Underappreciated Sports Games
 

What are the sports computer games you loved, but nobody else (even on this board) really played?

My two are: Tuesday Night Football for the Apple IIe. That game featured just two teams, the Oilers and Steelers from the 70s. It was a text game that had about 8 offensive and defensive selections , but in addition to the play by play also had a rudimentary x's and o's showing the play unfold. I have an Apple IIe emulator just for this game.

The other is a bit more well known I think, but I don't know how many people loved the minigame in it. Triple Play 99 for the pc. Specifically, the home run derby. No cut away scenes or instant replays, just a no frills home run derby that kept the camera on the flight of the ball until it cleared the seats or fell short of the warning track. I think I had a record of over 40 hrs on my old computer. And again still play it to this day.

There was a 2-on-2 basketball game for the Apple IIGS that I played a ton. It had a league option with standings and you'd get faux news headlines after each game along with season stats (I think seasons lasted 8 games + playoffs). I burned a lot of hours playing that game. I think it was something like GBA Championship Basketball.

New Star Soccer 3
Football Fanatic

Omni-Play Basketball for c64.

+100000000000



I played this endlessly. It was my first ever experience with career play and I loved it.

NCAA basketball for the super nintendo (dont remember exact name of the game). A blast to play, I would put up 3-pointers all day and still lose sometimes. Could hear the crowd cheering as well.

I have that game... the camera would rotate 180 degrees when you got possession. I think North Carolina had a guy named Davidson that was really good from 3s.

Is that an underappreciated game? I guess I thought everyone had played and loved that game.

Oh ok, my mistake then. I'm the only person I know that played it or even heard of it. Although looking at screen shots, they look more advanced than what I remember.

+1

You could jump with your back turned and still nail a 3. Awesome. Liked using the L/R buttons to pick plays.

Earl Weaver baseball was great too. Still have that spin dial baseball passcode thing somewhere.

Computer Quarterback for the Apple IIe was my first sports game -- and a good one at that. I set up a multiplayer league with my friends and would pour over the printouts after every game to compile stats. I think that firmly established my nerd credentials.

yeah, that was it. I thought it was 1 on 1 though?

I played the hell out of Hardball, and 4th and Inches on my 2gs. Fun times.

Hardball for me.

Earl Weaver had the old old players like Ruth, Gehrig, etc... right?

One of the earliest text sims, NFL Pro Football by XO Software.. (I'm hazy on the name of the game and the company)

Here's a site with a couple of screenshots.

What is the Apple IIGS? > Sports Games > GBA Championship Basketball

Oh, and Radio Baseball

Hmm, yeah, I guess it was 2 players. I was always a big fan of those "California Games/Winter Olympics/Summer Olympics, etc" type games. You'd have downhill skiing, then maybe the biathalon. Good stuff.

Definitely Hardball.

My favorite pitchers were the guys who could throw the Fastball!

This. Though I remember it as XOR Football.

There was NFL Challenge by XOR Software, is that what you are thinking of?

There we go! Thanks!

Hardball had jacked up speed/running when I played it, and it pissed me off. Maybe it was Hardball 3 or 4 or something... but Roberto Alomar would sometimes be able to get a double on a ball hit to shallow OF, and sometimes couldn't even make it to 1B on a ball hit to the wall. It was really bizarre... fatigue or something?

Some of my favorite sports games from the past that you may or may not have played:

Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 - SNES baseball game where players had special moves like throwing 188 mph or jumping 40 feet to rob homeruns. But these moves cost special points and you only had so many, so most of the plays were of the more standard variety and you had to think before using the special moves. It also kept a lot of league stats which wasn't always the case back then.

Base Wars - NES baseball game with robots instead of humans where instead of tagging a runner out, the defender and runner fought each other one-on-one to see if the runner would be out or safe. You could also upgrade your robots with machine guns, swords, upgrade their hitting power and run speed, etc.

Kirby's Dream Course - I guess you could call it a golf game for SNES. You control Kirby like an old golfing game, one button press starts the power meter, one stops it, and then you control the spin. You have to take out enemies on the course before the last enemy becomes a hole that you've got to put Kirby in. This is one of my favorite SNES games, the courses were challenging in single player and the versus mode was a lot of fun against my brother.

Dead Ball Zone - This PS1 game was set in a future where the main sport is played in a hockey-like rink where players throw the ball around the arena in any direction and score by throwing past the goalie into a goal bigger than a hockey net but smaller than a soccer goal. It is very violent with bodyslams, punches, iirc there was some special move where you could use a handgun for a short amount of time. It also had some stat tracking and player development. It's a shame it never saw a sequel. It doesn't even have a Wiki page.

