Strat-O Reaches New Gamers with

Slimmer Computer Baseball Game

             

 

By Glenn Guzzo

Millions of baseball fanatics have loved Strat-O-Matic, but there might be millions more who would love it they gave it a try. So the game company is inviting the newbies to sample Strat-O-Matic with a sharply discounted, streamlined version of the computer game.

It’s Strat-O-Matic Baseball Lite 2010, essentially Advanced Strat-O-Matic rather than the fully featured Super-Advanced version veterans gamers enjoy.

This introductory version of the game will cost just $19.99, available from major download Web sites.

To those unfamiliar with Strat-O-Matic’s richly detailed, customizable regular game, Baseball Lite will look complete. It comes with all the 2009 Major League teams and all of their stars – Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter, Roy Halladay, Chase Utley, Torii Hunter, Tim Lincecum and nearly 1,000 others. Lite has all the graphics and play-by-play description of the traditional game. And it has the detailed stat reports and box scores. There are lefty-righty features.

That describes a pretty complete game – at the lowest price ever for a Strat-O Baseball computer game.

But, like those who know the difference between the full Strat-O-Matic Pro Football computer game the recently released Lite version, veteran Strat-O-Matic baseball players know how much cooler the full computer baseball game is.

Lite will have ballpark photos, but only in black-and-white. Lite has 2009 players, but only 2009. If you want the newly released 1977 season, or the hot new Negro Leagues set, or scores of other classic seasons, you need the full game. Lite has flight-of-the-ball graphics, but not the card-image option, dice mode and other features that bring the Strat-O-Matic board game to life.

Strat-O-Matic Director of Product Development Bob Winberry says the Lite game is designed for game-ready customers who are not yet Strat-O-Matic fanatics. But it might also introduce Strat-O-Matic Baseball to fans of other Strat-O sports. Or it might attract veteran Strat-O gamers who want to introduce the hobby to friends and children.

Veteran Strat-O players won’t want to switch from the full version. Lite users won’t have tournament mode or such league-support functions as Email League and Model League. They won’t have access to the Encyclopedia, Yearbook or Report Writer options to customize their statistical reports.

But Lite customers may want to upgrade to the full game. They’ll be able to do so at a discount, which will give them access to these features:

• Extra Players (those players who had minimal at-bats or innings pitched in real-life)
• Past seasons and specialty rosters (e.g. The Negro Leagues rosters or Hall of Fame rosters).
• The “as-played” data (which includes the real-life lineups and transactions), the Actual World Series Lineups, and the actual All Star Game Lineups.
• Super-Advanced or Max Rules that give gamers more control over lineups and bullpen use, era-specific rules, additional strategy options and other ways to simulate Major League realism.
• Ballpark effects on extra-base hits and batting averages
• Color ballpark options.
• Dice Mode, Manual Entry, and Card Image display options.
• Other Strat-O-Matic specific reporting or play-by-play (Strat Fielding, Board Game Breakdowns, Show Board Game Info) that board gamers love.
• Add-on utilities such as the Encyclopedia, Yearbook, Chart-maker, Web builder, and Report Writer.
• E-mail league support (game files, subsets, exporting/importing files, e-mailing league, league Web site link).
• The Model League function invaluable to “keeper” leagues.
• Tournament play.
• The high-speed lineup evaluator.
• Team-specific lineup and usage settings, plus other lineup and usage options for customizing league play or individual preferences.
• Player Maintenance and player Web page features