April 28, 2003

Bob Winberry is a busy man these days, but that’s par for the course at Strat-O-Matic.  “Pajamas, ” as he’s known in the inner Strat-O-Matic circles, particularly for his penchant of working late into the night, only thought he knew what long hours were. 

As Strat-O-Matic recently expanded their product line to include computer football and hockey, not to mention the online baseball and football games produced in association with the SportingNews.com, Winberry picked up a new job title along the way as “Director of Product Development” and a host of new responsibilities and tasks. 

Winberry, who grew up playing Strat-O-Matic, joined the company in 1988.  Working primarily on the baseball and DOS basketball game for much of that time, the expanded product line means that Winberry has his hand, whether directly or indirectly, in just about everything that’s occurring within the company.

Bob was kind enough to grant us a few minutes Monday afternoon.  Rather than broaching a multitude of questions, we decided to keep things relatively simple and discuss one of the hotter topics in the Strat-O-Matic community, namely the upcoming Strat-O-Matic computer basketball game.

“We’re working on the Windows basketball game,” says Winberry.  “We’re not at a point where we’re ready to release any details or make any major announcements, but we’re definitely working on it.”

Knowing that Strat-O-Matic has some of the most fanatical, devoted customers in the gaming world, Winberry responds as thoroughly as possible to all of our questions.  Unfortunately, he can’t make any definite statements, given that the Windows game remains very much a work in development. 

The Strat-O-Matic position is certainly understandable.  Though they’d love to provide greater details about the “behind the scenes” work that occurs within the company, they don’t wish to raise customer expectations by providing an erroneous target date.  That’s happened several times over the years, for instance, with the baseball Hall of Fame player set. 

Hal Richman, Strat-O-Matic’s owner and founder, thought he was finished with the product development for the project, only to find that additional work was necessary late in the process.  This delay created a small degree of consternation for the Strat-O-Matic customers who were anxiously awaiting the set, but Richman’s last minute additions ultimately created an even better product.

While Strat-O-Matic hopes to finish the basketball game by the end of the year, they’re hesitant to set a definite release time.  The computer version still requires a tremendous amount of work.

“We’d love to tell everyone that the game will be available on such and such date, but we really can’t at this time,” says Winberry.  “Though we’ve made significant progress on the game, we haven’t reached the testing stage yet.”

Once the testing stage begins, Strat-O-Matic will set forth the pricing information and make other decisions regarding the game. 

”When Hal thinks we’ve reached a satisfactory point in the development of the game, he’ll begin making the necessary decisions that accompany the product release,” says Winberry. 

While some might assume that Strat-O-Matic might have every detail or item in place regarding the game, the scope of the endeavor prevents such determinations at this time. 

”This really is a big project for us,” says Winberry.  “Moving from a DOS to a Windows game takes a lot of care and consideration.  There are a number of items that require concern from a programming point of view.  And it takes time for such a project, especially when you do it so you get it right.”   

While the lack of additional information is somewhat frustrating for those eager to get their hands on a Windows version of one of Strat-O-Matic’s more enjoyable games.  The good news is that work progresses, and the day approaches when customers will have the option of playing all four of the Strat-O-Matic products on the computer, using the original board game, or both.