Enjoy the Play and the Trash Talk More with Computer Basketball Upgrades
By Glenn Guzzo
The forthcoming Version 9 of the Strat-O-Matic basketball computer game does the Walk (meeting demand for a wide variety of improvements) and the Talk (social media support).
Spend less time completing a game of Strat-O-Matic basketball and more time appreciating the results.
The time-savers offered in Version 9 are in the pre-game stages and during the game.
A new “Paste All” button on the “Computer Coach Instructions” tab of the Computer Manager allows you to copy and paste a single line to the entire Minute Grid. Now you can set your starting five on the first line, copy it and paste it to all the other lines with one click.
During the game, strategy changes are faster and easier. Now it’s a simple toggle on the lineup screen once you double-click Inside/Outside positioning for offensive players, Normal/Sag/Close for defenders covering players positioned outside, team Fastbreak/Half-court offense and team Normal/Press defense.
Then, once your game is complete, you will want to spend more time with the new boxscore, which adds +/- statistics for each player and second-chance points for each team. And, oh, the boxscore now displays all the starters first.
Linger a little longer on any player’s notebook, which now displays replay statistics in addition to their actual statistics.
There are a ton of other reasons to look forward to Version 9, including new Twitter and Facebook support, player 3-point shooting statistics on the game screen, and a smarter computer manager that will produce more accurate blocked-shot totals.
Version 9 also offers new transaction files for 11 past seasons, support for up to 256 court images and extermination of more than a dozen bugs, plus some data fixes from various seasons.
Here’s a complete list of the improvements scheduled for Version 9:
The forthcoming Version 9 of the Strat-O-Matic basketball computer game does the Walk (meeting demand for a wide variety of improvements) and the Talk (social media support).
Spend less time completing a game of Strat-O-Matic basketball and more time appreciating the results.
The time-savers offered in Version 9 are in the pre-game stages and during the game.
A new “Paste All” button on the “Computer Coach Instructions” tab of the Computer Manager allows you to copy and paste a single line to the entire Minute Grid. Now you can set your starting five on the first line, copy it and paste it to all the other lines with one click.
During the game, strategy changes are faster and easier. Now it’s a simple toggle on the lineup screen once you double-click Inside/Outside positioning for offensive players, Normal/Sag/Close for defenders covering players positioned outside, team Fastbreak/Half-court offense and team Normal/Press defense.
Then, once your game is complete, you will want to spend more time with the new boxscore, which adds +/- statistics for each player and second-chance points for each team. And, oh, the boxscore now displays all the starters first.
Linger a little longer on any player’s notebook, which now displays replay statistics in addition to their actual statistics.
There are a ton of other reasons to look forward to Version 9, including new Twitter and Facebook support, player 3-point shooting statistics on the game screen, and a smarter computer manager that will produce more accurate blocked-shot totals.
Version 9 also offers new transaction files for 11 past seasons, support for up to 256 court images and extermination of more than a dozen bugs, plus some data fixes from various seasons.
Here’s a complete list of the improvements scheduled for Version 9:
LIST OF NEW FEATURES IN VERSION 9:
1) Social Media- Twitter and Facebook support have been added. Share your Strat-O-Matic Exploits with the world!
2) Boxscore Improvements – The boxscore has been improved as follows:
2) Boxscore Improvements – The boxscore has been improved as follows:
- The boxscore now lists all of the starters first.
- The boxscore now includes +/- statistics for players.
- The boxscore now displays the Second Chance Points for each team
3) Lineup Screen Improvements – The Lineup Screen has been improved to make it faster to make certain changes. Double-Clicking any of the following items will toggle it directly on the screen (note: this of course only works for the active team which is the team shown in red):
- Inside/Outside positioning on offense for players
- Normal/Sag/Close on defense for players who are covering an opponent who is positioned outside
- Team Fastbreak/Half-court offense
- Team Normal/Press defense.
4) Three Point Information – The main game screen and other areas now displays player’s three point shooting statistics. Note: If you are running on a screen that only supports 800×600 resolution, then some information on the right-side of the display may be cut off as a result of this change. To avoid this, we recommend that you run the game at 1024×768 resolution or higher.
