ESPN Baseball Tonight
From Sega Retro
- For the unreleased Sega Dreamcast game, see ESPN Baseball Tonight (Dreamcast).
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ESPN Baseball Tonight | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Sega Mega-CD | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Publisher: Sony Imagesoft | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Developer: Park Place Productions Sony Imagesoft | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Licensor: ESPN | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sound driver: GEMS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genre: Sports (baseball) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of players: 1-2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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ESPN Baseball Tonight is a baseball game for the Sega Mega Drive and Sega Mega-CD. It is named after the long-running Baseball Tonight television show that airs on the American television channel ESPN. The game was licensed by MLB but not by the Players Association, so while actual team names and logos are used, no player names are in the game.
The Mega-CD version is the only baseball game released for the platform outside of Japan. It features video clips of Chris Berman and play-by-play commentary from Dan Patrick.
Contents
Gameplay
The game is a Major League Baseball game including the 28 teams and stadiums of the 1994 MLB season. The players are present with their statistics but are identified only by their defensive positions. The game uses a view from behind the umpire for pitching and hitting as well as for fielding and running, pivoting the view to follow the ball rather than shifting to an overhead view as is common with other baseball games. There is only one stadium.
Before each game, players choose a team and can set the batting line-up and choose starting and relief pitchers. In the options, players can choose if player one is the home or away team (for exhibition games), toggle assisted fielding (which moves fielders towards a hit ball automatically), and select the difficulty of computer opponents (Easy, Moderate, or Hard).
Modes
The game has the following modes, any of which can be played by one or two players:
- Season: A season of 162 games. Games are scheduled on a calendar, and the player can skip games to play a shorter season (with the game simulating the outcomes of skipped games based on the player's performance in the unskipped matches). The Mega Drive version uses passwords for continuing, while the Mega-CD version saves the player's progress to the console's internal memory.
- Playoffs: Skips most of the season and only plays the playoff games for the American League or National League pennant and then the World Series.
- Exhibition: A single game between any two teams (which can be the same team).
- Practice: A practice mode for pitching or hitting, without any baserunning, fielding, or score-keeping.
- Home Run Derby: Players get 15 pitches and try to hit as many home runs as possible. If the player gets a home run on the last pitch, the player gets another pitch (and so on until the player fails to hit a home run).
Teams
Teams are selected by their league and division, using the then-new 3-division alignment or optionally the old 2-division structure.
League | Division | Team | Players |
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American | West | Oakland Athletics | |
Seattle Mariners | |||
California Angels | |||
Texas Rangers | |||
East | New York Yankees | ||
Baltimore Orioles | |||
Boston Red Sox | |||
Toronto Blue Jays | |||
Detroit Tigers | |||
Central | Kansas City Royals | ||
Chicago White Sox | |||
Cleveland Indians | |||
Minnesota Twins | |||
Milwaukee Brewers | |||
National | West | San Diego Padres | |
Los Angeles Dodgers | |||
San Francisco Giants | |||
Colorado Rockies | |||
East | Atlanta Braves | ||
New York Mets | |||
Philadelphia Phillies | |||
Florida Marlins | |||
Montreal Expos | |||
Central | St. Louis Cardinals | ||
Houston Astros | |||
Cincinnati Reds | |||
Pittsburgh Pirates | |||
Chicago Cubs |
History
Development
Development likely began at Park Place Productions, but finished at Sony Imagesoft, as the latter hired a number of former Park Place employees during production.
Production credits
Mega Drive version
- Executive Producer: Richard Knox Sr.
