What hooked you on text sims?

[GoSeahawks]

I was reading in another thread about people becoming hooked on the genre after playing certain games. How did you get hooked on text sims?

I used to play Front Page Sports football religiously, but.....well......we all know what happened to them. After they were done I ventured into text sims. The first text sim I played was Baseball Mogul. It didn't really satisfy what I was looking for, but I felt like they were onto something.
Next I found the original Front Office Football. I loved it and have purchased every edition since excluding the Fourth Edition.

Text Games I have purchased
Baseball Mogul 1 & 2
Front Office Football 1, 2, 3, and 5 (2004)
The College Years
Out of the Park 2, 3, 4, 5 and will purchase 6
Puresim
Some college basketball game from .400 (wasn't my type of game because I'm not a big basketball fan)
Total Pro Football I ended up returning it, but I still gave it a shot.
Hollywood Mogul

[Easy Mac]

coke and lots of clicks.

[Easy Mac]

dola

games I've bought
CM 97/98, CM3, CM 99/00, CM 00/01, CM 01/02, CM4
FOF 2002, FOF: TCY, FOF4, FOF2k4
Season Ticket Baseball 2003, OOTP 5
FPS: Football Pro
FBB 2001, FBCB
CAD, TDCB
JSB
WOSOMAN, WOHOMAN
USM 98
Baseball Mogul
FA Premier League Manager, the lastest EA Sports soccer sim

can't really name all the ones I've downloaded for free.

[ScottVib]

I went from BBPro and needing a replacement to reading about Puresim (1999 before the Tech Previews started). Eventually I ended up getting Baseball Mogul which was a good little game for a while. From there I checked out FOF and tried some of the very early Puresim Tech Previews. After the next version of Mogul didn't show much improvement, I surfed around and I found OOTP3. I messed around with a CM demo, Promotion Wars, and the various EWR's, and EHM. I bought TCY after it came out on eLicense, ended up testing OOTP4. Then tested Tournament Dreams, after that I was hired by .400 Studios and have been involved with all the .400 Releases since.

[primelord]

I stumbled onto a board that Bill Abner used to post at very frequently around the time of the FBPro 99 demise. And he mentioned the first FOF in one of his posts. I checked it out and was hooked from there.

[JeeberD]

First one I ever bought was FOF2 and it hooked me good. My sister is a "software technician" and while she was in college I kept telling her that she needed to make a game that was career driven. Of course, that wasn't her field of expertise but luckily I found FOF2 not too much long afterward...

[FBPro]

Started out playing table top baseball & football(APBA). While fun, record keeping was a pain, etc. Probably the first PC game I got was microleague baseball or haffner games baseball. I've been playing them ever since.

FBPro-all versions
BBPro-all versions
MicroSports Baseball and Football
Microleague baseball
OOTP-all
FOF-all
TDCB
TPF
TPB
PureSim-all

[Vince]

Back in the day, I played the board games 'Paydirt!' and 'Super Star Baseball' with my dad all the time...they were dice games that were a ton of fun. I didn't really find anything else until my Junior year of College (~3 years ago now), when I read a review of TCY. Bought it on a whim, and got totally hooked.

[Neuqua]

I somehow happened to stumble onto the EAsports website and started reading about FOF2.

Bought it. Loved it. And once I started frequenting FOFC, I discovered the other games.

[Vince]

Yeah, FOFC is what turned me on to other games than TCY. Now I'm all about OOTP, FOF, TCY and I'm still trying to get into CM, but it hasn't worked yet.

[Bonegavel]

From the time I owned dice-football games and commodore 64 titles, my best bud and I would draft teams and keep stats for everything. It was a labor of love as it was all pencil/paper/eraser in those days. Yikes.

moving on to the PC years of my life, I was quickly sickened by madden-like games. I am a stat-bastard and I wanted DEPTH that they didn't have. Front Page sports sufficed until it died and then I found FOF (around the EA years) and haven't looked back.

I think this all goes to the fact that I loved games like:

Seven Cities of Gold
SimCity
Civilization
MOO
and their ilk

more in-depth games, little to no visceral action. I think I played more Civilization than all other games combined to date.

