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Soo excited to try to get this game running again. This ate up a great deal of my time back in the day, and I lost the install disks... a long time ago. Has anyone got this running using WINE? Thanks, -Frank

Let me start.. I thought this would be an interesting thread to start here at GM Games. I am really curious to know about how you found out about playing these types of games. We've had several blog entries from our feature contributors telling us their story about how they got started playing sim sports. History: I don't consider myself someone with a great memory lol but here is how I think it all got started and how it evolved. For a long time I have always been fascinated with the statistics in sports. Being a fan, playing sports my whole life, I was always interested in box scores. My grandparents would always have a daily paper and I would grab the sports section and be really interested in reading the box scores that tell a little bit of a story of how the game went. From then on I knew stats and sports, athlete performance had a lasting effect on me. But it evolved further to wondering why teams won, why teams lost, and understand the aspects of a manager or franchise. I think it all started on NES. I owned a copy of Baseball Simulator and my friends in the neighbourhood and I just played the crap out of Baseball Stars. I think my mom at one point had a 40 dollar late charge with Blockbuster on a copy of Baseball Stars being a few weeks late. Man did I ever love that game from the team building perspective, money, salary caps etc. Later on Baseball Simulator was pretty fun, but I think I ended up playing Baseball Simulator 1.000 on SNES more, minus the dumbass magic part of that game lol. Baseball was my sport growing up but I loved all sports and my background being Lithuanian, I have been bred to love Basketball. Along the journey at blockbuster I rented my first copy of Tecmo Super Bowl. I would play out full seasons with my friend during sleepovers and we would almost get a whole season done from early afternoon till about 3-4 am. Losing in the playoffs with eyes barely open was an empty feeling when it was all over, lol! But was simulating it ever fun as well. Stats were realistic, player personnel moves had significance etc. Loved this game. I found some joy in basketball from copies of NCAA Basketball (which didn't simulate well but played well), and played a lot of Tecmo Super NBA Basketball. Tons of fun and loved my mid-range jumpers from the elbows (which normally was a low percentage shot) but loved seeing Michael Jordan hitting those while growing up. From a hockey perspective my first simulation game was Wayne Gretzky Hockey, which I believe was way ahead of its time. As time progressed Baseball Mogul showed up on the scene. It instantly was a hit to me, it took what I wanted these games to become to the level where it made me feel wrapped up in this world. I helped run a league named BMIL that lasted for years until we switched to OOTP .. I have been a user on the OOTP forums since 2002 and I have an interesting private message with Markus from 2002 that makes me smile to this day. As the modern games came out I pretty much played about everything. Countless hours of Championship Manager (CM) even though I wasn't a huge European Football / Soccer fan but the game was just THAT good. Eastside Hockey Manager was developing and the games got more sophisticated. I still firmly believe this genre made some of the most addictive games ever made. If you really believe and are intrigued with a great simulator algorithm and AI world, these games will keep you playing through all hours of the night. "Just sim one more day".. Hey, share with us your story. I would love to hear it personally. I helped create this site so these games, the developers get the attention they deserve, but also, we get a chance to mold the games with the dev's in our desired fantasy world's. What's your story??

