Producer: Activision/Gamestar
Retail Price: £9.99
Author: Darrin Massena, Scott Orr, Mark Madland

Take rounders, popcorn, hype and few rule changes and you've got the game of baseball.

This sports simulation follows in the bootsteps of the all-American game, with hitting and pitching sides competing for top honours.

The action takes place on a split screen showing an aerial view of the baseball pitch and a close-up of the pitcher throwing the ball to the waiting batsman.

Players take it in turns to come to the hitting position, or 'plate', to swing the bat at three successive balls delivered by the opposing pitcher. If a batsman misses the ball it's a strike, and the next ball is pitched. Three strikes and the batsman is out.

The batsman has to hit the ball forward to fall within the area described by two foul lines, to avoid a foul hit.

If he's made a clean and foulless hit, the batsman automatically runs toward the first of four bases that make up the baseball diamond. If the ball is well struck, the batsman continues running from base to base, returning to his start point to score a home run.

Usually the strike isn't so perfect and is lofted or quickly fielded. And if it's caught by a fielder, the batsman is out.

After the batsman has reached first base you can control him - he can either stop running or continue to the next base.

If the batsman decides to stop at a base, a replacement steps up to the plate. After hitting the ball he too runs. The first batsman then becomes the controllable lead runner, with the other batsman automatically following him round the diamond.

When a batsman reaches fourth base, he's scored a run (which is displayed on the scoreboard).

But if he runs on from a base and can't reach the next base before the ball is thrown there, he's out. When three of the batting team are out, they become the pitching and fielding side.

Then you have control of the pitcher, who can send down a series of balls: swing bal, knuckle ball, fastball, curveball or screwball, each with different movements in the air. A pitchers success with the ball is dependent upon his ability and his stamina, which diminishes with the number of pitches he throws.

When each side has batted one of the nine innings is completed.

COMMENTS

Control keys: W or U/X or M forwards/backwards, A or H/D or K left/right, S or J to fire
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2, Cursor
Use of colour: reasonable definition, but loads of colour clash
Graphics: large player graphics detailed, field graphics very poor
Sound: apart from a beep for ball strikes, nothing
Skill levels: one, with two-player and player-versus-computer options
Screens: one

After Gamester's sporty successes on the Commodore, I was expecting astounding graphics and amazing gameplay… but I'm still waiting. They haven't produced the goods on the Spectrum - here the computer opponent is a right dull bloke. Nearly every time he insists on hitting the ball behind the 'foul' line, no matter how easy the throw you give him. And though a large range of throws is available, they all appear the same on screen. The animation of the main characters is very realistic, but the rest of the screen is very badly presented, with crude graphics and badly-placed colour.
PAUL

The graphics vary from not bad (as you view the batsman about to hit the ball, for instance) to absolute rubbish (the bird's-eye view of the pitch, with deformed hunchbacks hobbling round a colour- clashing, glitchy field). Even if you're keen on baseball, I doubt you'd find this very playable.
MARK

Some of the graphics are very impressive, I'll say that for Championship Baseball, it's a pity the game is so naff. While pitching and striking are all shown in full glorious colour clash, the fielding screen is risible: the players are small and appallingly coloured, and they seem to obey no-one but themselves! I think I'll stick to playing tennis; it's better value for money and a lot more fun
MIKE

Gamestar
£9.99

Hi there, fans, and welcome to the old ball game where it's one, two, three and you're either out or on strike or something... Help! Can anybody explain the rules of baseball to me?

The first problem with this game is that the instructions presume that you know the difference between a 'Slider, outside corner' and a 'Hard knuckler, inside corner'. The only way to understand the thing is to actually play it a few times, after which it may all make sense... or you might just prefer to look for a decent cricket simulation instead!

Providing you do persevere, you're presented with a neat overhead view of the diamond which splits at crucial moments to give you an over-the-batsman's shoulder shot, so that you can slug away or pitch those Screwballs. It's by far the neatest solution I've seen to any sporting simulation and really gives you a feel of being there.

So it's Hughes at the base and the pitcher is all wound up to send a ball spinning down. Actually, apart from the aptly named Fastball, movement seems to be a little slow, but at least it gives you time to respond. All you have to do is press the fire button at the right moment.

If you get a hit, providing it's not a home run, the equivalent of scoring a six, you automatically charge for the first base. After that you can choose to run on, and you can run back if you don't think you'll make the distance, or slide to get home in time. When you have men positioned on the bases, you take control of whoever's furthest round.

Once your team is out, which means they've all got home or failed to make a run after three attempts (unless the final attempt is a foul - are you following all this?), it's your turn to pitch. You get a brief rundown on the batter's strengths and weaknesses, then choose your pitch by pressing fire and a direction on the joystick.