[Groundhog]

As I said in the other thread, I stumbled on to Jumpshot while looking for NBA Live roster updates, and got hooked on that.

Found FBB, didn't like it at first, but then fell in love with it and played it practically non-stop for some time (I've got a 150+ year career going on that I still progress with every so often).

After that it was CAD, followed by TDCB.

Next up was FBCB, which has drained away most of my free time since it's release.

I was real reluctant to venture outside of basketball, as most of the stats in other games don't mean to much to me, even If I know enough of the rules to follow the matches on TV.

I took the plunge though, grabbed OOTP and played it for awhile but could never get in to it. Next stop was FOF (I'm a lot more familiar with football than baseball, but still a little unsure regarding sack... I really couldn't tell you what amount of key run blocks a good offensive lineman should get each year), which I'm having fun with thus far.

I tried TCY demo, but I just think I lack the patience to deal with recruiting that many guys each year. I'll likely purchase it one day however.

[Glengoyne]

I actually tried the initial FOF, but couldn't get past the interface. Really that was what stopped me. Looking back now I think I was such a wuss.

In any case I first played Earl Weaver baseball, the first version. My room mates and I drafted teams from the all-time EW players, and played seasons against each other. That was where I started to appreciate and desire "managerial" type games. Front Page Sports football was the second time a sports managerial sim grabbed my attention.

Then came the dark ages. After the dark ages, I found Puresim. For me, Puresim was the gateway drug of sports management text sims. For about a year and a half that was the game I played. Then someone put up a link on the Puresim board regarding text sims for other sports. FOF and TDCB namely. I came here and well haven't left since. I have even managed to get hooked on CM to the point that I actually watch soccer on television in bars. Much to the delight of my friends, who think I am nuts.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by Bonegavel

Seven Cities of Gold
SimCity
Civilization
MOO
and their ilk

more in-depth games, little to no visceral action. I think I played more Civilization than all other games combined to date.

Nice list, though I've never played MOO (always meant to, just haven't got around to it), the rest of them were all favourites of mine, SSoG in particular.

[The_herd]

I played FPS a lot after the 1st one came out, however, it was an old game that came out around the same time that really got me hooked. It was called NFL Football (does anyone actually remember the game?). Not the greatest game, really crappy graphics and simplistic gameplay, but it allowed you to get through seasons much faster and had a much better feel to it as a sim than FPS. A sequel never came out because the game lacked depth beyond the simming and drafting, and FPS was a better and prettier game overall.

After that, it was the original Baseball Mogul demo that had me and a friend of mine hooked like crack addicts. We couldn't find the game anywhere (and we tried calling everywhere in the area) at the time and really hadn't thought of the internet as a place to buy games at the time, so we were stuck with the demo for a while. We would play that one season over, and over, and over again. We actually called in sick for work one day to get a good 3 day weekend of the Baseball Mogul Demo in.

I was stationed in Monterey, CA. when I stumbled on the original FOF in early '99 after buying my 1st computer and I ordered it on the spot. I've been a very happy text sim fan ever since.

[MJ4H]

My first text-sim experience was with Andy Dolphin's college basketball league (PBEM). After playing the web version of that, I decided to run my own hockey league with Dolphin's software. The Internet Hockey League ran under my leadership for about 5 seasons over about 2 years. Insanely good times. My teaching career and sub-par internet access for awhile killed that league, sadly, or it would still be going today. I made lots of utilities and enhancements to the game and my hockey league freakin ruled. I even did tons of research and my league was the only one where every player had a nationality, hometown, and an actual ethnically correct matching first and last name (Dolphin's games just supplied a last name and a random first initial). I had the whole template reading and output mailing process automated and I could run everyone's orders and sim games with the click of a button. We had a full league of active owners and everything. Man those were great times. Alas Dolphin turned to the dark side and started charging for everything. Following this I set out learning VB to write my own hockey PBEM game. I actually made it quite far but I was such a poor coder that I came to a point where I couldn't do anything else without screwing something up. I did teach myself, after all. Anyway, I don't even really remember how I made my way here, but I definitely remember the Dolphin games being my start in the genre.

