is a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

from

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

. It was released December 7, 1983, soon after the July 15 launch of the

Famicom The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. In 1984, it was ported to the

VS. System Vs. System (short for Versus System), also written as VS System and abbreviated as VS, is a collectible card game designed by Upper Deck Entertainment (UDE). In the game, players build and play a deck of Vs. System cards in an attempt to win a g ...

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

as ''VS. Baseball'' with additional graphics and speech, becoming a number one hit in Japan and North America that year. It was localized as a

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...

launch game in North America in 1985, and in Europe in 1986. ''IGN'' said the universal appeal of the American sport made ''Baseball'' a key to the NES's successful test market introduction, and an important piece of Nintendo history. The game was also competing with

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

's arcade hit ''

Champion Baseball is an arcade baseball video game developed by Alpha Denshi and published by Sega in March 1983. It was a sophisticated sports video game for its time, displaying a split-screen format, with the playfield viewed from two camera angles, one fro ...

'', released earlier in 1983.

Gameplay

As in real

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

, the object of the game is to score the most runs. The game supports one player versus a computer opponent, or two players. Each player can select from one of six teams. Though lacking a license of official team names, their initials in the game correspond to the Japanese

Central League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consist ...

or the American

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

teams in their respective regions. The only gameplay difference between teams is the uniform colors.

Development and release

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in the history of video games, he is ...

recalled that in 1983, he "personally really wanted there to be a ''Baseball'' game" for the

, and was "directly in charge of the character design and the game design". The Famicom had only three launch day games on July 15, 1983, and ''Baseball'' was released on December 7, 1983totaling seven games by 1984. At the 1985 launch of the

in the

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

initial test market, the game was featured prominently among 17 total games. It was demonstrated on a large projector screen, by real

athletes who played the video game and signed autographs for fans. Because the video game industry was so young and had crashed in America in 1983, and because some other NES launch games like ''

Clu Clu Land is a puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in 1984 in Japan for the Famicom and was later released in North America in 1985 as a Nintendo Entertainment System launch tit ...

'' have abstract fantasy themes that are not instantly recognizable by a new audience, the presence of a traditional American pastime was said to be an instantly relatable aid to the system's introduction. It was ported to the arcade

as ''VS. Baseball'' in 1984, competing with

's popular ''

'' (1983).

Ports

Reception

In Japan, copies of the original Famicom version of ''Baseball'' were sold. Worldwide, copies were sold for Famicom and NES. ''Game Machine'' magazine named ''VS. Baseball'' as Japan's most successful

table arcade cabinet An arcade cabinet, also known as an arcade machine or a coin-op cabinet or coin-op machine, is the housing within which an arcade game's electronic hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the Japanese Amusement Ma ...

of June and July 1984. In the United States, ''VS. Baseball'' topped the arcade software conversion kit charts for several months in 1984: the ''RePlay'' charts from September through October to November, and the ''

Play Meter ''Play Meter'' (initially ''Coin Industry Play Meter'') was an American trade magazine focusing on the coin-op amusement arcade industry, including jukebox and arcade game machines. It was founded in December 1974 by publisher and editor Ralph C. ...

'' charts from October to November. ''Play Meter'' also listed it as the top-grossing arcade game in December 1984. In Europe, it had become a very popular arcade game by 1986. In 2007, ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'' gave ''Baseball'' a 5.5 out of 10, noting its depth of pitching, its two-player support, "its still-intact sense of fun", and its important place in Nintendo's history. The review said that the 1985 test market launch of the

had "heavily relied upon" ''Baseball'', due to the globally recognizable status of the sport. The review summarized that "the NES came out a winner—thanks, in part, to ''Baseball''". In 2006, ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' gave ''Baseball'' a 4.2 out of 10, stating that while it was easy to play, the "bare-bones" replica of the sport "hasn't withstood the test of time". In 2020, historian Ken Horowitz said ''VS. Baseball'' (1984) lacks certain features of the competing Sega's ''Champion Baseball'' (1983), but has superior

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

capabilities. ''Baseball'' was a significant source of inspiration for

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

's '' Pro Baseball: Family Stadium'' (1986) for Famicom, which became the ''

R.B.I. Baseball ''R.B.I. Baseball'' is a baseball sports video game series. ''R.B.I.'' stands for "run batted in". Launched in 1987 as a localized version of Namco's ''Family Stadium'' series, the ''R.B.I. Baseball'' series initially ran through 1995. In 2014, ...

'' series.

Notes

References

External links

''Baseball''
at NinDB {{Shigeru Miyamoto 1983 video games Nintendo Research & Development 1 games Nintendo Entertainment System games Famicom Disk System games Game Boy games Nintendo e-Reader games Major League Baseball video games Baseball video games PlayChoice-10 games Virtual Console games for Wii Virtual Console games for Wii U Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games scored by Hirokazu Tanaka Video games designed by Shigeru Miyamoto Video games developed in Japan Nintendo games Nintendo arcade games Nintendo Vs. Series games Nintendo Switch Online NES games Virtual Console games for Nintendo 3DS