Entex Baseball

[Singer]

I just found this for $2 at a flea market and it works. Looks like they're going for about $20 on eBay so that's cool. I don't sell them though, I add them to my collection.

Anyway I wanted to play it but I just can't quite figure it out. I finally figured out how to hit if they throw it over the plate, but 9 times out of ten it's caught and I'm out. I played through most of a whole game (both teams) and only got on base once, never came close to a run.

The bigger problem seems to be they are throwing curveballs and sliders, I guess. They go around the plate so I can't hit it, but they come back into the strike zone after the plate so they're not balls. I haven't seen a single Ball called yet. They strike me out more often than not. And when I do get a rare hit, it's almost always caught. Mattel Baseball was never this hard.

Am I doing something wrong or is this game just a taskmaster?

P.S. the Batter button kind of rocks side to side. I was wondering if like one side was bunt and the other was swing or something.

[Singer]

Okay so after some more play, I realized I can hit pitches that are outside of the strike zone for curveballs and sliders, not sure why I thought I couldn't, I guess I hadn't done it. After more innings than I can count, I believe that if you connect off a curve or slider it's more likely to be caught, nabbing you an out. The easiest pitch to hit is the fastball because you see it coming and can prepare for it. The show straight ball is the hardest because it doesn't give you advance warning like the ones that curve.

I think it's a nice little game, but it really shows the limitations. I mean it doesn't keep score for you beyond the runs you've earned that inning, I think you're supposed to write it down. Which then made it clear why the score counter is only one digit. I suppose if you reach 9 runs in an inning either your turn's over or it rolls over to 0. I imagine the odds of getting past 9 before getting 3 outs is pretty slim.

And the other thing, I don't think it tells you when the game is over. I felt like I played 30 at-bats, or 15 innings, with no signs of ending. I think you just keep score on paper and stop playing after 9, unless you're tied.

So I think Mattel Baseball is superior in all these areas, and I like that the runners have a longer animation cycle than just jumping from base to base. But this game also gives you the chance to pitch which is interesting. Pretty cool that it even has a wired controller attached.

[Rik]

Check the manual in the manuals section for details of how to play it, and you can use the Score card included with Baseball 3 (it uses the same card). But you basically figured it out...

It definitely came with a pad of paper so you could manually record your score every 1/2 inning. That's how that game worked... It could only remember a 1/2 inning at a time, and once you filled up the score sheet, you knew the game was over.