Category Archives: PLAAY Games

APBA Soccer

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“Captain’s log, Star date 1312.4. The impossible has happened.”

I’ve found a game that, to me, replicates what I see on TV in a soccer match as much as most tabletop baseball games do for me.

I do still like playing Dice United and Soccer Blast, it’s just that to me APBA Soccer simulates the build up that usually results in a goal more accurately than the other two do.

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The other games do one thing better, and that’s give you the amount of stoppage time to add at the end of a half.

With APBA, they have maybe a couple of instances listed on the ‘special play’ chart for injury, but that may not even come into play.

Checking the APBA Delphi Forums, there’s no definite answer either, though there are some suggestions that I may consider adapting.

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The fact that I can play a game of this level in a little under 2 hours, even with distractions, is surprising to me.

It takes almost twice as long with or without distractions to play a non-quick play game of American football or basketball or hockey, though like most PLAAY games I can get a game of Hockey Blast finished in maybe an hour.

Golf is it’s own thing and can take as long as it needs to on any given course.

Same with racing, depending on the type of track I’m running on.

Perhaps I should revisit some of the APBA and Strat-O-Matic football and hockey games to see if the time to play has changed for me.

1-2 hours for a sports game seems to be the sweet spot for me nowadays.  It allows me to set up in the morning or when I get home from work, and play before I go to bed, with time to compile a post game report that I can post here.

NASCAR 75: Race 1

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This used to be the open race for the Winston Cup season: the Winston Western 500 @ Riverside International Raceway

Results:

I made a slight mistake by qualifying Tim Flock in two different cars, the #91 and the #300.  I may just disqualify one of the cars and adjust the driver points accordingly.

Your race winner, Lee Petty!

Countdown to Daytona: Lee Petty ruled NASCAR in the No. 42 | Fox News

Top 25 after race #1:

Next up is the Daytona Beach Race @ the Daytona Beach and Road Course.

Stay tuned!

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!

Driver List

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Here’s the list of 75 drivers who will be competing in the 75 Years of Racin’ Tribute Series, from PLAAY Games.

There’s also 4 blank cards, so I could include my driver from the old Starbucks Racing Series, or maybe a fictional driver, like Cole Trickle, or a driver from a different racing series, like Mario Andretti.

Didn’t he win a Daytona 500, like 3 days after I was born?  Hmph.

Anyways, stay tuned!

2012: Stock Car Racing America, Race #11

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May 20th, 2012: the Giggles Fruit Candy 400 @ Heart of America Motor Speedway.

Race Results and Current Standings:

Vic Holder becomes the first repeat winner off the 2012 SCRAM season.

Despite a 36th place finish, Garry Pyne maintains a slim lead over Stu Yurich in the point standings.

Next: the Hub Lite 500 @ Golden Gate International Speedway.

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!