When talking about baseball games that allow to control your team what do you think of ? Maybe MLB The Show? Perhaps the Triple Play for Genesis or Suepr Bases Loaded for SNES? How about VR Baseball or MLB for the Playstation series? Well which ever game you come to mind I bet they owe alot of their gaming ideas to the game Hardball!.
Made by Accolade in 1985 and released by Atari for the 8-Bit series in 1987 this game has it all. When you plug the cart in and start it up you have a basic black screen with white text and you might be thinking this is gonna be lack luster at best. Never judge a cart by its intro screen. Pressing start will open up a world of choices that will make your head spin. Before I dive into that first I need to say something about the music. Even on the Atari computers the music brings the sound of baseball into your living room, right down to the chanting music you would hear mid inning during a rally.
On to the choices you can make. Starting at the intro screen you select being the home or away team. Set if player 1 or 2 is which team ( red is player 1, blue is player 2 ). You can set up which team the computer will be in 1 player action. Hey if your an American league fan, why not add more fun and scroll down and play some DH baseball. Or you can play National League style and let the pitcher hit. Once you get this all sorted out your off to manage your team, you can replace hitters, change the batting order around some, change the position of your players. Your in control. Same for your pitchers pick who you want to start if you don't like the default setting. Check out the realistic stats , it will allow you to pick who will be your better choice for at the plate.
Controls are strait forwards each pitcher has 4 pitches from fastball! fastball curve ball off speed, slider. have fun thinking how to get the batter out. And on the batting end your directional arrows will allow you to pick how you want to swing to hit the ball away inside up or down in the zone.
Ever had a game where nothing is going right? You've burned through 90% of your pitching staff and your not getting the job done? Call in a 3rd basemen to pitch ( all his pitches say Fat Pitch) but heck you can be a positional player and pitch. ( Hey didn't the Yankees do that before a few times just for fun?? ).
This game brings it all to the gamer and still leaves room for more fun with any extra innings you might have to play. Personally Ive never had to play more than 21 innings in a game but it's good to know the game will just keep on going.
I know this has more pictures than in the past reviews but this game has so much going on and menus that are easy and almost fun to use that I wanted you to have the full experience before going out there and buying a copy for yourself.
Like always if there is an Atari 8-bit Computer cart game you would like to see featured on this Blog feel free to send me a message to my inbox or email me direct at Braves1545@aol.com.
