Game Review of:
HardBall 6
2000 Edition
by Larry Grosskopf 

While in college, some of my friends and I used to play Strat-o-Matic baseball, a before PC, board game that I really enjoyed because of the statistical accuracy afforded by using the most recent edition of the game. Unfortunately for me, I no longer have time to follow baseball like I used to, nor do I get to play baseball board games or computer simulation games very often. However, I have to make an exception in the case of Accolade’s latest improvement, HardBall 6, 2000 Edition. This is a baseball simulation game that seems to improve every year (or at least every year I’ve seen the game). This game offers a lot and I mean a whole lot of options and choices. In a sports simulation game, I look for one that will let me be competitive even as I develop and improve my skills. This game fills the bill, providing an opportunity for training (individual practice), whereby your skills at hitting, pitching and fielding can be developed and improved. There are exhibition games, which allow you to practice your skills. Finally, you can compete in a league against other players or the computer. You can also make up your own custom league, generating your own schedule or play in the default, official Major League Baseball season with all 30 teams and every major league player represented. 

Choice of team control is yours as you can “buy” any team and manage that team or you can let the computer manage it for you. I want a baseball game that will be fun playing and will allow me to own, manage and make personnel decisions for my team. Hardball 6, 2000 Edition allows for player adjustments, including trading, releasing, demoting to the minors and signing free agents. There is the ability to setup and conduct a draft after you have created a new league. If you want to have the computer conduct the draft, it will, by default but if you choose to buy and own a team or teams, you can make selections yourself. There are even three different ways to order and conduct the draft. Of course, you can simply skip the draft and begin with the default rosters that are based on 1999 Major League Baseball rosters and include 1998 player statistics. These rosters reflect many changes (but not all) that teams have made during the off-season. For example, Randy Johnson is listed with the Arizona Diamondbacks, the team he signed with, as a free agent this past winter. The trade of Denny Neagle from Atlanta to Cincinnati for Bret Boone is represented. Of course, not all recent events (Kerry Wood’s season-ending injury and Moises Alou’s injury) are not accounted for. One drawback is that you are not allowed to place these players on the disabled list because the computer tells you they are not injured. Hopefully, the next edition will correct this flaw. My reasoning is that this feature would allow you to do “what-if” scenarios for teams like the Cubs, who have had a major contributor go down to an injury. The realism could be improved in this manner also, as changes after the game enters the market would be able to be reflected more accurately. 

Player control, in terms of movement into and out of the lineup is a managerial decision you make. There are default rosters, starting rotations, bullpens, a few minor leaguers listed for each team and a large pool of free agents. These players and rosters are fully editable in that you are allowed to select a player to move into or out of the roster, lineup, rotation, bullpen, minor leagues or free agent pool. You may also choose to make statistical changes for any or every individual player at your discretion using the Player Editor. Trades can be made between your team and another player’s team or one controlled by the computer. But be careful dealing with the computer, if you have given it the Computer Declines Trade option, it can turn down trades. I tell you, that computer general manager can be a shrewd negotiator. Another interesting technique is that you are able to edit you league. You have the option of importing or exporting individual players or entire teams. You can “import” or bring in a new team, “export” or save a copy of a team to a file or simply remove a team permanently from your league. Oh, wow, I’ve just figured out a way to get rid of those darned Yankees! 

Your team is yours and you are allowed to select your team logo or create one of your choosing and import it. Your manager can be assigned tendencies that you can configure to your teams strengths and weaknesses. For example, he can have a “slow hook” or a “quick hook” for taking starting pitchers out of games. He can have runners steal often or seldom, or sacrifice or hit away more frequently. He can be an offensive or defensive minded manager and can favor speed over power or vice versa. A manager who favors rookies over veterans may sacrifice this season to build for the future. One who favors veterans is likely to look for production now and not be concerned about next year. 

Playing a baseball game with player names that you recognize, adds to the realism you feel when competing against that other team. Options for simulating the season allow you to simulate the whole season, including the post-season or to stop prior to the post-season. A season can be a complete 162 game season with post-season, a short season, a half-season or a custom season. It is your choice to make. Custom season provides control of total number of games and whether there is an all-star game or not. Playoffs in custom season can be single game, best of three or best of five. League Championships and World Series can similarly be best of one, three, five or seven games. Once you’ve begun the season, you can gather information and reports on team and player League Leaders. After you have completed a season, MVP Awards are given out and can be viewed onscreen. Award categories include Most Valuable Player, Home Run Leader, Batting Champion, ERA and Wins, among others. 

The actual game play is fairly realistic with pretty good response and graphics that are not badly done. There could be some improvements, in my opinion, especially in terms of how players respond onscreen to joystick or keyboard control. For example, it seemed to take the outfielders forever to get to a ball, even when they seemed to get a good break on it. There are three choices, keyboard, joystick and game- pad for controlling player movements during the game. I liked using the joystick the best. There are many player controls to learn, but I have to admit, I was playing it and enjoying it 20 minutes out of the box.. There are slider-bar adjustable controls from easy to hard for level of play and difficulty level and a slider-bar control for speed of the game from slow to fast. These can be adjusted, based on your particular skill level. During league play, you can save highlights, in fact, HardBall 6, 2000 Edition automatically saves scoring plays, outstanding defensive plays and home runs for you. These can be viewed later or may even be viewed during a league game. 

One last thing I have to mention is that my 6-year old, Zoë and my 4-year old, Jackson have both played Hardball 6, 2000 Editions “Home Run Derby” and they immensely enjoyed hitting home runs. My son, especially likes sports and it is a real joy to sit them in my lap, taking turns, mind you “playing baseball” with them. 

The minimum requirements for this program are a 100% Windows 95/98 operating system (or Windows NT 4.0 with no 3D acceleration). It will not work with a computer only running MS-DOS. Processor requirements vary, for snap-to mode:100 MHZ Pentium; hardware acceleration: 120 MHZ Pentium with a 3D graphics card for full 3D mode (133 MHZ Pentium recommended); without hardware acceleration: Pentium 133 MHZ with no 3D card for full 3D software only mode (Pentium 166 MHZ recommended). Minimum memory: 16 MB of RAM. DirectX 6.0 required. Hard drive space minimum 20 MB and maximum 250 MB. Windows 95/98 compatible 16 bit sound card, 4X CD-ROM drive (faster recommended) and PCI or AGP graphics card required. Supports most major 3D acceleration cards. 

Playing the game on your home computer is not the only option you are offered, either. You may have multi-player games, play with others on the Internet free at http://www.mplayer.com. Documentation for this product is thorough, including the manual in paper and on the CD. Contact information for customer support is provided, but I have not needed it. This product is available from Accolade’s web site with the suggested online retail price of $19.95. It should be available in local retail stores.