I'm not sure if I mentioned it here yet. I am working on developing a video game, but it is a baseball simulator. It is a modern version of Major League Manager, the game I've been playing since the 90s. I am writing it in Python. I think it will be quite a long time still before I will actually have something usable as a replacement and I also plan to release the source when I am done with what I want the program to be.
The work I've done so far is building out some of the menus, designed the database and populated some of it mainly creating the leagues, divisions and teams. The next part I am working on is how to add players from the application itself.
That's cool to hear. I'm assuming that there just aren't modern (or even remotely newer) alternatives available which offer the same features you're interested in. Or is there another reason you've stuck with Major League Manager for so long?
I've tried other simulators before, they all have their charm. Baseball Mogul has a lot going for it and while I haven't yet tried OOTP I thought I read that is made by the same people. I've also tried Strategic Baseball Simulator as well. There are tradeoffs with both of those, they add some good things but take away others. None of the ones I've tried are able to give me what I really want. Even with this project it is not entirely what I want but I'm not really seeing any alternative.
MLM has a few bugs that cause problems when using the program for a long period of time. There are two data files for pitchers and batters that are of fixed length. When you add a player of either type, it appends to the end of the file. There is an "address" file that maps players to teams. If you delete a player from the game, it removes the player from the address file but not the player file. Once EOF is reached on either of the player files, no new players can be added and the player data gets corrupted.
I was able to work around this with the help of an Italian architect who created a method for rebuilding the roster files, but this task is tedious. I have had it on my list to develop a program that does this roster rebuild, but I hadn't actually done much with it. Basically what this method does is remove the un-mapped (deleted) players from the data files and rebuild them and adjust the address file accordingly. I've also considered trying to "replace" the underlying data engine in the game, basically to have the rosters and lineups be managed by an external program and then run the game via a wrapper and deliver it the information it needs to play a game, but the issue ends up being that I am finding it incredibly difficult to reverse engineer the MZ to determine exactly how the original game works.