- Producer: Russell Shanks
- Graphics and Animations: Dave Estus, Steve Mitchell
- Sprite Teams: Brian O'Hara, Karen Dole, Joe Brisbois, Dave Fenderson, Charlie Navarro, Emmanuel Valdez, Mike Lewis
- Software Tools: Bill Hicks
- Additional Programming: Tim Hays, Altair Lane
- Assistant Producer: Joe Hight
- Sound and Music: Tristant T Des Pres, Jeffrey Glenn Tveraas, James Dobson
- Testers: Dennis Quinn, Isaiah Mitchell aka Kid Dyno
- Special Thanks to: Mike Knox, Troy Lyndon
- Executive Producer: Richard Robinson
- Producer: Allan Becker
- Assistant Producers: Brian Wiklem, Mike Giam
- Tester: Jose Cruz
- Sony Electronic Publishing: Olaf Olafsson, Lester Greenman, Len Israel, Peter Dille, Jeff Benjamin
- Executive Producers: Steve Bornstein, Ed Durso, Dick Glover, Tom Hagopian, Jim Noel
- Producers: John Wildhack, Steve Anderson, Noubar Stone, Jed Drake
- Special Thanks to: Dan Patrick, Chris "I'll never be your beast of" Berman
Mega-CD version
- Executive Producer: Richard Robinson
- Producers: John Smedley, Allan Becker
- Sega CD Programming: Russell Shanks, Bill Hicks
- Associate Producer: Greg Oberle
- Assistant Producers: Hunter Luisi, Dennis Quinn
- Lead Artists: Katherine Roe, Dave Estus
- Graphics and Animations: Dave Estus, Steve Mitchell, Andy Jaros, Bert Huntsinger, David Fenderson, Katherine Roe, John Scharmen, Ted Robertson, Scott Rogers
- Sprite Teams: Steve Mitchell, Katherine Roe, David Fenderson, Chris Meland, Charlie Navarro, Joe Brisbois, Emmanuel Valdez, Dave Estus
- Additional Programming: Paul Willman
- Sound and Music: Josepth Hight, Rex Baca
- Video Design: Greg Oberle
- Video Production: Dave Oberle
- Technical Design: Bill Hicks, Russell Shanks
- Quality Assurance: Robert Baumsteiger, Justin Busche, Bruce Cochrane, Jose Cruz, Greg Kaine, Jody Kelsey, Andre Leighton, Seth Luisi, Tobin Russell, Patricia Shanks, Andrew Stein, Martha Williams, Fred Wigand
- Special Effects Art: Janice Squire, Holliday Horton, Leonard McVicker
- Sony Electronic Publishing: Olaf Olafsson, Lester Greenman
- Special Thanks To: Tina Kowalewski, Tom Taylor, Karen Dole, Brian O'Hara, Tim Hays, Altair Lane, Mike Giam, Brad Schlacter, Brian Wiklem, Andy Zaffron
- Executive Producers: Steve Bornstein, Ed Durso, Dick Glover, Tom Hagopian, Jim Noel
- Producers: John Wildhack, Steve Anderson, Noubar Stone, Jed Drake
- Special Thanks To: Dan Patrick, Chris "I'll never be your beast of" Berman
Magazine articles
- Main article: ESPN Baseball Tonight/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
also published in:
- (US) #58: "May 1994" (1994-xx-xx)[7]
Physical scans
Mega Drive version
Sega Retro Average | |||||||||||||||||||
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60 | |
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Based on 3 reviews |
Mega-CD version
Sega Retro Average | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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72 | |
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Based on 5 reviews |
Technical information
- Main article: ESPN Baseball Tonight/Technical information.
References
- ↑ Computer Trade Weekly, "" (UK; 1994-09-19), page 21
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Computer & Video Games, "March 1995" (UK; 1995-02-15), page 101
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Sega Magazine, "February 1995" (UK; 1995-01-15), page 97
- ↑ Games World Magazin, "" (DE; 1995-02-17), page 18
- ↑ File:ESPN Baseball Tonight MD credits.pdf
- ↑ File:ESPN Baseball Tonight MCD credits.pdf
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "May 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 109
- ↑ GamePro, "July 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 52
- ↑ EGM², "July 1994" (US; 1994-07-19), page 86
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 105
- ↑ GamePro, "July 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 119
- ↑ Sega Pro, "August 1994" (UK; 1994-07-14), page 48
- ↑ Games World: The Magazine, "March 1995" (UK; 1995-01-26), page 18
- ↑ Mega, "February 1995" (UK; 1995-01-xx), page 46
- ↑ Sega Power, "March 1995" (UK; 1995-01-19), page 57
ESPN Baseball Tonight | |
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Main page | Comparisons | Hidden content | Magazine articles | Reception | Region coding | Technical information |
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