Champ Sports Baseball (Atari 2600)

[+johnnywc]

Hello all,

 

With the baseball season on hold, Champ Games has been inspired to start on our first original sports game ... Champ Sports Baseball for the Atari 2600!

 

Our plans for Champ Sports Baseball include:

 

• Multiple built-in teams (16 is the current # we're hoping to include), including unique team colors, lineups, etc.
  • Team editor for name/uniform colors, etc.
  • Different field types (artificial turf vs. grass)
• Multiple game modes
  • Exhibition mode: play with any two teams 
  • Tournament mode: choose a team and compete in a tournament-style march to the championship!
  • Practice mode: hone your skills with batting, fielding and pitching practice
• Multiple play modes:
  • 1 player vs. computer
  • 2 players vs. and team modes
• Multiple screen views:
  • Pitcher/catcher
  • Infield view
  • Multiple outfield views (left, left center, center, right center and right field)
• Other:
  • Double and triple plays
  • Infield fly rule
  • Bunts, sacrifice flies
  • Steals, hit and runs, pickoff plays, pitch outs
  • Left/right handed pitchers and batters, plus switch hitters
  • Player skills (throwing, fielding, hitting, running)
  • Throwing and fielding errors
  • Game stats

 

Development is in the early stages (field views, ball physics, fielding, scoreboard, throwing to bases, etc. are almost done) and we hope to have a playable demo sometime this summer.

 

Here are some screen shots from the current build.  As always, suggestions are always welcome.   

 

Pitcher/catcher view with full scoreboard:

 

Infield view.  The solid red player - the catcher -  shows player that has the ball:

 

Left-center view.  The ball and shadow can be seen around 2nd base.  The yellow cross hairs show where the ball will land to aid in fielding (can be disabled for advanced players):

[+sramirez2008]

Yesssss! Mind totally blown. I can’t believe everything that you plan on including. I can’t wait to turn a triple play or see the infield fly rule get invoked. My brother’s left handed, he’s going to love to be able to pitch/bat left handed...on a 2600 game.?

[AtariBrian]

Love the look of the players. Great job!! Looking forward to this!

[Emyxox71]

John you did an incredible job.  The look of the players is very  impressive.  I can't wait to try the gameplay!

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Too bad that baseball is utterly boring for me. ?

[+D Train]

john, what are you doing for outfield dimensions?  will all games take place in the same "stadium" or will there be the ability to choose different "stadia"?

 

I am super excited about this!  can't wait to see some animations and transitions.

[chewy]

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[+johnnywc]

5 hours ago, D Train said:

john, what are you doing for outfield dimensions?  will all games take place in the same "stadium" or will there be the ability to choose different "stadia"?

Nathan (Strum) and I are still working out the outfield dimensions; we're debating whether to expand the outfield so there is more opportunities for doubles and triples, but not so much that it fields like you're in a sea of green tracking down fly balls.   We do plan on having different dimensions and wall heights/colors to simulate different stadiums, and maybe even a "stadium editor".  Being a Red Sox fan, I'm sure we'll find a way to include Fenway and the Green Monster.  

Quote

I am super excited about this!  can't wait to see some animations and transitions.

Thanks!  We do have all of the screen transitions done, pitches and hits are "simulated", meaning you press the button and a random pitch is thrown and when it reaches the plate a random hit is done.  Fielders are automatically moved towards the ball (you can override with the joystick to 'take control') or cover a base, runners will advance around and score runs.  Fielding mostly works (catching, throwing) and you can tag runners out or tag a base for force plays.  I'm currently working on foul ball detection (right now every hit is considered "in play" which makes it pretty easy to score   ).

 

Nathan has signed on for the animations; what we have now are very quick placeholders of the player sprites that he threw together while I worked on the game logic.

 

The 16 built-in teams (# may change based on ROM) will have pre-defined cities/names, team colors, rosters and stadium) but we plan on allowing you to edit 1 or possibly 2 teams and save them to the Atarivox.

