World Series Baseball (Imagine Software, 1985)

Designed and written by Ian Morrison and David J. Anderson for Platinum Productions, with music by Robin Muir, and loading screen by Frederick David Thorpe. Originally published for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum by Imagine Software in 1985.

Commodore 64 version written by David A. Collier, with loading screen by Frederick David Thorpe. Originally published by Imagine Software in 1985, and re-released in North America as "The Slugger" by Mastertronic in 1986.

Amstrad CPC, Commodore 16 and Plus/4 versions have no detailed credits. Amstrad CPC and C16/+4 versions published by Imagine Software in 1985.

IBM-PC conversion written by Randall Don Masteller, and published as "The Slugger" by Mastertronic in 1986.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Quite possibly the first baseball game that I ever played was this classic from Imagine Software, just released around the time the company was being bought by Ocean Software at the end of 1985. If I have understood correctly, World Series Baseball and its only sequel, the Spectrum-only World Series Basketball, were the last titles published under the original Imagine flag, so now being the game's 40th anniversary, I thought it a good time to finally make its comparison.

(CORRECTION, 30th of August: As was pointed out to me at the Spectrum Computing forum, I quote: "Both were published by Ocean in 1985, but development had started before Imagine went under in 1984. The original Imagine's last titles were Cosmic Cruiser and BC Bill." Thanks to StooB for the correction.) 

IK+ (System 3, 1987)

Designed by Archer Maclean
Programming and graphics by Archer Maclean
Loading screen by Paul Docherty
Music by Rob Hubbard
Originally published on the Commodore 64 by System 3 in 1987.

North American C64 version includes loading music by Russell Lieblich, and was published as "Chop 'N' Drop" by Activision in 1988.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC versions written by Dan Michek, with music by Rob Hubbard. Published by System 3 on the ZX Spectrum in 1987, and on the Amstrad CPC in 1988.

Commodore Amiga and Atari ST versions written by Archer Maclean, with music by Dave Lowe. Published by System 3 in 1988. Also published on the Amiga CD32 in 1994.

Nintendo Game Boy Advance and Sony Playstation versions developed by Ignition Entertainment:
PS1 programming by Jim Bagley
GBA programming by Jim Bagley and Adrian Scotney
GBA music and sound effects by Steve Cowell
Published by Ignition Entertainment in 2003.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Planned to be included on the comparison blog since the beginning, International Karate Plus was, similarly to Pitstop II, one of those games that felt like a last resort thing. Now that the blog has turned 12 years old, I thought the time is right to have some of more bigger 8-bit classics to get their place in the comparison blog, while I'm attempting to take the blog more towards the 16-bits. Archer Maclean's second game, International Karate, became a massive hit in 1986, which prompted a swift development for a sequel. IK+ had nothing international about it, as such, but it made the arena fighting game genre one of the biggest things at the time, thanks to a couple of rather unusual, and still rarely seen innovations.