Curbing my Enthusiasms

As a side note, I seriously have to curb the number of ‘active’ projects I have going, and stick with games (and sports) that I like to play.

Baseball and racing will always have a spot in my rotation.  Soccer and hockey take the next tier, with football and basketball lower on my list.

I also have golf, tennis, boxing, wrestling and lacrosse in various forms.  Of those, I have to be in the right mood/mindset to play any of those.  None of those games are ones I consider playing with a long-term ‘season’ or replay.

And then there’s the least played games: bowling, roller derby, demolition derby, and some interesting fictional sports.  Someday, I keep telling myself.

I just started the 2013 SCRAM season, and the 2024 SCRAM/SCRAM-B sets arrived in the mail today.  Yikes.

So yeah, I need to curb my habit, considering the vast amount of other hobbies I have and would like to pursue as well.

Stay tuned, I guess…

2024 Goals

  • Complete at least one baseball replay (1921/1971)
  • Complete the SCRAM 2012 season
  • Complete a hockey/soccer/football replay
  • Complete the Scott Bullerwell Heavyweight Invitational
  • Start a basketball replay

Lofty goals to be sure, but I’ve been putting shit off long enough.

Stay tuned!

Future Plans

I plan on continuing the following ongoing replays:

Baseball
1921 NY Giants (Payoff Pitch Baseball)
1971 SF Giants (Ball Park Baseball)
Soccer
2015-16 Tottenham Hotspur (APBA Soccer)
2020-21 AFC Richmond (Dice United)
Racing
1984 Winston Cup (Red White & Blue Racin’)
2012 SCRAM (Red White & Blue Racin’)
Football
1960 Denver Broncos (Fast Drive Football)
1967 Denver Broncos (Second Season/Second Season Express/Inside Blitz/Grid Iron Wars)

At some point I plan on adding hockey and basketball into the mix, as time permits.  I just have to decide which replays to include:

Hockey
1966-67 NHL (Hockey Blast)
1969-70 Oakland Seals (Hockey Blast)
1991-92 San Jose Sharks (APBA)
2013-14 IHL (Hockey Blast, fictional)
2022-23 Central Cities League (Stone Cold Hockey, fictional)

Basketball
1960-61 Syracuse Nationals (Bank Shot Basketball)
1966-67 San Francisco Warriors (Inside the Paint)
2022-23 Basketball League of America (Highlight Maker Hoops, fictional)

And of course I’ll be tracking all the games right here.

Stay tuned!

APBA Soccer

“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.

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.

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.

Highlight Maker Hoops

PLAAY Games came out with a basketball game called Highlight Maker Hoops.

I picked it up along with the fictional Basketball League of America (BLAM) 2021-22 season.

As usual I’ve started by creating a league.  It’s unnamed at the moment, but here are the teams:

Eastern Conferences:
New York Guard
Chicago Express
Cleveland Nets
Boston Commons
St Louis Bombers
Cincinnati Royals

Western Conference:
Denver Dynamos
Tulsa Bandits
San Francisco Pioneers
Phoenix Sunset
Kansas City Knights
Los Angeles Stars

I’m not sure if I’ll keep BLAM league name, but we’ll see.

Stay tuned!

New Year, New In Progress Chart

Sure, let’s add the 1947 49ers replay, and put the 1967 Warriors replay back on the schedule.

Stay tuned!

1991: NBA Finals, Game 1

So I finally pushed myself to learn how to play SSG Basketball, and play the first game of my alternate 1991 NBA Finals.

In this series, Golden State is facing off against Chicago.

6 minutes into the first quarter, the score is tied 21-21.  Tim Hardaway has 8 points for the Warriors while Scottie Pippen has 10 for the Bulls.

I really like how easily this game seems to flow.

Stay tuned!

Current

Around my workstation/table top play area are the following games, waiting to be played.

  • SSG Basketball
  • Net Results Soccer
  • Glory Days Boxing
  • Face to the Mat
  • B25 – Prince of the Skies

More hours in the day, or an extra day in the weekend.

I’ll get to all of them, along with the baseball and football and racing and hockey games.

Stay tuned!