The Golden Age Of Baseball Sims
When was it?
The Golden Age Of Baseball Sims
When was the golden age of baseball sims?
Is it possible that we’re living in that golden age today?
I’ve been wondering this for a while. I know, as I think most of you know, that there has never been a time in our hobby where we’ve seen more high quality games than we see today.
We’ve also never had as much access to replay friendly material as we do today. There’s no need to do deep and exhaustive research into old boxscores and newspapers, since Baseball Reference takes care of most of that for us. In fact, if you’ve ever tried to do a replay with another sport, you’ll learn quickly that the process just works better for modern baseball. There’s more information available to you, and it’s easier to find now than ever.
So is there any wonder that we see more baseball sims today than we ever have before?
Anyway, what do you think? Are we in the golden age of baseball sims? Or did that golden age pass us by?
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,
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.