5) Player Notebooks – Player Notebooks now display replay statistics in addition to their actual statistics at the bottom of the notebook.
6) Paste All Button on Computer Manager Dialog – There is a new “Paste All” button on the “Computer Coach Instructions” tab of the Computer Manager. This feature will allow you to copy and paste a single line to the entire Minute Grid. This can save you a great deal of time when setting up your computer manager because you can now set your starting five on the first line, copy it and paste it to all the other lines with one click.
7) Support for more Court Images – The user community has generated a large number of customized court images. In fact, they have created so many that they have requested that we expand the number of images that the game supports. Previously the game supported up to 100 court images, we now support up to 256 court images (numbered from 0 to 255).
8) Offensive Rebound Put-backs – We now impose a limit of two put-backs by the offensive team on the last action card of the quarter, as per the board game rules.
9) Computer Manager Inside Intimidator – The logic that controls the usage of the Inside Intimidator has been changed for more statistically accurate block shot totals.
10) Transaction Files – Thanks to a great effort by gamer Karl Coleman, new transaction files have been added for the following seasons:
5) Player Notebooks – Player Notebooks now display replay statistics in addition to their actual statistics at the bottom of the notebook.
6) Paste All Button on Computer Manager Dialog – There is a new “Paste All” button on the “Computer Coach Instructions” tab of the Computer Manager. This feature will allow you to copy and paste a single line to the entire Minute Grid. This can save you a great deal of time when setting up your computer manager because you can now set your starting five on the first line, copy it and paste it to all the other lines with one click.
7) Support for more Court Images – The user community has generated a large number of customized court images. In fact, they have created so many that they have requested that we expand the number of images that the game supports. Previously the game supported up to 100 court images, we now support up to 256 court images (numbered from 0 to 255).
8) Offensive Rebound Put-backs – We now impose a limit of two put-backs by the offensive team on the last action card of the quarter, as per the board game rules.
9) Computer Manager Inside Intimidator – The logic that controls the usage of the Inside Intimidator has been changed for more statistically accurate block shot totals.
10) Transaction Files – Thanks to a great effort by gamer Karl Coleman, new transaction files have been added for the following seasons:
- 1972-73 ABA
- 1973-74 NBA
- 1975-76 ABA
- 1975-76 NBA
- 1984-85 NBA
- 1985-86 NBA
- 1986-87 NBA
- 1995-96 NBA
- 1996-97 NBA
- 2004-05 NBA
- 2010-11 NBA
In addition, the transaction files for the following seasons have been improved:
- 1974-75 ABA
- 2008-09 NBA
11) Quickstart Guide – If you are new to Strat-O-Matic basketball, be sure to check out the Quickstart Guide which is a PDF file available from Start/Programs/Strat-O-Matic Basketball.
12) New Seasons – Support for the 2010-11, 1974-75 NBA and 1970-71 ABA seasons and the All Time Great: Hoops Top 120 have been added to the program.
LIST OF BUG FIXES INCLUDED IN VERSION 9:
1) Report Writer – A problem with launching the Report Writer manifested itself immediately after the change over and back to Daylight Savings Time on some machines. This problem has been corrected.
2) Delete League – When deleting a league the files with a .Gxx and .SCH extensions were sometimes not being removed from the Leagues folder.
3) Let Computer Pick Instructions – The Let Computer Pick Instructions dialog on the Computer Manager screen allows you to select which items you want the computer manager to be generated for: Player Grid, Offense, and Inside. A bug has been fixed where at certain times a category that was not checked was regenerated anyway.
4) Edits in Computer Manager were not always sticking – If you did not have two Inside players defined on the Computer Manager’s “Computer Coach Instructions” tab then the changes that were made to the computer manager were wiped out even though no error message was being displayed.
5) GOIFSE Problem – The “Good Only If Someone Else is 2-Tmd” reading was displayed for missed shots instead of for made shots. This was just a display issue, it did not affect the statistical outcomes and it has been corrected.
6) Team Notebook – The wrong team’s notebook was being displayed when you double-clicked the team name on the game screen.
