Big Wishes For Next Edition
Posted: Fri 02 Aug, 2013 5:25 am
Got a few things on my wish list for the next edition of TBCB (once I get this year's edition to run consistently without blacklisting my license), some of which have been mentioned by my colleagues here. So here goes:
(1) Title Bout has always been a great game going all the way back to the Trunzos' card version for Status Pro and Avalon Hill/Sports Illustrated. However, the one thing missing since the game was distributed for the computer (and yes, I had that first computer edition marketed by SSI and formatted on one side of a 5 1/4 floppy for the Apple II and on the other for the Commodore 64, both at a whopping 48K) is head-to-head play. Head-to-head play in real time via a TCI/IP protocol over an internet connection is very doable, and would be greatly desirable for TBCB. Lots of game companies are implementing it, and have been for some time. Dave Koch Sports which markets Action!PC games for Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey, American Football and Golf (the last being a totally player v. the PC game, for now) uses this protocol and literally dozens of leagues, involving hundreds of gamers from all over the world have sprung up around each title. TCI/IP is also used for h2h play amongst war gamers in games distributed by John Tiller Studios and HPS Sims. For years, wargamers used play-by-email (PBEM), now they can move and fight their units in real time. This just seems natural for TBCB which originated as a human v. human game and probably should be played that way, or be allowed the option to play it that way. Naturally, if h2h is implemented it would great to have a "fight club" or, "boxing gym" feature which would allow groups of gamers, each representative of a club or gym, to form, or "draft" a club roster of fighters from each weight class (of at least the original great eight) to fight entire cards one against another. I think this would really grow the game and add the one big factor: removing play from the AI and handing it back to a human player, always a gamer's biggest and best challenge.
(2) The rest of my wishes are sartorial in nature. Agree all around that one should have the correct race and gender representing the "real" fighters. I would go a couple of steps further along the visual lines to make the game better, or at least give the gamer more options. The current ring is a blue padded monstrosity bearing the game seal center ring with multi-colored ropes and accessories. All of that is great except that it only became a later 20th century trend for that kind of appearance. Can we please have back the scuffed off-white canvas which was the ring surface in almost every fight before 1970, along with the plain black ropes and turnbuckles as an option from the modern ring? And along the same line, there was a time before colors of all sorts took off in boxing that (a) gloves were brown and (b) shoes were black. Another thing which would be nice would be if we, the gamer, could choose what color trunks to put on our fighters, maybe a do-it-yourself trunk maker, or custom trunks for historic fighters: Ali and Robinson in standard white Everlast with black waist and side stripes (except for Ali the red-with-white worn for Bonavena and Frazier I. Ever superstitious, Ali went back to white-with-black); Joe Louis in regal purple with dark violet trim, maybe even Frazier in the green brocade numbers made from a set of curtains for the Fight of the Century with Ali. Just seems like a whole lot more can be done graphically to add immersive experience and historical verisimilitude for the gamer.
(1) Title Bout has always been a great game going all the way back to the Trunzos' card version for Status Pro and Avalon Hill/Sports Illustrated. However, the one thing missing since the game was distributed for the computer (and yes, I had that first computer edition marketed by SSI and formatted on one side of a 5 1/4 floppy for the Apple II and on the other for the Commodore 64, both at a whopping 48K) is head-to-head play. Head-to-head play in real time via a TCI/IP protocol over an internet connection is very doable, and would be greatly desirable for TBCB. Lots of game companies are implementing it, and have been for some time. Dave Koch Sports which markets Action!PC games for Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey, American Football and Golf (the last being a totally player v. the PC game, for now) uses this protocol and literally dozens of leagues, involving hundreds of gamers from all over the world have sprung up around each title. TCI/IP is also used for h2h play amongst war gamers in games distributed by John Tiller Studios and HPS Sims. For years, wargamers used play-by-email (PBEM), now they can move and fight their units in real time. This just seems natural for TBCB which originated as a human v. human game and probably should be played that way, or be allowed the option to play it that way. Naturally, if h2h is implemented it would great to have a "fight club" or, "boxing gym" feature which would allow groups of gamers, each representative of a club or gym, to form, or "draft" a club roster of fighters from each weight class (of at least the original great eight) to fight entire cards one against another. I think this would really grow the game and add the one big factor: removing play from the AI and handing it back to a human player, always a gamer's biggest and best challenge.
(2) The rest of my wishes are sartorial in nature. Agree all around that one should have the correct race and gender representing the "real" fighters. I would go a couple of steps further along the visual lines to make the game better, or at least give the gamer more options. The current ring is a blue padded monstrosity bearing the game seal center ring with multi-colored ropes and accessories. All of that is great except that it only became a later 20th century trend for that kind of appearance. Can we please have back the scuffed off-white canvas which was the ring surface in almost every fight before 1970, along with the plain black ropes and turnbuckles as an option from the modern ring? And along the same line, there was a time before colors of all sorts took off in boxing that (a) gloves were brown and (b) shoes were black. Another thing which would be nice would be if we, the gamer, could choose what color trunks to put on our fighters, maybe a do-it-yourself trunk maker, or custom trunks for historic fighters: Ali and Robinson in standard white Everlast with black waist and side stripes (except for Ali the red-with-white worn for Bonavena and Frazier I. Ever superstitious, Ali went back to white-with-black); Joe Louis in regal purple with dark violet trim, maybe even Frazier in the green brocade numbers made from a set of curtains for the Fight of the Century with Ali. Just seems like a whole lot more can be done graphically to add immersive experience and historical verisimilitude for the gamer.