Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation and.. APBA? What's APBA - a roll-the-dice board game celebrating its 50th anniversary - doing in this world of ever-evolving video games? Trying to shake its niche image.

Bill Bordegon, new president of APBA, is investing millions of dollars to transform the company into a player in the mainstream marketplace.

"For 50 years, APBA had never done anything with packaging or marketing." said Bordegon, "The property really hadn't been leveraged."

Last March, Bordegon, considered a savvy marketer as president of Fleer/Skybox International, was hired by APBA, which is owned by AbleSoft Inc, a company that publishes and develops computer programs for education, sports and entertainment. APBA was generating $1 million annually. Bordegon believes his changes - new variations on the game, a redesign, retail distribution and an ad campaign - will generate $25 million in revenue by 2002. APBA is targeting 125,000 "lapsed" players and their children, as well as a new generation of youngsters. Bordegon said the expansion is funded by venture capitalists.

APBA was created in 1951 by a man named Dick Seitz, who based it on a simpler game he had played as a teen (in a league his friends called the American Professional Baseball Association, hence the acronym). It used complex formulas on player cards and game situation boards to replicate a season's stats with 92 percent accuracy.

But even as APBA expanded to football, basketball and hockey and passed through several owners, it remained strictly small time. Game situation boards were large and cumbersome, design was nonexistent and marketing outreach for the mail-order business consisted of classified ads in baseball magazines. APBA was so low profile that Bordegon found that many industry folk though he was resurrecting a defunct game. "People kept saying, 'It's great to see you're bring the game back.'" Bordegon said.

The game never went away, but this is the first time it's really going places. APBA has signed licensing deals with the players associations and leagues. "That legitimizes the product," said Bordegon, and allows team logos on players' cards. The oversized situations boards have been replaced by a single spiral booklet, and the box has eye-catching artwork and is half the size it used to be - the better to fit on retailer's shelves.

Late last year, APBA signed with nine distributors that sell to 3,000 independent toy, hobby, sports cards and novelty stores and 4,000 show dealers. The game was carried by the Target chain for the holiday season. "The modernizations has been outstanding," said Mike Payne, managing editor of Beckett, the sports collectible publisher.

APBA also created APBA All-Star, a starter set with more scoring and simpler rules. But the biggest pitch is APBA Superstars, targeting 4 to 7-year-olds and bearing little resemblance to the traditional APBA game. This simple "move ahead three spaces" game features characters such as Fast Freddie and APBA Andy and game pieces that are mini-cards of Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire and other stars.

The goal, Bordegon said, is to create fans of baseball, board games and APBA in particular. In addition to basketball, football and hockey, Superstars will branch out to sports such as NASCAR and APBA Is exploring spin offs into comics, storybooks and cartoons.

Stuart Miller is a writer in New York City.