I am going to set this up by bringing it from its beginning through the past few days in a couple of paragraphs. Played with Sierra's FBPro98, using the VPNFL99 mod with some later additions of plays and game plans from VPNFL02. The first season played was the 1998 season. The Raiders clawed their way to a 9-7 season, just missing the AFC Wildcard berth on the last week of play, after a 2-5 start. Week 17 saw them play a snow bowl playoff game for all intents and purposes in New England where the winner would be a playoff team the following week, and the loser would be finished for the year. The Patriots jumped to a 20-6 halftime lead before I made some halftime adjustments. In the end they edged the Raiders 27-26 as the Raiders tried a 53 yd field goal on the game's final play after a 3 yd sack on 3rd and 8 from the 33. I was happy with the way my first season went overall. The Raiders went 12-4 in '99 scoring 526 points, highest in the league. That season after a 1st rd bye, they lost in their first playoff game 34-31 to the same Patriots who had bested them at the end of 97...a rivalry was brewing. In 2000 the Raiders finished 10-6 and struggled most of the second half of the season as our starting QB Hostetler was injured in week6 against the Chiefs, then again in week9 immediately after coming back, against the Dallas Cowboys, out for the rest of the season. The team made the playoffs as a wildcard, but quickly exited in the Wildcard game against the Miami Dolphins 21-10. 2001 saw the Raiders return to excellence, with starting RB McCallum rushing for 1382 yds and starting LCB Woodson intercepting 6 passes in the season's last 5 games (9 overall) the team won their last 8 and finished 13-3. Playoff victories against the Steelers (27-13) and the Patriots in the AFC championship (28-27) they prepared to face the 15-1 Rams in the Superbowl. The hype of the AFCs top offense and the NFCs greatest show on turf was well deserved as the Rams won 42-38 in a game with 7 lead changes. The 2002-2005 Raiders were always right around .500 (9-7, 8-8,8-8,9-7) and only made one playoff berth as a wildcard in 2004 in a subpar AFC with an 8-8 record and a quick loss to....those $#@** Patriots lol. 2006 saw the Raiders make a serious bid for an undefeated season, winning their first 12 before losing 2 of their next three. They finished 14-2 and breezed through playoff wins over the Cin. Bengals 38-6 and the New England Patriots 34-10...a Super Bowl matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was also overhyped as the Raiders destroyed the vaunted NFC repeating champions 42-13 to win the superbowl. 2007 saw the Raiders picking up where they left off, winning their first 10, and finishing 13-3. In the process setting a league record with 567 points scored, as well as a league record for point differential with only 210 points allowed. They once again destroyed their postseason opposition 41-10 over Miami, 44-3 over Denver in the AFC title bout...and 41-0 in the Superbowl victory over the Dallas Cowboys. At that point they had scored 40+ points in 11 straight games! 2008... the current season being played. The Raiders won their first 5 in much the same fashion, but a few cracks appeared. In week 3 the San Diego Chargers discovered a hole in the Raider pass defense and exploited it for 430 yds through the air from QB Rivers. The Raiders won 33-31 but it was the first time in 2 seasons +, they had yielded over 30 points, and was the most yds they had surrendered passing in our 10 years. The scouting report seems to have been not noticed by the next opponent Philadelphia, which we beat 44-3 to improve to 4-0. We next had our bye week. In week 5 we went back to work...against the same Cowboy team we had beaten in Superbowl. This time they had seen game film and we were in for a fight...they constantly beat our aggressive defense, burning blitzes for TD passes of 71 and 64 yds, and another stopped at our 3 by Asomugha that gained 45. The Raiders still pulled it out in a 37-34 OT win, but now WE needed to be the one adjusting. 2008 Week 6...a 34-23 defeat to the NY Giants...Eli Manning passing for 370 yds. We were 5-1, but suddenly much less secure in our future. Week 7...26-14 victory over Buffalo, as the rain and wind made the hole in our defense less noticeable. Week 8 a 33-27 loss to the Patriots in which Brady threw 4 TDs and 388 yds. We were 6-2 and still leading the AFC West by two games, but suddenly nervous. Week 9 the second place San Diego Chargers in town for the rematch. They had been the ones to suddenly pounce on our weakness back in Week 3. This time they jumped early, and never let up...our 45-24 defeat was even more one sided than that score appears as we scored 21 in the fourth quarter after already being down 38-3. We were suddenly 6-3 and only a game ahead of the Chargers and Broncos both. Week 10, a matchup with the Arizona Cardinals who defeated us 33-30 in OT. The Chargers won their game as did the Broncos, and suddenly we are one of 3 6-4 teams on top of the AFC West. Week 11... a revamped defense from the ground up in the playbook, a lot of bump and run, man-coverage...a bit fewer blitzes, and continuation of the basic play calling philosophy of "Put them into must pass situations" by being aggressive on 1st and 2nd downs, then backing off some and playing safe on most 3rds. The next team, the Redskins, were struggling offensively anyway as well (24th overall, 29th passing) so we had a "easy run through" to test our new plays. It was not easy though...the final score was a win, but not as much as I hoped after putting hours into the new plays...We won 31-26. We are now 7-4. This is the current situation.

