3131kmh@hogpd.UUCP (K.HUBER) (09/22/83)
I recently purchased the Coleco baseball package (controllers and game cartridge). The good news is that the controllers are fun and have a lot of potential. The very bad news is that the game is intolerable. Specifically, the sound effects are 1980 quality at best, there are random whistles, a crowd noise that sounds just like static, and no spoken words (like Intellivision's "Your out"). Defensive player movement is poor, infielders can not enter the outfield to catch fly balls and a player covering a base is automatically placed on the bag, preventing the possibility of a tag along the base path. Now for the bad news, the #$%&/$! GAME HAS A LOGIC DEFECT THAT IS SURE TO HAVE IT KEPT PERMANENTLY ON THE SHELF!!!!!! None of the 16 basic combinations of pitches (including any straight pitch) produce a strike. This leads to very boring game involving all walks if the batter choses to sit idly by and not swing. An "expert" adult may master the unique combination of english, timing and pitch selection that might occasionally generate a strike (without the help of the batter, who on observation is likely to hit a home run if he swings). My 9 year old daughter and 6 years old son have not managed to master this skill in upteen hours of play, but they do enjoy watching the runners walk the bases and compiling zillions of runs. In fairness to Coleco, I called the Company and talked to their resident expert on the baseball game. Her explanation was that what I described was indeed true, but that Coleco considered this to be a FEATURE not a DEFECT. Additional calls to get a refund (under the 90 day warranty for "defects in material and workmanship") got no further than a disinterested receptionist with background prompting. If you have $75 to spare, and enjoy high scoring bookends Coleco baseball is for you.