Baseball Stars
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Baseball Stars is a 1988 baseball game that was produced for the NES by SNK.
Baseball Stars became a major hit in many countries worldwide, particularly in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It was one of the first sports games to have data memory, therefore players could pick a team and make a season, while being able to save season statistics. Baseball Stars was also the first sports game to have the create a player feature. Gamers could, for the first time, create players and name them after themselves, family and friends, in addition to naming and creating their own teams. The game also featured a sort of role-playing element. Each game played earned the winning team money, and the amount won was directly related to the "prestige" ratings of the winning team's players. The money could be used to purchase upgrades to various statistics of players currently on the roster or it could be used to purchase pre-designed players (priced at a Rookie, Veteran, and All-Star level). A hidden feature allowed players to purchase female baseball players This is done by pushing down on the joypad in the purchase player mode until the 'hidden' option appears.
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The Teams
There can be a total of 14 teams. Eight teams come with the game and you can add up to six of your own. The original 8 cannot in any way be edited or changed.
Although the game did not use any real MLB teams, one of the default teams, the American Dreams, included players with names that were based on real baseball players such as Pete (Pete Rose), Hank, (Hank Aaron) and Babe (Babe Ruth).
The other seven default teams were the Ninja BlackSox, the Brave Warriors, the Japan Robins, the World Powers, the Ghastly Monsters, the Lovely Ladies (a women's team), and the SNK Crushers.
When you create your own team, you can choose the strengths and weaknesses of your team from the start. This, of course, does not mean that those chosen strengths and weaknesses will remain with the team forever. They are just there to help the computer randomly generate players to fit that new team at the beginning. Each new teams gets about $30,000 to start and 18 players (5 pitchers, 8 regulars, and 5 pinch hitters). From there, you can play and win games and build your money supply. You can improve the players you have on your team, you can trade with other teams for different players (you cannot trade a pitcher for a batter; it must always be batter for batter or pitcher for pitcher), or you can dip into the 'free agent' market and buy players to help your team.
Player Improvements
As stated above, when money is won, it can be applied to 'upgrade' a player. For batters, there are six abilities that can be upgraded. For pitchers, there are eleven. Each ability category can be assigned up to 15 points. Each player has a maximum number of points allowed. Obviously, the higher the 'max' of the player, the more valuable he could become.
Batters
- HITTING (batting average): This ability is directly linked to the 'length' of the player's bat. The longer the bat the greater the chance of making contact with the ball, therefore the greater the potential batting average. You don't actually 'see' any change in the player's bat when you add points to this category, but you will definately notice that balls no longer go 'through' the bat.
- BATTING (homeruns): More points put to this ability will increase the player's chances of hitting a homerun as this ability puts power directly into the bat. The ball is hit harder and farther.
- RUNNING (base running speed): The higher the player's running, the faster he can go around the bases and the better he is at stealing. Running does not affect any aspect of the player's defence; not even his ability to track down fly balls.
- DEFENCE (speed in the field and distance of throw): Adding points to defence will allow players to avoid moving like turtles in the field. Higher defence allows players to easily track down fly balls and close the gaps in the in-field. Defence does not affect a player's ability to jump or dive. All in-fielders can jump and dive for balls no matter what their defence rating is. Out-fielders can jump and climb walls to catch balls, but they cannot dive. Players with a high defence rating can also throw the ball really well. A player with a low defence rating throws like your grandmother.
- LUCK (?): Unknown. Luck's exact affect on the game is currently unknown. There are theories, though. One theory is that 'close calls' are awarded to the player with the higher luck. Another theory is that luck 'helps' players get luckier hits...hits that sneak through the defensive holes or when the game is on-the-line, high luck players will get timely hits. It is also suggested that luck helps players out defensively by decreasing the chances of a 'bad throw'.
- PRESTIGE (money): The higher the total prestige on the team, the more fans there are in the stands. With more fans, tickets sales go up and that means more money for the winning team. Just like in real sports, if there are players worth watching, fans will come out just to see the players even if the team isn't very good.
Pitchers
- STAMINA (endurance): The higher the stamina, the more pitches a pitcher can throw before he gets tired.
- SPEED (miles per hour of pitch): The higher the speed, the faster a pitcher can throw the ball.
- L CURVE (left curve): This determines how much of a left hook the pitcher has when throwing a curve ball.
- R CURVE (right curve): This determines how much of a right hook the pitcher has when throwing a curve ball.
- DROP (sinker): All pitchers have the ability to throw a sinker ball (it is indicated to the batter by the change in the sound of the pitch), but the higher the ability for the drop, the greater the chance that the sinker will actually sink and not be left up in the strike zone for an easy homerun.
- PRESTIGE (money): This is the same as for the batters mentioned above.
Pitchers both pitch and bat. There are no designated hitters in Baseball Stars. The pitchers' batting abilities are exactly the same as regular players with one exception. The prestige in the pitching is directly linked to the prestige in the batting. So, if you have a prestige of 10 in batting, you will also have a prestige of 10 in pitching. If you add two more to prestige in pitching, it will automatically add two more to batting as well. This does not, though, mean that pitchers get double the prestige.