Starters Orders 7 continues to be developed and updates will continue to be made available on Steam. Vast horse racing game world with thousands of horses, hundreds of jockeys and trainers. The most realistic races ever in a racing game. Permenant horse records with historical stats. The only game ever to accurately simulate UK jumps racing. Train, own, breed, bet and race in a realistic horse racing world. Cutting edge real time commentary engine. Alternative betting shop race mode. Jockey mode. Ride your own horses! Oculus Rift mode for the VR race expierience! Dynamic never ending horse racing game world. Breed your own race horses or start a stud with your best stallions. Sales. Buy yearlings, race horses, breeders from game trainers. View any horses lineage and data back over 100 years! Stewards enquiries, non-triers, fines, photo finishes, accurate handicapping etc. Vast form book detailing previous form! Offline management game. Pay once play forever! Build a stud and put up your best stallions for offers from AI trainers/owners. Improved jockey AI for the most realistic horse races ever in a game! Hundreds of world-wide premiere races such as the Melbourne Cup and Grand National! Coverage here: https://gmgames.org/starters-orders-7/

It can get expensive but Dave Koch Sports has one but it is minus all the financial stuff and me being older I am used to them not having that and personally I would like to leave that sort of stuff to real life. Another option is Draft Day Pro Sports Football from Wolverine Studios. It has the financial stuff but you can set it to where it does not get in your way of having fun. Now with this one though you don't truly own your game whereas with Dave Koch Sports games you do as what you download requires no special key / registration to use it. Finally there is Second and Ten V10 and from what I can tell of it well if you can get it going it should be loads of fun. I would recommend you do your research like anybody else should and with the Wolverine Studios game there is a demo to try out. Also with Second and Ten V10 I am not sure if there is a demo but with like all these games check out YouTube to see various people playing them.

The Raiders returned to the field for their 13th game of 2008. They faced a Jacksonville Jaguars team that was a defending divisional champion, but having a miserable season at 3-9. A close game at the half 15-7 Raiders became a blowout early in the 3rd quarter. The Raiders rolled 46-7 and for at least one game, appear back "on". With over 500 yards of offense, while holding Brunell and the Jaguars to under 200, and converting half of our third downs, as well as winning the time of possession battle 35:07 to 24:53 everything I had worked on seemed at least momentarily good, with the exception of 3 turnovers...but our defense got 3 back as well. Elsewhere, San Diego lost their game to Denver...and we have a horse race in the AFC West with three 8-5 teams. We will play the Broncos next game in Oakland, and in three weeks in the season finale in cold Denver. We can control our own playoff picture by simply winning.

Thank you for taking the time to post the video's. Helped me out a ton.

