Earl Weaver Baseball
| Company type | Video game |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Founder | Don Daglow, Eddie Dombrower |
| Products | Earl Weaver Baseball |
| Parent | Electronic Arts |
Earl Weaver Baseball is a baseball video game created by Don Daglow and Eddie Dombrower, released in 1987 under the Electronic Arts label. The game's artificial intelligence was crafted with guidance from Baseball Hall of Fame inductee and then-manager of the Baltimore Orioles, Earl Weaver, following comprehensive interviews. EWB achieved commercial success and, together with John Madden Football, laid the groundwork for the EA Sports brand that debuted in 1992. A version intended for the Sega Genesis platform was eventually cancelled.
Gameplay
Earl Weaver Baseball introduced the innovative feature of simulating entire baseball seasons without requiring detailed play-by-play visuals. The Amiga edition incorporated voice synthesis technology, allowing phonetic announcements even for user-created players. Additionally, it was pioneering in its graphical depiction of various ballparks, adapting gameplay to their authentic dimensions, including classic stadiums such as the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field.
Reception
For Electronic Arts, Earl Weaver Baseball represented a significant commercial achievement. In 1987, Computer Gaming World commended its visual presentation, sound design, and broad strategic depth. By 1988, the publication emphasized the game's realistic incorporation of environmental elements like wind and playing surface effects on performance. In Dragon magazine, reviewers Hartley and Patricia Lesser hailed it as "the finest computer simulation for baseball," granting subsequent editions up to a perfect 5-star rating. The Amiga version was described by Compute! as "the closest we have to the ideal computer baseball game," deemed essential for fans of the sport. Jerry Pournelle recommended it specifically to "baseball fanatics," highlighting its instructive qualities regarding baseball tactics. Mike Siggins from Games International awarded a flawless rating, noting its complexity extended well beyond simple statistical replay.
The title received Computer Gaming World’s Game of the Year accolade in 1987 and was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 1989 after earning high marks from readers. In 1996, the same magazine ranked it as the 25th greatest IBM PC compatible game ever made.
Legacy
A follow-up titled Earl Weaver Baseball II was released in 1991. Later, in 2002, Dombrower introduced I Got It Baseball as a shareware product focusing exclusively on team management aspects. The 2009 iOS release EWB Baseball also draws inspiration from Earl Weaver Baseball II.
References
- GameSpy Hall of Fame article
- Rielly, Edward J. (2005). Baseball: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. .
External links
- Baseball Simcentral listing
- BangBangPlay.com – Dombrower's I Got It Baseball site
- Articles with short description
- Earl Weaver Baseball video games
- 1987 video games
- Amiga games
- Apple II games
- Cancelled Sega Genesis games
- DOS games
- Electronic Arts games
- Multiplayer and single-player video games
- Video games based on real people
- Video games developed in the United States
- Video games set in the United States