[Fidatelo]

Not knowing that text sims even existed, I saw an ad for Baseball Mogul in a magazine and thought it sounded cool. I tried out a 'demo' of it, and although I didn't really like it I knew that I liked the idea behind it. Then I found EHM and played it like a fanatic. FOF2K2 came along shortly after, and I've been hooked on these games ever since.

[Groundhog]

Oh yeah, I played the Dolphin college bball game for awhile to. Quite fun.

As well as the simulatedsports.net online college basketball game, which was also really good back in the day (probably still is, haven't been there in awhile).

[yabanci]

my first text sim was Diamond Mind Baseball (then called Pursue the Pennant), back in the MS-DOS days of the 1980s before the game even had a computer manager. Somehow I stumbled on Baseball Mogul when it first came out and later FOF and OOTP. I still have great respect for DMB, but I no longer have interest in a game that is not a career sim.

[Icy]

I started with a crap but addicting game in 1985 on a ZX Spectrum, Soccer Manager. I got really hoooked to it (i was 10 years old). I started in Spanish Div 4 (all was fake) and went to Div 2. The problem was that you couldn't save games on that Spectrum and my father turned it off after i played it without stop for 14 hours and took the cassete to avoid me to play it again in some time as my eyes were really hurting from playing it on a small TV and he also saw that i was so addicted to it.

Ten years later i discovered a game named Championship Manager Italia (CM 94) and got hooked to it. At that time, a spanish games company released PC Football that was like CM but watching the games in 2D, this game was the top seller game in Spain for 9 years but the company started to released other games and finally got ruined. I played that PC Football series along with the CM series for some years, then only CM. I have played all CM versions untill CM4 that was a big dissapoint to me. The 2D was really a good idea but it ended with a bad AI that ruined the experience, to watch my stars playing like chickens around the ball made me really sad, at least the text pbp from the older versions made me dream with the big plays. I still play CM01/02 from time to time and still get hooked to it, for me the best CM ever. I purchased also CM03/04 to support Marc, but haven't played it a lot, probably i will after the football season is over as also it has been patched a lot since the begining.

Two years ago, after the dissapoint with CM i started to look at other text sims and discovered EHM, FBB, TCY, FOF etc and after learning the basics of that non spanish sports (i payed for an USA sports channel in satellite TV, here all is soccer, basket, cycling and tenis) i got hooked to it, specially to FOF2k4 that i love. I have purchased also TPF, ITP and TPB this year, but i don't play them a lot.

For next season i want to learn all about baseball, will wach the season at TV and will purchase the new versions of OOTP or Puresim. Of course will keep buying any game that Jim releases and of course my loved CM series that i hope will be as good as the CM3 series now that sigames won't be under eidos.

Hi, i'm Ivan from Spain, i'm 28 years old and i'm a text sims addict, also i must admit that sometimes i try to quit from this addiction and then get addicted to wargames. I need your help!!!!!

[ahbrady]

Dolphin's games were my first text sims too. I owned every one of his games except hockey. I kept notebooks of stats for each league. When looking around some websites I kept seeing references to OOTP and FOF. I had no clue what the initials stood for, so I kept searching and stumbled upon FOFC. Ever since then my cash flow has gone downhill. I've bought most of the career-play text sims that I've heard of since then. So I'm poor, but happy.

[BigJohn&TheLions]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

coke and lots of clicks.

Did you sniff or smoke?

[The_herd]

Originally Posted by BigJohn&TheLions

Did you sniff or smoke?

Real men snort it.

[FBPro]

Originally Posted by The_herd

I played FPS a lot after the 1st one came out, however, it was an old game that came out around the same time that really got me hooked. It was called NFL Football (does anyone actually remember the game?). Not the greatest game, really crappy graphics and simplistic gameplay, but it allowed you to get through seasons much faster and had a much better feel to it as a sim than FPS. A sequel never came out because the game lacked depth beyond the simming and drafting, and FPS was a better and prettier game overall.

After that, it was the original Baseball Mogul demo that had me and a friend of mine hooked like crack addicts. We couldn't find the game anywhere (and we tried calling everywhere in the area) at the time and really hadn't thought of the internet as a place to buy games at the time, so we were stuck with the demo for a while. We would play that one season over, and over, and over again. We actually called in sick for work one day to get a good 3 day weekend of the Baseball Mogul Demo in.

