Baseball | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Nintendo R&D1 |
Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
Designer(s) | Shigeru Miyamoto [1] |
Composer(s) | Yukio Kaneoka Hirokazu Tanaka |
Series | Mario Baseball |
Platform(s) | Famicom/NES Arcade PlayChoice-10 Famicom Disk System Game Boy |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Sports |
Mode(s) | Single-player, two-player |
Arcade system | Nintendo VS. System |
Baseball [lower-alpha 1] is a video game from Nintendo. It was released December 7, 1983, after the July 15 launch of the Famicom in Japan. [5] In 1984, it was ported to the VS. System arcade as VS. Baseball with additional graphics and speech, becoming a number one hit in Japan and North America that year. It was localized as a Nintendo Entertainment System launch game in North America in 1985, [6] and in Europe in 1986. [7] IGN said the universal appeal of the American sport made Baseball a key to the NES's successful test market introduction, and an important piece of Nintendo history. [8] The game was also competing with Sega's arcade hit Champion Baseball , released earlier in 1983.
As in real baseball, the object of the game is to score the most runs. The game supports one player versus a computer opponent, or two players. Each player can select from one of six teams.
Though lacking a license of official team names, [8] their initials in the game correspond to the Japanese Central League or the American Major League Baseball teams in their respective regions. The only gameplay difference between teams is the uniform colors. [9]
Shigeru Miyamoto recalled that in 1983, he "personally really wanted there to be a Baseball game" for the Famicom, and was "directly in charge of the character design and the game design". The Famicom had only three launch day games on July 15, 1983, and Baseball was released on December 7—totaling seven games by 1984. [1]
At the 1985 launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System in the Manhattan initial test market, the game was featured prominently among 17 total games. It was demonstrated on a large projector screen, by real Major League Baseball athletes who played the video game and signed autographs for fans. Because the video game industry was so young and had crashed in America in 1983, and because some other NES launch games like Clu Clu Land have abstract fantasy themes that are not instantly recognizable by a new audience, the presence of a traditional American pastime was said to be an instantly relatable aid to the system's introduction. [8]
It was ported to the arcade VS. System as VS. Baseball in 1984, competing with Sega's popular Champion Baseball (1983). [10] : 132–5
Name | Date | Platform | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
VS. Baseball | 1984 | Arcade | VS. Series, with additional graphics and speech |
Baseball | 1986 | PlayChoice-10 | Arcade |
Baseball | 1989 | Game Boy | |
Baseball | 2002 | e-Reader | Barcoded cards, readable with e-Reader and Game Boy Advance. |
Baseball | 2002 | GameCube | Baseball is a bonus NES game in the GameCube game Animal Crossing . |
Baseball | 2007 | Wii | Virtual Console |
Baseball | 2011 | 3DS | Virtual Console (Game Boy version) |
Baseball | 2013 | Wii U | Virtual Console |
Baseball | 2018 | Nintendo Switch | Nintendo Switch Online, an emulator allowing online multiplayer. |
VS. Baseball | 2020 | Nintendo Switch | Part of the Arcade Archives series. Includes various new options. |
In Japan, 2.35 million copies of the original Famicom version of Baseball were sold. [11] Worldwide, 3.2 million copies were sold for Famicom and NES. [12]
Game Machine magazine named VS. Baseball as Japan's most successful table arcade cabinet of June [13] and July 1984. [14] In the United States, VS. Baseball topped the arcade software conversion kit charts for several months in 1984: the RePlay charts from September [15] through October [16] to November, [17] and the Play Meter charts from October to November. [18] Play Meter also listed it as the top-grossing arcade game in December 1984. [19] In Europe, it had become a very popular arcade game by 1986. [3]
In 2007, IGN gave Baseball a 5.5 out of 10, noting its depth of pitching, its two-player support, "its still-intact sense of fun", and its important place in Nintendo's history. The review said that the 1985 test market launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System had "heavily relied upon" Baseball, due to the globally recognizable status of the sport. The review summarized that "the NES came out a winner—thanks, in part, to Baseball". [8]
In 2006, GameSpot gave Baseball a 4.2 out of 10, stating that while it was easy to play, the "bare-bones" replica of the sport "hasn't withstood the test of time". [9]
In 2020, historian Ken Horowitz said VS. Baseball (1984) lacks certain features of the competing Sega's Champion Baseball (1983), but has superior multiplayer capabilities. [10]
Baseball was a significant source of inspiration for Namco's Pro Baseball: Family Stadium (1986) for Famicom, which became the R.B.I. Baseball series. [20]
Mario Bros. is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo as an arcade video game in 1983. It was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo's chief engineer. Italian twin brother plumbers Mario and Luigi exterminate creatures, like turtles (Koopas) and crabs emerging from the sewers by knocking them upside-down and kicking them away. The Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System version is the first game produced by Intelligent Systems. It is part of the Mario franchise, but originally began as a spin-off from the Donkey Kong series.
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In the history of video games, the third generation of video game consoles, commonly referred to as the 8-bit era, began on July 15, 1983, with the Japanese release of two systems: Nintendo's Family Computer and Sega's SG-1000. When the Famicom was not released outside of Japan, it was remodeled and marketed as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). This generation marked the end of the video game crash of 1983, and a shift in the dominance of home video game manufacturers from the United States to Japan. Handheld consoles were not a major part of this generation; the Game & Watch line from Nintendo and the Milton Bradley Microvision that were sold at the time are both considered part of the previous generation due to hardware typical of the second generation.
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Track & Field, also known as Hyper Olympic in Japan and Europe, is a 1983 Olympic-themed sports video game developed by Konami for arcades. The Japanese release sported an official license for the 1984 Summer Olympics. In Europe, the game was initially released under the Japanese title Hyper Olympic in 1983, before re-releasing under the US title Track & Field in early 1984.
The Nintendo VS. System is an arcade system developed and produced by Nintendo from 1984 to 1990. It is based on most of the same hardware as the Family Computer (Famicom), later released as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Most of its games are conversions from the Famicom and NES, some heavily altered for the arcade format, and some debuted on the VS. System before being released on the Famicom or NES. The system focuses on two-player cooperative play. It was released in three different configurations: upright VS. UniSystem cabinets, upright VS. DualSystem cabinets, and sit-down VS. DualSystem cabinets. Games are on pluggable circuit boards, allowing for each side to have a different game.
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