Wayback Wednesday: Replay Professional Basketball

Welcome to Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! This is a feature where we look back on yesteryear, dig into the archives, indulge in some nostalgia, and in some cases, wonder just what we were thinking. Check in every Wednesday for features and retrospectives on old basketball video games, old NLSC editorials published as-is with added commentary, and other flashback content.

While there have been a few basketball management/text sim games released over the years, they’ve never matched the popularity of the prominent gameplay-based titles, such as NBA Live, NBA 2K, and NBA Jam. A few of them are still around, including some that are free to play online, but they don’t command nearly as much attention as the games that actually feature on-court action. It’s only natural: most people want a fully interactive experience, with franchise and career modes, and online head-to-head play against their fellow basketball gamers.

And yet, there’s a contingent of basketball enthusiasts who would be content to sit back and watch a virtual representation of the sport, adopting more of a coaching or management role. As such, the prospect of an NBA licensed management sim is brought up every once in a while. I’ve never had much interest in that subgenre myself, as I’d prefer to be in control of the action, but I’ve dabbled with a sim game before. That game was 1991’s Replay Professional Basketball, created for DOS by Thomas R. Mink, and it’s the subject of this week’s Wayback Wednesday!

Let’s take a look back…way back…

A quick Google search suggests that this game is pretty obscure. For the record, the results included a similarly titled game by a company called Replay Games (which originally created card-based sports games), up to date scores for the NBA, the NBA’s YouTube channel, and Wikipedia’s article on instant replay. The only results relevant to Replay Professional Basketball were a couple of sites (including archive.org) which offered download links for the demo version that I have. So hey, maybe I can score us a few hits with this article, should anyone else remember the game and go searching for it online!

I happened across this game in the mid 90s, thanks to a two-disc release from Microforum titled “The Complete Encyclopedia of Games”. Despite its name, it was not in fact an encyclopedia, but rather a large collection of demos and shareware games for DOS and Windows 3.1, including classics such as The Dig by LucasArts, Fuzzy’s World of Miniature Golf, the original Need for Speed, and supposedly around a thousand more; I’ve never actually counted them all. There were a couple of fantasy/simulation hoops games in the collection, one of which was Replay Professional Basketball.

It was intriguing, but for a kid who wanted to take control of his favourite players, see spectacular dunks, and dictate the action on the virtual hardwood, it didn’t hold the same appeal as NBA Jam Tournament Edition, or the early NBA Live games. Revisiting the game in 2016 as an adult, it doesn’t exactly draw my interest away from NBA Live 16 and NBA 2K16, but I’d say that I do have a greater appreciation for it.

The demo is essentially fully featured, albeit stripped down to just two teams: the 1991-1992 Chicago Bulls and Portland Trail Blazers. It is possible to create new leagues and teams, so with a bit of work, you can get more NBA teams in there, or any other squads you wish. The creation tools are a bit cumbersome, but it’s a DOS game made in 1991 by one person, so you can’t judge them too harshly. Again, if you’re willing to put in some work, the demo version can be utilised for some fun fantasy league play.

The action itself, of course, is all text-based. When you begin a game, you select the teams, and whether you want to coach one or both of them. Coaching is basically restricted to making substitutions, but since players can (and certainly will) foul out, choosing to intervene can offer a slight strategic advantage. The option to manually coach each team is offered both before the opening tip and the beginning of the fourth quarter, so if you decide you’d rather leave all crunch time subs up to the AI, or take control of them yourself, you have the opportunity to change your mind. A small, but kind of nifty feature.

Games unfold play-by-play and in accelerated time, which means you won’t be sitting there for over an hour to complete a 48 minute game. The visiting team is on the left of the screen and the home team is on the right, so you can easily keep track of who has possession as the play is described underneath the stats for each squad. Actions are described with white text, while yellow text provides an immediate indication that a player has scored. There’s a variety of different phrases (all using popular basketball terminology) to describe the current play, and when a player dunks or hits a three-pointer, the yellow text flashes. Exciting!

In all seriousness though, as I was playing through a game to reacquaint myself with all its features and grab some screenshots for this retrospective, I found myself getting caught up in the action. As Michael Jordan racked up 30 points and flirted with a triple double while trying to lead the Bulls to a comeback win, I felt invested, even picturing the plays in my mind. When Jordan and Scottie Pippen both fouled out, allowing the momentum to swing back to Portland and ultimately giving Clyde Drexler and company the W, I did actually feel a little disappointed.

Game stats are updated on the fly, and you can not only view, but also save the boxscores after games are finished. Statistically speaking, the simulations aren’t too bad, though there were a few too many fouls, especially by the star players. Also, since player attributes don’t exist past base statistics, some of the action in the plays is a bit off. At one point in my simulation for this article, Terry Porter grabbed an offensive rebound, and then muscled it back up for what was described as an emphatic dunk. Not exactly his game, though at the same time, you don’t have players like Bill Cartwright or Kevin Duckworth shooting three-pointers.

Revisiting Replay Professional Basketball did give me a bit more of an appreciation for text sims, but to be honest, they’d probably be a tough sell for basketball gamers these days. Both NBA Live 16 and NBA 2K16 have play-by-play simulation in Dynasty Mode and MyLEAGUE/MyGM respectively, on top of on-court gameplay, and all their other features. If you want to simulate the NBA GM and coaching experience without getting into gameplay, you can find that experience with those games.

Still, you’ve got to tip your hat to Replay Professional Basketball, a seemingly forgotten but quite robust simulation/fantasy hoops game, especially for its era. It’s not a game that I’d go back and play very often, but it’s a release that nevertheless stuck in my mind, obscure though it may be. I still favour the experience of getting on the sticks and being in control of the action, but revisiting it was a fun, and nostalgic experience.

If you’d like to try out Replay Professional Basketball yourself, I’ve added the demo to our Downloads section; pick it up here. You’ll also need DOSBox to play it, which you can download here.

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