Pete Rose Baseball
reviewed by Tim Duarte
Pete Rose Baseball was designed by Alex DeMeo and is the most advanced baseball game programmed for the Atari 2600. When you compare Pete Rose Baseball to Home Run (by Atari), PRB seems to be light years ahead. You'd think PRB was a game for the Atari 8-bit computer or the Commodore 64. As Mark Androvich mentioned in (print) issue 16, "Pete Rose Baseball is the closest that the 2600 ever go to the level of sophistication of computer baseball games such as Hardball."
This game was released before Pete Rose got "nabbed" for gambling on professional baseball games and was asked to leave the game. I don't know if Pete may be a friend of Alex, or if Alex was a fan of Pete. I don't see what involvement Pete Rose has to do with the game, other than Absolute may have been looking for a "big name" endorsement. (Today a company could re-release the game as Mark Maguire Baseball and make a fortune.)
The game shows the view from many different angles. The view most seen is the angle from right behind the pitcher. This is similar to the view we normally see while watching a baseball game on TV. A small diamond in the corner of the screen shows if there are any base runners. The pitcher can choose among five different types of pitches and the screen changes once the ball is hit. The second view is a fielding screen, where the player must try to catch the ball. The fielding view is from a "birdís eye view" and you can never see the entire baseball diamond on the screen at once.
As with Title Match Pro Wrestling, the drawbacks and cons of Pete Rose Baseball lie within the control scheme. But again, there may be no way of "making things simple" in an advanced game. After all, you have to remember there are limits and a programmer can only do so much with the 2600. Alex also programmed a version for the Atari 7800 (which I do not own.) I have heard other gamers state that there's not a whole lot of differnece between the two games.
Get your own Free Home Page