Home Run
- $8.99
- Regular price
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$10.99 - Sale price
- $8.99
- Unit price
- per
Game and manual, no box — the collector’s middle ground. Game condition guide →
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Item Condition
Game + manual: the cartridge and its manual, no box. Look over the photos for condition, packaging and details. Every cartridge's shell, label and board are checked for authenticity when it comes into the store, and it's tested before it's listed. It ships in a collector's bag or a hard plastic case.
Item Description
Home Run is baseball boiled down to its barest possible form, and that is exactly what makes it such an interesting cartridge to own. Released in October 1978, it was Atari's first baseball game for the Video Computer System, and it was programmed by Bob Whitehead, who would soon leave to help found Activision, together with David Rolfe.
The game keeps only the core duel. The pitcher controls the direction of the ball as it heads for the plate, the batter swings, and once the ball is in play the runner just keeps going until the defense stops him. Every hit is a grounder, and fielders cannot throw, so the only way to get an out is to run the ball down and tag the runner yourself. There are solo and two-player variations, with up to three defenders on the field depending on the game, and the two-player matchups turn into tense little games of chicken on the basepaths.
Its place in history is bigger than its gameplay. Critics Arnie Katz and Bill Kunkel nicknamed it "Video Stickball," and Mattel famously used Home Run in its advertising to show off how much more Intellivision's Major League Baseball could do, one of the opening shots of the first console war. Atari answered in 1982 with RealSports Baseball, but Home Run is where the company's baseball story starts. For a 2600 sports collection or anyone fascinated by how designers squeezed America's pastime into 1978 hardware, it is a charming and very playable piece of the console's earliest days.
Fast factsgame data via IGDB
- Released
- 1978
- Publisher
- Atari
- Genre
- Sports
- Players
- Single player, Multiplayer
About the game
This is the first of three iterations of baseball from Atari and is the most simple. The pitcher pitches and controls the direction of the ball. The batter hits and keeps running until he's made to stop. There are up to 3 defensive players that can try to get the batter out after he hits. All hits are grounders and defensive players can't throw the ball.
Summary from the IGDB community database — the condition and contents of this listing are described above and in the photos.Watch gameplayHome Run on Atari 2600
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Atari 2600
Home Run
$8.99
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Atari 2600
Home Run
$8.99
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