Intellivision World Series Baseball - Gameplay

Gameplay

Intellivision World Series Baseball displayed the batter and pitcher from a "center field camera" view. One player chose the pitch type, while the player batting chose when to swing, when to take a pitch, and whether or not to bunt.

Once the ball was hit, the game switched to a "press box camera" view, where the defensive player could control the fielders and the batting player controlled the baserunners.

When runners were on base an inset window displayed them, and the batting player could lengthen or shorten their lead and attempt to steal.

The game was originally written with a simplified version of Daglow's 1971 mainframe baseball statistical simulation program, so that the MLBPA license could be acquired by Mattel and the game would accurately simulate the play of real Major League Baseball players. For economic reasons in mid-1983, Mattel withdrew from this plan at the last minute, and the designers were forced to replace actual players with the names of the Blue Sky Rangers Intellivision game design team.

Intellivision World Series Baseball is also notable for the following innovations:

• In-game play by play announcers, presented via IntelliVoice
• Stadium background music, created by Dave Warhol (who also worked on Earl Weaver Baseball at EA)
• Save/load in a baseball game (through a RAM chip on the cartridge)
• Lineups based on real player stats (although names were changed)