I was stationed in Monterey, CA. when I stumbled on the original FOF in early '99 after buying my 1st computer and I ordered it on the spot. I've been a very happy text sim fan ever since.

I think this is "MicroSports Pro League Football" you are talking about.

[BigJohn&TheLions]

Originally Posted by The_herd

Real men snort it.

"I once snorted an 'L' off Laverne's tit" ... Sam Kinison

[The_herd]

Originally Posted by FBPro

I think this is "MicroSports Pro League Football" you are talking about.

May have been. I was playing on a friends computer at the time and didn't know much about computers or computer games. When I asked him what the name of the game was he just said, "NFL Football".

[FBPro]

It had graphics, but they weren't very sharp or crisp but you could see the players, etc.

[bamcgee]

My favorite sim growing up was NFL Challenge. It had a limited number of plays and every now and then I swear I could see the same "x's and o's" play action again, but I loved the stats. That lead to the FPS:Football glory years. Then there was a dry period until I uncovered Baseball Mogul, which I played obsessively. I have not found that any baseball sim since has matched its ease of use, although OOTP is a nice game. Since football is my sport of choice, I was overjoyed to find the first FOF four years ago. I've been a loyal customer since then, but I have played progressively less as the game has shown smaller increments of improvement, especially compared to the massive leaps that console football games have made in terms of franchises and careers. Nowadays, I think the only text game worth its salt is CM 03/04, and that's solely due to the immersion factor. I see this once lovely little niche getting squeezed out - let's face it, it's no longer underserved or undiscovered anymore. Other games have incorporated bits and pieces from these pioneering sims, and judging from the most recent releases there isn't much innovation left.

love the board though.

[Danny]

My first two text sims ever were FOF 2001 and an early beta version of EHM. Then I went to OOTP 4 which really got me addicted full time. Obviously, Im quite new to text sims compared to many of you.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by BigJohn&TheLions

Did you sniff or smoke?

The Women or the Coke?

[ISiddiqui]

I've always been a stat hound, but never really knew about baseball and football text sims that much until I stumbled on this site by some reason. And since then... OOTP and FOF have been on my hard drive.

[Tasan]

My first "management" game was the Xor Corp NFL Challenge or something like that. I really got into editing the rosters and such, but basically all you could do outside of that was call plays during the game and do subs in game. There was no season sim, but I'd sometimes take the NFL schedule and play out a season, simming games that weren't my team, and calling the plays for my team. Lots of fun. After that I was a BBPro/FBPro guy, discovered the first Baseball Mogul and fell in love, then grew tired of FBPro 98 around 1999. A friend of mine for multiple online leagues said he'd heard of a couple of games we might want to look into now that we were moving away from the Sierra games. OOTP and FOF then entered my life. I think it was OOTP3 and FOF2k1. Although lacking in the multiplay realm, I was immediately hooked on FOF, and just kinda interested in OOTP3. I've purchased several of the BBMogul versions, and from there and FOF got TCY, OOTP5, FOF4, TDCB, FOF 2k4, TFP, and most recently FBCB which I've totally fallen in love with. Of these, I've only not gotten my monies worth out of TDCB and TFP, although TFP may come around soon.

I'm also into Hollywood Mogul and other "tycoonish" type games, but my first love will always be football, and more than likely FOF.


EDIT: How did I forget about EHM???? I loved that game, I played it non-stop for about 3 months from a suggestion on this forum. Its what helped me understand the game of hockey. I really hope they do the next version right.

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

First one I ever bought was FOF2 and it hooked me good. My sister is a "software technician" and while she was in college I kept telling her that she needed to make a game that was career driven. Of course, that wasn't her field of expertise but luckily I found FOF2 not too much long afterward...

Actually, I forgot about NCAA Championship Basketball by GTE Entertainment. While it wasn't strictly a text sim (you could play the games arcade style) I played it like it was. I never played out the games, and my favorite part of the game was recruiting time. This was the first game I ever played where you could follow a player over their career and watch their development...

