''ESPN Baseball Tonight'' is a baseball

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 ...

for the

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

Sega CD The Sega CD, released as the in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. It was released on December 12, 1991, in Japan ...

, Sega Genesis, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Summary

The game was licensed by MLB, but not by the

Players Association The Players Association was a New York based studio group, put together by drummer/arranger Chris Hills and producer Danny Weiss in 1977 on Vanguard Records. Overview The Players Association recordings brought in leading jazz session musicians ...

, so while actual team names and logos are used, no player names are in the game. The lead programmers for the project were Alexander Ehrath and Russel Shanks. The game's simulation engine was written from scratch by the two lead programmers. The game featured video clips of

Chris Berman Christopher James Berman (born May 10, 1955), nicknamed "Boomer", is an American sportscaster. He has been an anchor for ''SportsCenter'' on ESPN since 1979, joining a month after its initial launch, and hosted the network's '' Sunday NFL Count ...

and play-by-play audio from Dan Patrick.Gillen, Marilyn. "Little Caesar's gets in the game." ''Billboard'' 29 Jan. 1994: 80-1.

Little Caesars Little Caesar Enterprises Inc. (doing business as Little Caesars) is an American multi-national pizza chain. Based on 2020 statistics, Little Caesars is the third-largest pizza chain by total sales in the United States, behind Pizza Hut and ...

Enterprises, Inc. got involved with the development of the game, seeing marketing synergy between baseball fans and pizza eaters. A large promotion was rolled out by the pizza chain to coincide with the game's launch, including point-of-purchase material at 4,500 stores; a mail-in offer for an ESPN "Best of Sports" videotape; and print advertising. The director of marketing for Sony called what Little Caesars received "a new method to reach families and men, 18-34, in a nontraditional, nonintrusive way." The stadium walls in-game featured large Little Caesars advertising. The PC version was one of the early games to be made available solely on CD-ROM. In addition to the single game, season and playoff modes, there is also a Home Run Derby mode that evaluates the player's final score from

ballerina A ballet dancer ( it, ballerina fem.; ''ballerino'' masc.) is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet; however, dancers have a strict hierarchy and strict gender roles. They rely on ye ...

(with a 0% accuracy rate) to hall of famer (with an accuracy rate of 95%-100%) depending on the number of home runs successfully completed. It was the first in a series of ESPN-themed sports games. The next to be released was '' ESPN Sunday Night NFL''.

Critical reception

''ESPN Baseball Tonight'' received mostly negative reviews. Reviewing the Genesis version, '' GamePro'' said it "offers great graphics and sound, but it falls way too short in fun. ... If you're a die-hard baseball fan or a beginner, steer clear of this cart. It'll only frustrate you." In ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

'' magazine, columnist Bob Strauss said that the design of the PC version was "appealing enough", but that it plunked players down into "shoddiest baseball simulation" he'd seen, with "pixelated generic-looking players; awkward, superfluous voice commentary; digitalized computer-generated and chroma-keyed or CSO technology-wise videos and a static interface that makes live baseball seem like the invasion of Normandy."Strauss, Bob. "Fields of dreams." ''Entertainment Weekly'' 17 Feb. 1995: 62-3. He strongly preferred '' HardBall! '95'' instead. Other reviews complained of its size. It weighed in at 54 MB on the PC (a very large file for early 1995 – 23 MB of it comprised the video clips of Berman). The '' Library Journal'' review simply said, "We strongly recommend a new storage algorithm for this one!"LaGuardia, Cheryl, and Michael Blake. "CD-ROM review." ''Library Journal'' 120.8 (May 1995): 143.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Espn Baseball Tonight 1993 video games DOS games

Baseball Tonight ''Baseball Tonight'' (stylized as ''Baseball Tonight presented by Chevrolet'' for sponsorship reasons) is an American television program that airs on ESPN. The show, which covers the day's Major League Baseball action, has been on the air since ...

Major League Baseball video games Sega Genesis games Sega CD games Stormfront Studios games Epic/Sony Records games Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in the United States

Summary

Critical reception

See also

External links

References