Baseball - RCA Studio II

1977

Entry posted by Guest September 4, 2005

1,126 views

Dick and Jane try to ignore the Baseball player standing on one foot in their living room.

Baseball for the RCA Studio II isn't terrible. If you can look past the monochrome graphics, the sluggish control of the outfielders, the uninteresting beeps, there's actually a game that's merely annoying.

Player at the "A" keypad starts off at bat. Player at the "B" keypad pitches and plays the field first. To pitch, player "B" depresses "5" to send a straight ball, "8" for a hook left (up, relative to the screen) and "2" for a hook right (down relative to the screen). All three pitches look exactly the same in trajectory, but the ball does seem to behave differently after it's hit by the bat depending on the pitch. To hit the ball, player "A" uses the "5" key to swing the bat. Missing earns him a strike. Hitting it can result in a few different outcomes. It's possible to foul, so that's neat. It's also possible to hit it into the outfield where player "B" may now maneuver the fielders up or down to try to catch the ball.

There are actual "zones" defined in the manual and effective on the screen that determine how much of a base hit the runner achieves depending on where the ball exits the screen. I thought that was an okay way of handling the game mechanic, pretty much just like the electro-mechanical baseball arcade games (that I've seen) handle it.

At the end of player A's turn at bat, the keypad functions switch position, B becomes the batter and A becomes the pitcher/outfield. (I actually thought they'd make the player's switch position, so shame on me for underestimating the programmers.)

This game keeps score and goes on for nine innings through which my son and I actually played! I can't say we had a great time, but it wasn't torture.

Well, not at first.

I think we actually enjoyed ourselves for a few innings to a small extent, thanks, for the most part, to our attitudes about games on this system ("there's no way we'll enjoy this, let's make fun of it!"). By the 7th inning "wretch", my son was ready to quit. He persevered until the end, though, because I wouldn't let him quit. It's this kind of abuse that makes me fear Child Protective Services paying me a visit. ("We've heard reports that you're forcing your son to play very old videogames. We consider this to be cruel and unusual. He's going to have to come with us. For his own protection, you understand?")

At the end of the game, sighing heavily and immediately requesting his "payment" (a quarter) as well as permission to play Kirby's Air Ride, he made it clear in no uncertain terms that he was so glad he wouldn't have to play "that" game again.

Next entry I'll do Tennis/Squash, though I'm uncertain as to why I should bother, there's not much to say about it.

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