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

Actually, I forgot about NCAA Championship Basketball by GTE Entertainment. While it wasn't strictly a text sim (you could play the games arcade style) I played it like it was. I never played out the games, and my favorite part of the game was recruiting time. This was the first game I ever played where you could follow a player over their career and watch their development...

Was that the game where, if you actually played the games arcade style, it was next to impossible to shoot under 80%, especially the CPU who never missed? It had quite good graphics for it's time, but I wasn't aware it had any recruiting in it.

I could quite possibly be thinking of a different game, though.

[JeeberD]

I'm not sure. I had a really hard time playing the game because I didn't have a joystick. I had to use the keyboard and I kept running my players out of bounds...

The game had 64 real colleges in it (including UTEP, that's why I got it) and every team made the NCAA Tournament. I loved playing as Kentucky. It was so easy to recruit with them...

[FBPro]

I still have some of the Dolphin games, I think if he made them with a "windows" interface they'd be quit popular.

[Raiders Army]

TNM hooked me. Bill Abner on usenet also got me into FOF (the first edition). The biggest thing was the awesome graphics....

Seriously, though, when I get deployed and take a laptop, text sims are the one thing I can always count on running okay and not dropping framerates.

[WussGawd]

Well, you see, there was a guy smoking a joint outside the school grounds, wearing a trench coat one day, and I was walking home from school, when the kid whispered. "Pfft. Come here kid."

I turned and looked at him quizzically. "Whachuwant?"

He said, "I got something for ya."

I said. "But my mom said I shouldn't talk to strangers, and that I shouldn't mess with drugs."

He rolled his eyes, taking on a sardonic grin. "Naw, I got better than meth, man, I've got Front Office Football."

"Football?" I wandered closer. "Can I take a look?"

He fired up a laptop on the spot, and let me run his team's draft. I sucked at it, but I was hooked. My eyes lit up, brimming with fire. "How can I get this?"

He whipped open the trench coat, which was lined with yellow CDs covered with the crude Solecismic logo. "I can set you up kid, but it'll cost you $29.95."

"Well." I said, "That'll mean I have to skip lunch for a month, but here goes." and I dragged out a wadded up bankroll of singles, fives, and loose change.

And tragically, my life has never been the same since.

Next: The Serious Answer.

[WussGawd]

My first foray was Avalon Hill's Paydirt, and Statis Pro Football. Later, I graduated to Strat-O-Matic tabletop (college and pro football and hockey) games. I fiddled with, but didn't seriously play with warez/demo versions of some of the early C-64 predecessors to CM. Like a lot of folks, I picked up the earliest versions (think late 80's) of Madden, but quickly got turned off by the flawed results and lack of depth. Then I got hooked on Sierra's FBPro and BBPro series. Like a lot of people I was pretty alienated by the abortion that was FBPro99 and figured that with only Madden around that my computer football days were through. Then, about that time, Jim G. posted a couple of messages on comp.sys.ibm-pc.games.sports about FOF 1, which had come out a month or so before, I dug up some reviews, and taking a chance I called and placed an order.

I played FOF1, and later FOF2 until I couldn't stand the sight of them. Picked up Baseball Mogul, enjoyed it, but it didn't really seem to get any better between versions (I still think the ultimate career mode baseball sim has yet to be made, as there are things about OOTP5 that don't thrill me all that much). I visited briefly, but did not post or register for this forum in the old sideline days.

I have to admit I was cheesed off by the attempt to Maddenize FOF with FOF2001, as I thought it a great engine marred by an eyesore of a GUI, and I pretty much dropped the series at that point. I finally came back to the boards about the time that FOF4 got released. I bought TCY not long before and bought FOF4 as soon as it was released (didn't enjoy it as much as TCY though). Then, as I became more active on FOFC, I started trying new ones, TDCB, Hollywood Mogul (thanks, Anxiety), OOTP5 when it was released, CM4, and now I'm pretty much an ideal candidate for a text-sim 12 Step program.

[Radii]

The first text game I ever got hooked on was called "Computer Baseball" ... it was on the Atari 800, and had about 50 real teams from history. My favorite team for no reason whatsoever was the 75 Reds. I made up seasons and leagues and kept up with stats myself since the game didn't do it. This was the mid-80s, I was 10-12 or so.

