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Main - General MFN Discussion

Re: Why Do We Love Our Dots So Much?

By setherick
12/27/2018 9:41 am
RedNU wrote:
I think for me it?s twofold -- 1. Most of the GM/Sim games I?ve seen usually end with just having a play-by-play that you have to read if you want more than the end score and stats. Simply having dots bouncing around is an improvement over that, but 2. it reminds me of an old game we used to play in college called Playmaker Football (circa 1989), where one allocated a set amount of skill points across their entire roster and then also programmed their own playbook -- it was the first game I?d ever seen where you could literally diagram your own plays and once one of the kids in the dorm cracked the copy protect on the disk, it spread like wildfire across our dorm. We?d have league nights every Wednesday and Saturday...the divisions were the actual floors of the dorm and home field advantage meant you were playing the game on your computer system. Lots of good times and beer consumed over three years in that league. Lots of nostalgia seeing these little top-down dots scrambling around.


This sounds a lot more fun than the dark days of the Madden and NCAA Football tournaments on the PS1 and PS2.

Re: Why Do We Love Our Dots So Much?

By OffensiveTaco
12/27/2018 10:30 pm
Beercloud wrote:
Some peeps outside looking in don't understand how we can play a game that only has dots running around. In the age of give me my graphics and animation and give it to me now, some would rather have graphics over a thinking mans game of strategy.

For me dots are a nostalgic deal. The first strategy football game I played was when I was a kid. It was my dads actually, but he let my brother and I play it. I forget the name of it, but it was virtually a box with a light bulb in it.

Both the offense and defense had these large cards of plays. Each card represented a football field. The defenses cards had dots all over it and the offenses cards had a jagged line going down the field. The offense would put their chosen play card in the box and then the defense would put theirs on top of the offenses card. Then you would pull back this slider that would light up the offenses jagged line and when it reached a dot the play was dead right there. You'd see how many yards were gained and move a slider on a football field to see where you are at. And of course change the down marker and score as needed. Spent hours on that game. Have loved dots ever since.

So that's my story, but what attracts you to the glorious dots?

Beautifully written man......

I think dots to me represent something significant that stimulate your imagination and thinking, kinda like a b&w film does, keeps me coming back for more!
Whereas in today’s day and age, with all the graphics........well ****! you wind up paying more attention to the graphics versus the strategy and the nuts and bolts!

Re: Why Do We Love Our Dots So Much?

By Cjfred68
12/28/2018 9:23 pm
It was statis pro football for me. Each player had a card and you had an offense and defense sheet where you lined up your players. Each player would select there play call with cards....i.e. inside run RB1 while the defense would pick there play...i.e..pass defense man to man. You would then flip action cards which would determine the result of the play. A board unfolded to represent the field and a plastic football would keep track of the ball placement. Even had a little first down marker which attached to the field. Played this in the late 70s and early 80s and Pittsburghs defense was ridiculous. Used a scoresheet to keep track of the time, 15 rows of 6 boxes for the 4 quarters. On run play or completed pass you would fill in 4 boxes or 40 seconds, on incomplete passes you filled in 2 boxes or 20 seconds. Spent hours upon hours playing with friends. An actual game took about an hour to complete. The scorecard also had areas to track the player stats. Still have this game in my closet

Re: Why Do We Love Our Dots So Much?

By RedNU
12/30/2018 1:21 am
setherick wrote:
RedNU wrote:
I think for me it?s twofold -- 1. Most of the GM/Sim games I?ve seen usually end with just having a play-by-play that you have to read if you want more than the end score and stats. Simply having dots bouncing around is an improvement over that, but 2. it reminds me of an old game we used to play in college called Playmaker Football (circa 1989), where one allocated a set amount of skill points across their entire roster and then also programmed their own playbook -- it was the first game I?d ever seen where you could literally diagram your own plays and once one of the kids in the dorm cracked the copy protect on the disk, it spread like wildfire across our dorm. We?d have league nights every Wednesday and Saturday...the divisions were the actual floors of the dorm and home field advantage meant you were playing the game on your computer system. Lots of good times and beer consumed over three years in that league. Lots of nostalgia seeing these little top-down dots scrambling around.


This sounds a lot more fun than the dark days of the Madden and NCAA Football tournaments on the PS1 and PS2.


We had a great dorm of hardcore sports fans...Playmaker football in the fall and Pursue the Pennant leagues for baseball in the spring. And somehow through it all we still got schoolwork down as well.

Re: Why Do We Love Our Dots So Much?

By shauma_llama
12/31/2018 1:26 am
Cjfred68 wrote:
It was statis pro football for me. Each player had a card and you had an offense and defense sheet where you lined up your players. Each player would select there play call with cards....i.e. inside run RB1 while the defense would pick there play...i.e..pass defense man to man. You would then flip action cards which would determine the result of the play. A board unfolded to represent the field and a plastic football would keep track of the ball placement. Even had a little first down marker which attached to the field. Played this in the late 70s and early 80s and Pittsburghs defense was ridiculous. Used a scoresheet to keep track of the time, 15 rows of 6 boxes for the 4 quarters. On run play or completed pass you would fill in 4 boxes or 40 seconds, on incomplete passes you filled in 2 boxes or 20 seconds. Spent hours upon hours playing with friends. An actual game took about an hour to complete. The scorecard also had areas to track the player stats. Still have this game in my closet


I remember that one. Had it the year Troy Aikman was a rookie. As a rookie he was -- bad. That changed.

Re: Why Do We Love Our Dots So Much?

By BearForceOne
1/03/2019 1:37 am
My only story is that I played in high school, and I'm in a bit of a weird place, as though I don't go that far back, thanks to Value Village, the various games I've owned over the years have. I've owned Strat-o-Matic, Statis Pro, NFL Strategy, Paydirt, Vince Lombardi's Game, Thinking Man's Football, Pro Foto Football and electric football at various points, Lombardi being the oldie I enjoyed the most-there were enough offensive plays that it didn't get too repetitive, and calling your defense mattered-guess right, you were more likely to stuff em for a loss, guess wrong and you're eating a runner or wideout's dust. Kinda like a prototype Tecmo Bowl, though I'd honestly be shocked if anybody who worked on TB had ever heard of Lombardi's game.
On the flip side, if you've never heard of or played Pizza Box Football, be thankful, you're not missing much. It's got alternate rulesets I admittedly like, but the gameplay itself is mind-numbingly repetitive, and picking the right or wrong defense barely matters most of the time. I've long forgotten how much I paid for this middling game (though I recall it being on sale...and I only bought it because they ran out of a newer electric football game I'd had my eye on), but I've gotten much better gameplay from print to play games I DL'ed for free.