Background - Slamdunk is the ultimate in Fantasy Basketball. You are an NBA Coach. You sign real-life NBA stars, select them for your team and their performances each week determine your success. It's your chance to coach real-life NBA players, and show that YOU are the best coach in your league.

Every week you have to decide which players to select, signing new players, doing trades with other coaches and predictions for the results of top NBA games.

How it works - There are sixteen teams in each game of Slamdunk (to ensure a competitive market for the NBA stars), divided into two conferences of eight teams. Each conference is further divided into two divisions with four teams in each.

Slamdunk is a game of basketball management. Your squad is made up of sixteen current NBA stars and your results are determined solely by their performances in real-life. Each turn you have to select a lineup from your squad, made up of two forwards, a center and two guards, plus backups in each position for a team selection of ten players.

Your players' stats for the week are taken from their real-life performances, with every single game played in the NBA during the previous seven days being used. For each player it’s the most recent performance that counts. It's important you select the right players. There's no point having one of the top scorers in the NBA if you haven't selected him in your lineup!

Players score according to a number of categories. The players you select as starters score their points in full, basket for basket, while those you select as backups have their stats halved, reflecting the fact they’ll play less time on the court for your team. Each player scores field goals (two pointers and three pointers) according to the number in real-life, but they also score "bonus field goals" for other offensive statistical categories: assists and rebounds. In addition players can take away field goals from their opponents if they make blocks and steals in real-life. Finally the number of free throws a player scores in Slamdunk is dependent upon the number he makes in real-life, and the number of personal fouls his opponents concede.

These factors mean that players who are effective on court but don’t score the points (defenders who prevent the opponents scoring and win possession of the ball, playmakers who create the scoring chances) are equally valuable in Slamdunk, and give far more flexibility over who to sign and select than you would have using a simple "sign the scorers" philosophy.

Game results - The regular season follows the NBA regular season, played from November through to April, with the playoffs in May and June (so Slamdunk goes into hibernation between mid-June and the end of October). Turns are normally run and posted on Thursdays, with orders for the next week due to be posted by the following Monday.

Each week you play one other team in your league and the result of the game is simple - if you outscore your opponents you win, if you don’t, they win. At the end of the season the teams with the most wins go forward into the playoffs, trying to reach and win the Slamdunk finals.

At the end of the regular season the four divisional winners, plus the two next best teams in each conference (known as "wild-cards" go into the Slamdunk playoffs. These are run at the same time as the NBA Finals with similar scoring rules to the regular season. However, in the playoffs teams are also allocated "bonus" scores according to their performances during the regular season. Consequently success in the playoffs is based upon a mixture of your regular season performances and any players you have in your team who are also active in the real-life playoffs. There is often a scramble amongst the contenders at the end of the regular season to sign "playoff performers" and teams who haven't got a chance in the playoffs and are building for the following season can often cash in by trading these players at inflated prices!

Roster management - Slamdunk is a trading game. You have a limited income every turn (which is biased towards helping losing teams to recover by giving them more income, though you can increase your income by investing in marketing, merchandising and so on) with which to pay your players. The more successful your players are, the higher their wage demands become, so you need to continually be signing players and shuffling your roster to keep your finances under control, and keep your team competitive. Slamdunk isn’t a game where you can sign the "perfect team" and then simply watch them win all season.

 

Poaching players - If a player is drastically undervalued then other teams can approach them and tempt them away by offering the player a significantly higher salary (at least 50% higher than his current salary). The player’s current team always have the chance to match such an offer, and if they do decide not to match it they receive compensation when the player moves teams, so they’ll have more money available to go out and find a replacement. Every player has a value, and it’s up to you to decide how much a player is worth to you.

Every turn you’ve got decisions to make about signing, trading or waiving players. You can offer your own players for trade, make bids for unsigned players or approach underpaid players from other teams. In all cases you decide how much to bid for a player. If another team decide he's worth more then they can increase your bid the following turn (though they have to bid at least 50% more than you), otherwise you sign the player.

Tipsters competition - There is also a secondary competition in Slamdunk. Each week during the season you have to predict the results of ten real-life games. At the end of the season each team gets an income bonus for the following year according to how well they've done in this competition. It offers an interesting sideline to the game, regardless of how successfully your team is performing.

Game reports - Each turn you’ll receive half a dozen pages of laser printed reports: a full roster listing with current scoring details for all of your players and full financial details for your teams. You’ll also receive game reports, showing the scorers in every game in the league, league tables, details of free agent signings, trades, holdouts and unsigned players who you may wish to consider making a bid for.

Games and Turnfees - There are four games of Slamdunk already running in the UK. All run with weekly deadlines (so you've seven days between turns). We have positions available in most of these games that will allow you to start play immediately (as in real-life, you take over a team and try to turn their fortunes around). You can join during the season - teams are always available whose coaches have left and are being run by the computer. Turnfees in Slamdunk are £8.00 for four, £18.00 for ten and £32.00 for twenty. There are further discounts available if you play in more than one game.

Email game reports are now a standard option if you wish to receive your reports via the Internet rather than relying on the post. We are currently developing our systems to also allow you to submit orders via email.

We welcome players from outside the UK, though for Slamdunk it may be impractical to play the game because of the short time between deadlines, and the slower rate for air mail. You can try playing the game from abroad but please don't be surprised if your post is too slow to allow you to.

Customers from within Europe are charged an extra 10% on all quoted price rates while customers from outside Europe are charged an extra 40% to cover the extra postage costs. These additions do not apply if you receive orders via email.

In addition customers from outside Europe may find air-mail speeds rather slow, and may need to make arrangements to send orders via fax. If you want more information please ask.

To join Slamdunk only costs £5.00 and covers the cost of your rulebooks, team setup and first two turns.

To keep things simple, please email us if you have an interest in Slamdunk or any of the other featured games. We will then email you back with the joining details. This allows us to continue to financially support the relevant UK sports federations. Thank you.

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