Software:Bad News Baseball

From HandWiki
Short description: 1989 video game
Bad News Baseball
North American cover art
Developer(s)Tecmo
Publisher(s)Tecmo
Composer(s)Keiji Yamagishi
Platform(s)Nintendo Entertainment System
Release
  • JP: December 15, 1989
  • NA: June 1990[1]
Genre(s)Sports
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Bad News Baseball, originally released as Gekitō!! Stadium (激闘スタジアム, Gekitō Sutajiamu, lit. "Fierce Fighting!! Stadium") in Japan, is a baseball game released by Tecmo for the Japanese Family Computer in 1989, and North America in 1990 for the NES. The goal for players is to defeat every other team in the game. Gameplay can continue indefinitely until this occurs.

Gameplay

Oakland is up to bat against Los Angeles

The main mode in Bad News Baseball is the one-player mode. In this mode, the player must defeat every other team featured in the game in any order in a round-robin style. Wins and losses are not recorded, and the player can continue playing indefinitely until all other teams are defeated. While this means there is not a set schedule of games, pitchers do have a stamina rating that once depleted, will take several games' worth of rest to recover from.

On the initial screen, players can choose to play 1 or 2-player games, spectator mode (CPU vs. CPU), a 1 or 2-player All-Star game, or enter a password. Passwords are given out after every game and record what teams the player has beat, as well as the pitcher's stamina levels.

Functionally, the game plays similarly to R.B.I. Baseball, which is another baseball game that was released for the Family Computer in 1986 and the NES in 1988. There are some differences aimed at a younger audience like anthropomorphic rabbit umpires and kid-friendly animations for events such as home runs and close plays. In addition to this, players can become unconscious when they are forced out or knocked out by the ball. Similar in Nippon Professional Baseball (Japan's professional baseball league), the game will end in a tie after 12 innings.

As in real baseball, typical gameplay includes pinch hitters and pinch runners, stolen bases, four types of pitches and players with different attributes. The game features two leagues, the Ultra League and the Super League. These leagues are based on the National League and the American League of Major League Baseball respectively. Neither the Ultra nor the Super league use the designated hitter rule. At the end of the game, each team's game statistics are tracked and the score by innings is displayed.

Bad News Baseball has 12 teams, each with imaginary rosters. Each team's roster consists of 14 batters (8 starters and 6 reserves) as well as 6 pitchers (4 starters and 2 relievers, though starters could be used in a relief role and vice versa). The player is able to customize the lineup order and fielding positions, as well as choose their desired pitcher. Each player has different abilities based on their ratings, which are related, but not directly tied, to their presented statistics and the teams have varying strengths and weaknesses. The teams themselves correspond loosely to actual Major League Baseball teams. For example, the Oakland team has green and yellow uniforms, much like the real-life Oakland Athletics, but no actual team nicknames are used, and rosters have no resemblance to their MLB counterparts. The game also boasts all-star teams for each of the two leagues, which the player can modify.

The game also features the ability to play as girls. In girls mode, the teams remain the same, but the rosters are completely different, effectively creating 12 new teams. This feat is achieved by holding Down and Left on Controller 1, and holding Up on controller 2 (while still holding Down+Left) and hitting the RESET button on the NES.

Teams

Super League Ultra League
Boston Atlanta
Detroit Chicago
Minnesota Los Angeles
Oakland New York
Texas St. Louis
Toronto San Francisco

Reception

Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu rated the game a 25/40.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Nintendo staff. "NES Games". Nintendo. https://www.nintendo.com/consumer/gameslist/manuals/nes_games.pdf. 
  2. ↑ "激闘スタジアム" (in Japanese). Famitsu (ASCII Corporation) (90): 18. December 22, 1989. https://archive.org/details/bi-weekly-famitsu-no.-90-december-22nd-1989/Bi-Weekly%20Famitsu%20-%20No.%2090%20December%2022nd%2C%201989%20%28Compressed%29/page/18/mode/2up. Retrieved August 7, 2021. 
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
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