This is very similar to Jim Mickey's Fastbreak basketball board game from 1974-1986 (minus a couple of seasons). I'm only missing 1977-78 (it sold out quickly and I still regret not getting it as a Blazer fan). Mickey's game was the greatest basketball sim for a board game in the history of basketball sims! This new version has similar offensive cards, defensive cards, play action cards to the original game. After seeing your video I might have to invest in this game! Thanks for the video review.
+redfanrod Thanks for watching and your comments. I missed out on Mickey's Fastbreak, but from what I've heard from people that have played both, you'll enjoy Hoops if you liked Mickey's.
+After Further Review With Steve Tower All players in Mickey's Fastbreak had a JB (or jump ball rating), typically +1, +2 or +3. You roll the die for each side and add this JB number to the die. Kareem was always a +3 as expected.
+redfanrod You're right about the apparent flexibility of creating your own teams with this game. Old Fastbreak had customized "Fastbreak" cards for actually running the fastbreak. In addition, there were "Triggerman" and "Alternate Triggerman" sheets broken down by half-quarter for each team.
I love going back and watching some of these early reviews on games like this. I have been debating on picking this game up and after watching this today i am placing my order now. I love that there are also college season's available as well!
Outstanding review. I have been wondering about Hoops for quite a while now, and being a rookie when it comes to table top basketball games, this review helped me out quite a bit. Thanks Steve !
bought this game with the 86-87 season based on your review !!! Thanks for what you do... I'm replaying the Bulls season to see If I can improve their 40-42 record and maybe even win a playoff series... BTW this was Jordan's best scoring season (37 PPG)... He pretty much was the team LOL
I have played ABPA Games for years, and basketball was their weak link. That game took hours to play, because every dice roll represented 8 Seconds of play. Fouls and free throws added even more dice rolls. Tabletop Pro Basketball looks like it flows nicely, and doesn't have the issue of bogging down.
Nice review Steve, just a great game! You can readily see the effect of one dimensional players and the dominance of a West, Baylor or Wilt also. Very fun and stats are great for any era without adjusting the game engine. However, at 0:27 you say a game takes about 30 minutes to play. Perhaps, after imbibing a few Red Bull and no stat keeping. ;) Realistically, between 1 - 1 1/2 hours for me, but I don't play at Warp Speed! I'll be picking up the PC version soon to speed up play and keep stats easily.
Grantorius Playtime is always subjective, and the amount of stat keeping can really add to the time (my first couple of games really dragged as I was keeping track of every single stat.) I'd be interested to see if the iScore basketball app is as easy to use as the baseball one to speed up play. Now I'm off to buy some more Red Bull!
After Further Review With Steve Tower Ya, I know stats can really bog you down - every game should be as fast as APBA basic baseball, but we're talking roundball here. I enjoy all your efforts on behalf of the gaming community and for Pete's sake go easy on the Red Bull!!! :)
hahaha, i noticed that right away too. 30 minutes!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I have the computer. It is good. Feel of board but great for replacements, timing and stat keeping.
Nice review. It might be interesting to also review the new PC version of Hoops. One thing that should be said is that Hoops owes a lot in the design of the game to the now defunct Mickey's Fastbreak Basketball game - which is a good thing, since Fastbreak is considered by many to be the best table basketball game ever. Question: Is it possible to have a defender commit a foul on a player he's not matched up with?
pgrabar Thanks Phil! I would love to review the new PC version but don't currently have a PC (MAC family here.) I've never got to play Mickey's Fastbreak but have only heard great things about it, so that's high praise indeed! There's alternate foul rules, you can simply roll a die to determine who committed the foul (position 1-5 with a die roll of 6 being the main defender.) For the purposes of the review I just went with their defender.
David Squires In the book it suggests using a random die roll for the assist, I rolled a "6" so decided that would be coach's choice, but if you prefer you could simply re-roll.
After Further Review With Steve Tower Nice video on a great game, although I agree with Grantorius that 30 minutes is too quick with stat-keeping. I've never seen a play-by-play basketball game where you could play in 7-8 minutes per quarter with stats.
David Squires David, An alternate method is choosing the position listed on the assist rating check. That is quicker and provides realistic results. Mark
@@markvecellio5528...It seemed that every time a foul was called, it went against the defender guarding the player who drew the foul. This isn't always the case, particularly in a fast break situation. Also, some players (Darryl Dawkins) are much more foul prone than others (Moses Malone) playing the same position.
Yes I am aware - that's sort of elementary level knowledge, right? That's not how Hoops plays- less than 1/2 of fouls are assigned to rhe defender. And player fouls are precise in our game- and yes, we run pc simulations and can verify accuracy after thousands of games.