So today we go behind the scenes in a way, to look at what happens during the days between the games. In career leagues, especially... the games, however thrilling, are sometimes not the most important aspect. Here we have a Raider team that is back-to-back Superbowl Champions with an unstoppable offense, and an aggressive big play defense... that was 37-5 including playoffs from 2006-Game 5 of 2008. That team had not only won, but dominated, during that stretch, outscoring opponents by an average score of 35-17. Now however, in the homestretch of the 2008 season after starting 5-0, there appear to be multiple small leaks in our ship's hull. Any one of these leaks alone would not be anything to worry about before the next draft class, but they all seem to have hit together, and right now, even a Wildcard berth is no guarantee. I am inclined after a few hours of calming down from our dismal 5 turnover performance, to think that was a fluke... our offense style has for a decade, been just as aggressive as our defense, with a passing attack that is near totally a vertical game... as I went through the playbook in my first season, I removed nearly every pass play that ended with curl backs...preferring to hit my edge receivers in stride, and it seems only natural that eventually that would trade for some INTs for my QBs, who have had excellent seasons overall, but a few poor high-INT games over those seasons...so we will wait on the panic button there. We do have a glaring hole that usually has been covered by our ability to "strike from anywhere on the field"... we are 30th-dead last- in the league on 3rd down conversions offensively 52/163. I have accepted that usually as a trade-off also, and it has always been there during my tenure. Now may be the time to do something about that...so I go into my coaching profile and alter just a bit on the plays called on 3rd down. We should at least be hitting on 3rd and short more often than our 4/27 current... my aggressive play calling has thrown deep on 19 of those 3rd and 1 or 2 plays...scoring a TD on a 68 yd pass, but 18 incompletes... so I alter my overbearing aggressive play calling by making it much more likely that we will run up the middle on these plays...but still I am mem so I leave a 1 in 5 chance to throw it over 20 yds. My QB is Don Hollas, who in our NFL as in real, was initially someone to fill a hole in the roster, but in ours he developed much better and has had a great 2007 and half of 2008, throwing for 3860 yds and 27TDs in 2007, and on a pace to beat that in 2008 before his last game. He is aging though, so this will probably be his last star quality season, and I am looking at the draft for a QB, but that is the future. Now? His strength numbers are at 89 this season...from 91 last season...that is barely sufficient for the deep pass offense I run...so I begin looking at his backup, Morrissey has a strength of 97, but DI rating of 82...likely more interecptions, but possibly capable of better performance in a vertical offense. I will run him some in practice this week and see how that looks in game conditions. Our return man is Hester, and just as he was in the real NFL, he is an exciting player. He was leading the league in Kick and Punt returns last season and is third this season in punt returns, averaging 17.3 with two returns for TD. He can turn a game around as a return man, but is less impressive as a receiver. We are deep at WR with 5 who could start anywhere, and 3 who are either on pace for thousand receiving yard seasons, or could with a great game over the next month. No real changes here. Our defense strategy plays right now a 2-2-7 man alignment a lot, and a 3-2-6 a lot as well... so I will only suit up the usual 5 LBs and will play one more TE suited up than normal (4) and we will go into the practice week looking at some new possession type offense plays...we have been "Out possessed" 33:20 to 26:40 on average...that will be my target for the hole we fix.

Not sure if mentioned, so i will apologize if it has and I am just being redundant. The Process of having to go to a players page, let it load, click on assign/recall, let it load, then authorize that choice, then let it load, is rather annoying. Could it be possible to set it up so that when you are on your roster page, and you click on a player, and the pop up comes up with his ratings and traits, at the bottom, like how you can simply click on "add to shortlist" or "remove from shortlist" have another bottom that we can assign/recall that player? That way we can just quickly go down our roster list and do it all from one page in a much faster process.