 

Of course, all of this is "wish list" and will be determined by available ROM (and my sanity  ).

 

 

 

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by johnnywc

[TrekMD]

Oh, I WANT this!  Looks awesome so far!

[+D Train]

3 hours ago, johnnywc said:

Nathan (Strum) and I are still working out the outfield dimensions; we're debating whether to expand the outfield so there is more opportunities for doubles and triples, but not so much that it fields like you're in a sea of green tracking down fly balls.   We do plan on having different dimensions and wall heights/colors to simulate different stadiums, and maybe even a "stadium editor".  Being a Red Sox fan, I'm sure we'll find a way to include Fenway and the Green Monster.  

Thanks!  We do have all of the screen transitions done, pitches and hits are "simulated", meaning you press the button and a random pitch is thrown and when it reaches the plate a random hit is done.  Fielders are automatically moved towards the ball (you can override with the joystick to 'take control') or cover a base, runners will advance around and score runs.  Fielding mostly works (catching, throwing) and you can tag runners out or tag a base for force plays.  I'm currently working on foul ball detection (right now every hit is considered "in play" which makes it pretty easy to score   ).

 

Nathan has signed on for the animations; what we have now are very quick placeholders of the player sprites that he threw together while I worked on the game logic.

 

The 16 built-in teams (# may change based on ROM) will have pre-defined cities/names, team colors, rosters and stadium) but we plan on allowing you to edit 1 or possibly 2 teams and save them to the Atarivox.

 

Of course, all of this is "wish list" and will be determined by available ROM (and my sanity  ).

 

 

 

 

Looking forward to seeing some video of this. 

 

would *love* to see outfield dimensions for ebbet's field and the polo grounds if you can swing that.

 

can't wait to see what you guys come up with.

 

fun!

[+johnnywc]

34 minutes ago, D Train said:

Looking forward to seeing some video of this. 

I plan on posting a video soon, and/or having it shown on James' ZeroPage Homebrew Twitch stream.  I haven't worked on this in a month or so and it's in an unplayable state (I was in the middle of adding in foul ball detection), so I'll need to get back into it to resolve these issues before posting.  

34 minutes ago, D Train said:

would *love* to see outfield dimensions for ebbet's field and the polo grounds if you can swing that.

Maybe!  I love the old ball parks too... my obsession back in the mid to late 80's was Earl Weaver Baseball for the PC that had all the old teams/stadiums/etc. so I hope to include some of that in this game, space permitting.  If we can include a ball park editor, that would be ideal so people will be able to edit and make their own!  

34 minutes ago, D Train said:

can't wait to see what you guys come up with.

 

fun!

Thanks!  This is new ground for us (an original game) so a big part is trying to come up with a design without having feature creep hold us back, but as you can see by my wish list above that's been a futile effort so far!   

[+D Train]

1 hour ago, johnnywc said:

I plan on posting a video soon, and/or having it shown on James' ZeroPage Homebrew Twitch stream.  I haven't worked on this in a month or so and it's in an unplayable state (I was in the middle of adding in foul ball detection), so I'll need to get back into it to resolve these issues before posting.  

Maybe!  I love the old ball parks too... my obsession back in the mid to late 80's was Earl Weaver Baseball for the PC that had all the old teams/stadiums/etc. so I hope to include some of that in this game, space permitting.  If we can include a ball park editor, that would be ideal so people will be able to edit and make their own!  

Thanks!  This is new ground for us (an original game) so a big part is trying to come up with a design without having feature creep hold us back, but as you can see by my wish list above that's been a futile effort so far!   

I wrote my grad school thesis on ballparks so I am *all* about the old ones.  would love to see it.

 

I am sure that you guys will do an excellent job figuring out how to squeeze in all the features you want.

 

gotta have optional 7th inning stretch with music; intro screen should play star spangled banner and/or america the beautiful!

 

I'll just feel free to send *alllllllll* my ideas over as I think of them...

