Playing a Game

If you are having ANY problems with any part of playing a game, including setting it up, playing, and exporting game files.  The following steps should get you through it.

1. Before you even start Strat-O-Matic Basketball, extract the GPL file from your opponents Game Plan ZIP file to a floppy (A:).  If you are unfamiliar with WinZip, see Using WinZip for help.

2. Start Strat-O-Matic Basketball
3. Click Basketball Game
4. Click League Game
5. If prompted, select the SBA league (we always use "S")
6. Move to the Day of the game you will be playing by clicking Next Day or Previous Day
7. Click Change Auto/Manual/Hold, and select your game # - set to Manual
8. Click Start Game
9. Ensure the following setting on the next screen:

   • Current Day Only
   • No Summary Files
   • Home Court Advantage
   • NBA Current Rules

10. Ensure the following settings on the User Preferences screen:

    • Save Game Files
    • No Injuries
    • Visiting Team - Human Coach
    • Home Team - Computer Coach

11. For the next screen, use these settings...

    • No Fatigue
    • No Auto-Rest

12. You will now be at the VISITOR'S Computer Coach Instructions - This is YOUR team - the players should look REALLY familiar. 
13. You can set all of your minute grids if you wish.  BUT, you really don't have to.  The game will not follow the grid for a human-run team.
14. Click Continue With Game - do not click Import Game Plan.
15. You are now looking at your Opponent's Computer Coach Instructions - Now, you can click Import Game Plan.  Be sure the floppy you used in step #1 is in the A: drive.  Don't bother typing in a file name.  Click ACCEPT, and you will get a list of all GPL's on the disk.
16. Look for the file for you opponent.  It SHOULD be named with the day number, away team (your team) and hometeam (i.e. 45wasbos.gpl)
17. You should see IMPORT SUCCESSFUL - If not, (a) go back to step #15, and make sure you selected the correct file, and if is the correct one (b) e-mail the league and your opponent to inform him he must resend the file.
18. Click Continue With Game to get to the game and play.
19. When the game is complete, be sure to View the Box Score (You'll be warned if you try to skip it), and Write it to File - it will inform you of a cryptic file name that you must write down.
20. Exit the game
21. In Windows Explorer or My Computer, click your way through to C:\SOMBK\LEAGUES (assuming this is where you put it).  Look for the filename that you created.  There will be TWO files with similar names (files are often named 012s0002.gfl and 012s0002.prt, or something along those lines).
22. Rename both of those files to the form ##vvvhhh.gfl and ##vvvhhh.prt (right-click on the file and select rename), where ## is the day number, vvv is the away team abbreviation and hhh is the home team abbreviation. See Creating Game Plans  and Posting Game Plans and Results for more details.
23. Using WinZip, zip the two files into a zip file.
24. Post the results to SBAhoops@yahoogroups.com along with a little summary of the game.

Write ups of the games are encouraged!!! There will be a 24 hour "reviewing" period before I import a game. This is to allow the opposing coach to raise a protest of the game. Any protest after 24 hours is automatically disallowed as the game will have been imported into the official league stats.

Therefore, the following will also apply: No boxscore included = no official game unless approved by the non playing coach.