2008 Game 12. Raiders play at Seattle against a 3-8 Seahawk team that scouting tells us is much better than their record indicates. They defeated the Chargers, who we are in a dogfight for the division with, 38-17 for one of their victories early this season. They come in ranked 6th in the league offensively behind Hasselbeck at QB who is the #2 passer thus far in 2008, and has thrown 19TDs against only 4 interceptions. Going in therefore, we are well aware that our new defensive schemes will be tested by fire in the Kingdome. In the game's opening drive the defending champion Raiders, for the first time in seemingly ages playing with backs to the wall, look impressive. After an illegal block penalty on the kickoff put the ball at their 11 to start things off, the leagues best offense drove 84 yds on a 7 play drive and had a first-and-goal at the Seahawk 5yard line. Hollas dropped back on a play action fake and had a wide open Hester in the end zone but the play was called back on an offensive hold...1st and goal at Seattle's 15. On the next play Seattle's Trufant stepped in front of Raider RB Conner at the 4, and delivered the season's longest pick-6. 7-0 Seattle. In the end Conner rushed for a season low 23 yds, McFadden added 27 on the ground and 31 receiving for the Raiders. Hollas went 17-31 for 345 yds for Oakland...but threw 4 interceptions. On the other side, Seattle's Hasselbeck had a pedestrian game with just 149 passing yards...the Raider D had stepped up and stopped a solid passing attack ...but the Raider O suddenly self destructed with a fumble and 4 interceptions. Seattle 17 Oakland 7. Elsewhere, the Broncos lost to the Cowboys, the Chargers defeated the Eagles. For the first time in more than two seasons, the Raiders are not in first place. Seattle 8-4-0. Oakland 7-5-0. Denver 7-5-0 4 games to go ..fixed our defense I think...now our vaunted offense suddenly looks weak.

Derby Day Tribute | Getting Started on Starters Orders 7 (Windows PC Game) | Horse Racing Manager Cards of GM Games takes us through getting started on Starters Orders 7 and runs a Kentucky Derby as tribute. Learn tips and enjoy the video.

Have you tried Starters Orders 7? It's mostly breeding and racing, so the financial aspect of it isn't too difficult once you get rolling. But it does have some of those aspects like auctions. I have a lot of fun just trying to breed a horse that can compete and win one of the Triple Crown races. If I ever get there, then I can move on and try to win all 3. Also, there's a HIGHLY competitive online league associated with it.

Not sure, but this game gives me so much nostalgia. I played this game for hours as a kid.

i still have the floppys for FPS Football Premier Edition from 1993!

I started with Omny Play Basketball on Commodore 64

Been playing it since it first came out. Got the itch to play it again the other day so I loaded FPSFB98 on my machine and came here in search of the Windows 10 patch. I mostly mess with Nascar Racing 2003 and whatnot.... but I created a 30 team fictional league and decided it was time to resume playing it!

I started playing Statis Pro tabletop baseball in 1988 and still play it today...love that game. OOTP is fun, but I still like the old table top games (I'm 45 years old). I had college basketball sim game I found in the early 1990's. It was on floppy disk. It was simple, text sim 'black and green screen", no graphics and a lot of fun. i really don't remember the name of it. You could edit/make up players and pick any team in D1 to be. You could make the tounrney, etc. It wasn't fancy with the graphics, recruiting, calling players etc. like Wolverine Studios college basketball game of today, but at the time, it was really fufilling. I took over a team and played a series of seasons. To make it more in depth, I would write articles about the team as the season progressed as if I was the beat wI liriter. It was a lot of fun. Been hooked on sports sim games all these years. I enjoy games like NCAA14 and the Show, etc. but I like sim games more. It's fun to be the coach and try and lead a team to glory. Edit: I just remembered....I wanted a college basketball table top game so bad (before personal computers were common) that I created my own (using Statis Pro Pro Basketball as the skeleton). It was really fun creatting the game and I made it in depth so you got plus/minus to stats for home court, coaching ability, type of defense called etc. I made a few teams (Cincinnati Bearcats, Memphis Tigers, Ohio State Buckeyes and Michigan Wolverines) and FINALLY got it completed and played the game and it played out really well, was smooth and the outcomes were 'realistic'. I started playing my own game a lot but it took a lot of time to create teams (used real stats). I got a hold of Avalon Hill at some point to see if they would be interested but their reply was, "computers are going to make table top games a thing of the past". Ha. That was in the mid 1990's. I don't think they were right on that. Oh well...it was a lot of fun.

