Bases Loaded

I have been playing video games for over 20 years. Most  of what I play are sports games. I like the idea of being able to "own" a team. Build it into a contender, draft, sign free agents and win the championship.

Doing this with video games is a relatively new thing. The first games I owned allowed you to make trades, release players, and sign players from a limited pool of free agents. The closest you could actually get to a "draft" was creating a player and customizing him (sometimes even "her") by adding to attributes from a limited number of points allotted to you. This person was placed in the free agent pool and you could sign the player on your way to a championship season.

Thankfully, there are a number of websites today that allow you to relive those glory days. My favorite websites are arcadecow.com and nintendo8.com. These websites allow me to play two of my favorite old school sports games from the original Nintendo system. Nintendo8 features a game called Baseball Stars. This game allowed you to fire and sign players. You could even create players. You won money with every game you won. This money went to improving your players and signing free agents. If you wanted, you could even have girls play for your team. You could play a customized season and the Nintendo would calculate and record stats for you.

Another game I love to play is a game that I call the best baseball game not to be licensed by Major League Baseball. Bases Loaded is a game that features 12 fictitious teams. You play through a 163 game season. I love playing this game. The graphics and gameplay is a little primitive by today's standards but I loved playing it when I was a kid and I still love it. I have been looking for a website that has Bases Loaded 2. If anyone knows where I can find it. Please let me know.

If you own a Wii, you can go to the Wii Shop Channel, click on the "Virtual Console" and buy oloder games to play on your Wii console.