Classic teams in baseball games

[mrg1]

Does anybody remember Old Time Baseball, which was made by

Stormfront (the guys who made Tony Larussa Baseball) back in the mid

1990s? That game had every single year of every team that played

baseball after 1900, and all the players were included as well. If using

retired players was okay back then, what has changed so that now only

some classic players show up in games like MVP?

[Yankee4Life]

Does anybody remember Old Time Baseball, which was made by

Stormfront (the guys who made Tony Larussa Baseball) back in the mid

1990s? That game had every single year of every team that played

baseball after 1900, and all the players were included as well. If using

retired players was okay back then, what has changed so that now only

some classic players show up in games like MVP?

Do I remember it? Heck, I still play it! But I think that is a very good question. I have no idea why players like Joe Dimaggio are not in this game, or what about those great Tiger hitters like Charlie Gehringer and Harry Heilman? Old time Baseball was a fantastic game. Yeah, it is outdated, but I would love to see the same people who made Old Time Baseball and Tony Larussa Baseball make a game today. Imagine what they could do.

Welcome to the forum.

[stecropper]

Yes, I remember it well. In fact I just sent a copy of it to two guys from another forum I visit. Actually it was the SuperPack Gold Version created by Joel DeLeon which had many protraits added to the game along with ALL-Time Great Teams and many Negro League All-Star Teams as well.

I pre-ordered that game the day it became available and played it for many years before relinquishing to APBA's Broadcast Blast with Ernie Harwell. Broadcast Blast was as close to listening to a Live Radio Broadcast as it gets. It two had individual season disk available for almost every year which I have 30 or so. Stayed with that game a couple to three years before MVP 2004 showed up on the scene. In between these three games I bought and tried well over 50 various PC baseball games. My drawers are still filled with them way back to some being on 5 1/4 inch floppies plus even my old Commodore 64 "Computer Baseball" game.

But to get to your question. Not long after being released Old Time Baseball had to discontinue it's extensive use of every team through history due to licensing issues. Once it did that it never sold very well. I actually have one of those versions as well. Thus, the concept of every team with every player within a game became non existent until Robert Glass appeared on the scene with his marvelous MVPEdit program importing from the Lahman Data Base. Old Time Baseball's Time Machine was really a unique and wonderful feature where it would adjust players stats (i.e. ratings) to the time period you wanted to play them in. I even tried moving some of that great music from Old Time Baseball into my MVP 2004 game but no conversion program I could find could handle that conversion properly.

Old Time Baseball along with the entire Tony LaRussa Series were very good games and still have many fans to this day enjoying it.

[capa]

Does anybody remember Old Time Baseball, which was made by

Stormfront (the guys who made Tony Larussa Baseball) back in the mid

1990s? That game had every single year of every team that played

baseball after 1900, and all the players were included as well. If using

retired players was okay back then, what has changed so that now only

some classic players show up in games like MVP?

Yeah...Steve...you hit on it. About 10 years ago or so, Johnny Bench sued a major game company for using his likeness, name, and stats without his permission. He won the case. Since then, all retired players have had to agree to have their names and likenesses used in any sports games, since they are not covered by any licensing that the active major league, or NFL, players may be under.

The game companies have to approach each retired player they want in the game individually and get their permission (contract). In recent years, the Cooperstown Collection of players was put together which is why you see alot of the players in certain games, but not all...like Mantle, Mays, Dimaggio, Williams, etc...these players, or their families, have not agreed to have them join that particular "union". Usually due to disagreement on comepensation ($$$).

So, the bottom line is, we all have Johnny Bench to thank!

C

[AlexTony]

very interesting post Capa. i had heard something pertaining to this

but no details or any specifics.

[baseballfans]

AlexTony any possible that we can MOD MVP and make those all time great team like we did with High Heat Baseball.

I see all these portrait being post but no one seem to make faces of old time players. All we got is current players.

[AlexTony]

belive me i have looked into this. the faces are 'much' harder with

MVP. but, when the 'Total Classics v3' is uploaded by Fuzz, there

will be modding for many logo's, uni's, etc. also, i have done

allot of trial and error and came up with a few close faces

that will work just fine using the likeness of current faces for

some of the classic players. remember, the MVP game gives a head

start with the retro: players, uni's and stadiums. it will/is a pretty

good package of old time teams from performance wise to eye candy.

it is kind of an end result combination from many great modders

who like classics at this forum. hopefully it will fill the bill for

some classic simming.

[krawhitham]

Yeah...Steve...you hit on it. About 10 years ago or so, Johnny Bench sued a major game company for using his likeness, name, and stats without his permission. He won the case. Since then, all retired players have had to agree to have their names and likenesses used in any sports games, since they are not covered by any licensing that the active major league, or NFL, players may be under.