After that, Microleague baseball was great, and there was a similar football game called Computer football.

As for more modern games, I beta tested Baseball Mogul and then found the original FOF, as well as CM2 on the comp.ibm.blah.blah.pc.sports.games newsgroup, and I have been hooked on all things text based sime ever since.

[WussGawd]

Originally Posted by Radii

The first text game I ever got hooked on was called "Computer Baseball" ... it was on the Atari 800, and had about 50 real teams from history. My favorite team for no reason whatsoever was the 75 Reds. I made up seasons and leagues and kept up with stats myself since the game didn't do it. This was the mid-80s, I was 10-12 or so.

After that, Microleague baseball was great, and there was a similar football game called Computer football.

As for more modern games, I beta tested Baseball Mogul and then found the original FOF, as well as CM2 on the comp.ibm.blah.blah.pc.sports.games newsgroup, and I have been hooked on all things text based sime ever since.

Hmm. Forgot about computer games. I played the heck out of Avalon Hill's text football and basketball replay sims on the C-64, as well as the C-64 versions of Lance Haffner's football, basketball and hockey games for a few years in the 80's.

[tucker342]

Well, the 1st one for me was Baseball Mogul, then it evolved from there

[Karim]

Wayne Gretsky Hockey
Hockey League Simulator 2
Earl Weaver Baseball
TV Sports Football
TV Sports Basketball

I've always wanted to focus on building a championship team through free agency, drafting, and trading, regardless of the sport or sim.

[MizzouRah]

Lance Haffner pro basketball put me into the 'text' scene on my Commodore 64. I even wrote a BASIC program will playoff brackets, complete with stats. Never before has the accuracy of a good text sim engulfed me like so many graphic games couldn't (except for Hardball and 4th and Inches).

I really miss my C64, what a PC that was. Loading games into memory from a tape player, getting a 5 1/4 floppy drive, 300 baud modems, hahaha LOL!!

From there, Tony LaRussa Baseball, DMB baseball and many others. I remember finding ootp's website and purchasing ootp2. BB Mogul was fun and my all time favorite - the FPS series. Gelat, Shawn, and many other FPS modders.... oh the days....

We used to keep stats on Nintendo Baseball for peat's sake!


Todd

[sabotai]

For me, it started with FBPro. I would just sim my games as I played GM (in one of my dynasties). Then I played Baseball Mogul and it went on from there.

[Tasan]

I just remembered my first ever "taste" of sports management....it was an old hockey game on the C64, I can't for the life of me remember what it was called. A friend of my dad's let us borrow it while he was on leave, and I totally messed up the guy's team playing it. You could sim out your games instead of playing them, and I thought that was pretty interesting. I don't remember much more about it though.

[MizzouRah]

This game? I remember playing this one.


Todd

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

This game? I remember playing this one.


Todd

Bingo, we have a winner. I remember the "Superstar" in the name...

[Mac Howard]

In 1980, I think it was, I typed into a Tandy Model 11 (CPM machine) computer a BASIC program listing from a magazine. It was a simulation of the British economy. You made economic decisions, tax, interest rate changes etc, and the program worked out the response of the economy and compared your results with those of Margaret Thatcher. It was fascinating.

I remember thinking "if only the subject matter were something with greater appeal to the general public this would be a great game". 12 months later I released what I believe to be the first "soccer management game" - League Division One based on the English 1st division (now Premier League).

I also discovered that writing these games can be more fun than playing them

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by Mac Howard

In 1980, I think it was, I typed into a Tandy Model 11 (CPM machine) computer a BASIC program listing from a magazine. It was a simulation of the British economy. You made economic decisions, tax, interest rate changes etc, and the program worked out the response of the economy and compared your results with those of Margaret Thatcher. It was fascinating.

I remember thinking "if only the subject matter were something with greater appeal to the general public this would be a great game". 12 months later I released what I believe to be the first "soccer management game" - League Division One based on the English 1st division (now Premier League).

I also discovered that writing these games can be more fun than playing them

Wow thats pretty cool. Its so neat we have guys like this in our little community. Just adds so much history and flavor to everything. Of course, it adds sales for him too ;- )