''HardBall III'' is a multiplatform baseball video game developed by MindSpan and published by

Accolade The accolade (also known as dubbing or adoubement) ( la, benedictio militis) was the central act in the rite of passage ceremonies conferring knighthood in the Middle Ages. From about 1852, the term ''accolade'' was used much more generally to ...

between 1992 and 1994 for the

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Eur ...

and DOS platforms. The game is licensed by the '' Major League Baseball Players Association'' and is the sequel to ''

HardBall II ''HardBall II'' is a baseball video game developed by Distinctive Software and published by Accolade for IBM PC compatibles (1989). Macintosh and Amiga version were released in 1990. It is the sequel to ''HardBall!'' which was released in 1985. G ...

''. The console versions are simplified versions of the ''HardBall'' series found on the personal computers of the time. Season stats are logged through a lengthy password in these versions due to the lack of a hard disk drive that was already common in the more expensive personal computers at that time.

Release

In November 1993, Accolade signed an agreement with Atari Corporation to be a third-party developer for the recently released Atari Jaguar and licensed five titles from their catalog to Atari Corp. in order to be ported and released for the system, with ''HardBall III'' (then titled ''Al Michaels Announces HardBall III'') being among the five licensed games and it was first announced in early 1994. It was originally planned for a Q3 1995 release date and was being developed by NuFX. However, the port went unreleased for unknown reasons.

Reception

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'' in 1992 said that "''HardBall III'' looks like another winner", complementing its emphasis on action while also providing simulation functions. The magazine praised its "glorious" support for VGA graphics and sound cards, and concluded that the game "packs more features in a single box than any of its competitors". Reviewing the Super NES version, ''

GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...

'' praised the huge number of options and player stats, but felt the rough graphics and "choppy" player movements reduce the game to merely above average.

References

{{Reflist

External links

''HardBall III''
at

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''HardBall III''
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''HardBall III''
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1992 video games Accolade (company) games Baseball video games Cancelled Atari Jaguar games DOS games HardBall! North America-exclusive video games Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Sega Genesis games Video games developed in the United States Multiplayer and single-player video games