Here’s a recap of my second year of tabletop gaming. This is how many events were written up on the website in 2024 (test games that weren’t recorded don’t count):
| 370 games | APBA Baseball |
| 78 games | In the Trenches Football |
| 45 matches | Soccer Blast Express |
| 40 tournaments | Let’s Plaay Tennis |
| 30 bouts | Legends of Boxing 2 |
| 27 games | Fast Drive Football |
| 25 bouts | Face to the Mat |
| 18 matches | Dice United 2 |
| 12 rounds (192 individual rounds) | History Maker Golf |
Some observations:
APBA Baseball grew from 300 to 370 games, thanks to the 1989 Oakland Athletics replay and a season and a half of my Great Teams of the Past leagues. As I am just halfway through the second of eight planned GTOP seasons, there’s still a lot to come there. That was the only baseball game I played this year (although I did let Out of the Park run for a few months in early 2024, but that was on the computer and I wasn’t actually playing). I had started work on a second season of my college-MLB league with Pocket Pennant Run, but that got shelved for more APBA. Hopefully I’ll try again in 2025.
Notably, I started a YouTube channel in November 2024 and 14 of those APBA baseball games were broadcast. I’m looking forward to seeing if I can make that grow.
I would have played more games if I hadn’t started trying to develop my own. A lot of hours were spent developing In the Trenches, a football game. It still needs a bit more work, but it’s getting there. After play-testing the first five weeks of the 2023 season, I put it aside. Partly to play more APBA, partly to wait for the end of the 2024 NFL season so I could begin building those team cards.
Five of the other eight games that I played were new to me in 2024. I went heavy with Plaay Games, going with Soccer Blast Express (though I did play Soccer Blast in 2023), Let’s Plaay Tennis, Face to the Mat and History Maker Golf. Legends of Boxing 2 was the other new one.
I played seven different sports in 2024, but surprisingly, basketball wasn’t one of them. I purchased Plaay Games’ Highlight Maker Hoops and Prime Time during the holiday sales and should rectify that in 2025.
Also in 2025, I’d like to get In the Trenches to a point where I feel it’s ready to be seen by others. If I get it where I want it, hopefully I can find some more play-testers to let me know if it’s a viable product in a congested market. I’d also like to make it to a gaming convention for the first time. It’s probably unlikely, but we’ll see.
Happy New Year!
ROGER SPORTS & GAMES 