Great review Steve... Glad you got the chance to do the review.... I know you have been busy! The game looks like a lot of fun... I look forward to checking it out. I too am into fictional seasons in my simulations... Aside from Plaay.com games, do you have some suggestions of different sports and games that have fictional sets available?
Jason Mockler Thanks Jason! The only other game I can think of that has fictional players is GridZone by Gary Brown. You can check out my review of the game for an overview, really fun, quick playing game that lends itself to career play for a league.
Wow. I liked it. Very similar to Strat but it had a few things that I liked for solitaire players, in particular the "Offense" reading from 1-10 that dictates whether the player is working inside or outside. Also automating whether or not the guy puts up a 3. Those are both improvements over Strat for a solitaire re-player. Was interested in buying it to try but disappointed to see that there are no seasons from the 90s yet available - that's more my wheelhouse for the NBA. Hope that they publish more.
+Derek Oxenreider Derek, we publish our current sets in the fall, usually in late October, near the NBA's opening day. Feel free to check our forum out: forums.delphiforums.com/hoops/start
Steve... not to pick one over another, but how would you compare this to Replay? It looks very similar and I'm not sure if I can justify spending the money on this when I already own Replay. Wanted to get your two cents on the two games head-to-head.
***** Paul they use somewhat of a similar mechanic with the deck of cards determining possession and rebounds but the engine underneath is very different. I think they're different enough from each other to provide a unique gaming experience. Price may be a deciding factor for someone that doesn't own either one, the PDF version of Hoops Pro is only $20 with your choice of season currently available. Really it comes down to if you have enough game time to play two basketball games.
I think this game is much better than Strat-o-matic
This is very similar to Jim Mickey's Fastbreak basketball board game from 1974-1986 (minus a couple of seasons). I'm only missing 1977-78 (it sold out quickly and I still regret not getting it as a Blazer fan). Mickey's game was the greatest basketball sim for a board game in the history of basketball sims! This new version has similar offensive cards, defensive cards, play action cards to the original game. After seeing your video I might have to invest in this game! Thanks for the video review.
+redfanrod Thanks for watching and your comments. I missed out on Mickey's Fastbreak, but from what I've heard from people that have played both, you'll enjoy Hoops if you liked Mickey's.
+After Further Review With Steve Tower All players in Mickey's Fastbreak had a JB (or jump ball rating), typically +1, +2 or +3. You roll the die for each side and add this JB number to the die. Kareem was always a +3 as expected.
+redfanrod You're right about the apparent flexibility of creating your own teams with this game. Old Fastbreak had customized "Fastbreak" cards for actually running the fastbreak. In addition, there were "Triggerman" and "Alternate Triggerman" sheets broken down by half-quarter for each team.
I love going back and watching some of these early reviews on games like this. I have been debating on picking this game up and after watching this today i am placing my order now. I love that there are also college season's available as well!
Outstanding review. I have been wondering about Hoops for quite a while now, and being a rookie when it comes to table top basketball games, this review helped me out quite a bit. Thanks Steve !
bought this game with the 86-87 season based on your review !!! Thanks for what you do... I'm replaying the Bulls season to see If I can improve their 40-42 record and maybe even win a playoff series... BTW this was Jordan's best scoring season (37 PPG)... He pretty much was the team LOL
I have played ABPA Games for years, and basketball was their weak link. That game took hours to play, because every dice roll represented 8 Seconds of play. Fouls and free throws added even more dice rolls. Tabletop Pro Basketball looks like it flows nicely, and doesn't have the issue of bogging down.
Does it really play in a half hour, Steve?
Looks like a fun game! Their website could stand to be more condensed and readable, though.
Do you still play this? Are you playing any basketball games?
Nice review Steve, just a great game! You can readily see the effect of one dimensional players and the dominance of a West, Baylor or Wilt also. Very fun
and stats are great for any era without adjusting the game engine.
However, at 0:27 you say a game takes about 30 minutes to play. Perhaps, after imbibing a few Red Bull and no stat keeping. ;)
Realistically, between 1 - 1 1/2 hours for me, but I don't play at Warp Speed!
I'll be picking up the PC version soon to speed up play and keep stats easily.
Grantorius Playtime is always subjective, and the amount of stat keeping can really add to the time (my first couple of games really dragged as I was keeping track of every single stat.) I'd be interested to see if the iScore basketball app is as easy to use as the baseball one to speed up play. Now I'm off to buy some more Red Bull!
