NES Baseball - Game 4 - Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball (1990)

Though it is missing the celebrity endorsement of Screech, Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball is a solid game. All the characters resemble caveman with bike shorts.

Not too much to say really, it is a good game and well balanced. The gameplay is good and overall is pretty "fair" (especially compared to Roger Clemens). You select your team based solely off name and face, so there isn't any real indication of player strength before the game. However, unsurprisingly, "Diablo" is a ringer.

You get to choose your stadium, which is nice. We chose to play on a cliff, which had a bunch of rocks in right field and and a fence that balls can trickle through.

Results:

Stephen (Cajuns):

Tyler

Best: The stupid faces and names of the players make selecting a team a joy.

Worst: Tyler's walk off double in the bottom of the ninth.

NES Baseball - Game 3 - Roger Clemens MVP Baseball (1991)

Roger Clemens MVP Baseball. Wow. This game is bad. If anything should tarnish the Rocket's legacy, it shouldn't be the steroids.

I actually remember playing this one as a kid. I would come home from school, set up the NES Advantage on a little table, enter the 200 digit password to continue the season, and play. I'm not sure how many games I actually completed as the majority would end prematurely in the third or fourth inning after my frustration would take over and send the NES Advantage flying.

A little older, a little wiser, I try again. But yeah, this game is horrible.

At first, it seems ok. Then two innings go by without making contact with a single pitch. Our game ended with 37 strikeouts combined. Hitting in this game is really a timing thing, so you have to basically swing as soon as the pitch is delivered.

But hitting isn't even the problem. For some reason, they decided to have the outfield viewpoint opposite of the batting view. So, once the ball is hit, you have to reorient yourself to first get to the ball, and then know which direction you need to press to deliver it to the appropriate base.

Further, the viewpoint and directions change depending on where the ball is hit. For instance if it is hit to the first base side, second is on your right, but if to third, second is on your left. The player scaling is also so bad that the outfielder is two sizes, miniature and large, and crossing one point makes the switch, leading to some very sloppy animation.

At any rate, we didn't invoke the five inning rule and played through. Throwing errors lead to most of the runs, and strikeouts lead to most of the outs.

Resuts:

Stephen (Milwaukee Marshalls):

Tyler (Boston Hornets):

Best: The fictionalized team and player names. Milwaukee had players like: M. Paulitor, R. Robin, B. Jayhoff, and B. Crisio.

Worst: The fielding. Really, no redeeming qualities.

NES Baseball - Game 2 - Baseball Simulator 1.000 (1989)

After our experience with "Baseball" we needed a solid game, and both of us rememberedBaseball Simulator 1.000 as a winner.

The gameplay is good, but what sets the game apart are the special pitches and swings one can do. Some pitchers have an un-hittable 125 mph flame pitch, while others can throw three balls at once. Some batters can turn into a tornado or some other such natural disaster.

We found it pretty hard to lay off pitches and both struck out quite a bit. I think team selection determined the outcome more than anything here. I chose team "Homer" while Tyler selected (ironically) team "Win."

As their name suggests, team Homer scored most runs on the long ball. We played in the "space" field, so the home runs flew out of the stadium into the depths of the universe. Unfortunately, each home run prompted a seizure inducing flashing lights from the space stations in the area.

Results:

Stephen (Homer):

Tyler (Win):

Best: Every fair ball prompts the message "Fair" in the middle of the screen. You know, just so you are clear it is not "Foul."

Worst: The seizure strobes of the home run in space.

NES Baseball - Game 1 - Baseball (1984)

A productive first day of the NES baseball project. We played four complete games, starting with "Baseball" from 1984 (originally from 1983 in Japan). We felt it was only fitting to start with the first baseball game for the NES.

This game is not good. It is very primitive and unless your only prior experience is with an Atari 2600, probably not worth playing.

Moving your player is a challenge. Our game was marred by missed ground balls, as simply lining up your fielder with the ball isn't enough to catch it. A ball hit to the outfield takes about five minutes to field. It took most of the game for us to figure out how to advance a runner to second base (you have to press "down" along with "a").

Result:

Tyler (Team Y)

Stephen (Team A)

Best: After a home run they show the player run the bases, taking about five minutes.

Worst: Everything else.

NES Baseball

At some point we decided it would be a good idea to play every NES baseball game there is. We'll see how far we get.