More people know about Mutant League Hockey, Mutant League Football, Sensible Soccer and/or its various console ports and those were good too.

I wish there were more non-traditional sports games created these days.

I played a lot of XOR NFL Challenge, also played a lot of the TV sports games. (basketball and football)

Speedball, HyperZone (where decapitating an opponent and scoring a goal with his head was allowed).

Baseball Stars

Baseball Stars underappreciated? It and Tecmo Super Bowl seem to be the most highly regarded sports games on the NES. Definitely a great game though.

Yes. I played the shit out of that game. It kept records of the standings or something, right? Different conferences and stuff? Jump shots were THE way to go.

YouTube - SNES Super Nintendo NCAA BASKETBALL


I loved that game. Best baseball game for a long time. Then stupid EA took over the sports market. :mad: :rant: :banghead:

I used to love Joe Montana Football for the PC. I don't remember much other than setting the ratings for everyone on my team to 2 (for some reason 2 was the lowest rating), and seeing how well I could compete (If I recall, you played out a full season plus playoffs).

BTW, while Omni Play Sports Basketball was underappreciated, it can't hold a candle to the Horse Racing Game

I always liked the Atari arcade football game, with the Xs and Os, the trackball, and the top down view, with a person on either end of the table.

Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 still remains the baseball game I've played the most. I used to use the Edit Team feature to create a lineup with me and my friends and the pitching staff would all be named after girls I had crushes on.

NCAA Basketball is like, the greatest college basketball game ever. I loved the voiceovers and the isometric design:

"Foul by.. Point Guard. Point Guard... Fouled Out."

Dola, I should see if I can find my SNES and play NCAA Basketball with the Hogs. :)

I remember because of the monotone voice and the blue "crowd," a friend thought it was the most boring game ever... but I didn't agree.

I played a TON of TV Sports Football, and TV Sports Basketball on the Amiga. Both could do a pretty robust impression of a coaching sim with decent graphics.

"Second basemen Nap Lah Joy."

Loved that game.

Loved TV sports basketball, it was one of the few games at the time (Earl Weaver also) that kept pretty detailed statistics from the games. Did you ever play Gridiron on the Amiga? One of my favorite Amiga games of all time.

Earl Weaver baseball was the first one where I would actually enter real player stats to get them into the game ;-)

But Head Coach Football on the Amiga was my foray into utility writing. I wrote an aging routine that turned it into a career sim, a team editor, and a draft pool generator.

I also played a ton of TV Sports games as well as XOR NFL Challenge. Earl Weaver was my favorite game for many years. I'm not sure if many of these games really qualify as underappreciated, but this thread brings back some good memories.

Commodore 64's Super Bowl Sunday

No joysticks -- just pick a Super Bowl team to match up with another SB team. Pick the player and what play would be run. The opponent picks the D they want to run, and watch it unfold.

My first foray into text sims, I guess, although there was a rudimentary illustration of the action.

Probably not underappreciated, but my other fave is:
RBI Baseball
Just pure fun . . . .

I'm still not convinced this is the same Earl Weaver I played... you had to really concentrate on pitching, right? I remember using the numpad, and each pitch involved something like two key presses... and if you didn't do it properly, the ball would hit the dirt or something. So I actually ended up walking batters and stuff. Is that still the right game?

I loved this game..

and this one...

Me and my friends used to "draft" teams based on statistical totals and also on totals for all of the attributes. Of course we would end up with players that had all 10's (or whatever the highest rating was) and then a couple with all 1's. (but we were in 7th grade so it's not like we were working on balance back then)

Well I had an Amiga so one player would use the mouse and the other a joystick but it was a two part control. The first was the type of pitch and the second was the location. Sounds like the same game.

I did this too...and jacked up some of the guy's stats who I liked. For some reason Ruben Sierra comes to mind.

The Omni-play games for the C-64 were great. I especially enjoyed Superstar Ice Hockey and Superstar MLS Indoor Soccer. They used a concept of trading points to make trades. The better your record from the previous year, the less points you received.

Anyone ever hear of Unnecessary Roughness? I used to play that as a kid too.

That was the one with a top-down view, with just little circles representing players, kinda like FM2008? Couldn't you make plays too? I certainly did play the crap out of that game. That was a great game too! I totally forgot about it, until you just mentioned it.