Started with card and dice board sports games Avalon Hill, Strat O Matic and 3M games. When the pc came out now the gaming experience than ramped up remember using Floppy disks. Play games like Wayne Gretsky, Tony LaRusa, Earl Weaver, NCAA Basketball and Football, Championship Manager and East side Hockey. Jack Nicklaus golf. Loved the Front Page Sports FB and Baseball.

My journey into simulation sports started with an obsession into "customization" world of early NCAA Football for PS/PS2 circa 2001/2002. I was the type who spent the first week -- or two, inputting roster names. The joy I would have upon completing that and then beginning dynasty mode with rosters is something I will never forget. I simply did not care how tedious this was, I had to do it. NCAA Football was my heart and joy for many, many, many years. In terms of baseball, I remember the days of High Heat and Triple Play (and unfortunately all too short of the days on NCAA Baseball), but career/season long modes were always something I loved. That said, it was not until Season Ticket Baseball (OOTP 4) that I simply became HOOKED on simulation sports. I was fortunate enough to join a league early on in my STB/OOTP days that lasted for quite some time. I was taught the ropes and brought shown how great the camaraderie and challenge an online sim league could be. My interest in OOTP only continued to grow. Along with the simming came an interest in customization (HTML League reports, baseball cards, podcasts, websites...etc...etc) and it kept growing. After taking a break from OOTP for a year or two (this was several years ago), the itch for it came back. After simply joining a league (MLB Pro) early in its development, I have since taken over as Co-Commissioner and am back to being an OOTP diehard. I am always looking to see what can be done and truly enjoy sharing the fun of a league with all of my fellow GM's and the OOTP community as a whole.

Wolverine Studios Basketball Games

I guess the first gm game I played was the gm mode within the EA NHL games. I favored the mode because I always found it more fun to be playing a team of my own creation rather than the teams that some real gm has assembled. Eventually, I wanted a game with more depth and decided upon the recently released football manager game. The toughest part was probably the fact that I hardly knew nothing about football/soccer and therefore had to learn the strategies and desired players. I enjoyed it enough that eventually, I bought a few other gm games such as EHM, OOTP and that Euro Truck simulator game (does that count?) However, more recently I've acquired more priorities business in my life and as a result was looking for a smore simple game. Eventually I found gameplanhockey through a reddit comment on /r/hockey and have been pretty satisfied since.

APBA and OOTP baseball. Baseball is my first love, college basketball not being far behind.

I got my start playing sports sims quite a while later than the rest of the folks in the thread, mostly because I am quite a bit younger then them (I am not quite 19). A diehard sports fan since the Mariners historic 2001 season, my first sports video game was NBA Live '05, but they didn't consume me until MLB 2K7. After playing out the first month of the season and having every one of my regulars with 40 HR, I decided to sim into the future. All I can remember is that I reached the 2070s and the best player in league history was a fellow named Ichiro Pujols. My real love was baseball statistics and a desire to run a ballclub. I was beyond excited for MLB Front Office Manager, and beyond disappointed when I tried to play the incredibly broken game. After a few months I ventured back out and looked on the internet for a game that could satisfy my desire, and I found two, Baseball Mogul and OOTP. After browsing through screenshots, I decided to give the Baseball Mogul demo a try, I was actually turned off of OOTP because if its prettier graphics, perhaps mistrust from Front Office Manager. Baseball Mogul didn't have the Mariners roster right and I disagreed with the player ratings, so I decided to give OOTP a shot. I fell in love. I bought OOTPX and have purchased every version since, including OOTP 15, which has consumed the last few days of my life. I also play Draft Day Sports: College Basketball 2 which I picked up early last year and PFS, which I have been playing since 2010. I eagerly await BTS.

