Megalextoria

Ad for Hardball III by Accolade for DOS based PCs

http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/155359551590/thedoteaters-great-tactics-to-bring-americas

This is a 1992 ad for Hardball III. Sports games have never been my favorite genre but there are a few I have enjoyed playing over the years including the original Hardball on my Commodore 64. The Commodore 64 was still the only computer I had in 1992. However, commercially speaking it was pretty dead if not quite buried, at least in the U.S. There were still a couple of commercial games coming out as late as 1992 but Hardball III wasn’t one of them. For this game you would need a DOS based PC.

The most immediately noticeable advantage of Hardball III over the original is the improved graphics. Much higher resolution (VGA) and more colors (a whopping 256 of them) made for a huge improvement. However, while improved graphics were nice, the more interesting features to me were stats related. Stats could be kept across an entire pennant race and imported from other games. You could set up matches between real teams using real stats if you wanted. You couldn’t really do any of this with the original Hardball which just had a couple teams with a roster of players with predefined stats. I always enjoyed the idea of virtually coaching or managing a sports team than playing an action sports game. Or at least I tended to prefer one extreme or the other. I enjoyed some very arcade oriented sports games like Tecmo Bowl for example.

DOS based PCs were the only type of computer Hardball III was released for. However, it would be ported to the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo over the next couple of years. Unfortunately, the console version had to be somewhat simplified as there was not way to, for example, import stats. And while stats could be kept across a season, it required entry of a lengthy password. Hardball III was also slated to be released on the Atari Jaguar but that release never happened for reasons unknown.

Accolade tended to make some pretty great games at the time and Hardball III generally received positive reviews but in my opinion the DOS version is the only way to play this game. So if you want to try that version you’ll have to have an old machine handy or be familiar with DOS Box. The Genesis and Super Nintendo versions will give you some idea of what it is like but they are still mere shadows of the real thing.