Anyone know what ever happened to Ed Ringler?

[vyshka]

He was a game desinger in the 80's and early 90's. He made Superstar Ice Hockey, Superstar soccer, and Omni-Play Basketball among others. I played the hockey games for hours on end, and played the basketball until the 1541 drive for C64 died the year it came out. I think Omni-play got ported to the
PC as Magic Johnson Basketball. His games were cool in that way back then there was drafting, trading, and multiple seasons where you tried to guide your team to the top all in that tiny 64k.

Just wondered if he is still around making games somewhere.

[larrymcg421]

I could never get into Superstar Ice Hockey, but Superstar Soccer and Omni-Play Basketball were endlessly addictive. I still play them via an emulator. These were the games that introduced me to the concept of career play. I loved it. Does anyone know if these were the first? I can't think of anything else that came sooner.

[cuervo72]

I loved SuperStar Ice Hockey.

[Yossarian]

via moby games:

http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,54040/

[Calis]

I think Omni-play got ported to the
PC as Magic Johnson Basketball. His games were cool in that way back then there was drafting, trading, and multiple seasons where you tried to guide your team to the top all in that tiny 64k.


Yep, it was ported as Magic Johnson.

I played the hell out of that game. Great stuff.

First sports game I played that had the drafting, trading, multiple season thing, so it'll always be remembered. ;)

[rkmsuf]

I remeber when your guys got tired in hockey they would move about as slow as a player could move around the ice.

[Ajaxab]

I got a lot of mileage out of Omni-Play Horse Racing. My brother and I would spend afternoons making bets and rooting for our horses to cross the line first. There hasn't really been a horse racing game that's come out since then that has had that same addictive quality (although I haven't tried Gallop Racer as I don't have a PS2).

[Pumpy Tudors]

I really wish they would've come out with more modules for the basketball and horse racing games. As far as I know, the only ones that came out were the college basketball module and the "side-view" module for basketball. They had plans to let you become a stable owner and/or a jockey in the horse racing, but the modules never got released.

I have to say, though, that UTEP was a monster in the college basketball module.

[Maple Leafs]

Just a fantastic series of games. Superstar ice Hockey was the first career game I'd ever seen, and the basketball version went to another level with things like record keeping.

(Magic Johnson was a port of OmniPlay, but I believe it was actually quite different. I had both versions on the Amiga, and one was a fairly standard side court game while the other was end-court and used a unique system where you controlled the whole team, not an individual player).

[Wolfpack]

Man, what a blast from the past this thread is. One of the first games we got for the C64 was Superstar Hockey. We also got Soccer, Indoor Soccer, and Basketball eventually. I was so looking forward to all those modules for the basketball game, particularly college, but I never saw any of them. I loved those games because they appealed to my interest in brackets and standings, playoff chases, and even geography with all the city names. Even had to work with a "cap", though it wasn't salary, but points based on prior performance. Points expended to trade, points expended to create rookies. I always traded for players because I could never seem to get rookies to work out very well.

[Calis]

I got a lot of mileage out of Omni-Play Horse Racing. My brother and I would spend afternoons making bets and rooting for our horses to cross the line first. There hasn't really been a horse racing game that's come out since then that has had that same addictive quality (although I haven't tried Gallop Racer as I don't have a PS2).

Oh yeah, this was the same game as Sport of Kings wasn't?

Think so as it had the same interface as the basketball did. We had a great time running that game in the background while other stuff was going on, and just being silly and putting bets down on horses.

Great game, and I have almost 0 interest in horse racing.

[larrymcg421]

Just a fantastic series of games. Superstar ice Hockey was the first career game I'd ever seen, and the basketball version went to another level with things like record keeping.

(Magic Johnson was a port of OmniPlay, but I believe it was actually quite different. I had both versions on the Amiga, and one was a fairly standard side court game while the other was end-court and used a unique system where you controlled the whole team, not an individual player).
Yeah, Magic Johnson used the Side View module, where you could only control one player, although you could force the team to pass it to you. I definitely preferred the End View version from the first game, eventhough the guards and forwards were oddly out of position on defense.

[larrymcg421]

The one thing that I hated about this game is it had a cheat protection. If you turned off the computer in the middle of a game, it would cause you to forfeit. Of course, there were times where I had huge leads and a power outage ruined my whole season.

Also, it had a pretty difficult write protection. You had to have the instruction book, because when you started up, it forced you to enter the code word based on page, line, word#'s. Of course I kept losing it.