Seasons
In Baseball Stars, you can create your own seasons with up to six teams and up to 25 games per team vs. another team. That means a season with a gruelling 125 game schedule can be created. When making a season, you choose how many teams, how many games, and which teams are controlled by the AI (Computer) and which are controlled by humans.
Games
The graphics themselves are simple and the music can be a bit annoying, but the game itself is almost perfect in a simple kind of way. The pitching is simple: curve balls, fast balls, off speed pitches, and sinkers. The batting is a simple swing on a level plane. You don't have to worry about swinging up or swinging down. Just swing. The fielding, though, is the best. It is very realistic in that if the ball is catchable or gettable, it can be caught or got. The programming does not put the fielders in strange positions and they always seem to be in the right spot, especially the out-fielders. The in-fielders are a bit different, though. When there is a man on base, they do the 'shift' to prevent extra base hits down the line. This can be annoying at times as it opens up holes between the in-fielders. The ability to control the shift would make the game a little better.
If, at the end of the inning, one team is up by a total of 10 runs, the game is called. So, for example, if the score at the end of the third inning is 13 to 3, then the game is over. If the game remains tied after 18 innings, the game is over and no winner is declared. All hits and other stats are not saved and it is as if the game never happened.
Stats
The game conveniently keeps track of various stats. By going into the 'SEE STANDINGS' menu, you can see how each team fairs compared to each other team, each teams' win/loss records, top ten batting averages, top ten homerun leaders, top ten RBI leaders, top ten ERA leaders, top ten winning pitchers, and top ten save leaders.
You can also see how each indivual player is doing when that player is up to bat or is pitching. You can see the batter's batting average and homerun totals. Unfortunately, it doesn't show the player's RBI totals.
The Cheats
The Traditional Cheat
It can take a long time to build up a team playing game after game after game. This process can be greatly sped up by 'cheating'. First, make a new team and then fire all the players with a 'max' less than 80. Then spend all the allotted money on rookies with a max over 80. Be sure to buy the cheapest rookies. They only cost $5000. Next, make a two team season set at 25 games and make sure that both teams are player controlled. Set it up so that your team pitches first. Send nine pitches down the middle of the plate striking out all three batters. Then, take control of the pitching for the other team and hit (bean-ball) each batter until 10 runs cross the plate. This ends the game in less than two minutes and the winning team gets all the cash. The best team to do this with is the Lovely Ladies. Do this a few times and make sure only rookies are purchased with a max greater than 80 and a superstar team will be born!
Super Men's Team
At the Team Selection screen, move the pointer to the top left corner. Then press Down, Right, Left, Down, Down, Right, Up. Now change the team name from WHEN ISNT IT? to WHEN IT IS. (including the period).
Super Women's Team
Select Make Team and press Down, Right, Left, Down, Down, Right, Up, Up, Down, Up, Down, Up. Change the team name to WHAT IS A WREN? (including the ?). Then change the name to A BIRD. (including the period). Then change the name to WHEN ISNT IT? (including the ?). Finally, change the name to WHEN IT IS. (including the period).
Perfect Pitchers
There is a way to get a $999,999,000 pitcher without buying him. First, hire a $5000 rookie with a max over 80. Next, use the "traditional cheat" to aquire lots of money. Power up your pitcher as normal, but DO NOT put any money on prestige or batting abilities. Leave prestige at "0". After your pitcher is full (except for prestige and batting abilities), go to his "batting abilities" and power up the prestige. When the prestige is full on the batting side, the prestige will automatically fill up on the pitcher side too. And voila!!! You have a pitcher with a max of 90 worth $999,999,000. This method is much cheaper than spending $2,980,000 on a superstar and the max for batting is higher, too. So, not only do you get a perfect pitcher, but you also get a pitcher who can hit.
This also works on the reverse. If you want a pitcher who can really hit (with a max of up to 67), do just the opposite. Hire a $5000 rookie pitcher. Most $5000 rookie pitchers have a batting max of between 46 and 52. Fill up the batting (but don't touch prestige) abilities first. Then, go to the pitching abilities and fill up prestige. This will give his batting abilities 15 more max points. If your pitcher's max batting abilities started out at 52, then the added 15 will bring him up to 67.
NESticle
Baseball Stars was originally designed by SNK for Nintendo in 1988. Since then, NESticle has been brought to life. The NESticle version has a huge advantage over the old Nintendo version. The old Nintendo version required a battery to save game information and after years of play, the battery became unreliable and teams and seasons would be lost. NESticle, since it is run off your computer, doesn't have that problem. Teams and seasons can be saved without worry.
Other Baseball Stars
In 1991, a sequel, Baseball Stars 2, was released, but it was far less popular than the original version. Reasons for this included the inability to name players or teams (you could only change the logo), and the unimproved graphics over the original. Two more sequels were made for SNK's console, the Neo-Geo:
- Baseball Stars Professional (1990, one of the first Neo-Geo games published) featured all the teams in the original Baseball Stars for the NES, but you could not change the teams' features, you could only play as them.
- Baseball Stars 2 (1992) only featured 6 teams and put more emphasis on graphics and actual game play (for example, being able to change pitchers or batters and actually increasing the size of the bat).