WINDOWS PRO BASKETBALL IMPROVES WITH AGE
Strat-O-Matic Basketball 2013 is Smarter Than Ever
By Glenn Guzzo
Strat-O-Matic’s Windows Pro Basketball game is defying its age – its memory is improving.
The long-loved game adds a long-sought Encyclopedia feature to record all-time statistics. The pre-game settings will remember whether you like each team to be computer-coached or human-coached. The game screen will remember where you prefer to locate the card images.
Strat-O-Matic Basketball 2013 is smarter in other ways. Its computer manager won’t default to a Sag defense against post-men who can hit the 3-pointer. When playing Full Auto-Rest, each man’s games played should end up closer to actual.
Necessary to play Strat-O-Matic’s newly released 2012-13 NBA, 1968-69 NBA and 1969-70 ABA, Strat-O-Matic Basketball 2013 will be attractive to those playing other seasons, too.
For instance, leagues and replays managing player usage will appreciate a new option to limit injuries to the current game only. Extra players – including 1988-89 Larry Bird – have been added for four previously released NBA seasons (1984-85, 1988-89, 1990-91 and 1991-92). The Player Game Log statistics report has been improved to include a Per Game and High Game line.
“You can now easily see the per-game average and highest totals reached in a game by the player in all categories,” the Help file reports.
The League Awards Report has been expanded to include All Pro First Team, All Pro Second Team, All Pro Third Team, All Defensive First Team, All Defensive Second Team, and All Defensive Third Team.
For many, the star of Strat-O-Matic Basketball 2013 is the Encyclopedia function. For any season(s) you have completed, you can view a Player Register, Team Register, Player Single-Season Leaders, and Player Career Leaders. And it won’t be easily fooled: It can handle players whose names have changed (such as Lew Alcindor to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and different players who had the same name.
As always, the latest version brings you up to date with bug fixes and data corrections. Here’s the Help file’s full report on the Strat-O-Matic Basketball 2013 improvements:
LIST OF NEW FEATURES IN STRAT-O-MATIC BASKETBALL 2013:
1) Encyclopedia Feature – An Encyclopedia feature has been added to the game. This feature lets you create encyclopedias from seasons that you have completed. After creating your encyclopedia, you can view a Player Register, Team Register, Player Single-Season Leaders, and Player Career Leaders. There is also a way to handle players whose names have changed (such as Lew Alcindor to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and also a way to handle two different players who had the same name.
2) Limit Injuries to Current Game Only – A new option located on the League Options Rules tab allows you to limit injuries to the current game only. This option has been requested by some draft leagues that would prefer not to have injuries carry over from one game to the next. It might also be useful for certain replay projects where you want to control the lineups yourself, yet you still want the possibility for an injury to occur in the simulation.
3) Card Image Dialog – The Card Image Dialog now saves positioning. You can drag it where you want it to open on your screen and the next time it opens it will be in that location.
4) Awards Report – The League Awards Report has been expanded to include the following new categories: All Pro First Team, All Pro Second Team, All Pro Third Team, All Defensive First Team, All Defensive Second Team, and All Defensive Third Team.
5) Player Game Log Report – The Player Game Log statistics report has been improved to include a Per Game and High Game line. You can now easily see the per-game average and highest totals reached in a game by the player in all categories.
6) Player Notebook and Game Log Report – Support has been added to sort the player game logs by date before displaying them on the Player Notebook or the Player Game Log statistics report. This will come in handy for leagues that import game files out of date order (such as is typically done in a play-by-email league).
7) Improved Computer Manager Sag Logic – The computer manager was sagging by default against 4-star players at the beginning of each game. However, certain 4-star players who are also decent 3-point shooters should not be sagged against so aggressively. For those players, the computer will now take a normal defensive stance at the start of the game and then based upon what the player is doing (penetrating successfully or not and/or attempting 3-pointers) it will then adjust accordingly.