The game companies have to approach each retired player they want in the game individually and get their permission (contract). In recent years, the Cooperstown Collection of players was put together which is why you see alot of the players in certain games, but not all...like Mantle, Mays, Dimaggio, Williams, etc...these players, or their families, have not agreed to have them join that particular "union". Usually due to disagreement on comepensation ($$$).

So, the bottom line is, we all have Johnny Bench to thank!

C

Thanks Johnny

you d**k

[krawhitham]

AlexTony any possible that we can MOD MVP and make those all time great team like we did with High Heat Baseball.

I see all these portrait being post but no one seem to make faces of old time players. All we got is current players.

Faces are a *****,you can not make new slots for faces and the game it self only has like 38 blank slots. With portraits you can make up slots for a total if 9999 in all I think

[krawhitham]

belive me i have looked into this. the faces are 'much' harder with

MVP. but, when the 'Total Classics v3' is uploaded by Fuzz, there

will be modding for many logo's, uni's, etc. also, i have done

allot of trial and error and came up with a few close faces

that will work just fine using the likeness of current faces for

some of the classic players. remember, the MVP game gives a head

start with the retro: players, uni's and stadiums. it will/is a pretty

good package of old time teams from performance wise to eye candy.

it is kind of an end result combination from many great modders

who like classics at this forum. hopefully it will fill the bill for

some classic simming.

I have know idea what is going on with fuzz but I have been away for a week or so, I finished TC3 over two weeks ago for him. It installed and worked fine, he then added some portraits and all hell broke loose I believe

[AlexTony]

Fuzz wrote:

i've decided to take alextony up on his offer of updating the roster set to be more realistic. He says it'll probably take till the weekend, and since it's already thursday fine.

alextony adjustments:

I am not being extreme because we have allot of good rosters that have been done well.

though the TEAM players are fairly consistent, remember we have had many different team creators. so, without being drastic, some made changes for a more rounded playout

the following was done:

* continuity with control ratings. it is very important for determining the pitchers effectiveness.

but, we cannot have one team with all 70 or so and another with 90's. This way a teams 3rd & 4th starter will

continually outduel, more often than not, the other

teams ace or number 1 starter

* some pitch selection changes for pitchers. know a few, looked up some no access too many

* curveball description to: vertical or drop

(again the 'movement' rating will playout how good it is)

* rid most 15 fielding ratings. that is soley errors and not actual player fielding ability

* star power ratings: determines how a player performs in the clutch. (all players were the same for ALL rosters.

so, i adjusted them)

* more old time stances and deliveries with old time players

same examples and explanations:

again, 3rd & 4th SP's on one team have ratings very high. but, the aces on other clubs do not. this was changed

so, the numbers that actually play out, the player

performance ratings, (not stats) are being adjusted across the board: movement, control & velocity for pitchers.

contact & power, along 'WITH' hit, take, miss & swing

hitting zones for many batters.

(again, all were the same generic settings for all rosters

for the mentioned - hit, miss & swing ratings. now they

are not)

example:

take the '78 BoSox, Butch Hobson, with 122 k's in 500+ ab's is now much more likely to swing and miss at a low and outside slider than Jerry Remy, 55 k's in over 600+ ab's. both from the same '78 BoSox team

(of course the pitchers stuff is a factor also)

yet, a similar player may be better in the clutch, example

Reggie Jackson, so his 'star power' rating will be much

higher than the previous mentioned Hobson's. yet, both have high strikout per ab ratings with Jackson having come

crunch time the ability to come up big more often than

the exampled Hobson

also, a quick run thru of: speed, fielding, arm, etc.

in the first 'player ratings' section of mvp edit

again, nothing drastic but across the board now all teams

will be on the 'same' player rating systems

in the end this will allow a bit more realism as a whole. hence, better simming and/or arcade playout

of course this is a sim gaming and there is 'ALWAYS' room for improvement. i sent the .MBE roster out to Fuzz yesterday. so it will not be long now

[baseballfans]

Because the RedSox Beat us last year to break the curse I was in a depress mood.

But is 2005 now, I have recover fully from the defeat so I can start this project with the classic team face again. =)

Here is a recent modder who shown sign that face of old player can be done

http://www.mvpmods.com/index.php?name=Foru...mp;&start=0

[stecropper]

Yes, da Mick that was done was very well done. I would think that Mays has a unique face that would be really well received by many Classic Baseball players. Then Aaron perhaps would be the next choice. But of course it sounds like you might be more interested in Yankee faces then I would suggest Pepitone, Munson or Roy White would be fairly uniques faces for them.

Good Luck with your project and of course us Classis Baseball players will anxiously be awaiting your productions.

Thanks,

Don