What baseball games did you play before The Show?

[redsoxfan25]

I was just curious as to what games everyone else has played in the past. I follow a page on Facebook called "The Nostalgic 90's" and they sometimes post old video games. I started thinking of old baseball games and wanted to see others thoughts.

I began playing Bases Loaded II: Second Season on the NES (never had the first one). Then I got the SNES and played some Super Bases Loaded and Roger Clemens' MVP Baseball. With Roger Clemens' Baseball I was always fascinated with controlling your slide/tag when it came to a close play. The game I really enjoyed however was Ken Griffey Jr. Presents MLB. I remember looking up who was on the Red Sox that year and editing the names because everyone but Griffey had different names. I was never a fan of Winning Run though.

Getting to the N64, I played MLB featuring Ken Griffey Jr. for a bit. I played more of the second game, Ken Griffey Jr. Slugfest. The smoother graphics, updated rosters and create-a-player were an improvement. This was around when I wanted to start having updated rosters. Sometimes I would create some of the new Red Sox players and add them on. Every other team would still be inaccurate but I didn't care. This got old after a year or so.

A buddy of mine got me into All Star Baseball 2000. This was where it got confusing because the ASB games were always a year off (ASB 2005 was really 2004 season etc). Unlike the Griffey games, I didn't do full seasons, just exhibition games here and there. I dipped back into playing Slugfest for a bit. In between I played Microsoft Baseball 2001 for the computer. I did play some ASB 2003 afterwards.

It wasn't until ASB 2004 where I started playing a full 162 game season. I actually had 2 seasons going - a usual Red Sox season and my created team in expansion mode. With expansion mode I had a blast. I created a team in my hometown, and the starting 9 were created players of myself and my friends. My rotation, bullpen and bench consisted of players who were retired or weren't assigned to any teams. I always felt weird having a player on my team who was playing elsewhere. Chuck Finley was my ace, and he did surprisingly well. Chris Nichting, who I never heard of, was a reliable bullpen arm for me. My closer, Kasahiro (sp?) Sasaki was lights out. I would go to baseball almanac and see what players wore what numbers, and assign whatever uniform number they wore the most, or one that I felt appropriate. Hey, I was a 15-17 year old with a dinky 15-20 hour a week part time job, I had time to kill lol. I heard the main theme to ASB 2004 on youtube and became extremely nostalgic. We ended up getting to the World Series and beat the Cardinals in I think 6 games. Granted everyone was overrated, but it was so much fun. It was awesome that when you created players, you could assign certain walk up songs, which was a first at the time. I remember walking up to Jump Around. The intro to ASB 2004 was awesome, and actually got me pumped up to play a game. The special features were fantastic as well - I loved scenario mode!

ASB 2005 came out, and did the same - Red Sox season and my own created team with my friends. 2005's version didn't feel the same though, it just seemed "off". It just didn't capture that magic that 2004 had. I ended up switching over to MVP Baseball.

MVP Baseball was where it was at. I played 2004 and 2005, full 162 game season, playoffs included. This is when I started to go along with the 162 game schedule. I would play one game a day. So the season opener in real life, I would be playing the season opener in my game. I just seem comfortable doing that, it feels like I'm not overdoing it. One game a day, 45 minutes a day isn't that bad. I would play the Red Sox of course, then create myself and put myself on the Pawsox. I would play as them as well because they are local (if only they had a player lock option).

MVP NCAA Baseball 2006 came out. I did the same thing as I did in ASB 2004 - created me and my friends as the starting 9. Unfortunately we lost in the playoffs. I still played MVP 05 on the Xbox with updated rosters from MVP Mods. I think I had to get the rosters by a USB stick or something, because I didn't have my Xbox setup to the internet. I switched to MVP on the computer because they had so many mods to make the game much more realistic. I played MVP to about 2007 or 2008. I remember 2006 David Ortiz had very similar stats in the game as he did in real life.

Now to MLB The Show, I have been playing since 2010. Since 2010, I think there was about 2 or 3 seasons I didn't completely finish, mainly because of my work schedule. I still play the same way - one game a day, going along with the season. Last year was tough with a full time job and part time job 2 nights a week. Now that I quit the part time job its much easier to enjoy this game, and play my usual one game a day. I play the Red Sox of course, and do player lock as myself on the Pawsox (player lock is clutch now).

So yea, sorry this was real long. I just kinda became a bit nostalgic over the weekend. I actually am looking to buy ASB 2004 just to fool around with it and see if I remember my old team, so to speak lol. Granted I love MVP Baseball, that was a much better game then ASB was, in my opinion. I would choose MVP over ASB. It was just having a created team in your hometown, having all your friends playing on the same team was special.

Now with playing The Show all these years, if MVP came back, I would stick with The Show. MVP was great, but it was great at that time. Now its The Show's time. Plus having my last name (finally) in a game helps..

So what games did you play?

[Blzer]

I'm only going to go with the ones that I have owned (not including The Show obviously). I have almost literally played any MLB game in existence, hah.

HardBall III
World Series Baseball
World Series Baseball '95
Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball
Triple Play 98
MLB 99
Ken Griffey Jr.'s SlugFest
Triple Play 2000
Interplay Sports Baseball 2000
MLB 2001
All Star Baseball 2002
All Star Baseball 2003
MLB SlugFest 20-03
World Series Baseball 2K3
All Star Baseball 2004
ESPN Major League Baseball
MVP Baseball 2005
ESPN MLB 2K5
MLB 2K6
MLB Power Pros
MLB 2K10
MLB 2K13

The Show came into my life starting with '06. I skipped out on 07 and 08, then got 09 - 13 on PS3 (and some of them on Vita). Jumped into 15, 16, and 17 on PS4.

