA Golf, which he ordered from Shapeways.

I immediately thought, ‘3D printed?  Surely they’re available to print at home!’

And I found them.

$4 for the file instead of $9 + shipping.

These mark where your ball lands on the course.

APBA Golf:

ASG Golf

I’d been using ‘sign here’ flags in the past.

I also found myself on ASG’s website, and ended up ordering TPC Harding Park and the Men’s 1970s golfers set.

Now I just need to find the time to play the often postponed John Price Invitational, as soon as I get a foursome of golfers from him.

Stay tuned!

The Greatest Game Ever Played

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Dad was watching this movie when I got home tonight.

I checked History Maker Golf’s All-Time Great set, and neither golfer is in it.  Someone else did make a home brew card of Harry Vardon, though.  The golf course from the story is not available in any of the course sets.

The APBA Golf game came with both golfers in the ATG sets.  The included course is not the site of the 1913 US Open, however.

I suppose once I figure out how to make golfers and golf courses for History Maker Golf, I can recreate Francis Oumet and the Country Club golf course in Brookline, Massachusetts.  Unless someone beats me to it.

Stay tuned!