HardBall!

Awards

• Computer Gaming World
  • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #15 Most Memorable Game Villain (Tom Frisinia)

Development

When Sean Pearce (a Choice Software employee) and Colin Gordon (Choice Software's owner) were to convert this game to ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC, they were given the US release of the C64 version (without source code), its manual and a NBL rules book. They converted as much code and graphics as they could and altered anything that would not convert. For example, the 'little men' on the main screen did not convert correctly so Sean Pearce reanimated them, pixel by pixel. The pitching screen was also redone due to the memory restraints of the ZX Spectrum. The same screen shows up in the Amstrad CPC version because the CPC was converted from the Speccy version.

Names

For the ZX Spectrum release, the All-Stars player names were those of the conversion team at Choice Software and their associates.

The Champs player names were other famous musicians (Jimmy HENDRIX), sports personalities (Gary LINEKER, Steve CRAM, Daley THOMPSON, Jim? CLARKE), literary characters (Dr. WATSON, HOLMES, DANTE) etc. and also Jack TRAMIEL (founder / CEO of Commodore, and later Atari).

References

In the movie The Princess Bride, Hardball was briefly shown being played by Fred Savage in his bedroom.

Sales

The game achieved the American Software Publishers Association's Platinum Award, which is granted for 250,000 games sold.

Information also contributed by LepricahnsGold