If Backyard Baseball counts (because it has MLB players), I owned 2001 and 2003. I also have Super Mega Baseball 1, 2, and 3, and Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2003.

I must be missing a few, though. That list feels relatively short, even without The Show titles included.

Pretty much if there is a game from any series that you see above, I have probably played every iteration of, either from a friend or as a rental (including the Dreamcast 2K games). In this millennium I have also played most of the High Heat series and MLB Inside Pitch 2003.

EDIT: It seems the only game I really haven't played was Home Run King on GameCube, but looking at videos it seems to play a lot like WSB 2K1, but without auto fielding and sleeker presentation.

[GreenLightning]

In addition to all of these I played a game on the SNES called Relief Pitcher. The announcer was Jack Buck.

[Caulfield]

all the usual suspects-
989 and the Show's precursor MLB series ('99-'06) [never played MLB 98]
MLB2K5 (kept playing it right up to 2K13)
EA's Triple Play ('99-'02) and MVP ('03-'05) [never played Triple Play 97 or 98]
High Heat ('02-'04) [never played '99-'01]
World Series Baseball 2K3 [never played 2K1 or 2K2 because they werent on playstation]
All-Star Baseball ('02-'05) [never played '97-'01]
I even briefly dabbled in MLB Slugfest ('03-'06) but for obvious reasons it couldnt sustain my attention.

I stopped playing video games when I was in my early 20's and didnt get back into them until Madden 99, at which point I was 28. Madden 99 and Metal Gear Solid were the reasons I started playing video games again and I havent stopped since.

[BlueSkies77]

When I was a kid I enjoyed games like RBI Baseball and ESPN Sports Talk Baseball on the Genesis. The first truly awesome baseball game to me was World Series Baseball 95. I loved how realistic it looked and played. Every stadium looked like the real thing for the first time ever.

For PlayStation 1: Frank Thomas’ Big Hurt Baseball was my very first 3D polygonal Baseball game. I thought it looked fantastic, I loved how the camera could close over the field. I also enjoyed MLB Pennant Chase but Triple Play Baseball 98 and 2000 were the real deal on the PS1, I loved both games a lot.

For the N64: I thought All Star Baseball 99 was awesome but I didn’t play it too much.

Dreamcast: It got a lot of hate but I thoroughly enjoyed World Series Baseball 2K1. At the time in 2000 the game was mind blowing with great graphics and the most realistic presentation I’d ever seen in a Baseball game. I also enjoyed 2K2 but not as much ironically. It was a fun game but lost a lot of soul.

For GameCube: After World Series Baseball 2K2 I took a long break from baseball games. Nothing was good to be honest imo. I finally gave All Star Baseball 2003 a shot, and it was good to play a baseball game again but it wasn’t really that good a game.

For PS2: A year after I bought All Star Baseball 2003 on the GameCube, I decided to give MVP Baseball 2004 a twirl. This was apparently EA’s revamped Triple Play series. The game was awesome! The only bad thing was the infamous lefty glitch, where lefty hitters did not have power for some reason making hitting homers with them more difficult. There were no patches for consoles back then so the game was stuck with that glitch. Thankfully MVP Baseball 2005 had no such glitch and the game was damn near perfect. The only problem was the competition. Sony was working on MLB and making it the best sim Baseball series, I just hadn’t discovered it yet.

So when EA lost the MLB rights, I stuck with MVP and picked up both NCAA Baseball games for both 06 and 07. I enjoyed both games a lot but obviously I needed MLB. So MLB 06 The Show was my first MLB game I played from 989 Studio/San Diego Studio. It blew my mind. I had no idea how cartoony MVP Baseball was until I experienced the realism of what Sony has created. It was the best Sim Baseball game ever up until that point. I also enjoy 07 a lot.

And that about sums up my Baseball video game journey until The Show. My favorites are about the same as everyone else, World Series Baseball 95, Triple Play 98/2000, MVP Baseball 2004/2005.

The baseball games I regret missing when they were new are, Ken Griffey Jr Baseball on the SNES, World Series Baseball on the Saturn, MLB 97 - 2000 on the PS1.

[Mitchrapp]

I don't remember all of them but my favorite 'Major League Baseball by Mattel' for the Intellivision. 1980. Me and my best friend used to play that all day long as a teenager. Intellivision had so many great games.

Intellivision and later the Amiga were both great, better than PS & Xbox for sure. Okay maybe not PS2, awesome console.

[mkharsh33]

To add to the great lists here: LaRussa Baseball. Can't recall the system, but early 90's.

Fun moment: 2 of my college buddies and I were playing a game as the Florida Marlins. Jeff Mutis pitching. We took turns pitching an inning each - rotating (we each got 3). No hitter. Last at bat - the opponent (can't recall who) takes one to the wall. Outfielder has to make a leaping catch and rob the guy. We went crazy.

So, this is back in the day - Probably 1994-ish. We write Jeff Mutis a letter.

We are still waiting for his reply.....

[Mitchrapp]

Btw, I can't forget MicroLeague Baseball (That ball had eyes) & Earl Weaver Baseball. Both fantastic.