After Further Review With Steve Tower Ya, I know stats can really bog you down - every game should be as fast as APBA basic baseball, but we're talking roundball here. I enjoy all your efforts on behalf of the
gaming community and for Pete's sake go easy on the Red Bull!!! :)
hahaha, i noticed that right away too. 30 minutes!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I have the computer. It is good. Feel of board but great for replacements, timing and stat keeping.
It looks like the game comes with a timer chart now.
Steve, do you still find this game fun? Also tried CB2K which is made from same company I think?
Anyone able to answer questions about cb2k?
Nice review. It might be interesting to also review the new PC version of Hoops.
One thing that should be said is that Hoops owes a lot in the design of the game to the now defunct Mickey's Fastbreak Basketball game - which is a good thing, since Fastbreak is considered by many to be the best table basketball game ever.
Question: Is it possible to have a defender commit a foul on a player he's not matched up with?
pgrabar Thanks Phil! I would love to review the new PC version but don't currently have a PC (MAC family here.) I've never got to play Mickey's Fastbreak but have only heard great things about it, so that's high praise indeed!
There's alternate foul rules, you can simply roll a die to determine who committed the foul (position 1-5 with a die roll of 6 being the main defender.) For the purposes of the review I just went with their defender.
Thanks for the review.
Are there optional rules for determining who scores on the assist? Seems odd that you just pick someone.
David Squires In the book it suggests using a random die roll for the assist, I rolled a "6" so decided that would be coach's choice, but if you prefer you could simply re-roll.
After Further Review With Steve Tower Nice video on a great game, although I agree with Grantorius that 30 minutes is too quick with stat-keeping. I've never seen a play-by-play basketball game where you could play in 7-8 minutes per quarter with stats.
David Squires David,
An alternate method is choosing the position listed on the assist rating check. That is quicker and provides realistic results.
Mark
@@markvecellio5528...It seemed that every time a foul was called, it went against the defender guarding the player who drew the foul. This isn't always the case, particularly in a fast break situation. Also, some players (Darryl Dawkins) are much more foul prone than others (Moses Malone) playing the same position.
Yes I am aware - that's sort of elementary level knowledge, right? That's not how Hoops plays- less than 1/2 of fouls are assigned to rhe defender. And player fouls are precise in our game- and yes, we run pc simulations and can verify accuracy after thousands of games.
On a F2, you seem to be giving the foul to the player's defender. I don't think that's what the rules say?
David,
The player should be selected randomly; the randomness of this is built into the game engine.
Thanks
Mark
Great review Steve... Glad you got the chance to do the review.... I know you have been busy! The game looks like a lot of fun... I look forward to checking it out. I too am into fictional seasons in my simulations... Aside from Plaay.com games, do you have some suggestions of different sports and games that have fictional sets available?
Jason Mockler Thanks Jason! The only other game I can think of that has fictional players is GridZone by Gary Brown. You can check out my review of the game for an overview, really fun, quick playing game that lends itself to career play for a league.
Steve, I bought the game because of this video. 74-75 ABA, lots of fun. Any chance of doing an Under the Hood?
I currently have Strat-O-Matic basketball. Is this game better?
I think it is, but it's purely my opinion..very easy learning curve.you'll play it within minutes!!
Wow. I liked it. Very similar to Strat but it had a few things that I liked for solitaire players, in particular the "Offense" reading from 1-10 that dictates whether the player is working inside or outside. Also automating whether or not the guy puts up a 3. Those are both improvements over Strat for a solitaire re-player. Was interested in buying it to try but disappointed to see that there are no seasons from the 90s yet available - that's more my wheelhouse for the NBA. Hope that they publish more.
Chris Witt Chris,
We're close to a release of 95-96.
Thanks for your interest,
Mark
+Mark Vecellio When will the 2016 Warriors become available? I think it would be fun to play them vs the 96 Bulls.
+Derek Oxenreider Derek, we publish our current sets in the fall, usually in late October, near the NBA's opening day. Feel free to check our forum out: forums.delphiforums.com/hoops/start
Steve... not to pick one over another, but how would you compare this to Replay? It looks very similar and I'm not sure if I can justify spending the money on this when I already own Replay. Wanted to get your two cents on the two games head-to-head.
***** Paul they use somewhat of a similar mechanic with the deck of cards determining possession and rebounds but the engine underneath is very different. I think they're different enough from each other to provide a unique gaming experience. Price may be a deciding factor for someone that doesn't own either one, the PDF version of Hoops Pro is only $20 with your choice of season currently available.
Really it comes down to if you have enough game time to play two basketball games.
After Further Review With Steve Tower Thanks, my friend! Looks like you are getting me to cough up more money. Thanks a lot! :)
Great explanation but I wish that you could have used Paul Pierce or maybe KG instead of Lebron Flop James on the review 😜