Though All-Star Baseball '99 might not immediately jump to mind as one of the greatest baseball games ever made, we obviously think it should. It's sheer audacity, however, should not be forgotten. To boot, it even recreated actual major league stadiums in digital form.Įven if it weren't seemingly lost to time, Earl Weaver Baseball would probably be too dated for modern gamers to actually enjoy playing. In addition to simulating the sport's basic hit, run, field and throw mechanics, Earl Weaver Baseball also allowed gamers to play the percentages by adjusting everything from starting lineups to defensive alignments. The result was the first truly authentic baseball video game. As Dombrower recounted to Keith Law of The Athletic, Weaver didn't hold back in giving them an earful about baseball strategy. In creating Earl Weaver Baseball, designers Don Daglow and Eddie Dombrower conducted interviews with Weaver himself-who was then the skipper of the Baltimore Orioles-throughout the 1985 season. Go figure that a real-life manager who was way ahead of his time also inspired one of the most innovative baseball games of all time. As Chris Getz might vouch, it could be that there's just no beating the classic game's delightful theme music. Baseball is certainly dated now, it still has a certain something that's been missing from the reboot series. Accordingly, gamers could truly live vicariously through their favorite players for the first time. Moreover, players' in-game abilities lined up with those of their real-world counterparts. As such, it was the first to use the names and likenesses (such as they were) of real players.

Though it wasn't the first game of its kind, it was notably the first console game to be officially licensed by the Major League Baseball Players Association. To put it lightly, none of them are particularly good. Baseball games that have come out since Major League Baseball rebooted the series in 2014. We're not talking about any of the R.B.I.

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