Title: Bases Loaded
Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Release Date: September 1988 (North America)
Developer: TOSE
Publisher: Jaleco
The North American localization of 1987’s Moero!! Pro Yakyuu. Bases Loaded found an enormous audience with its glorious 8-bit audiovisual quality.
Gameplay Video
Description
Bases Loaded benefitted from a little extra time in the oven for the localization, receiving fixes for some infamous glitches that give Moero!! Pro Yakyuu a reputation as a popular but ramshackle mess of a game (most famously, the most powerful players in the game can bunt a home run).
This game began the Bases Loaded series that would receive three sequels on NES and more entries on Super Nintendo, Sega Saturn, and PlayStation.
Ports of the game would later release on Game Boy (1990), Wii (2008), Wii U, and 3DS (both 2014). A PlayStation 4 port of Bases Loaded was announced but never released (the remake of its Japanese version Moero!! Pro Yakyuu did release for PS4 in that region only).
Roster
Bases Loaded features a fully fictional league of 12 teams filled with fictional mononym players like PASTE and MOYER.
Physical Media
How to Play Today
Original hardware: The NES cartridge is common and easily found in used game stores for those with the original hardware or a system like the RetroN that plays NES cartridges.
Ports: Bases Loaded was ported as part of Nintendo’s Virtual Console to the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS.
Software emulation: Unlike the Japanese version of the game, where audio does not work perfectly on any emulators as of 2023, Bases Loaded can be emulated accurately using a cycle-accurate NES emulator like Mesen, available in RetroArch.
Hardware emulation: Bases Loaded is accurate and playable on the MiSTer FPGA core for NES.