Background

Backyard Baseball is a series of children's games for the Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Wii, iPhone OS, and the PC. It is the original game in the Backyard Sports series. Currently all the games in the series have been developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Atari. It is one of six Backyard Sports games. The original game consisted of 55 neighborhood kids.

1. We have backyard baseball 2003 and 2005. 2005 is by and large more fun than 2003.The 3-d graphics,and more unusual fields,make this alot more fun. My 6 year old has not grown tired of this version even after 8 months.The harder the levels of play make it so you don't get too bored. Highly reccomend this for the young baseball fan.
2. Mar 23, 2004  Catch all the great baseball excitement with the Backyard Kids and real pro baseball players as kids. Pick your team, position players and choose a.

Backyard Baseball, the series combining playground atmosphere along with real players and teams, continues on computer platforms with the release of Backyard Baseball 2004. The twist is that the 'real' players in the game appear as children along with the rest of the sandlot lineup. Featured pros include Sammy Sosa, Randy Johnson, Mike Piazza, Shawn Green, Barry Bonds, Ichiro Suzuki, Pedro Martinez, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and more. They'll compete along with 30 Backyard Kids, a combination of girls and boys, in the following three modes of play: Single Game, Season Play, and Batting Practice.

Gameplay

Single Game has players selecting two teams from a pool of 40, adjusting options such as difficulty level, game length, home field, and whether or not to include power-ups. More than ten fields are available, from a beach and parking lot to a swampland and junkyard. No matter which team is selected, players must pick and choose members in true playground fashion. Each character is rated from one to ten in the following areas: power, contact, pitching, running, and defense. Players can also create their own child prodigy by selecting hair color, skin, body type, accessories, and more before assigning a certain number of skill points.

Created players are used in Season Mode, where they earn experience points used to increase their attributes. Each Backyard Baseball season spans 18 or 32 games, with individual and team statistics tracked and saved to the hard drive. Batting Practice is designed to help players familiarize themselves with the hitting interface as they take their cracks at various pitch types. No matter which mode is selected, players use a cursor-based system for both pitching and hitting. Four available pitch types include a fastball, curve, screwball, and change-up, while hit types consist of power, line drive, grounder, and bunt. Fictional characters Sunny Day and Abner Dubbleplay provide the play-by-play and color commentary, respectively.

Features

• An all-star MLB lineup: Alfonso Soriano, Nomar Garciaparra, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Carlos Delgado, Ichiro, Dontrelle Willis, Sammy Sosa, Albert Pujols and Eric Gagne
• Additional bonus pros to unlock: Derek Jeter, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Shawn Green, Mike Piazza, Greg Maddux and Jim Thome Vibrant 3D visuals: players, game action and environments
• An updated game engine and all-new code, creating a fresh, 'built from the ground up' Backyard Baseball
• All 30 MLB team logos
• Thirty Backyard Kids, as well as original Backyard team names and logos
• Loads of crazy power-ups
• Customizable players
• Quick, single games as well as Season Play action
• Choice of players, fields and game details
• A Home Run Derby mini-game
• Full stats and standings in Season Play

Hardware Requirements

Backyard Baseball 2005 Rom

• Operating System: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
• Processor: Pentium III 500MHz
• Memory: 64 MB RAM (128 MB for Windows 2000/XP)
• Hard Disk Space: 600 MB Free
• CD-ROM Drive: 8X Speed
• Video: 8 MB Windows 98/2000/Me/XP-compatible SVGA video card
• Sound: Windows 98/2000/Me/XP-compatible sound card
• DirectX: DirectX version 9.0 (included) or higher

Backyard Sports (originally branded as Junior Sports)^[1][2] is a series of video games released for consoles and computers. The series is best known for starring kid-sized versions of popular professional sports stars, such as Albert Pujols, Paul Pierce, Barry Bonds, Tim Duncan, Clint Mathis, Kevin Garnett, Tom Brady, David Ortiz, Joe Thornton and Andy Macdonald. The Backyard Sports series is licensed by the leading professional U.S. sports leagues: Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Football League (NFL), the National Hockey League (NHL), and Major League Soccer (MLS).

The series includes Backyard Baseball, Backyard Basketball, Backyard Football (American football), Backyard Soccer, Backyard Hockey (Ice hockey), and Backyard Skateboarding. In the games, players form a team consisting of Backyard Kids and pro players, which they take through a 'Backyard League' season, attempting to become the champions. Players can create their own athletes, starting in Backyard Football (1999). Another aspect of the games is the use of Power-Ups, allowing players to gain 'super-abilities'. For instance, 'Super Dunk' allows a basketball player to make an incredible dunk from nearly anywhere on the court, 'Leap Frog' allows a football player to jump over the entire defensive line, and 'Ice Cream Truck' causes the other team to be completely distracted for a brief period of time.

Some of these games are playable with the ScummVM emulator.^[3]

History[edit]

The series began in late 1997, when Humongous Entertainment created their first game, Backyard Baseball. Humongous Entertainment was owned by GT Interactive. Later Infogrames bought the company, and along with it came all of the game titles. Infogrames allowed Humongous Entertainment to expand the series, and they developed more titles such as Backyard Soccer, Backyard Hockey, Backyard Skateboarding, Backyard Basketball and Backyard Football.^[4] Following the buyout by Infogrames these titles from the Backyard series have seen releases for game consoles, including the Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, and Wii.

Play Backyard Baseball Online

On July 24, 2013, Epic Gear bought the Backyard Sports franchise from the Atari bankruptcy proceedings.^[5]

On December 11, 2014, Day 6 Sports Group announced the relaunch of the Backyard Sports series with Backyard Sports NBA Basketball for smartphones and tablets, with Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry as the cover athlete.

On April 19, 2019, Humongous Entertainment tweeted an image of the original Junior Sports logo, hinting at a possible re-release of the original games and/or the developer having re-secured the rights to the series proper.^[6][1][2]

Film[edit]

In 2016, it was reported that Cross Creek Pictures and Crystal City Entertainment were developing a film based on Backyard Sports with Brian Oliver and Ari Daniel Pinchot producing.^[7]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abSchmidt, Eugene (April 24, 2019). 'Humongous Entertainment coming to consoles'. Barrelrolled. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
2. ^ ^abFrech, Ricky (April 24, 2019). 'Humongous Entertainment is Bringing Their Collection of 90s Classics to Consoles'. DualShockers. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
3. ^http://gamesdbase.com/list.aspx?in=1&searchtext=backyard&searchtype=1
4. ^'Backyard Sports - Backyard Basketball and Backyard Football'. Barcodespider.com.
5. ^http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130724006402/en/Evergreen-Group-Agreed-Acquire-Backyard-Sports-Video/
6. ^Humongous [@HumongousEnt] (April 19, 2019). '[Image-only tweet; image shows a red exclamation point on a transparent background overlaid with the words 'It's Junior Sports' in blue.]' (Tweet). Retrieved May 17, 2019 – via Twitter.
7. ^Fleming Jr, Mike (March 30, 2016). ''Backyard Sports' Video Game In Movie Deal With Cross Creek & Crystal City'. Deadline.

External links[edit]

• Official website (2007 archive on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine)
• Backyard Sports series at MobyGames