The good ol' days VS. NCAA 06

[Gary Armida]

I did the same thing. My buddies and I kept stats for Sega Sports Talk Baseball, The first Triple play, baseball stars (we created our high school team), Tecmo Bowl, NBA live 95, Madden, and Bill Walsh football. I try to avoid the slamming threads of games. I am a stats freak too, but these are games. I guess we appreciate how far games have come.

[Simp]

Quote: Originally Posted by trobinson97

Aren't you glad you don't have to continuasly blow on that old cartridge to get the game to load up?

Ahhh yes. The green flashing screen of death.

[Steelerfan2k1]

Quote: Originally Posted by lav

That's just my two-cents. Did anyone else used to keep stats, make leagues, etc. back in the day?

My cousin and I used to do this all the time - with Intellivision Football (it was ridiculous), Strat-a-Matic baseball and a few others. While those were fun times, I honestly don't miss them at all. I love the deep sims and advanced gameplay you get in today's games. We were so limited back then. I can't wait for the XBox 360 and the PS3.

[RGmoney]

Quote: Originally Posted by lav

What type of "sport-sims" do you have for the PC? I have found that an NFL Fantasy Football league helps with my stat fix. The only problem with that is the NFL doesn't play all year round.

Like you, I play the NFL fantasy leagues during football season. When it comes to baseball though, I am in a couple of OOTP (Out of the Park) online leagues.

[USF11]

Brings back memories of having 1000 yds rushing with Bo, Marcus, Tim Brown, Willie Gault, and Mervyn Fernandez in the same year in Super Tecmo Bowl. Ahh Memories.................................

[Bill_Abner]

Quote: Originally Posted by lav

When I was much younger (I'm now 28), my friends and I would play leagues on Tecmo Bowl, RBI Baseball, etc. We would make schedules, play all of the games on the schedule (either head-to-head or vs. cpu), keep all of the stats. We had a blast. In fact, my friend still has the old notebooks with our stats, records, etc. We never complained about Bo Jackson rushing for too many yards every game. We never complained about L.T. racking up too many sacks. We enjoyed it for what it was...a game. We used to discuss how awesome it would be if we could put ourselves in the game or have stats kept for us. Now we have games that keep stats, allow us to make ourselves and friends, a.i. that at least attempts to adjust to play calling, record multi-year franchises, and more. To be honest, I love sim football. But, if games were 100% accurate sims, my Vikings would ALWAYS choke in the playoffs, and the Browns would never make the playoffs to begin with. I'm glad I have some control over that. Even with their flaws, these games are a huge improvement from the good ol' days. It makes you wonder what the future will hold. Someday Madden 2020 will come with a body suit that allows us to be imported into the game. We'll need to run in place, make moves, jump for catches, maybe even earn a paycheck depending on how well we play in online leagues, etc. Some people will still be upset because although their likeness was in the game, the technology did not allow for them to actually sustain a real concussion when they were blindsided by a blitzing CB. That's just my two-cents. Did anyone else used to keep stats, make leagues, etc. back in the day?

Oh, lemme tell ya...

In Jr. high my best friend and I created an entire college football schedules with the 40 teams that were in 4th and Inches the college edition. We created our own top 20 polls, etc. We also created every NBA team for TV Sports Basketball and kept season stats by hand.

As for realism, those games were fun not because of authenticity but because I was playing with friends. Even when I was 13 I thought 4th and inches had its silly aspects (half the plays never worked). The fun was playing with my freinds, not neccesssarily from the games themselves. Playing those games solo were fun, for a while. I'd just as soon go outside and play at that age rather than play a solo game of 4th and Inches. With friends over, though, it was a different story. Just speaking from pesonal experience and opinion with this kind of thing, those games of yesteryear were fun because they were a social magnents.

I recall in 1994 when my college roomates and I played multiple seasons of FPS: Football. We created fictional teams, printed draft reports, created custom uniforms, the works. That was the first game that great graphics (for its day) with shockingly realistic gameplay (for its day). There are still features from that decade old game that many of today's games don't have, speaking strictly from a design standpoint.

Voicing frustrations with games is part of the deal, though. As gaming becomes a more mature medium, and it's still in its infancy in many respects, the expectations are going to go up. And they should. Games today are not like they were back in the Tecmo days, when budgets were tiny and the corporate empires didn't rule the landscape. The number of big publishers is shrinking every year.

I'm also no longer 13. I'm 33. If I were a kid today I'd be in gaming hog heaven, no doubt about it. When a 15 year old reads a review of mine and tells me I'm an idiot for not liking (for usually not LOVING!!) Game X I understand where he's coming from. If an old man told me when I was a kid that 4th and Inches was lame I'd have completely ignored him.

Back in 1986 there weren't too many 30+ year old guys playing TV Sports Basketball. (I assume). As the hobby grows, the gamers that were kids when the industry first started are going to grow into adult gamers and they'll demand a more adult games. Nothing wrong with that. As the technolgy improves, demands go up. With sports games this is compounded by the fact that publishers insist on selling a "new" game every 11 months, marketing it as a vastly improved version of the same game, so that those who bought it last year will have to buy it again or fear that they've missed out. We gamers are no self control over such things. Myself included. Can you imagine this happening in other genres? If every year Blizzard ships a new WarCraft game with a few new races, slightly improved graphics, and some gameplay tweaks, but using the same basic game engine and charge gamers $50 for it. Strategy gamers would throw a fit.

High expectations are important. This is a billion dollar industry today. The days of 3 guys designing and programming a high profile big budget sports game are long, long gone. If Madden 2020 comes out and allows us to step into that Virtual Reality suit and play the game, the AI better punt the damn ball on 4th and 13 on the 39 yard line in a tie game in the first quarter or this soon to be 48 year old gamer is gonna be ticked.

[oukurt]

Quote: Originally Posted by Steelerfan2k1

My cousin and I used to do this all the time - with Intellivision Football (it was ridiculous), Strat-a-Matic baseball and a few others. While those were fun times, I honestly don't miss them at all. I love the deep sims and advanced gameplay you get in today's games. We were so limited back then. I can't wait for the XBox 360 and the PS3.

Ahhh I was about to post about Intellivision football. That game really blew me away at the time. I guess that makes you a 30 something like me? haha
I think guys like us reallllllllllllly appreciate today's gaming technology. You 20 something and younger guys never had it so rough.
Why I used to walk 10 miles to school in the snow.............(I won't get into that story)

[Jistic]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bill_Abner

Oh, lemme tell ya... We also created every NBA team for TV Sports Basketball and kept season stats by hand.

Who could forget Mike "Jordache"?

I've done all of that, I'm 35 this month. I like to try to make the games play as believeable as possible. BUT when i have reached that point I let it go and just play. You'll drive yourself crazy if you over analyze everything. The first week or two with a new game is actually the least fun I have. Cuz I'm just evaluating it. But once I get to the point where it's as good as possible I don't nitpick anymore. Just have fun, life's too short.