History of Jaleco interview translated by Shmuplations
A 2011 interview with a Jaleco developer from the book Famichuu Seishun Famicom Gekijou has been translated by the prolific games content translator Shmuplations. Check it out here. The centerpiece of the interview is the best-selling NES/Famicom baseball game Moero!! Pro Yakyuu, released in the U.S. as Bases Loaded. Lots of attention paid to the surprisingly big cultural impact in Japan of “bunt home runs,” a legendary bug in the first Moero!! Pro Yakyuu game.
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 25th Anniversary Concert
The 2019 25th anniversary concert for Konami’s Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu series has been uploaded to YouTube (unofficially), so get it while you can. Funny to imagine a live concert for music from a baseball game series, but Pawapuro definitely has enough good title themes to fill up a concert.
Backloggd and IGDB
I’ve been looking for a place to write short reviews of the baseball games I play. I wanted to keep these reviews separate from this site to keep things “encylopedia-like.” So I’ve created an account on Backloggd for these capsule reviews.
Seeing little data errors for games I wanted to review on Backlogged then brought me to the Internet Games Database, so I’ve started compulsively filling out pages there also. My IGDB account is here.
Some more thoughts on sports game titles
I wrote honestly too much about baseball game titles here already, but another thought occurred to me today:
Sports games used to be named after coaches. Madden NFL is as big as they get and it’s named after a coach (and broadcaster). Tony La Russa Baseball and Earl Weaver Baseball are great titles. Tommy Lasorda Baseball too. I mean, who could say no to this face:
It’s probably not the practical, defensible decision to tie your game series so heavily to a single dude like this. But imagine how good some of this box art would be:
- Dusty Baker Baseball
- Bruce Bochy’s Power League
- Ron Washington presents Major League Baseball
- Season Ticket with Terry Francona
YouTube Viewing Guide
- A really fun full game of MLB 07 The Show for PS2
- One Piece: Going Baseball (GBA) Gameplay
- A new world record for fastest exhibition game win in MLB 08 The Show
- Two full games of the board game PC port of Bottom of the 9th (unrelated to the Konami series from a million years ago)
- Commercials for Pro Yakyuu Team o Tsukurou! and Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 9