 

[+Kaboomer]

@johnnywc gotta add this to the WIP part of your AA forum signature

 

[Omegamatrix]

John, I really like the way you drawed the the diamond. It came out well. I feel Pete Rose Baseball was ultra realistic, but this baseball game just looks a lot more fun. The players look great. Their representation is spot on.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

4 hours ago, johnnywc said:

my obsession back in the mid to late 80's was Earl Weaver Baseball for the PC that had all the old teams/stadiums/etc.

I loved playing with the stadium editor in that game.

[+sramirez2008]

This may be a wish on my part, but I’d love to see a bullpen cart bring out the relief pitchers. You know, the old ones that were part baseball, part giant baseball cap.

[+D Train]

1 minute ago, sramirez2008 said:

This may be a wish on my part, but I’d love to see a bullpen cart bring out the relief pitchers. You know, the old ones that were part baseball, part giant baseball cap.

that would be hilarious.

 

the great thing about baseball is that *everyone* has ideas!

 

howabout mascots, john.  can you work in the philly phanatic or the san diego chicken?  Morgana the kissing bandit?

[+johnnywc]

48 minutes ago, sramirez2008 said:

This may be a wish on my part, but I’d love to see a bullpen cart bring out the relief pitchers. You know, the old ones that were part baseball, part giant baseball cap.

 

44 minutes ago, D Train said:

that would be hilarious.

 

the great thing about baseball is that *everyone* has ideas!

 

howabout mascots, john.  can you work in the philly phanatic or the san diego chicken?  Morgana the kissing bandit?

 We'll see!  I'm pretty sure it's going to be really tight trying to squeeze in all the features I want but hopefully there is some room for some cool bells & whistles!   

[+D Train]

25 minutes ago, johnnywc said:

 

 We'll see!  I'm pretty sure it's going to be really tight trying to squeeze in all the features I want but hopefully there is some room for some cool bells & whistles!   

aw, you can always bump it up to a 64k or 128k cartridge...there's *plenty* of space to work with!

[+Nathan Strum]

One thing not yet mentioned in this thread - there will be AtariVox support for umpire calls (among other things).  

[+sramirez2008]

7 minutes ago, Nathan Strum said:

One thing not yet mentioned in this thread - there will be AtariVox support for umpire calls (among other things).  

Now batting for the New York Yankees, numbah 2...Derek Je-ter...numbah 2.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

35 minutes ago, Nathan Strum said:

One thing not yet mentioned in this thread - there will be AtariVox support for umpire calls (among other things).  

As long as the other things aren't Hawk Harrelson.

[+johnnywc]

2 hours ago, D Train said:

aw, you can always bump it up to a 64k or 128k cartridge...there's *plenty* of space to work with!

Good point, except with 64 or 128 I'd end up working on CS Baseball for a couple years and a) probably go insane and b) not finish any other games.   I like to keep the games at 32K so it forces me to pick and choose the important things to include but also be creative in freeing up space for the bells and whistles.  

1 hour ago, Nathan Strum said:

One thing not yet mentioned in this thread - there will be AtariVox support for umpire calls (among other things).  

Oops I forgot one of the most important selling points! ?  No wonder I'm not in marketing!   

[+D Train]

2 minutes ago, johnnywc said:

Good point, except with 64 or 128 I'd end up working on CS Baseball for a couple years and a) probably go insane and b) not finish any other games.   I like to keep the games at 32K so it forces me to pick and choose the important things to include but also be creative in freeing up space for the bells and whistles.

creativity is good.  going insane and not finishing up any other games would be bad.

 

clearly,  you guys have all the angles covered!

[AdeptRapier]

Wow, this looks really great! Reminds me of the fun I had when I was a kid playing "Star League Baseball" on my C64, I really can't wait to see how this one turns out!

 

One humble suggestion...please have random "organ guy baseball theme music" playing during the game! When I was a kid our local baseball stadium actually had a guy playing the organ and singing baseball songs during the games...watching a game, eating a hot dog and listening to him play...nothing was better!!

 

Keep up the good work, you guys rock!!

 

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