nichols@sun.acs.udel.edu (Ronald R Nichols) (11/10/89)
Has anyone tried Microleague Baseball yet? I just found out it was shipping. Any comments? Ron
dlv059@ipl.jpl.nasa.gov (Dave Votaw) (11/11/89)
In article <5147@sun.acs.udel.edu>, nichols@sun.acs.udel.edu (Ronald R Nichols) writes: > Has anyone tried Microleague Baseball yet? I just found out > it was shipping. Any comments? > > Ron > I have been playing for a couple of months now. I like it a lot, but I think that I enjoy it because I'm a baseball freak rather than because of the implementation. If you ever played the Apple II version of this game, you'll recognize my complaints; this game hasn't changed in six years. It's almost exactly the same. They've added a few bells and whistles, but nothing really substantial. I have lots of complaints: * Bunting doesn't work as well as it should. I've played maybe 100 games; I've seen ONE sacrifice bunt that got the runner from second to third. Sacrifices from first to second work about 1 out of 5 times. * There are way too many errors. The average is about 2-3 per game, which is quite a bit higher. It's fairly common to see a team with 3 or 4 errors in a game. * The player commands are available from a pop-up menu, which is nice if you like those. I prefer keyboard commands myself. For some reason, these numbered commands only work if the command key is pressed. That's a real pain. Numbers or any other key pressed by itself does nothing. * The program won't run on anything but a Plus or an SE. * The animation is nicely done, but it's obvious that the outcome of the play is decided well before it begins. Runners know in advance if they're going to be out or safe and run accordingly. They even know about errors before the fielder drops the ball! The timing is really funny sometimes. On a ground ball up the middle, the shortstop is there well ahead of the ball but "he can't get it!". Or, the runner is rounding second on a ball hit to the outfield. "He's trying to score!" says the scoreboard. The ball arrives at home as the runner reaches third. "They got him" says board as the catcher waits for the runner to slide in. Almost every play is mistimed in some regard. * There are some bugs, even some funny ones. Sometimes, right after you bring in a relief pitcher, the program forces you to change pitchers again! (This can be a great bonus for the other team.) When you do so, the catcher (who always squats, by the way; poor guy can't straighten his legs) and another player start moving laterally across the field in a very odd way and the scoreboard says "XYZZY doesn't work!" twice. Truly strange. * Great patience is required to wait through much of the animation. I can practically take a lunch break while the computer manager changes pitchers. * The ball-and-strike counts are a joke; you generally get one pitch per batter and the scoreboard occasionally announces a count out of the blue, usually just prior to issuing a walk or a strikeout. Sometimes after a foul ball a completely impossible count is displayed. Doesn't seem to bother the game, though. * Pitchers will "tire" in the bullpen. They're too stupid to sit down on their own. This "feature" was carried over from the old game. GOOD THINGS: * You get to play with real players who usually play in a realistic way, with the exceptions noted above. * You get to put together your own teams. * With the exception of the above complaints, you have quite a bit of control over how your team plays. You can do anything a real manager would do. So it's fun. I enjoy it. But I *wish* they had fixed some of the problems. Dave Votaw Image Processing Lab Jet Propulsion Laboratory dlv059@ipl.jpl.nasa.gov
dlv059@ipl.jpl.nasa.gov (Dave Votaw) (11/11/89)
In article <5147@sun.acs.udel.edu>, nichols@sun.acs.udel.edu (Ronald R Nichols) writes: > Has anyone tried Microleague Baseball yet? I just found out > it was shipping. Any comments? > > Ron > I have been playing for a couple of months now. I like it a lot, but I think that I enjoy it because I'm a baseball freak rather than because of the implementation. If you ever played the Apple II version of this game, you'll recognize my complaints; this game hasn't changed in six years. It's almost exactly the same. They've added a few bells and whistles, but nothing really substantial. I have lots of complaints: * Bunting doesn't work as well as it should. I've played maybe 100 games; I've seen ONE sacrifice bunt that got the runner from second to third. Sacrifices from first to second work about 1 out of 5 times. * There are way too many errors. The average is about 2-3 per game, which is quite a bit higher than it is in real baseball. It's fairly common to see a team with 3 or 4 errors in a game. * The player commands are available from a pop-up menu, which is nice if you like those. I prefer keyboard commands myself. For some reason, these numbered commands only work if the command key is pressed. That's a real pain. Numbers or any other key pressed by itself does nothing. * The program won't run on anything but a Plus or an SE. * The animation is nicely done, but it's obvious that the outcome of the play is decided well before it begins. Runners know in advance if they're going to be out or safe and run accordingly. They even know about errors before the fielder drops the ball! The timing is really funny sometimes. On a ground ball up the middle, the shortstop is there well ahead of the ball but "he can't get it!". Or, the runner is rounding second on a ball hit to the outfield. "He's trying to score!" says the scoreboard. The ball arrives at home as the runner reaches third. "They got him" says board as the catcher waits for the runner to slide in. Almost every play is mistimed in some regard. * There are some bugs, even some funny ones. Sometimes, right after you bring in a relief pitcher, the program forces you to change pitchers again! (This can be a great bonus for the other team.) When you do so, the catcher (who always squats, by the way; poor guy can't straighten his legs) and another player start moving laterally across the field in a very odd way and the scoreboard says "XYZZY doesn't work!" twice. Truly strange. * Great patience is required to wait through much of the animation. I can practically take a lunch break while the computer manager changes pitchers. * The ball-and-strike counts are a joke; you generally get one pitch per batter and the scoreboard occasionally announces a count out of the blue, usually just prior to issuing a walk or a strikeout. Sometimes after a foul ball a completely impossible count is displayed. Doesn't seem to bother the game, though. * Pitchers will "tire" in the bullpen. They're too stupid to sit down on their own. This "feature" was carried over from the old game. GOOD THINGS: * You get to play with real players who usually play in a realistic way, with the exceptions noted above. * You get to put together your own teams. * With the exception of the above complaints, you have quite a bit of control over how your team plays. You can do anything a real manager would do. So it's fun. I enjoy it. But I *wish* they had fixed some of the problems. Dave Votaw Image Processing Lab Jet Propulsion Laboratory dlv059@ipl.jpl.nasa.gov