[LloydLungs]

Ahhh yeah!! Superstar Ice Hockey! MAN did I wear that game out in the 1980s... glad I'm not the only one. I still remember the little tune that played when you opened the program. And the little chubby referee.

And I enjoyed Superstar Soccer as well, even though I'm not a soccer fan. I think I was so desperate for a game that included a 64-team tournament bracket that I played the hell out of that game. Needless to say I'm a happy FBCB customer now.

[cuervo72]

Ahhh yeah!! Superstar Ice Hockey! MAN did I wear that game out in the 1980s... glad I'm not the only one. I still remember the little tune that played when you opened the program. And the little chubby referee.

And I enjoyed Superstar Soccer as well, even though I'm not a soccer fan. I think I was so desperate for a game that included a 64-team tournament bracket that I played the hell out of that game. Needless to say I'm a happy FBCB customer now.

I have a .sid file of that song...

[vyshka]

Just a fantastic series of games. Superstar ice Hockey was the first career game I'd ever seen, and the basketball version went to another level with things like record keeping.

(Magic Johnson was a port of OmniPlay, but I believe it was actually quite different. I had both versions on the Amiga, and one was a fairly standard side court game while the other was end-court and used a unique system where you controlled the whole team, not an individual player).

I think they ended up coming out with a side view module in addition to the college stuff for the original game.

[Pumpy Tudors]

The indoor soccer game was awesome. It was weird in that you could only play your home games, though. The away games were "blacked out" and simulated.

[Buccaneer]

Ed is currently working as the Asst. Manager at the 7/11 in San Dimas.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Ed is currently working as the Asst. Manager at the 7/11 in San Dimas.
I can't tell if this is serious or not. :(

[Nwobhm]

Superstar Ice Hockey was a total 80's obsession for me. I think i ran one career as the hartford whalers for 200+ seasons at one point. That career ended when i discovered that you could build an invincible team by trading for talented veterans and keeping them on your team forever. The game wouldn't retire those players, so my whole squad was rated 99/99, and the fatigue factor wasn't enough to overcome the depth of your roster. If i recall correctly, i won something like 10 consecutive cups allowing the computer to control all the on-ice action.

[ice4277]

I loved that game; I used to score about 40 goals a game by just taking the faceoff with the center, skating right towards the net with the puck, and ramming right into the top part of the net. The goalie would never move, if you won the faceoff you could do this every time, but only while skating from left to right. I would get shut out in the second period because I couldn't do it going the other way :D

[JeeberD]

I have to say, though, that UTEP was a monster in the college basketball module.

I wish I had known of this game!

[Maple Leafs]

I loved that game; I used to score about 40 goals a game by just taking the faceoff with the center, skating right towards the net with the puck, and ramming right into the top part of the net. The goalie would never move, if you won the faceoff you could do this every time, but only while skating from left to right. I would get shut out in the second period because I couldn't do it going the other way :D
I used to like playing against old goalies. You knew you'd have a few chances to swoop in, fire a low shot, grab your own rebound and roof it before they could get up.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I used to like playing against old goalies. You knew you'd have a few chances to swoop in, fire a low shot, grab your own rebound and roof it before they could get up.
http://img116.exs.cx/img116/6606/040404edbelfourhmed12phmedium9.jpg

[Maple Leafs]

Very nicely done.

[TheClevelandFan]

I hate to revive such an old thread, but I was doing some research on what was going on with Ed Ringler (because I, too, love his sports games), and this turned up. I loved reading everyones stories; now I'm going to share mine.

I LOVE Omniplay Basketball to this day. I still consistently play it on a really old DOS machine in my basement. Currently, my Boise squad just blew a 2-0 lead in the finals but is set up for the future, lead by a couple superstars, 3 excellent young players, and a top supporting cast. The game is totally addictive, and from what I've heard, the Amiga version is even better (I'm playing on DOS). The most interesting part to the DOS version, however, it that it's got a really strange momentum setting. It's so hard to describe, but when my team was up 2-0 in the finals and up 18 in game 3 (ouch), the other team started draining threes and you could feel that the switch just flipped. They were going to win this series. I didn't wanna admit it but I just knew it. In this game your entire team can go on a "hot streak" - for a few minutes, a quarter, even an extended stretch of seasons (I remember someone else I played this with won 53 straight games with a not-even-that-good-team). It's just so strange, the way it can work sometimes, it baffles me. How did Ringler do it??? There's more to this game than what's shown on the surface, and it still amazes me.