8) Pre-Game Setup – During the pre-game setup for league games you can select what type of coach is to be used for each team (Computer Coaches, Human Coaches, Human – Only Shots, or Human – Only Strategy). This setting is now saved for each team so that the next game you play with that team, the drop-down box will be set with the option that you previously selected. This will come in handy for replaying a single team’s schedule, as it will be a convenience not to have to make that selection before each game. Note: This option will also be saved if you alter the Coach settings from within the Update Preference screen during game play.
9) Full Auto-Rest Improved – If you use Full Auto-Rest for your replays, you will notice an improvement where players’ replay games-played will now be closer to their real-life games-played.
10) Extra Players Included – We are including extra players for the four previously published seasons that only included 12 players per team: 1984-85, 1988-89 (including Larry Bird), 1990-91, and 1991-92. Note: These extra players cannot be used for seasons already in-progress. You must reinstall a fresh copy of these rosters in order to see these players.
11) Social Media Updates – Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr all reworked their APIs since we released the Social Media features. Tumblr dropped support for our type of desktop applications, so we can no longer offer support for that service. Facebook and Twitter rewrote their APIs, and we have updated our Social Media program to use their new APIs. You will see some differences in how things work due to the changes introduced by Facebook and Twitter. Please refer to the Social Media topic for more information.
12) Transaction Files – Thanks to gamer Karl Coleman, new transaction files have been added for the following seasons:
- 1968-69 NBA
- 1989-90 NBA
- 2012-13 NBA
13) New Seasons – Support for the 2012-13, 1968-69 NBA, and 1969-70 ABA seasons have been added to the program.
SPECIAL SCHEDULING NOTE FOR 2012-13 NBA
The April 16th, 2013 Boston vs. Indiana game for the 2012-13 NBA season was not played in real-life and is not included in our schedule. You can use the League / Schedule Maintenance dialog in the Windows game to add it to the schedule if you desire.
LIST OF BUG FIXES INCLUDED IN STRAT-O-MATIC BASKETBALL 2013:
1) Rules by Year – The 1979-80 and 1980-81 NBA seasons now support 3-Point shots in addition to the "3 to make 2" and "2 to make 1" free throw rules. The use of three point shots for these seasons are automatically detected when Options / League / Rules are set to "NBA 1972-73 to 1980-81".
2) Team Comparison Report – The Block field was too wide, this has been corrected.
3) Player Notebooks – The player notebook was not showing for some players when double-clicking their names on the roster panels while using the new user interface.
LIST OF DATA FIXES INCLUDED IN STRAT-O-MATIC BASKETBALL 2013:
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.
1970-71 Changes
- Bill Dinwiddie BOS – Fastbreak X-Column Defense should be 2-6,10
- John Hummer BUF – Fastbreak Passing Column Turnovers should be 3-20 (the FBShot? readings were removed)
1976-77 Changes
- Steve Hawes ATL – Fastbreak X-Column Defense should be 2-5,11
- Norton Barnhill SEA – First name should be Norton, not John
1977-78 Changes
- Wil Jones BUF – Eliminated the F(2) readings on #5 and #8 of the penetration column
1980-81 Changes
- Stan Pietkiewicz DAL – Inside X-Column Defense should be 2-9 vs. Centers
- Rudy White SEA – Fastbreak shooting column #10 should be X, 1-4
1983-84 Changes
- Greg Ballard WAS – Inside X-Column Defense should not be split as he did not play Center
1984-85 Changes
- Many players who did not play the Center position were accidentally assigned split defensive ratings vs. Centers in the X-Column. These have been removed.
1985-86 Changes
- James Bailey NYK – Fastbreak X-Column Defense should be 2-6,10
1988-89 Changes
- Dennis Hopson NJN – Inside X-Column Defense should not be split as he did not play Center
- John Williams WAS – Inside X-Column Defense should not be split as he did not play Center
2011-12 Changes
- A.J. Price IND – Block rating should be 0.
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