Batter Up (accessory)

Batter Up
Made for: Sega Mega Drive
Manufacturer: Sports Sciences
Type: Miscellaneous
Release Date RRP Code US 1994-10 $69.9969.99 BR 199x

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Batter Up controller is a special Sega Mega Drive peripheral designed with baseball games in mind. It was only released in North America and Brazil. A similar peripheral was also released for the Super NES.

Hardware

The Batter Up controller is shaped as a 24-inch bat surrounded by blue rubber foam. It responds to the user's movements, similar to the much later Wii remote (though the Batter Up is permanently wired to the Mega Drive system via a 12-foot lead.

From a technical standpoint, the Batter Up controller is a glorified Control Pad, and so is in theory compatible with the vast majority of Mega Drive games. All standard Mega Drive face buttons exist on the side of the controller, although the placement of these buttons and the lack of true D-Pad will make many games challenging to play.

No Mega Drive games, baseball or otherwise, were specifically engineered with the Batter Up in mind - Sports Sciences approach was to retro-fit Batter Up support by including four dip-switches on the controller, which re-map the D-Pad, , , and how these buttons are meant to be pressed, to the action of swinging the bat. As most baseball games of the era play similarly, most baseball games experience some level of playability when controlled by a Batter Up.

The effectiveness of the bat depends on how the game was programmed.

A wireless version of the controller was planned (with an RRP of $129.99 in the United States), but does not appear to have made it to market.

Compatibility

The following is a list of games Sports Sciences claimed to be compatible. It is likely that many more baseball games (e.g. World Series Baseball '96, released after this accessory) work just as well, but this was never officially confirmed.

• Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball
• ESPN Baseball Tonight
• HardBall '94
• MLBPA Baseball
• R.B.I. Baseball '93
• R.B.I. Baseball '94
• Sports Talk Baseball
• Super Baseball 2020
• Tony La Russa Baseball
• World Series Baseball

Magazine articles

Main article: Batter Up (accessory)/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in (US) #64: "November 1994" (1994-xx-xx)
also published in:

• (US) #5: "November 1994" (1994-1x-xx)
• (US) #65: "December 1994" (1994-xx-xx)
• (US) #66: "January 1995" (199x-xx-xx)
• (US) #0802: "Vol. 8 No. 2 February 1995" (1995-0x-xx)

Print advert in (US) #70: "May 1995" (1995-0x-xx)
also published in:

• (US) #0807: "Vol. 8 No. 7 July 1995" (1995-0x-xx)

Physical scans

Mega Drive, US
Cover

Mega Drive, BR