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MANUFACTURER: MILTON BRADLEY (Distributed by Texas Instruments)
PRODUCT NUMBER: PHM 3148
RELEASED: 4Q/1983
PROGRAMMERS: DWAYNE JEFFERY / DAVE WINZLER
ORIGINAL
RETAIL PRICE: $59.95
REVIEW: Grade A+:
Here it is! The game that you hear people talking about all the time
when it comes to the MBX gaming add-on! This was the cartridge that
Milton Bradley advertised with the MBX system and demoed most actively
at the various CES shows that they attended. Championship Baseball was
without a doubt the MBX's flagship game! It received lengthy reviews
not just back in 1983, but also in the 1990s when people were starting
to get into collecting classic video games. In my opinion, if there was
one type of game that could best implement the voice recognition,
speech synthesis, action-input keypad, and special joystick the MBX had
to offer it would be a baseball game. Speaking along those lines, I
should mention that Championship Baseball was the only game to actually
use all the features of the MBX to their full extent. This was because
most of the other titles were games where it wouldn't make sense for
them to use all of the bells and whistles the MBX had to offer. Anyway,
enough of my rambling, lets get on to the review! Before
continuing I should make note of the great calls the umpire makes
throughout the game, phrases like "Yer out!", "Steeerike!", and "Ball!"
all sound realistic and add to the appeal/addicitiveness of the game.
All you have to do is listen to the umpire to hear how the game is
being called, which is much more fun than if the balls, strikes, etc
were all simply just tallied on the board at the bottom of the screen
without the voice. Now as to the players in the outfield (which again
must be controlled by another person as there is no option to play
against the computer), they are controlled through totally different
means than one might think. Instead of using a joystick of any kind,
the action-input keypad on the MBX unit itself is used to control which
players you want to move to catch/throw a ball and also how you want
the pitcher to throw. An overlay for the MBX membrane keypad is
included with the game which uses pictures to show which buttons
perform which functions. The use of the action-input membrane keypad
really makes selecting which players you want to catch/throw a ball to
very easy. In addition to being able to select someone on the field,
there is also the option for tagging a player where the person with the
ball will go after the runner if he's not on a base. It's just another
feature that helps recreate the whole baseball experience more
accurately on your TV set. Another
important aspect of the game is how the pitching is controlled (I know,
this is a fairly lengthy review but believe me in that I am not trying
to ramble on all that much. It's just there there is so much in this
game to talk about!) . As mentioned earlier, selecting your pitches is
all done on the action-input keypad on the MBX itself. However, there
is not simply just one or two or even three ways to pitch. You can
select from a variety of options to try and strike your opponent out.
On the keypad you first select the speed of your pitch (slow, medium,
or fast) and then where you want your pitch to be thrown (inside,
middle, or outside). There is also the option to throw a curve ball
which is a nice way of catching your opponent off guard. As you can
see, there are a wide variety of pitching combos to choose from which
again just adds more elements to an already great game. As a matter of
fact, it almost feels like you are playing at an arcade because of the
ability to use the keypad and fancy joysticks for controlling the
players on the field! In the
final segment of this review I just wanted to comment on the speech
recognition capabilities of the game, which is available on most MBX
video game cartridges. The neat thing about Championship Baseball
though is the ability to train the game to recognize the players by
name. For example, instead of voice training the game to call the
Shortstop by its position ("Shortstop"), you can actually train it to
go by the name "Bill". It's just another feature that really makes the
Championship Baseball all the more entertaining. As with a number of
other MBX games, Championship Baseball also stands up there in the TOP
10 video games for the TI-99/4A system and definitely is recommended to
all sports video game fans. What really sets it apart from even modern
baseball games is the voice recognition capability, which probably will
be a coming attraction in a few years (still!). If you're interested in
seeing what the future of baseball video gaming holds you might have to
take a step back 22 years! The only downside to the game though is the
lack of a computer to play against, but hey bring a friend over and
have a hot dog since this one is definitely a home run!
-Bryan Roppolo (Writes "The TI-99/4A Arcade" for Retrogaming Times) |
TOUCAN'S TRIVIA: Championship Baseball was Milton Bradley's flagship game for the MBX gaming add-on. It was this game which was shown extensively at the January 1983 CES show and also was pictured on all MBX promotional material (such as the MBX Cartridge Catalog pictured at the bottom of this page). |
TOUCAN'S
TRIVIA: This game along with I'm Hiding and Terry Turtle's Adventure were
offered for sale as 3rd party cartridges from Milton Bradley in
addition to being sold through TI (this page is for the version sold
through TI). The 3rd party releases came with
different labels and cases than the cartridge pictured on this page.
The 3 titles MB offered for sale independent of TI were the ones that
required an MBX system in order to run,
which helps explain why MB would have sold these as a 3rd party since
they were responsible for manufacturing the actual MBX system. The 3rd
party releases are extremely hard to come by, as only one MB release
has been found to date and that being I'm
Hiding. |
TOUCAN'S
TRIVIA: This game MUST be used with Milton
Bradley's MBX System
(an add-on for the TI-99/4A). The MBX allowed for the use of Voice
Recognition, improved
Speech Synthesis, a 360°
Analog
Joystick, and an Action-Input Keypad for video games designed for it.
Since Championship Baseball was
designed around all these features, you must have the MBX plugged into
the TI-99/4A to play this game. |
ADDITIONAL ITEMS: |
Championship Baseball MBX
Overlay |
|
MBX Cartridge Catalog |