Inspired by an article by Zach Kram at the Ringer last year, Bobby and Alex take a deep dive into the history of “Backyard Baseball,” the kids-video-game-turned-cult-classic that they grew up with. They bring on Nick Mirkovich, one of the game’s co-creators, to talk about the game’s inception and its evolution through the years, and speculate on why the game remains so firmly embedded in the minds of this generation. They dive into the colorful personalities of each character and reminisce on what made the game so special in the first place. It’s a full-on nostalgia sesh, featuring real gameplay and cameos from Sunny Day, Vinnie the Gooch, and the one and only Pablo Sanchez.
Imagine a game where the players play for the love of the game, not the money. A game where multi-million dollar contracts are unknown. A game where everyone gets to play. Imagine a game just like it was with the youthful innocence of a child. This, my friends, is Backyard Baseball. As I grew older, I became a certifiable nerd, and baseball was a strange outlier among my interests. I was more well known for my love of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, and guys in my high school approached me with utter shock when they saw my name printed in a letter to the editor in Sports Illustrated. But I took time away from baseball.
Do you want to play the game too and get all the memories rushing back? Here’s how!
On a Mac:
1.Download the video game emulator ScummVM.
2. Open the DMG file and drag ScummVM into your Applications folder.
3. Download Backyard Baseball 2001 here.
4. Once the ZIP file has downloaded, double click to open it. It will reveal an ISO file called Backyard Baseball 2001.
5. Double click to open the ISO file. It should open a drive that looks like this.
6. Create a new folder on your desktop (or wherever you will remember) and call it Backyard Baseball.
7. Select all the contents of the ISO drive and drag them into the folder you just created.
8. Now, open up ScummVM and click “Add Game” on the right hand side. Find the folder you created and click “Choose.”
9. You should see a screen like the one below. Press ok, select the game, and press start!
On a PC:
1.Download the video game emulator ScummVM.
2. Save to your desktop, or wherever is convenient for you.
3. Download Backyard Baseball 1997 here, or Backyard Baseball 2001 here.
4. Double click to open the zip file. It should open a folder called Backyard Baseball.
5. Open ScummVM and click “Add Game.” Navigate to find the Backyard Baseball folder and click “Choose.”
6. You should see a screen like the one below. Press ok, select the game, and press start!
Enjoy!
All music sound clips, and photos from “Backyard Baseball,” courtesy of Humongous Entertainment/The Evergreen Group.
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Today Jordan finally released his Backyard Baseball player rankings and .gifs which were both fantastic. But another important thing happened today: I figured out how to get Backyard Baseball on your phone and on the Mac. Instructions are as follows.
A Love Letter To Backyard Baseball Game
For The iPhone:
Step 1: Set the date on your time to anytime before February 15th. (You can switch it back later. You only need to change it to download the game, not to play it.)
Step 2: On your phone, go to the following website. http://gba4iosapp.com/download/
Step 3: Download the GBA4iOS 2.0.1
Step 4: Once that is done downloading go to http://m.coolrom.com.au/roms/gba/14408/Backyard_baseball.php on your phone.
Step 5: Download the game. And follow the instructions.
Step 6: Mobile nirvana.
Lightweight Version For The Computer (Mac/PC):
Step 1: Go to OpenEmu.org and download their emulator.
Step 2: Go to http://coolrom.com/roms/gba/14408/Backyard_Baseball.php and download the rom.
Step 3: Open the rom on the emulator.
Step 4: Somewhat disappointing nirvana. This is obviously the game boy version of the game. It’s like seeing a really good cover band of a group you grew up with. It’s fantastic, but it lacks some of the features of the PC/Windows version, which leads us to…
The Whole 9 Yards On The Computer (Mac/PC):
Step 1: Go to http://scummvm.org/downloads/ and download their emulator.
Step 2 (PC): Either torrent a version of the game online (if you are a cheapskate) or buy a disk (because the people that designed this game deserve all the money in the world).
Step 2 (Mac): You’re going to have to buy a disk.
Step 3: Drag the game files onto your desktop.
A Love Letter To Backyard Baseball Field
Step 4: Open the files up on scummvm and pray that it works.
Note: I haven’t tried this method yet. I downloaded scummvm and that works fine, but I didn’t have a disk so I ordered one online. There’s a video here that can show you exactly how to do it. There are people who have gotten it to work that I’ve seen on message boards. Obviously I can’t confirm this method, but it looked legit enough to me to make the 20 dollar investment of buying a new copy of 2003.
Let me know how it went for you and if you have any questions. We are working to get a developer of the original on the podcast at some point so keep your fingers crossed for that.
#MVPablo forever and may your childhood memories be reborn.
<3 The CFBBQ Boys