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Ed Sawyer's avatar

Per Baseball pc sims, I would say yes. In particular the last 3 per my favorite pc sim...Baseball Mogul. Add to that Digital Diamond Baseball & one has access to all the teams from past seasons; as well as editors to...adjust things if one desires.

Both these titles offer great value...plus they work,

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SGJ Jamie's avatar

I think it depends on how you define a “golden age.” You made a great point about all the resources we have today—websites, videos, forums—which really enhance the experience of playing these games. That kind of access goes hand in hand with the hobby now.

But I’d also say there’s a strong case to be made for the 1960s through the 1980s. Sure, there weren’t as many titles to choose from, and you didn’t have the convenience of the internet, but the impact these games had might have been greater back then. (Speaking for myself, I can really only speak from the 1980s onward.)

For one thing, if you wanted to play a game with real teams and players, these tabletop sims were pretty much your only option. Early video games didn’t offer that kind of depth, and while a few sports sims existed on computer, personal computers weren’t as common as we sometimes remember.

So the reach of these games was broader—especially among kids and teens. Even though it was still a niche hobby, I’d bet a fair number of boys who grew up in the ’70s and ’80s either owned one of these games or atleast played one at some point. And by the ’80s, a lot of us were also trying out early computer versions like MicroLeague Baseball or SSI’s line of games. I think the impact the early computer version had on this hobby is not always accounted for.

I tend to think of it this way: back then, the pizza was bigger but sliced fewer ways. Today, the pizza smaller, has more topping options and it’s divided into more pieces.

So if you’re judging it by what it meant culturally, that earlier era had something special—more widespread, more “mainstream” in its own quiet way.

That said, for those of us playing today, there's no question this is the best time to play in terms of variety, quality, and tools available. But it’s tough to match the sense of wonder and novelty those games had back then.

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