As with so many sports simulations, the computer now takes a hand and gives you control of the fielder who's nearest to the ball s path. Once you've caught it you can throw to any of the bases to try to intercept a member of the batting side who's between bases. I hate this system in soccer games, but in baseball it seems to work much better as it's obvious who should be following the ball.

And that's really all there is to it, with each side slogging away through nine innings or overs or whatever our former colonial cousins call them. You can play either the computer or a human opponent but you have to provide your own popcorn and Pepsi.

Apart from the obscure nature of the game itself, the only other major hazard appears to be the chameleon-like character of the fielders, who change colour whenever attributes clash. It shouldn't cause too great a problem but it does point to the game's non-Spectrum origins. The white ball can be a bit hard to spot at times, too.

Gamestar is recognised as the major producer of sporting software in the States, and on this showing it's easy to see why. But I'm not sure how much attraction this will hold unless you're a US expatriate or a fan of the game.

BARGAIN BASEMENT

Cheaper than a speeding bullet. Leaps small molehills in a single bound. Is it a bird? Is it a small piece of putty? No, it's budget hero Marcus Berkmann with the latest in low-price Spec-fun.

Alternative
£2.99
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann

This one's strictly for the converted - to the extent that if you know nothing about baseball you'll need a trained interpreter to read the instructions. Getting into the game is hard than virtually any game I've played in the past year, but it's worth it once you've mastered it - or so I am told by a baseball fan who rates it. Though not a impressive as the original C64 version (the game was first released by Activision, to fairly universal indifference), it's apparently quite a good sim. Just don't ask me to play it again, that's all - I think I'd have more fun translating the Aeneid into Welsh. Such games are notoriously hard to mar - are you marking it for the general punter, or for the enthusiast? Well, I'd like to be fair about this, but unfortunately years of being unfair about everything have perverted my once pure and noble mind, so I shan't be. Non-baseball fans should steer well clear.

Label: Gamestar
Author: In-house
Price: £7.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

I could never cut it as a baseball star. I just haven't got the steely-eyed busting-a-gut determination of the home-run players or the aim or skill of the pitcher. And God knows I haven't got the nerve to wear the outrageously silly trousers which are far too short and make your ankles look ludicrous.

Activision (via its US subsidiary, Gamestar) has kindly come to the rescue of the self-conscious among us, and released Championship Baseball which enables you to enjoy most of the goings on that go on at a baseball game in the privacy of your own home.

The Championship bit of the title may suggest strategic elements in gameplay. but the Spectrum version includes no such options so anyone who fancied a bit of coaching will be dreadfully disappointed.

What we do have is a bit of pitching, a bit of batting and a bit of fielding - either one-player against the computer or two-player with a friend. The screen shows a large animated character on the right-hand side of the screen, with the pitcher a little way into the distance. The left of the screen shows an overview of the playing field, with little stick-men to denote the positions of all the players.

When the pitcher pitches he cranks back his arm, and lets fly - you choose whether to throw a screwball,- a fastball, an outside knuckleball or any of the other bizarre-sounding manoevures that the ball can be forced to follow by just a flick of the pitcher's wrist.

Jerk the stick in the direction that will provide the pitch you most desire. To a certain extent it's a matter of luck, but you should find a couple of angles that will beat most batters. Ot course, if you use the same pitch all the time, the opposition will learn to predict your moves...

Now batting. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a great deal of skill in batting, apart from timing when the ball is in a hittable position. Each batter has a pre determined style of batting, and you don't actually get to control where he swings the bat (though you do have the choice of either taking a swing or 'bunting' - a kind of safety shot). Assuming you make good contact, and you didn't decide to bunt, the ball will fly off into the field, and you run for all you're worth.

You'll automatically run to first base (or bag as those US types call it) but from there you have a whole host of options available. You can either stay put, go on, go back to the last bag, slide into the bag, dive back to the last bag etc etc. It's this part of the game that offers some scope for real excitement, as it all centres around taking just the right amount of risks. If you make a bad choice, the computer (or a mate, if you're playing in two-player mode) will field the ball and you'll be walking back to the bench.

The object while batting is obviously to score as many runs as possible. A home run is virtually impossible, though it scores more prestige-wise.

Then fielding, which involves running after the little white dot on the first part of the screen When one of the guys gets to it, you'll have to make a snap decision as to which base he should throw to. The computer character (or mate) is hurtling from base to base, and if you goof, he'll score that home-run.

Baseball is obviously going to go down a storm with sports sim enthusiasts. As for everyone else, they could like it too. And while the graphics are a little simplistic, they do the job very nicely thank you.