1982 · Baseball · Sports

Super Challenge Baseball

Atari exclusive

The object of the game is to score the most runs in 9 innings or extra innings to a decision. Most professional baseball rules apply - 3 strikes for an out, 4 balls for a walk, first 2 fouled balls count as strikes. Each player controls an 8-man team. One team fields while the other team is up to bat.

Released: 1 February 1982
Platforms: Atari 2600
Genres: Baseball Sports
Developers: —
Publishers: —

About

Baseball (originally released as Major League Baseball) is a baseball video game produced by Mattel and released for its Intellivision console in 1980. As the best-selling game in the console's history, with more than a million copies sold, Baseball put players in control of a nine-man baseball team competing in a standard nine-inning game. When first released, Mattel obtained a license from Major League Baseball, though the only trademarked item used is the MLB logo on the box art. No official team names or player names are in the game. It was later released by the INTV Corporation as Big League Baseball.

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game consists of nine innings on a simplified baseball diamond. The team that scores the most runs wins.

Player 1 is always the visiting team and bats at the top of the innings, with Player 2 as the home team and batting at the bottom of the innings. The pitching player selects a pitch by pushing the controller in one of eight cardinal directions, each representing a different speed and direction. The batting player then attempts to hit the ball into play and reach the base, so that subsequent batters can move to home plate and thus score a run. If the ball is hit into play, the pitching player uses the keypad to select a fielder who attempts to catch the ball, then chooses who will receive the throw, to put the runner "out".

Reception

Baseball was reviewed by Video magazine in its "Arcade Alley" column where it was praised for its inclusion of moveable fielders and "flashy" baserunning techniques like the suicide squeeze. Criticism was given to the somewhat simplistic pitching controls, and the fact that "all batted balls are grounders", but overall the game was described as "blow[ing] away" all other contemporary baseball video games. The game is covered in Video magazine's 1982 Guide to Electronic Games where reviewers noted that the game had "lost none of its luster" since its release. In 1995, Flux magazine ranked the game 37th on its Top 100 Video Games.

It praised the realistic graphics and the ability to control each player individually. The game was also reviewed in Games magazine.