Simulation

The Game of Professional Basketball:

Inside this box you'll find everything you need to recreate an entire professional season. Every player from every pro team is here, each one ready to play for you just the same way he did in the regular season. The only difference between STATIS PRO BASKETBALL and the real thing is that now YOU are the coach!

YOU pick the starting line-ups, send in substitutes, and call the fast break and full-court press. YOU call the slowdown, take out players to rest for the final period...and much more!

Every player in STATIS PRO BASKETBALL is statistically rated to display his real abilities in each of the following areas: Field Goal Shooting, Free Throw Shooting, Rebounding, Fouls, Foul Drawing, Blocking Shots, Stealing the Ball, Assists, Defense, and Stamina.

Luck is a factor in every basketball game, and STATIS PRO BASKETBALL represents the effect of chance with a unique system of FAST ACTION CARDS that keep the game moving fast while at the same time allowing everything that takes place in a real game to occur.

Game Equipment:
Scorepad
Rules Folder
Mounted full-color Playing Board with Reference Charts & Tables
Set of Fast Action Cards
Player Cards representing players of every pro team.

Lost and alone, you must survive and escape the woods. There are 5 different scenarios from inexperienced hikers lost in the woods to a rescue party trying to find a lost person. You will have to deal with animals, finding food and water, mother nature and sickness without dying to win.

The two players select their lineups from imaginary players or actual players by converting their stats to the game's parameters. (This is easily done from mlb.com on the net.)

The Defensive team is the manager and catcher, selecting pitch types (Fast Ball, Off Speed, Pitch out, etc. )to get batters out.

Offensive managers and batters must then select a type of offense/ball in play strategy (Steal, Bunt, Hit and Run, Long Ball, etc.)The defensive team commits first with a "Pitch" card. The offensive team then orally calls its strategy. The results of the two choices are found by cross indexing them on a result matrix table. This is classic matrix game theory where one player is trying to minimize his opponent's results while maximizing his own.

Players can decide on the size of ballpark before the game.
There are rules for series play in order to give proper rest to pitchers. The game even has injury possibilities.

Great baseball action.

Football Strategy boils the sport down to play calling skill. The game's structure is simple: The defensive player selects one of 10 formation cards (ranging from an 8-man line "goal line stand" to a pass prevent defense with five safeties); the offensive player calls a play (a choice of 20, plus punting). Cross-indexing the choices on a matrix shows what happened. Except for "long gains", the outcome of each play against each defense is always the same. Dice are rolled only to determine the distance of long gains and the results of kickoffs and field goal attempts.

Each play consumes a prescribed number of seconds, from 15 to 45. The players mark off the time and play four quarters, following the standard football rules.

For variety, three types of offense ("pro style", "aerial game" and "ball control") are available, each with a different, though not radically different, results matrix.

Simple though it is, the game is engrossing (see the "More Information" screen), and play generally follows realistic patterns, though the handling of punts and on-side kicks (both more effective than in real life) is questionable. Also, because the design changed little after its debut in 1959, the plays and defenses don't reflect the state of the art in contemporary professional football. This is the era of Otto Graham, not Eli Manning.

For those who are so inclined, Football Strategy lends itself to mathematical analysis. Many years ago, an entrant into the tournament at Origins went to the trouble of using game theory to generate charts showing the optimal mix of plays in different situations. He reached the finals but, in a victory for human intuition over number crunching, lost the championship game by a touchdown and a field goal.

This is a hunting game that consists of driving out to the hunting lodge, spending 5 days (laps around the lodge area) hunting, then driving back home. Aside from rolling dice to determine how far to move the game is played primarily with a big composite spinner, which determines the outcome of things like shooting game, luck at the horse track, and playing poker. Everyone starts with $300 and 5 credentials. Driving is mostly uneventful except for small financial transactions. Luck "in the field" is determined by flipping over situation cards when you land on situation space. Some cards have animals you can try to shoot at, others have bad luck type situations you need to over come by moving or playing a credential card. Each time a player circumnavigates the lodge (spends one day hunting) they receive a credential and have an opportunity to answer a hunting or safety related question for a cash bonus.