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Earl Weaver Baseball

Amiga game review, ADF downloads, screenshots, ratings and insights
Considered by some as one of the most innovative baseball video games of all time, many of the features in Earl Weaver Baseball seem commonplace in today's games - as so many of the innovations have been adopted by subsequent developers. But at the time, what EWB brought to gamers was nothing short of revolutionary.

While the graphics aren't necessarily extraordinary, the sound (especially on the Amiga) and the overall depth of the game that fits on a single 880KB disk is astonishing.

Some innovation highlights include:

  • The first time players were offered the option of either playing in arcade mode (using eye–hand coordination as well as managerial strategy) or manager mode (where users managed their teams but did not physically control the players).
  • The Amiga version featured voice synthesis, a first in a sports computer game. Players were announced at each plate appearance or substitution. The DOS version had some voice synthesis as well, but less than the Amiga and of lower quality.
  • The first time different stadiums were shown graphically on the screen, with game play adjusted for their actual dimensions. Defunct or demolished stadiums were included, such as the Polo Grounds (New York), Griffith Stadium (Washington, D.C.), Ebbets Field (Brooklyn, New York), and Sportsman's Park (St. Louis). This also marked the debut of the Green Monster of Fenway Park in any computer game.
  • EA issued annual baseball statistics disks to update the rosters and stats of the major league players until 1991.
  • Players featured what Dombrower called "artificial ego". Players would realistically occasionally make errors in judgment, such as trying to take an extra base or attempt to catch an uncatchable ball.[1]

In 1996, Computer Gaming World named Earl Weaver Baseball one of the 25 Best Games of All Time on the PC.
5
6 total votes

Screenshots

Comments

User avatar
Shot97

Mon May 16, 2016 6:43 pm

If anyone has the 1987 statistic disk, please get in contact with me! It's the only one I'm missing from back in the day and I don't want to review the game without that one... Because the Detroit Tigers were awesome that year... During the season anyway, botched it in the much harder playoff system of that era.
User avatar
intric8

Sun May 22, 2016 9:13 am

@Shot, if you go to Dom Brower's website, he still has all of his original disks as downloads, free of charge. http://www.dombrower.com/EWBSupport/
User avatar
Shot97

Sun May 22, 2016 3:30 pm

Nah, I've been there, there are no stat disks on his site. Most of that stuff there is for Earl Weaver 2, and the only stuff for the first game is just AL/NL all time greats, which is what is included on the actual game disks. That's the one bad thing I have to say about that game. The original game disks only feature historically great teams, not actual teams from when the game was made. They made stat disks from at least 1986-1990 with all teams on them. I have most of them, but can't seem to find 1987.
User avatar
intric8

Tue Mar 14, 2017 9:17 am

I wrote to Mr. Eddie Dombrower, creator of Earl Weaver Baseball, in the hopes he might know of a way to more easily convert, import and create new stats disks into the original EWB game he designed and created in 1987. He actually wrote me back quite promptly! Eddie Dombrower on the stats disks: Thanks so much for reaching out to me.. it's always a blast to hear from fans of this game which is so near and dear to my heart. I think creating a stats disk is always a great idea, but I don't have a way to do it right now... probably the best thing is, as you mentioned, is for fans to do this. If you're still playing on an Amiga, then the only option I'm aware of right now is to use the Commissioner's tools on the Amiga and hand enter the data (what a labor of love that would be). If you're on a PC version, there are actually some import tools in the EWB II Commissioner's disk. I'm not sure that I can be much more help at this time, but keep me posted on this.

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