Baseball (1983 video game)

Baseball
North American NES box art
DevelopersNintendo R&D1
Intelligent Systems
PublisherNintendo
DesignerShigeru Miyamoto
ComposersYukio Kaneoka
Hirokazu Tanaka
PlatformsNintendo Entertainment System, arcade, Famicom Disk System, Game Boy, Nintendo e-Reader
Release
December 7, 1983
  • NES
    • JP: December 7, 1983
    • NA: October 18, 1985
    • EU: September 1, 1986
    Arcade (VS. Baseball)
    • NA: April 1984
    • JP: May 1984
    • EU: 1986
    Famicom Disk System
    • JP: February 21, 1986
    Game Boy
    • JP: April 21, 1989
    • NA: August 1, 1989
    • EU: September 28, 1990
GenreSports (baseball)
ModesSingle-player, multiplayer
Arcade systemNintendo VS. System, PlayChoice-10

Baseball is a baseball video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Family Computer (Famicom). It was originally released in Japan on December 7, 1983, a few months after the July 15 launch of the Famicom.

An arcade version titled VS. Baseball released for the Nintendo VS. System in 1984, featuring enhanced graphics and speech, becoming a hit at Japanese and American arcades. The game was later released as launch title for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in 1985, and in Europe in 1986. It was also ported to the Game Boy in 1989 as one of the handheld's four launch titles.

IGN noted that the universal appeal of baseball made the game instrumental in the NES's successful test market launch and regarded it as an important part of Nintendo's early history. At the time, it competed with Sega's arcade hit Champion Baseball, released earlier in 1983.