Anyhow, I did some research on Ed and eventually found some info. Apparently he's an Internet Sales Specialist at a Honda store right now, and before that he tried to open his own mattress company. Pretty interesting guy.

I've wanted to send him an email but I can't find one that he answers to. He literally made some of the best games ever, especially for that time, and doesn't get enough credit.

Oh yeah, and one last thing before I post - I've also had a ton of fun with ice hockey and horse racing. Two great games but Basketball has to be my favorite.

[MIJB#19]

These are the kind of stories people around here enjoy to read. Thanks for sharing, TheClevelandFan.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Looks like he started a "blog" of sorts back in 2011. Basically nothing there but 8 galleries worth of box art. Crazy thing about it tho, 2011 sounds like forever ago (and the site design illustrates that) ... but it was six years AFTER this thread began.

Ed Ringler's Blog (http://www.edringler.com/)

[TheClevelandFan]

Looks like he started a "blog" of sorts back in 2011. Basically nothing there but 8 galleries worth of box art. Crazy thing about it tho, 2011 sounds like forever ago (and the site design illustrates that) ... but it was six years AFTER this thread began.

Ed Ringler's Blog (http://www.edringler.com/)

Yeah I saw that, I found a lot of interesting information on there. Interesting thing is that it's updated to show that he's now working at a Honda store in CA (under his career or whatever), and that's listed as 2017-present. So either he's been on there or he has someone else updating it for him (doubtable).

He still looks like a young man when I looked at his listing under that Honda store's staff, he's probably in his 50s.

[PilotMan]

It would probably blow his mind to be aware that a message board has a thread completely dedicated to him.

[cartman]

I saw he was at Microleague. There was a company that made some season replay sims for NCAA Football and NFL called Micro Sports that later merged into Microleague. Those games were my first exposure to online leagues. I ran a college league with their All American College Football on Prodigy back in the day.

[PilotMan]

Micro League was my first exposure (although I had been playing tabletop SOM already, so having something like that on the computer worked me into a lather). I couldn't get enough. I played the hell out of Sport of Kings too.

[rjolley]

MicroLeague Baseball was my first exposure to sports simulations and what if seasons. Was talking with a good friend of mine the other day about spending time simulating seasons and looking at who did well and who didn't. Playing OOTP19 brought up that bout of nostalgia.

Loved OmniPlay Basketball as well on the Amiga. Now I want to play. Damn.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Interesting thing is that it's updated to show that he's now working at a Honda store in CA (under his career or whatever), and that's listed as 2017-present. So either he's been on there or he has someone else updating it for him (doubtable).
.

Well damn, I completely overlooked that

[Maple Leafs]

Forgot all about this thread. Still loves those games, though -- think they've actually aged better than most over the years.

Funny that a dozen years after this thread, I got to drop a Superstar Ice Hockey mention into a piece for The Hockey News.
Down Goes Brown: Remembering five classic hockey video games - TheHockeyNews (https://thehockeynews.com/news/article/down-goes-brown-remembering-five-classic-hockey-video-games)

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ccX5urH53CE" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[CU Tiger]

His linkedin profile appears up to date: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edringler/

[spleen1015]

Everyone go check out his Linkedin profile. Dude gets the email, 165 people have checked out your profile over the last 3 days. :)

[TheClevelandFan]

Everyone go check out his Linkedin profile. Dude gets the email, 165 people have checked out your profile over the last 3 days. :)

Interesting, can you contact a person in Linkedin? I dont wanna make an account otherwise. I've been trying to get a hold of Ed for awhile, I had some questions (and was hoping to get my hands on the source code, I had some mod ideas :D)

[TheClevelandFan]

Forgot all about this thread. Still loves those games, though -- think they've actually aged better than most over the years.

Funny that a dozen years after this thread, I got to drop a Superstar Ice Hockey mention into a piece for The Hockey News.
Down Goes Brown: Remembering five classic hockey video games - TheHockeyNews (https://thehockeynews.com/news/article/down-goes-brown-remembering-five-classic-hockey-video-games)

<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ccX5urH53CE" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" height="315" frameborder="0" width="560"></iframe>
I love that song so much, it's a shame game into music today either doesn't exist or has to be complicated. Those old into songs were the best.

[spleen1015]

Interesting, can you contact a person in Linkedin? I dont wanna make an account otherwise. I've been trying to get a hold of Ed for awhile, I had some questions (and was hoping to get my hands on the source code, I had some mod ideas :D)

Yes you can. I think you need to be linked to them first though.