7) Double Team Bug – If a player who was open due to the double-teaming rules received an Open Position Shot pass from a teammate and then he penetrated the game was not counting it as an open shot. It should be an open shot in this case, because he should be considered open due to the good pass.
8) Crash after authorizing a season – A crash would sometimes occur after authorizing a season when playing a non-league game. This has been corrected.
9) Incorrect/Weird Offense and Inside/Outside settings at start of game – A bug that was causing these problems has been identified and fixed.
10) Rebound heading on Team Splits -A spurious “Rebound” heading has been removed from the Team Splits report.
11) Formatting errors on Team Comparison – Various formatting errors have been cleaned up in this report.
12) Duplication of first team when selecting All Teams for reports – Some reports were getting duplicated data for the first team when “All Teams’ was selected, this has been fixed.
13) Lock League glitch – Locking a league was not locking the Update Team function which it was supposed to do – this has been corrected.
14) Wrong Player Stats – After viewing the league statistical reports sometimes the player stats in the League Manager was showing stats for a player on another team.
12) New Seasons – Support for the 2010-11, 1974-75 NBA and 1970-71 ABA seasons and the All Time Great: Hoops Top 120 have been added to the program.
LIST OF BUG FIXES INCLUDED IN VERSION 9:
1) Report Writer – A problem with launching the Report Writer manifested itself immediately after the change over and back to Daylight Savings Time on some machines. This problem has been corrected.
2) Delete League – When deleting a league the files with a .Gxx and .SCH extensions were sometimes not being removed from the Leagues folder.
3) Let Computer Pick Instructions – The Let Computer Pick Instructions dialog on the Computer Manager screen allows you to select which items you want the computer manager to be generated for: Player Grid, Offense, and Inside. A bug has been fixed where at certain times a category that was not checked was regenerated anyway.
4) Edits in Computer Manager were not always sticking – If you did not have two Inside players defined on the Computer Manager’s “Computer Coach Instructions” tab then the changes that were made to the computer manager were wiped out even though no error message was being displayed.
5) GOIFSE Problem – The “Good Only If Someone Else is 2-Tmd” reading was displayed for missed shots instead of for made shots. This was just a display issue, it did not affect the statistical outcomes and it has been corrected.
6) Team Notebook – The wrong team’s notebook was being displayed when you double-clicked the team name on the game screen.
7) Double Team Bug – If a player who was open due to the double-teaming rules received an Open Position Shot pass from a teammate and then he penetrated the game was not counting it as an open shot. It should be an open shot in this case, because he should be considered open due to the good pass.
8) Crash after authorizing a season – A crash would sometimes occur after authorizing a season when playing a non-league game. This has been corrected.
9) Incorrect/Weird Offense and Inside/Outside settings at start of game – A bug that was causing these problems has been identified and fixed.
10) Rebound heading on Team Splits -A spurious “Rebound” heading has been removed from the Team Splits report.
11) Formatting errors on Team Comparison – Various formatting errors have been cleaned up in this report.
12) Duplication of first team when selecting All Teams for reports – Some reports were getting duplicated data for the first team when “All Teams’ was selected, this has been fixed.
13) Lock League glitch – Locking a league was not locking the Update Team function which it was supposed to do – this has been corrected.
14) Wrong Player Stats – After viewing the league statistical reports sometimes the player stats in the League Manager was showing stats for a player on another team.
LIST OF DATA FIXES INCLUDED IN VERSION 9:
Note: These data fixes cannot be used for seasons already in-progress. You must reinstall a fresh copy of these rosters in order to see these changes.
1980-81 Changes
- Denver’s John Roche has been added.
1984-85 Changes
- Milwaukee Ricky Pierce’s name was spelled incorrectly.
- New Jersey Albert King – a spurious “,1-4” was showing on a roll of 2 on his outside column.
- Los Angeles C Lancaster Gordon – a spurious “,1-5” was showing on a roll of 4 on his inside column.
- New York Louis Orr – Inside #8 should be an F(2).
1988-89 Changes
- New York Charles Oakley – His Normal passing column had one item incorrect, he should have an Open Pos Shot on a split of 20 instead of a Pos Shot.
1990-91 Changes
- Atlanta – Many players had the incorrect number of Games Played listed in their actual statistics
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