I decided to start from semi-scratch and get a couple of replacement/updated core sets for hockey, so I should be getting these in the next few days:
APBA is arriving with the 1991-92 NHL season, Strat-O-Matic is arriving with the 1945-46 NHL season.
It’s been a few years since I got a full game from APBA (2014 Soccer) or Strat-O-Matic (2012 Baseball).
GameNerdz.com is where I got a “ding ‘n dent” (damaged) copy of the Start-O-Matic 2020 Baseball Hall of Fame set.
I remember the late 70s when my brother Robert got his first APBA games, there was no way of tracking deliveries back then, the oversized boxes just arrived one day.
Nowadays you can order these games from Amazon. But aside from the core sets, they don’t have as much variety of seasons available, if any, than the companies themselves offer on their respective sites.
In all recent cases, you can track the orders as they were shipped.
I hope to start these replays sooner rather than later, along continuing all the other ones currently in progress.
Inside the Crease: 1966-67 NHL, from my not-yet-abandoned goal to complete replays in all the major sports for the year I was born. Team: Toronto Maple Leafs
APBA Hockey: 1991-92 NHL, the season I became a hockey fans thanks to the newly formed San Jose Sharks. Team: San Jose Sharks
Hockey Blast: 2013-14 IHL (homebrew league), using the fictional season from PLAAY that year. Team: entire league
Stone Cold Hockey: 2022-23 Central Cities League, another fictional season. Team: TBD
Shootout Hockey: 1993-94 NHL), the greatest turnaround season ever for the Sharks. Team: San Jose Sharks
Strat-O-Matic Hockey: 1945-46 NHL, the season I believe is chronicled in the animated short, “The Sweater”. Team: Montreal Canadiens, perhaps the entire league
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.
“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.
I went back to the roots of my recent table top sports hobby, and played a game with Strat-O-Matic Baseball.
PepsiCo Park was originally constructed from inspiration I found online for Strat-O-Matic players’ dice tower/trays, yet I played very few SOM games with this park, after getting into a plethora of other baseball games, most notably Ball Park Baseball.
I had planned to do a mini-replay/project with 6 teams: 4 Giants, 1 Yankees, 1 Mets.
So here is a game with the 1962 Giants against the 1954 Giants.
Final from the Polo Grounds:
A real pitcher’s duel until the bottom of the 8th. I may have left O’Dell in too long, yeah?
I don’t know how often I’ll play this project, I haven’t even come up with a schedule.
While browsing a couple of online game stores, I came across a ding & dent copy of the Strat-O-Matic Baseball 2019 Hall of Fame set.
I ordered it, because I didn’t think I had a Hall of Fame card set in my collection.
Turns out I was wrong, I had received a Hall of Fame set as a stretch goal for a Kickstarter for Payoff Pitch Baseball’s 1933 season. That one is as of 2015.
Out of sight, out of mind.
So now I’ll have two of these HoF sets, one a few years more recent than the other.
I also bought it as an excuse to try to play Strat-O-Matic again. After all, that’s what prompted me to build PepsiCo Park in the first place.
I’ll see about creating an 8-team league with these cards. I don’t think I did anything with the Payoff Pitch HoF card set.
