Home Run (Game)

Home Run

GAME » on 1978

Home Run is a baseball game released by Atari, Inc. for their Atari 2600 VCS in 1978. It uses Joystick Controllers for gameplay. It was programmed by Dave Rolfe and Bob Whitehead.

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Gameplay Modes

This is the first baseball game for the home consoles that have more than just one mode. There are a total of 8 modes; each mode changes the number of fielders you have in the game. This game only supports single games.

Mode 1 - Single Fielder \|\| Mode 2 - Two Fielders
Mode 3 - Three Fielders \|\| Mode 4 - Three Fielders spread out

Mode 5 through 8 are two player modes 1 through 4.

Sound

This game adheres to the grand Atari 2600 tradition of using computer beeps as sound. There are slightly different pitches to the beep but that is pretty minor. When the players move, the beep is used for each foot; each step the player takes. This might be the first baseball to attempt to do sound for the player movement, but I might prefer the silent smooth animation of the Astrocade baseball game to a beeping flickering animation of my player in Atari’s Home Run. There is no overall background sound or intro sound. There is also no sound effect when the inning ends or when the game is over.

Rules of Baseball vs video game rules

Home Run fails to put nine players on the field. It does play nine innings and batter’s count is correct. It even adheres to the rule of if batter is hit by pitch a free base is taken. When involved in a rundown the fielder only needs to touch the base for the force out or tag the player. This is a new element of the rules they nicly managed to include. The one aspect that is missing is the ability to throw the ball to base for the force out. It is missing because you only have one fielder and no other person to throw the ball to. You are able to perform a double play and I see no reason why a triple play cannot be preformed but chances of you managing to pull that off are very rare; only slightly more rare then witnessing a triple play in actual baseball.

Video Game Innovations

One player mode,can play against the CPU
Ability to control a fielder after catching the ball
Fielder can perform a rundown and tag base runners out
Baseball played with home plate near top of the screen and outfield towards the bottom
Sound effect for fielder movements
Baseball hats on players, first step in rendering baseball uniforms

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