I'm not too sure what my first ever manage sim game would have been. I think it would be... Championship manager. I remember vividly playing Championship manager 01/02 - as mentioned, this is a very dangerous game, as you will not want to stop playing it, ever! I don't get too drawn into many games. World of Warcraft, supposedly people die playing this game? I can't play it more then about a week at a time, and now, I don't ever play it. But I can list the games I have been totally addicted to and have stole large portions of my life: NHL 94 (still does in 2014!) Extreme Warfare Revenge 4.2 (Wrestling Sim) Championship Manager 01/02 Eastside Hockey Manager 2005 Eastside Hockey Manager 2007 - the single greatest manager sim ever made. I have played this game for too many hours. Giants Killers - a soccer sim on the old Dreamcast console was really, really good! Football Manager 2008 - the best FM game there is! My story however isn't 'how I started playing' but it's a story nonetheless! Out of the Park Baseball 8. I'd known about OOTP but never really bothered. I loved VR Baseball 97 on the PSX and I always had MLB games, NFL games, NHL games etc. They were shown on TV here in England so it was interesting to see a different style of sport then what we are used too. However, I always would load up OOTP 8, click around and imagine that, yes its a great game, if you can understand it! I had the Football manager UI layout burnt into my brain and I couldn't get used to OOTP. After some months I finally loaded it up and thought, no, I am going to learn this game once and for all. So I sat and read and clicked and read. I had wikipedia open to learn the baseball ratings and slowly I managed to understand who was who, and what screens did what. From there I've bought ever OOTP (just got 15 today!) and It even motivated me to go and play baseball for my local team 'Oldham North Stars'.

My favourite batter to play with was either Eric Karros or Eric Davis, can't remember which one, because he always held his bat upright with his hands at his waist rather than over the shoulder as nearly everyone else did ! I always seemed to get more hits with him. I didn't know too much about the intricacies of baseball at that time and it took me ages to hit the ball but I wasn't as clueless as the guy on this video, undoubtedly the funniest video I've seen for a long while [video=youtube;wEFaE-VshYI] By now computers were starting to be affordable to the masses and along had come Chamionship Manager 2, the real start of the successful long running Football Manager (FM) series I bought all of them from CM2 to the current day FM14 and they were great, they were football but they weren't very stat based just as football isn't. The stats don't really matter at the end of the day - it's all about the ball in the net. My first real breakthrough on a stat based sports sim came when somehow, I can't remember how, I discovered OOTP 6 / 6.5 I still didn't really know what I was doing as I experimented with a few online leagues but soon dropped out as finances, options, waivers and other things were a complete mystery to me. Gradually I learnt myself what things did and meant and by 2008 I was ready to take the step back into the online world. I flitted through many leagues, not finding what I was looking for. Participation was still limited in those days, forums were very impersonal and I was conscious of being quite a bit older than your average American online player. Eventually I came across the MBBA just re-booting with 1995. No fancy webpage just forums but the commish was good and the GM's were a solid crew. I stuck there and despite a few gaps I am now on my fifth franchise there in (game date) 2015. They required a certain amount of writing, a few paragraphs here & there, which helped in the immersion but at the pace of three 10-day sims a week quite often was to much for me. In 2010 I took the plunge and applied to get into a league I had always admired, the PEBA. I had always thought that the amount of creative writing was beyond me but with a bit of friendly coaxing from founding commish John Rodriguez I managed to prove I could do it and they became my main league. The forums there are immense and I learnt lots of previously hidden intricacies from the friendly forums which really are a community with over 81,000 posts to date. The slower pace of two 7-day sims a week helped me to produce better writing but even that was a struggle at times with shift work. I got my reward last year in my fifth game year in the PEBA when I won my first ever online OOTP championship This year, having taken early retirement in late-2012 and struggled with time management initially, I began to look for something different and found it I think in One Day at a time sims. The slow pace is perfect for me to slip some writing in and I find the chat box a wonderful thing. I was never a fan of instant messenger things as my time on the computer was generally limited, snatched in-between work, meals and sleep. A message always popped up as I was rushing off but now I answer to no-one I find the chat box great to dip in & out of. So that's my life story of sports video games which kinda degenerated into my ootp history lol