◆ History of professional baseball from the transition of baseball games-4th: Bases Loaded
Looking back, my father was crying.
This is the closing line of the TV commercial narration at the time of 1987, “Famicom” Burn !! Professional Baseball “as it is with the excitement at the stadium with the first voice synthesis of a baseball game.”
Looking back now, “Bases Loaded” was not a story, but a apt.
The legendary “Bunt Home Run” that flies with tremendous momentum if the ball hits the stopped bat is famous, and the first “Bases Loaded” is still often used as a kusoge, but there were many fans who were enthusiastic at that time. It is.
A topical work that has been attracting attention as the first real baseball game for Family Computers before its release. That said, Namco will release “Professional Baseball Family Stadium,” which changed the history of that baseball game during development.
Jaleco producer Masayuki Seki looks back on the situation at that time in the game magazine “Continue” Vol.14.
“This is amazing, so I stopped developing it in a hurry. But we have a passion for baseball and want to make it by all means. If so, there is only a real route with a different perspective from” Famista “, watching baseball games. Let’s go, next to me “
In this way, Bases Loaded turned to a real route that competitors have not yet pioneered.
According to an interview with former NMK Akihiro Yoshida of “Jaleco Archives” (Jitsugyo no Nihonsha), the perspective from behind the pitcher of an overseas baseball game called “HardBall !!” was a hint.
That’s because it was the “looking through the TV camera from the back screen side” that baseball fans come in contact with on a daily basis.
◆ Explosive hits prevented production in time …
With an awareness of “watching and enjoying” rather than “doing”, we realized a live-style production such as “Pitcher change!” And “Home run!”
In the era when “Famista” had 4 pitchers and 12 fielders for each team, “Burning Pro” realized a total of 30 people, 12 pitchers and 18 fielders for each team. The pitching and hitting forms are also reproduced for each player, the image of the center camera is vivid as in the TV broadcast, the password is displayed for each game in pennant mode, and if you win 80, it is a longer journey than Dragon Quest.
On the release date of June 26, 1987, the Yodobashi Camera at the west exit of Shinjuku sold so explosively that it could not be produced in time, and later Jaleco’s own software “Yokai Club” was diverted, so the initial red color. There is a black cassette on the market that has been modified by Rom.
The excitement was tremendous, and in the September 1987 issue of the magazine “Shogakuninense”, a special manga of “Burning !! Professional Baseball” was featured as a featured feature in Japan! “Burning !! Professional Baseball” was posted along with the introductory text.
Although it was the first bases loaded professional who sold about 1.6 million pieces of software with a list price of 5,500 yen, there were many parts that were sacrificed because of the realism of the appearance, the game tempo was delayed, and when the battle mode was confronted with friends, per game It takes almost an hour, and if you play two games, it takes about two hours, which is almost like a movie. Inevitable rage at home. Even so, there were many gamers who fell in love with the world view of “Bases Loaded” who challenged the absolute champion Famista from the bottom of their hearts.
◆ The sequel to the masterpiece “Bases Loaded ’88” is here!
“Burning !! Professional Baseball ’88 Definitive Edition” released on August 10, 1988 is still a masterpiece that has been handed down.
The Famicom version is based on the second work, the MSX ported version “Burning !! Enthusiastic Baseball ’88” released in the same year, the bugs in the first work have been resolved, and the biorhythm function will be installed from this work.
Checking Tokuma Shoten’s naughty comic series strategy guide, “Biorhythm is a representation of the changes between the good and low periods in three basic cycles for living organisms with all biological reactions.” There is an explanation that I do not understand what you are saying, but the three items of “body (flying distance of hit ball), emotion (flying degree of hit ball), intelligence (hit probability of chance)” are doing well. It changes greatly from 0 to 7 when it is low and from 0 to -7 when it is low. You can predict the success of professional baseball players in 1988!
Really? Without thinking calmly, all 12 teams divided into the Atlantic League and the Pacific League will engage in a fierce battle in the game.
Of course, here, it would be a no-brainer to rush into the Central League and the Pacific League. The opening screen is decorated with the golden rookie Kazushige Nagashima’s “Kasushike”. The cleanup of the T team is not “Bath, Kakefu, Okada”, but “Buusu, Nukefu, Okayan” that keeps the crying child silent (default setting is No. 4 Busu).
Despite being released in August, the giant Lu Ming-tsu, who made his shocking debut at the first at-bat arch in the game against Yakult on June 14, … Moreover, the in-game result setting was “Batting average .282, 15 home runs”, and the data accuracy was as high as possible, which was as realistic as the actual 1988 final result “Batting average .255, 16 home runs”.
The tempo of the game has improved dramatically, and it can be completed in about 30 minutes per game, and the operability has improved dramatically, such as 9 stages of bat swing and pitching operation, and diving catch and jump catch in the defense. If you do it now, you can’t read the drop point of the fly until you get used to it. It’s unusually difficult to defend the outfield …). Of course, Jaleco’s baseball game specialty, the brawl scene, also occurs when a player in a low biorhythm period receives a hit by pitch.
When a home run is hit, the pitcher reflected in the Aurora Vision is disappointed, but if he is disappointed here, the details of the art such as the signal of pitcher change are still alive, and after the match, “Bases Loaded” will be played and the players will It seems to be careful to convey biorhythm information to the player.
Just like the copy of the promotional leaflet, “Burning with Biorhythm !! The definitive edition of this year’s baseball game”. The last season of the Showa era was with this game.
When I returned from school, I was an elementary school student at the time, and when I returned from school, I became a hand-washing, snack, and burning professional. If you win 75 in 130 games, you will advance to the Japan Series. You will record the match results, winning pitchers, home runs, etc. in the notebook and face the G team. Celebrate alone. It’s an episode that seems to be popular … Rather, in the second round, I wanted to use the Masakari throwing method “Urata” and participated in the Pacific League O team. I fought a pennant with a cleanup of “Tateda” and “Madoku”.
It wasn’t as straightforward and low-threshold as Famista, but Bases Loaded had a cool and UWF-like fighting ideology. There were many “burning professional boys” who fell in love with the excessively aggressive style in the classroom.
◆ The regrettable “New Burning Pro” stray
However, I was wondering if Heisei would continue to run at the top of real baseball games, and in “New Burn !! Professional Baseball” released on July 13, 1989, it was a stand on the 1st base side (at the time of the right batter). 3rd base side stand (when left batter) A specification change that is too mysterious to throw and hit with the camera from the viewpoint.
Although he abandoned the most distinctive feature of the series and returned to the center camera with “Bases Loaded ’90 Impressive Edition” and “Super Professional Baseball” of Super Nintendo, he could not regain the momentum of yesteryear.
However, the spirit of challenge, which sometimes seems reckless, was also the attraction of Jaleco.
In addition, novelist Munenori Harada confessed that he was so enthusiastic that he could hardly get a job for about two weeks after purchasing the first Bases Loaded in the essay collection “Subara Shiki Sekai” (Shueisha Bunko). In 1988, when the definitive edition fought for one season in about one month and won the league championship, in the Japan Series, he defeated the Seibu Lions (L team) in the golden age at that time and stared at the ending screen that shined the best in Japan, and was deeply moved by tears. It is said that it became.
Even if someone in the future laughed at Kusoge, it was definitely a god game for us at that time. At the end of the 1980s, it was “Burning !! Professional Baseball ’88 Definitive Edition” that adults, children, and baseball fans were all crazy about.
Sentence = Yasutaka Nakamizo (Nakamizo / Yasutaka)
