The Top Five 8-Bit NES Baseball Games

[john1842msu1977]

Good choice of Lou Whitaker as the "cover athlete." I remember he was a stud in that game

[8]

I loved Baseball Stars..... Would make up a team and put all my friends names in the game. Loved climbing the fence to rob homers. I had always heard rumors that you could knock the ball completely out of the park but I never saw it myself.

[pietasterp]

Re: The Top Five 8-Bit NES Baseball Games

I agree...I want to see notebooks. And the articles, if you still have 'em!!!

[travis72]

Re: The Top Five 8-Bit NES Baseball Games

I agree...I want to see notebooks. And the articles, if you still have 'em!!!

For me they have long been thrown away although there are times I wish I would have kept them just to look back and see what some of the stats were.

[Cyphre]

Re: The Top Five 8-Bit NES Baseball Games

I loved Baseball Stars..... Would make up a team and put all my friends names in the game. Loved climbing the fence to rob homers. I had always heard rumors that you could knock the ball completely out of the park but I never saw it myself.

I actually saw it done twice when playing with my brothers....but it was nothing outta the ordinary.....you only brag cause that was the biggest stadium in any game back then....maybe still is.....now in Tommy lasorda baseball for the genesis we hit some out to the parking lot and bust some windshields.....that was pretty cool to watch the glass shatter

[RavensFan2k3]

OMG...I had RBI baseball for NES and I played the **** out of it...brings back memories.

[swaldo]

Re: The Top Five 8-Bit NES Baseball Games

I could probably hook ya up with some. The scanner is on the wifes computer so I gotta wait to use hers to do it.

There's got to be a videogame museum somewhere you can submit the originals to.

[BigH2k6]

I used to love Bases Loaded II.

I thouth that the biometric readings really gave meaning to the players performance during a season(Bases Loaded II's interpretation of hot or cold streaks) and I used to love those nasty breaking balls and sliders making the CPU batters look silly

[Uncle Stumpy]

rbi was fun but i loved roger clemens baseball way more

[Eski33]

Great list. You could flip flop any of those around and still be right. I loved all of them. The games I played most were Baseball Sim 1000 and Baseball Stars.

I would put Baseball Stars ahead of them all because it was the first game to have a season mode, create-a-player / team mode and it calculated your stats after each at-bat and inning pitched. Yes, that was a big leap for games back then.

[WatchdogXC]

Re: The Top Five 8-Bit NES Baseball Games

I played pretty much all listed but the one I played the most since it was a gift was Major League Baseball. It was mentioned in the article as having the speed not tuned right but it was fun none the less for me. It was pretty cool how you could select your lineup amongst the full roster. There were no names but they had their real stats and numbers. The Indians were actually good on it because I think it was based on the year they were picked by Sports Illustrated to win the World Series when they put Joe Carter and Corey Snyder on the cover. The neat thing too was when you chose to do an all-star game, you had your choice of every player in the league to make your lineup.

I'd like to see an article about 16 bit games as well. I really liked the early RBI Genesis games, World Series Baseball games, Tony Larussa, Triple Play, etc. Never played Ken Griffey for SNES but that has a ton of fans as well.

[swaldo]

Re: The Top Five 8-Bit NES Baseball Games

Well I got Baseball Stars working on my hacked PSP and man that's a really fun & addicting game! When I got the hang of the controls I was excited to get the bases loaded. Then I hit one hard to 3rd base and some lady steps on the bag and throws to home for the double play. Then I struck out from an underhand softball pitch. Those ladies are cheap!

In some ways the game is so advanced (even to this day)...

1. You can move around in the box. Yes! I can move up close and hang my power hitters over the plate - challenging a pitcher to throw inside. Or if I'm expecting fastball I can move all the way to the back of the box etc. Why dont any modern games have this? If they also added some sort of penalty & injury system for hitting batters things would get interesting.

2. "Hitters Eye" - Although it's tied to audio cues. Each type of pitch has a different sound when the ball is released from the pitchers hand - nice! Some modern games have a hitters eye, but those who dont should at least do this as an option and it would be so easy to impliment. Program it so users can upload their own custom audio; and make it so a bad hitter facing a great pitcher wont hear anything. But a great hitter facing a poor pitcher will hear the cue before it's released. Sliders to adjust!

3. Check swings? Yep

4. Climb walls to rob home runs (super hard from what I hear.)

Someone please tell me defense gets easier with play

Next up: RBI baseball - get some Brain Downing baby!

[BA2929]

I'd have to add Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball on that list at #5. I loved that game, but I honestly can't argue with the Top 5 you chose. Especially Baseball Stars. That was just a great game.

[Cyphre]

Re: The Top Five 8-Bit NES Baseball Games

I'd have to add Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball on that list at #5. I loved that game, but I honestly can't argue with the Top 5 you chose. Especially Baseball Stars. That was just a great game.

I don't remember RC MVP for NES or any other 8 bit system.....I do remember it for Genesis and SNES....I guess I missed out?!?

[joemoedee]

Warning, long reply ahead.

Baseball Stars is by and large my number 1 on this list, and probably on any list of favorite games.

My Dad and I would play it for hours. He became obsessed with it. We had one created team that had a bunch of scrubs with 15 in prestige. Playing them 2P, while exploiting the 10 run rule, you could rack up a decent amount of money. My Dad did this over and over again, until every player on his team was fully maxed out. (Those guys were what, 999,999,999 to buy? I still cannot fathom how many hours he put into the game to make that happen)

The saddest video game experience was one day after school, popping in Baseball Stars, the power flashing, and it wiping the save clean. I probably even cried some that day. No game has ever come close to Baseball Stars, and I'm beginning to think nothing else will.

Notes to newbies playing it, there's a few tricks to getting a fairly powerful new team.

Go to the team creation menu, and arrow -> Down, Right, Left, Down, Down, Right, Up. It should present you with the following team name: "When isn't it?"-- Type in "When it is.". You'll then be able to name your team, and your players will be pretty decent. (With the period, and yes, it's engrained into my brain like the Konami code)

For a powerful all girl team - > Down, Right, Left, Down, Down, Right, Up, Up, Down, Up, Down, Up. This time the team name will be "What is a wren?". Type in "A Bird." then it will say "When isn't it?" type in "When it Is.".

Another trick to get maxed out pitchers. Sign Free Agent pitchers that have low Prestige. Max out all you can on the Pitching part, except Prestige. Then flip over to the Hitting portion. You can then add Prestige points to there. If you can max it out at 15, they become All Star players.

The 10 run exploit is, once a team is up by 10, the game is over. Create a team, and fill out all of their prestige points. Do a 2P game, your team versus the scrubs. Make your team the home team. Get them out easily in the top half of the first, then in the bottom half, just keep plunking your good team. Once you get to 10 runs, the game is over. Collect your money, repeat as necessary.

Baseball Stars 2 was easily the most disappointing game ever to me, and I played some terrible games.

MLB baseball wasn't terrible, but not nearly worth the mention with some of the other titles listed. I do remember one day while home from school sick I played an all star game with it. I believe I was up by like 73 or something, and it kept trying to replace the pitcher. However, the logic wouldn't allow it to replace the pitcher with anyone but someone from the Atlanta Braves, and it ran out. It kept trying to replace the pitcher, and ended up in an infinite loop of fail.